Flushing: The Myth that won't Die

[Waira]

right-f'ing on pop22! .... here's what I wrote in response to some questions about this, and check my reasoning on it too,...

>> " ....these are 100% correct scientific facts.. the problem is in part with peoples understanding of the terms "flush" and "cleanse" (Muddy chose that term well, BTW!)... Flushing does NOT mean the plant is getting some sort of internal rinsing, it's the medium that's getting extra nutes removed so the plant doesn't keep taking them in and, often, storing them... several nute elements are taken up whether the plant needs them or not, especially N; they can only store so much before toxicity issues start to take affect! ... having the plant finish "face first" means she has pretty much depleted her inner stores of nutes, including some fan leaves, which will make for better quality smoke; too much N, P, K, sugars, etc. will foul things up, and heavy feeding can lead to excess stored nutes... So, the idea is to remove the extra unwanted nutes from the medium, and have the plant forced to use up it's internals and clear out the excess... organics, being milder and slower released (due to the need for the 'crobes to break then down and get them into cycling and changed into available/absorbable forms) generally won't cause so much over-storage vs synthetics, which are generally all right-now available forms,... Muddy's use of "cleanse" is just that, it's making the plant clear out the extra's, and to do that, the medium needs to be reduced to low nute content typically (not always) for several days at least,... the part about convection might make more sense if it included transpiration in the water movement explanation,... Kudos to pop22 for this myth-buster posting!"

 

[Waira]

.... the parts about how nutrients are taken in, vs water, and moved around within the plant, and the effect on root zone pH, are also of critical importance for those looking to understand the how and why we sweat pH so much, and why it's so often the first thing that needs be measured, and dealt with when troubles come a-callin'!

 

[FullDuplex]

I guess that i use the term too loose myself. I cleanse more than i flush, when i hear flush i think of a problem. Evacuate the soil of the toxic levels of what is causing the problem. either too many ferts or pH is all out of whack. Now i do stop feeding the last three weeks or so of the flower period. This is to do exactly what was mentioned above. Force the plant to use what it has stored. This brings me the best flavor on the flower than not doing it. I use chemical ferts, and i can tell you from experience that you have to get that crud out or the buds taste bad and dont burn well. I have had several strains that taste the same until i started cleansing my soil and now the flavor profile has changed on all of my plants.

 

[Waira]

... should add that the risnsing agents like Clearex or Sledgehammer are surfactants that help knock loose the media particle bound nute elements, so they can be purged, or in other cases/uses, taken up by the plant more readily,...

 

[Kakarot]

Thank god, I have said flushing was bullshit since I dropped one of my gals awhile back when I was about to feed her and she broke in half so I had to harvest and there was no difference in burn or taste and I use seagrow.


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[FullDuplex]

... should add that the risnsing agents like Clearex or Sledgehammer are surfactants that help knock loose the media particle bound nute elements, so they can be purged, or in other cases/uses, taken up by the plant more readily,...

I have done some reading on sledgehammer but have never used it. Id like to see if it cleans up the drain holes from using the FF line. I often get a buildup around the drainage holes, expected as that is where the majority of the liquid leaves the soil, and want to know if that would clear up with something like that. I try to avoid it and when i start to see it i do a cleanse or two to get rid of the crud.

 

[Kakarot]

Well I should not say bullshit because I still do a cleanse or flush just not as hardcore as what I used to


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[Eyes on Fire]

what some may not even know it this. nutes can replace the water molecule in some feeds and literally deyhydrate your plant more than most would think is even possible. LOL! wierd right? adding a full gallon of water and a small bit of nutes can potentially dehydrate your plant. trippy when I read that

 

[Waira]

... I cleanse too, for a week or so, but flush only if there's some evidence of build-up and off pH,... I let the fan leaves tell me their storage story- .... I may add a hit or two of molasses during cleanse, just to hop-up the herd some and scavenge things from the soil,.. and I try to let the plant go dry by actual harvest, to speed drying some!

>> :smoking: FD, Sledgehammer is mostly (entirely?) saponin, plant extracted I believe,.. different from the other type of surfactants used in Clearex, et al,..I don't know if it's better than the synthetic based products though... Do you use Hygrozyme, or equivalent? I started with it this season, on the KindSoil girls, and I like very much how it helped keep the breakdown-release groove going! So, I guess it'll depend on what kinda gunk is collecting at the drainage holes,.. is it crusty stuff, or bio-gooey? Do you use any fabric type pots? I do exclusively these days, but I can't tell much about accumulation of salts/biocrud at the base because I put perlite at the bottoms, and by removal time, it's a pulverized dirty mess down there!

>> EoF My organic mechanic brudda! ... not sure I follow you here, you talking about the osmosis reversal phenomena the book excerpt discussed above? I thought that was due to the hypertonic conditions of the medium having higher solute conc., forcing water to move out of the plant and into the media,... what you said sounds different though,...clue me in! Oh, timely chime in my friend, I know you have a fab' book collection,.. do you have or know anything about Marijuana Botany (Clarke), and Hemp Diseases and Pests? I'm eyeballing these books, but don't know anybody who has them,...

 

[FullDuplex]

>> :smoking: FD, Sledgehammer is mostly (entirely?) saponin, plant extracted I believe,.. different from the other type of surfactants used in Clearex, et al,..I don't know if it's better than the synthetic based products though... Do you use Hygrozyme, or equivalent? I started with it this season, on the KindSoil girls, and I like very much how it helped keep the breakdown-release groove going! So, I guess it'll depend on what kinda gunk is collecting at the drainage holes,.. is it crusty stuff, or bio-gooey? Do you use any fabric type pots? I do exclusively these days, but I can't tell much about accumulation of salts/biocrud at the base because I put perlite at the bottoms, and by removal time, it's a pulverized dirty mess down there!

saf enough given the line is synthetic, maybe their solution to that. I havent ran any Hygrozyme i usually just allow the soil time to break down. Id love to have something to speed up that process though as i like to recycle as much as i can. Now i will say that i do flush after a grow due to the fact that i recycle and compost my soils. Its how i built the base for my organics. Which id like to get back to but its hard to locate what i need in this area. I had access to a product that contained all macro and minerals i could want as well as dolomite lime. Cant find anything like that around here where i am now which is a bummer for sure.


Crusty stuff at the drain holes mate, typical salt buildup is what it seems to me. take a good soak to clean off if you let it get to bad. So i try to stay ahead of it if not it can actually block the drain. I just moved to fabric pots actually, testing them out with some fresh veggies for the winter months...