Live Stoner Chat flushing a plant

[seb56]

Do I have to buy a flushing agent or can I just flush with distilled water. It in a 5 gallon bucket of soiless.

 

[Proph]

Flushing, and everything about it, is personal preference! It's all up to you and your grow style/beliefs. Some flush with just water.. Some add/use Herculean Harvest or Flawless Finish ect.. Some, like myself, dont believe in flushing and dont do it at all. You've gotta try them and see what does and doesn't work for you!

 

[AutoWonders]

I suppose I'm from the school of "flushing if I have a problem". End of grow I run organic blackstrap molasses. Is there really a reason to flush if nothing pops up? Doesn't seem logical, but plenty of people do it. If you do decide to flush, the typical for your 5 gallon pot will require 15 gallons running through it.

 

[seb56]

Would that be 15 gallons at one time or say 5 gallon a day for three days. Sorry this is my 2 grow. I kinda don't count the first one. The 2 seed I grew the first time were found in a box of stuff from the 1970s , 1 seed grew other one didnt. I didn't have the proper nutes or lighting. But I did catch a pretty good buzz. Couldnt believe it grew considering the box was in the attic and Temps were from 5 to 100 degrees. They were rappedal in nothing, just in the bottom of the box. Lol

 

[Proph]

15 gals at once...
Why are ypu wanting ti flush? Have you read up on why flushes are done? Did you drown your plant in salt based nutes? Is it an auto or photo period? How long has it been growing? You propably wont get a simple yes or no answers to flushing questions unfortunately. There are just too many variables.

 

[seb56]

I just hear flushes should be done to make it a better smoke, it's a auto and is 12 weeks old

 

[KonopCh]

You cannot take out, what is in plant. So flushing is myth.

 

[EvilScotsman]

@pop22 has an awesome thread on flushing mate. doesnt take long to read and is full of useful information. i grow hydro and dont flush. 1 person commented on it my first grow but absolutely everybody loved my latest crop. i pay close attention to the strength of nutrients in the tank and found that my plants technically ‘flush’ themselves anyway by not feeding as heavily the last couple weeks. roots only take what they need mate. can chuck all the shit at them you want (within reason), if they dont want it it wont make a difference.

 

[Journey Man]

I think you are correct @EvilScotsman.
If don't overfeeding(N-tox, clawing) in the later stages and instead drop back nutrients just a bit it will be just as good as a flush. I will try to let my girls go with nutrients all the way this time to see if there is any difference in taste. I cant see how people would say it makes no difference if it wasn't true. I was thinking about it a couple of days ago when I saw some defiencys on a girl, the PH was low so she couldn't uptake all nutrients and she slowed down her growth... so if taking away their nutrients in late bloom, yield will be sacrificed. I'm done with the flushing, if I flush it will be if the girls are very dark or totally burned from PK. Pop22 know he's thing...

 

[Waira]

thanks for chiming in mates....:smoking: Hey Seb'-- first, let's make a clarification on terminology.... Flushing is used a little loosely, though it's the "industry standard term".... Around here, we found it useful to to distinguish between flushing and cleansing... flushing usually refers to a period of time that the plant is not given any more nutrients, and is forced to use up internal reserves, and if applicable, what's left in the grow medium,... this is what cleansing is defined as too... But, adding to some confusion in general, flushing also refers to the pouring of copious amounts of water through the medium to purge it of excess/build up's, sometimes to fix badly off pH...
... as mentioned, the flow of nutrient ions does not go in reverse, absolutely wrong! Nothing is "removed" from the plant by active transport of such ions out through the roots,...some of the nute elements are not mobile once metabolized in any case,... The basic idea behind flushing is to stop/limit further nute' uptake so the plant can use up what's stored in reserves and clear out what's in the "plumbing" as unmetabolized (not yet converted to other forms and/or stored yet) nute elements,... much of the controversy hinges on just how much is in there to begin with and if it's even necessary... In organics, bottom line, it's absolutely not... with synthetic nutes, because of their being in form readily available for uptake, it becomes a conditional thing IMO... first, keep in mind, the uptake on most nutrient ions is not under any sort of selective control by the plant,.. water and nutes uptake are linked; N is a great example of this, P too,.. the plant takes these in whether they need it or not; this is how troubles like N toxicity start... the plant can only use and store so much before it becomes overwhelmed and the build up of excess start to cause harm and show symptoms,... usually, it's cumulative build-up over time and multiple feedings that cause this, but a big blast of too much will too, and worse! .... ion's going in don't do it passively, they are taken in by swapping out a like charge equivalent in H+ or OH-; the plant is in constant management of balancing both internal pH and charge,...
....so, why the flush/cleanse? Without a doubt, a plant still chock-full of nutrient ions, N/P/K in particular, will make for nasty tasting harsh smoke! This is typically caused by heavy feeding right up to the end, hence the flush period you see on all these nute company's feed schedules,... we hear lots of back and forth about these schedules, usually being too heavy, and all a conspiracy to get you to over-use nutes,... my take, that schedule is a suggestion, a generalization, not written in stone,... also, if they wanted you to use and waste nutes so have you to buy more and more, why would they bother with that flushing period in the first place? Consider, if you did feed heavy all the way to harvest, and ended up with fouled buds, you very likely would blame the nute company for this, and never use their products or schedule again, right? ...truth is, this flushing thing is also done with other ag' products,... veggies grown hydroponically do the same thing, they uptake and store just like cannabis, and that includes the "plumbing" still loaded with goods in transport,.. certain crops need less time to do this,... Now, with skilled experienced growers, they know to not feed too heavy in general to avoid burning and causing off-pH issues, especially during that final ripening stage,... as you see above, some cut way back on such inputs anyway,.. plant demands are tapering off during this period, which includes water,... and if you have fans leaves showing the normal fading/dying out, that's a good sign that the plant is having to scavenge within for those resources, clearing out the stores,... and as such, by harvest, they're "cleaned-up",... I think it's possible to overdo this too, particularly if you've feed lightly, and have had defc. issues during bloom,... starving out a plant too soon, too much, will also compromise quality,.. for example, K and S are important for terpenes, and significant defc.'s of them will make for poorer aromatics,... cut out too much P, and that final fattening up may stall out,... and as always, the x-factor of individual strains is in play here, not all will finish and behave the same,...of course, grow env./medium/nutes specifics play their role too,... it's a fine, kinda fuzzy line when dealing with all this!
So, whether to "flush"/cleanse or not is something of a subjective call, but certainly depends in part on how heavily you feed, if you had defc. or toxicity issues, the type of nutes, and what the plant is telling you via the leaves and bud ripening,.... -- ---tried to put this in a nutshell, but it don't fit!