Flushing and the Benefits?

[stevetosh]

I have been here actively only a short while I notice a common solution to most issues is to Flush, in 10 years of growing I have never flushed (ok yes when I 1st started not knowing, had some yellow leafs looked online and guess what back then FLUSH so I did I don’t remember any benefits in fact looking back the issues I had all came from Environment!), that is to feed my plants just water- that is what I understand flushing to be, now if someone can tell me what the benefits are apart from taste of smoke ( which I question) I would be happy to listen, over to you guys.

 

[Alistair]

Stevetosh, flushing is something of much debate. A lot of people flush their plants with tons of water a week or two prior to harvest. They do this in an effort to flush out excess nutrients from the soil, because they believe that otherwise, the nutrients will be smoked. However, some here believe that flushing shouldn't be necessary as long as the plants haven't been over-fertilized. Most people seem to believe in flushing prior to harvest. Personally, I no longer flush before a harvest and have noticed no undesirable results.

On the other hand, if the plants have toxicity issues due to over-fertilization, then flushing is advised. But this would be done during any stage of growing in order to flush out the toxins.

This is just my opinion from what I've read and from my personal experience.

 

[BBFan]

:yeahthat:

I too have given up flushing. IMHO the only time to flush would be as Alistair said, nute lockout, salt buildup, etc. Think about it, if flushing during the last week or two made a difference in taste, then adding grape juice along the way would add to the taste. Or perhaps molasses to sweeten things up.

And how do you flush an outdoor grow?

Next opinion please. So far, 2 against.

 

[DirtySouth]

And how do you flush an outdoor grow?
Cut them down in long spears.Get buckets of ph,d water.Put the spears in the water come back in a week.Nice-n-smooth!

 

[DirtySouth]

Ever fired up a bowl and snap crackle pop.Unflushed,no bueno.Maby overfert,but deff. not flushed.Dark ash-not flushed 2 much phos.Flush,flush,flush!

 

[Amateur Grower]

:yeahthat:

. Think about it, if flushing during the last week or two made a difference in taste, then adding grape juice along the way would add to the taste. Or perhaps molasses to sweeten things up.

I'm NOT trying to start an argument BBFan, but I think in the instance of flushing before harvest, the goal, whether it works or not, is to try and remove any built up chemicals in the soil so the plant won't have access to them and will use up the chemicals and nutrients contained in it's stems and leaves. I would think removing from the soil and adding to the plants taste would be two entirely different things-the adding to seeming to be much harder.

But hey, I'm in my 1st grow and I have flushed-both to try and correct my pH mistakes and a couple of weeks before my planned harvest. So I don't really know yet. I do know that the samples I've smoked, while not too harsh, did have a veggie type taste. Maybe drying and curing correctly will fix that-we'll see.

Didn't mean to ramble-I've just sampled...:smoke1:

AG

 

[Friend-of-a-friend]

I've flushed when I had severe PH probs....otherwise not sur of the benefits.

 

[dirtyolsouth]

Ever fired up a bowl and snap crackle pop.Unflushed,no bueno.Maby overfert,but deff. not flushed.Dark ash-not flushed 2 much phos.Flush,flush,flush!

Yup... a night and day difference when you flush weed grown with some nutes more than others, especially non organic PK supplements... Snap, Crackle and Pop is okay in a bowl of breakfast cereal but it blows in a bowl of weed!

The only time I 'flush' gallons of excess water through my substrate is when I'm getting some major over-fertilization or whacked ph issues. I do think feeding the plants plain water is very helpful whatever medium you are growing in. I'm going to try Subcool's Soil mix for my next grow. You never add any base nutes, you just use water and occasionally some Liquid Karma for humic/fulvic acid. Late in flower you top dress with more of the soil mix and water it in. At harvest time there is no flush because you never add anything that builds up and needs to be flushed. All the nutes are provided by the added worm castings, bat guano, bone meal, blood meal, rock phosphates, sweet lime and a few other tidbits. You mix it all up and 'cook' it down outside in a plastic container like compost for a month to break down the elements and lime to stablilize the soil's ph. After a month of cooking you use the mix full strength in the bottom of your containers and a good potting soil like Roots for the top 1/3 to half of the container with a mixture of the two in the middle of the container to acclimate your roots to the hot mix.

When I was involved in larger hydro grow rooms we would feed plain water to the substrate every week. In soil I've found feeding every 3rd watering works well to keep nutes from building up... In coco I'd flush every week to couple of weeks if you use non organic nutes. I've noticed that when I fed plants aggressively without regular plain waterings that they will slow down and not flower as profusely. Within a day of saturating the soil with plain water and getting 10-20% runoff you can see the flowering immediately take off again with renewed vigor. If you don't see much difference when you flush with plain water then you're more than likely not having build up issues to slow down flowering in the first place.

I'm on day 60 of what looks like a 63 day strain and I've been feeding them plain water for about 9 days. I had 4 different phenos in this group - one of which was done a week ago but I didn't want to stop nutes til the others looked about 1-2 weeks away from harvest so I started the flush and harvested the one plant two nights ago. Two of the other three should be done by the beginning of next week and the 4th pheno is just starting to slow down and has another week left. I use a pretty rich soil mix with added bat guano down deep in the pot and it seems to be happy finishing up with plain water and whatever nutes are left in the soil.

Happy Growing!

 

[DirtySouth]

I'm going to try Subcool's Soil mix for my next grow

Dirtyolsouth,this sounds very promising,where can I read/learn more?

 

[Growdude]

Ever fired up a bowl and snap crackle pop.Unflushed,no bueno.Maby overfert,but deff. not flushed.Dark ash-not flushed 2 much phos.Flush,flush,flush!

I dont seem to get any of that without flushing.

IMO its all opinion.

 

[BBFan]

:yeahthat:

. Think about it, if flushing during the last week or two made a difference in taste, then adding grape juice along the way would add to the taste. Or perhaps molasses to sweeten things up.

I'm NOT trying to start an argument BBFan, but I think in the instance of flushing before harvest, the goal, whether it works or not, is to try and remove any built up chemicals in the soil so the plant won't have access to them and will use up the chemicals and nutrients contained in it's stems and leaves. I would think removing from the soil and adding to the plants taste would be two entirely different things-the adding to seeming to be much harder.

But hey, I'm in my 1st grow and I have flushed-both to try and correct my pH mistakes and a couple of weeks before my planned harvest. So I don't really know yet. I do know that the samples I've smoked, while not too harsh, did have a veggie type taste. Maybe drying and curing correctly will fix that-we'll see.

Didn't mean to ramble-I've just sampled...:smoke1:

AG

OK AG- You want to start a fight with me? Just kidding.

"Removing from" and "adding to" as far as uptake is concerned are basically the same thing. You say you're removing from the soil so the plant won't have access to the chemicals or nutrients and therefore effect the flavor of the finished product. If that was true, then the same must be true in adding to the soil to affect flavor.

I've only got a couple grows under my belt, but prior to that my son lived with me and he did a few grows while living here. He also believed in flushing. But I grow the same strains he did and I can't notice any difference without flushing compared to the flushed product.

I do however only feed plain water to my girls for the last week or so (never thought as to why I do it), I just don't dump gallons of water through them.

I have a friend who is strictly an outdoor grower and has been growing for over 20 years. He never flushes- and he produces some wonderful tasting smoke every year.

 

[dirtyolsouth]

I'm going to try Subcool's Soil mix for my next grow

Dirtyolsouth,this sounds very promising,where can I read/learn more?

Dirtyol to Dirty...

Here's Subcool's main hang...

hXXp://www.breedbay.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=435983#post435983

And he's done a bit of a tour on some forums promoting his book "Dank." It's a good book... but it's more of a high glossy bud porn story about many of the strains that Subcool has grown and bred over the years. It doesn't have any specifics on his growing method but gives good tips on how to grow the various strains as far as SOG, topping or letting it go natural... Here's another link with much of the same info but a different cast of characters asking him questions and I like how he lays it out on ... The most recent recipe changes are in the Breedbay thread...
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26412

Peace!