45 replies to this topic

[treehugger]

I NEVER FLUSH (in hydro). if your not overfeedeing you don't need to flush.

I know I'll take heat for this but my meds have been out in the community. they can speak for themselves

I bet a lot of wet growers here would love to know your regimen!


(I certainly wish they did! lol)

[LansingAreaCaregiver]

I can't imagine NOT flushing. I feed my plants a LOT of nasty stuff that I sure don't want to smoke (guano, etc.)

[budhelps]

i gro in dirt and usually will start flush 7-14 days before harv, depending on size. just plain water till it runs out bottom of bucket, runs not dribble. last harv the flush was cut short and the bud wasn't consistantly flavorful, some was down right nasty. I'd rather take a plant a little late as to taking it before my flush is finished. I do believe i will be adding molasses this time. just my 2 cents

[LongHairBri]

I'm not saying don't flush.

in dirt, with heavy additives or heavy feeding you got to do it. NOTHING is worse than tasting nutes in your stash. salty, nasty, gross. I can smell it in the baggie! some growers never get rid of it. by the time they get to late flower they have already overdone everything, saturated the cells with nutes, and pretty much killed off or damaged the leaves, roots, and uptake system.

I'm just saying when dialed in using no additives and light nutes(1000ppm), flushing is a waste of time and makes no difference. I can prove it

[CedarSpringsCG]

[sarcasm]yeah, but some of us like to spend 3 times as much in nutes with no added benefit... [/sarcasm]

I have my grow fairly dialed in, but I still flush for 1 week with plain water just in case I mixed in a little too much or something on the last feeding.

[Les]

Water is called hydroponics, BubbleGrower is the man to ask on here with hydro questions IMO. The bubble bucket is a simple system that is touchy. If you learn basics of the marijuana plant and its tendencies as well as signs of problems and solutions to those problems then you can pull it off but you can't leave for a day, when I used soil I could leave for a few days and know that my plants would be fine, maybe a little thirsty becasue the auto water system I had was homemade and not great but they wouldnt die, one day of problems in the bubble bucket and you can kill a plant, it will happen if youre not paying attention. If you wanted to PM me feel free, I'm probally more available then BG to answer questions and if I can't answer anything for you then I can point you in the right direction.

Good luck my friend

Thanks to all for the replies.

Just to clarify (should have mentioned this in the first post), there is a MMMA forum member, can't remember who, that yanks his soil-grown plants out and flushes in bubble buckets.

[Big J]

Well I have a few plants under my belt now and I flushed all but my last one the headband. I had to take it early due to some personal issues. But toy total amazement it is next to cutty's pre 98 the best I have ever had it goes cutty's pre98, my 707 headband, and an unknown sources Apollo 13. So I am not flushing my next harvest to test it. I know what it tasted like with a flush we will see what it is like without. I am also trying a week to 10 days of dark on this one.

[LITLJON]

You are smoking joint and you notice how black in color, and sometimes little crystals in the ash? That is left-over nutrients. A nice grayish clean ash is preferred. A burning in the back of the throat is a good indicator of pesticide.
: Flush, yes, as for me I let the last reservoir of nutrients get down to 1/2 the ppm adjusting P^h only, then 7 days (6 ¹/₂) of P^h correct low ppm water (90ppm here) 24hr dark period, harvest.

I forgot, I kill the pumps the last 24hr also.

Edited by LITLJON, 20 April 2011 - 07:12 PM.

[treehugger]

i gro in dirt and usually will start flush 7-14 days before harv, depending on size. just plain water till it runs out bottom of bucket, runs not dribble. last harv the flush was cut short and the bud wasn't consistantly flavorful, some was down right nasty. I'd rather take a plant a little late as to taking it before my flush is finished. I do believe i will be adding molasses this time. just my 2 cents

One of the problems with the "classic" flush and dirt/soilless is the poor timing. Most strains in the last two weeks of ripening (defined by final calyx swelling) are in the process of shutting down and dying. Fan leaves have yellowed and fallen, chlorophyll production throughout the plant is falling, and vigor falls. Saturating the soil and roots is not a great prescription anytime in a grow, but there at the end and with low transpiration, it is very rough on the plant. I prefer a happy plant at harvest time...

[treehugger]

Not really. Most of us know a flush is one of the most important components to The Finish. If you don't flush you just skipped a step. If you are using chemical salts for nutes, there is no short cut around flushing when producing medical.

Uhh, most people believe that more additives make for more bud, i guess their conscience is consoled by the false insurance of the "final flush". There are discerning cultivators who understand that the right amount of nutes is best non-toxic.

[michiganmedclones]

Lets put it to rest with this, If you want to be like longhairbri stay low on nutes, and keep your res/medium clean and you can not flush, according to him, I have NO experience not flushing. If you follow a feeding schedule from a nute supplier, you MUST flush, they want you to buy their products so they have ever additive under the sun in those feeding schedules and if you don't flush that your meds will burn to a nasty black ash and you WILL taste the ferts no questions asked. Everyone is going to tell you something different, whoever said they were going to try next run no flush after he ran a full flushed run has the right idea. Try both and see what works for you youre never going to find the "right" answer

[zapatosunidos]

Lets put it to rest with this, If you want to be like longhairbri stay low on nutes, and keep your res/medium clean and you can not flush, according to him, I have NO experience not flushing. If you follow a feeding schedule from a nute supplier, you MUST flush, they want you to buy their products so they have ever additive under the sun in those feeding schedules and if you don't flush that your meds will burn to a nasty black ash and you WILL taste the ferts no questions asked. Everyone is going to tell you something different, whoever said they were going to try next run no flush after he ran a full flushed run has the right idea. Try both and see what works for you youre never going to find the "right" answer

I think you are right. The people that I have seen successfully not flushing all (LongHairBri was the first but I found a few more after I started talking about it openly) use relatively low nutrient doses, and either no media (bubbles, nft or aero), or very easy-flushing media like hydroton or coco. The people that use manufacturer-recommended doses and manufacurer-recommended flushing products and regimen also have great-tasting medicine. I am very sensitive to residues since I have sampled the strains I grow from many different growers and systems, and also had them subjected to thin-layer chromatagraphy (here we are again, Happy Guy).

The ones that seem to have a problem with residues are the ones that also seem to either lack control or knowledge of their plant needs or growing media and are just unsuccessfully throwing product at their issues or following a schedule without understanding it. I am starting to think that there is a certain amount of overfertilization that plants can withstand that can be controlled by regular flushing, but beyond that point there is lots of nastiness afoot. My biggest concern is with the rampant use of high-phosphate fertilizers, both liquid and soluble, the use of which on tobacco crops is strongly correlated to massive increases in the incidence of lung cancer in US males from the 30s to the 50s. I don't want patients to end up like cigarette smokers 30 years from now due to yield-based farming practices.

[LongHairBri]

Lets put it to rest with this, If you want to be like longhairbri stay low on nutes, and keep your res/medium clean and you can not flush, according to him, I have NO experience not flushing. If you follow a feeding schedule from a nute supplier, you MUST flush, they want you to buy their products so they have ever additive under the sun in those feeding schedules and if you don't flush that your meds will burn to a nasty black ash and you WILL taste the ferts no questions asked. Everyone is going to tell you something different, whoever said they were going to try next run no flush after he ran a full flushed run has the right idea. Try both and see what works for you youre never going to find the "right" answer

I'll agree with that. if you're following the chart, from the person trying to sell you something, YOU MUST FLUSH! hopefully you haven't damaged the circulatory system too bad to work.

on another note, in nature where's the flush? ain't one! if your trying to replicate nature your not cramming everything into your plants hoping what it needs is there, then trying to wash out everything it didn't. in a natrual system EVERYTHING is already there, in light amounts, as long as the roots are airated, the plant gets what it wants, when it wants.

how do I know that mine is a natral system? easy. once a week I fill my 3x55gal. res and nute to 1000ppm. my system holds 30gal. when not flooded. the ppm in system always tests to around 850+ at res fill up time. meaning my plants use water at about the same rate as nutes. balanced. natrual. I don't test for ph. I don't filter my water (DWS) I fill up once a week and forget about it!! $60 worth of DynaBloom and D/G MagPro lasts me at least 1 full cycle. same recipe in grow as bloom.

my yields and my quality can speak for themselves

if your having ph or nute swing problems your doing something wrong!! Quit listening to the guy at the growshop or a nutriet company.
THERE'S TRYING TO SELL YOU SOMETHING YOU DON'T NEED!!!!!!

[Bisharoo]

Try it you might like it! Hey Mikey!

[michiganmedclones]

I'll agree with that. if you're following the chart, from the person trying to sell you something, YOU MUST FLUSH! hopefully you haven't damaged the circulatory system too bad to work.

on another note, in nature where's the flush? ain't one! if your trying to replicate nature your not cramming everything into your plants hoping what it needs is there, then trying to wash out everything it didn't. in a natrual system EVERYTHING is already there, in light amounts, as long as the roots are airated, the plant gets what it wants, when it wants.

how do I know that mine is a natral system? easy. once a week I fill my 3x55gal. res and nute to 1000ppm. my system holds 30gal. when not flooded. the ppm in system always tests to around 850+ at res fill up time. meaning my plants use water at about the same rate as nutes. balanced. natrual. I don't test for ph. I don't filter my water (DWS) I fill up once a week and forget about it!! $60 worth of DynaBloom and D/G MagPro lasts me at least 1 full cycle. same recipe in grow as bloom.

my yields and my quality can speak for themselves

if your having ph or nute swing problems your doing something wrong!! Quit listening to the guy at the growshop or a nutriet company.
THERE'S TRYING TO SELL YOU SOMETHING YOU DON'T NEED!!!!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!! It's exactly how longhairbri broke it down, the dude at the hydro store is there to sell, and honestly a lot of them don't know what they are even selling. Read books, do test runs, talk to CGs, read this website, read more books, do more test runs, smoke your product, see what you like, see what you don't like, figure out how to change it, thats whats called dialing in your strain IMO

Good luck sir, anyone need anything PM me I'm by no means an expert but I can help and have a lot of free time with this awesome insomnia

[treehugger]

Look on all the growing web sites. When they take a poll, about 4% do not flush their hydro. Google it. I use the correct amount of nutes AND flush.

Well, that just says that 96% overfertilize to the point that they feel that some desperate treatment is necessary. There is an old axiom that 95% of all new business's will fail within 5 years, from the looks of your poll, the same must be true of growers...

[Tripleberry]

Personally, I flush because thats how I was taught to do it and I have always done it. I use FF nutes but do not follow their feeding schedule,it would cost an arm and a leg if I did! 3 tsps of this add this and this and so on, its ridiculous. My buddy was ready to spend the dough to buy all their nutes to follow the recommended chart, I told him it wasnt necessary and to use the hydro grow big throughout the whole life of the plant and add the solubles to boost the P and K. I watch my plants and can pretty much tell what they need and when to boost something and I have no issues w under development or nute burn but I still flush cuz thats what I was taught. I would like to try just once to feed through the flowering cycle w no flush to see if there is a difference in taste, production, smoothness or the way the meds burn but it would be a real bummer to find out that not flushing was the wrong thing to do.