When should I stop nutes?

[Triplec]

I'm at day 61 total from planting, autoflowers. Entering the 7th week of flowering ans by the description from the breeder flowering is 7-9 weeks. The top cola on my plant had about 20% brown culry hairs and most trichs are fairly clear. I'm going to have to do a staggered harvest so the lower buds will fill up more. I think I will cut the top cola around 70 days. Should I stop nutes now or give one more round?

Also, I'm only using 1 gallon pots for a pc grow setup. So I don't think a flush is necessary since on plain water days the runoff of already fairly clear.

 

[roormaster]

The flush debate will always be around, but if it was me, I wouldn't judge the flush based on how clear the water runoff is. The point of the flush is to stop providing nutes so the plant uses its stored energy. I would probably start with the next watering.

Has your light been 24/7 or 18/6? Depending on strain I have gone 75+ days with AFs on 18/6.

If you want to be sure, go to RadioShack and buy a $12 pocket microscope.

 

[greasemonkeymann]

the eternal debate. To flush or not. I personally do not, but i'm all organic, and I heavily amend the soil. that being said, i'd need to know what type of growing media, type of ferts, etc, to give you my opinion.
If you are giving them chems, then personally i'd just give em some plain water or maybe a really light tea of worm castings and molasses, but it all depends, and for THOSE that wanna quote me, and start an argument, please look at my signature, this is my OPINION. From my experience...
granted I've never grown an autoflower, but I don't think that's relevant.
pictures would help, if they are super green and such then maybe just water, if they are yellowing already, then maybe a light tea.
if all the hairs aren't drying yet, then i'd say you have a little time to still feed.

 

[Sativied]

Depends on how much nutrients you think there are still in the medium. There's no point in underfeeding it, but since the necessary nutrient uptake drops at the end, you basically want to lower the amount of nutrients in the medium IF you think there's too much in it. Flushing with plain water is nearly always a bad idea, as some elements leach easier than others it messes up the balance. If for example you think/know the nute level in the medium is 1EC/500ppm, give 0.5EC/250ppm to end up with very roughly half of that.

 

[Triplec]

the eternal debate. To flush or not. I personally do not, but i'm all organic, and I heavily amend the soil. that being said, i'd need to know what type of growing media, type of ferts, etc, to give you my opinion.
If you are giving them chems, then personally i'd just give em some plain water or maybe a really light tea of worm castings and molasses, but it all depends, and for THOSE that wanna quote me, and start an argument, please look at my signature, this is my OPINION. From my experience...
granted I've never grown an autoflower, but I don't think that's relevant.
pictures would help, if they are super green and such then maybe just water, if they are yellowing already, then maybe a light tea.
if all the hairs aren't drying yet, then i'd say you have a little time to still feed.

Thanks for the responses. I'm using the BioBizz light mix, grow and bloom nutes. It's an northern light auto, Btw. That's it's basically. Growing in a stealth pc box using mixed spectrum LED light rails. Here's a pic of the upper most cola. My yield isn't going to be great. This is my first grow and I did tons of research, but screwed up on the scrog/lst process so I had to do some screwy things in regards to tying the plants course cause they got too tall.

 

[Triplec]

The flush debate will always be around, but if it was me, I wouldn't judge the flush based on how clear the water runoff is. The point of the flush is to stop providing nutes so the plant uses its stored energy. I would probably start with the next watering.

Has your light been 24/7 or 18/6? Depending on strain I have gone 75+ days with AFs on 18/6.

If you want to be sure, go to RadioShack and buy a $12 pocket microscope.

My light is 20/4. I have a 40x magnifier, but is still really hard to see the trichs for me.

 

[greasemonkeymann]

Thanks for the responses. I'm using the BioBizz light mix, grow and bloom nutes. It's an northern light auto, Btw. That's it's basically. Growing in a stealth pc box using mixed spectrum LED light rails. Here's a pic of the upper most cola. My yield isn't going to be great. This is my first grow and I did tons of research, but screwed up on the scrog/lst process so I had to do some screwy things in regards to tying the plants course cause they got too tall.

from the looks of it, i'd say you have a at least two weeks to go, also looks like a light tea may be beneficial, in my opinion. Iy could use a little nitrogen, contrary to a lot of peoples beliefs nitrogen is in fact needed during all phases of the growth, i'd use a worm casting tea with a lil kelp and molasses, nice low amounts of ferts and lots of microbes. If you want to add chemical foods, i'd do so with caution.

 

[Triplec]

from the looks of it, i'd say you have a at least two weeks to go, also looks like a light tea may be beneficial, in my opinion. Iy could use a little nitrogen, contrary to a lot of peoples beliefs nitrogen is in fact needed during all phases of the growth, i'd use a worm casting tea with a lil kelp and molasses, nice low amounts of ferts and lots of microbes. If you want to add chemical foods, i'd do so with caution.

I've never heard of the light tea you guys are talking about. What is that and can you point me me to some info?

 

[roormaster]

I agree 100% on tea. a good beginner is humtea with brew ball. Get a 5 gallon bucket with a painter lid and airstone. Use water and premade humtea pack and let it brew for three days(dark, constant air 68-74 degrees I believe is around ideal but not my area) dilute the tea 10:1 at least. I'm sure there are much better recipes but this is pre measured out.

 

[greasemonkeymann]

I've never heard of the light tea you guys are talking about. What is that and can you point me me to some info?

sorry man, it's not THE light tea, just A light tea, everyone has diff recipes, but i'd get a 5 gallon bucket fill it halfway with water, get some worm castings, alfalfa meal (if you can), kelp, molasses and some aloe.
If you can't get all that, just do this
1 cup worm castings
1tablespoon molasses
palmful of alfalfa meal
palmful of kelp
filter/add dry ingrediants in an old sock or panty hose.
5 gallon bucket half-filled, bubble with an airstone for 36-48 hrs, feed at a 3/1 ratio or 2/1 at most.
If you want to cut corners and just want the ferts, then just use the castings, molasses, and kelp, don't bubble and feed at half strength. Feed immediately.
You'll miss out on the beneficial microbes but you'll get a lil nitrogen and potassium from those ingredients, if you want phosphorus add some guano (half cup)
Less is always better, the castings should bring the leaves a lil more green.
I highly recommend checking the organic area of this forum, and the tea threads.
Roormaster has a simpler process, if you have access to the humtea

 

[Triplec]

Geez that's seems complicated. Is this just to improve the taste or what? Not sure I can get all the stuff I need to do all that in time.

 

[herein.mygarden]

I just did my first indoor with some autos ( few outdoors umder the belt) some got flushed way better then other due to multiple plants of the same strain finishing at different times amd maturing differentntly, long story short aint no body bitching that my dank ass nugs wernt flushed right, that being said depends on a lot o factors id say your fine to flush with water, hasnt bit me in the ass in that case ten days before estimated chop dates fine final phase shortens that down to 5

 

[Triplec]

I just did my first indoor with some autos ( few outdoors umder the belt) some got flushed way better then other due to multiple plants of the same strain finishing at different times amd maturing differentntly, long story short aint no body bitching that my dank ass nugs wernt flushed right, that being said depends on a lot o factors id say your fine to flush with water, hasnt bit me in the ass in that case ten days before estimated chop dates fine final phase shortens that down to 5

Yea, thanks. I just looked at my calendar today. I've given 8 weeks of nutes but, only 6 weeks have included bloom nutes. I at 62 days. Was thinking of given 1ml of bloom tomorrow, just wondering if that's worth it. I'll probably just water normally.

 

[Warriorbuds]

I just use water for about a week, the last week of bloom...sometimes that extends further as you may have a plant that needs a few more days or a week more to finish....roots hold a lot of ferts.....some will flush 2 weeks......I think its advantageous to improve taste, smell, etc.

 

[Triplec]

I just use water for about a week, the last week of bloom...sometimes that extends further as you may have a plant that needs a few more days or a week more to finish....roots hold a lot of ferts.....some will flush 2 weeks......I think its advantageous to improve taste, smell, etc.

I bought some organic unsulphered mollasses. Seems like that is pretty popular during watering especially after flushing. Gonna try it for the rest of the grow. Probably will do this on water only days throughout my next grow.

 

[Warriorbuds]

I bought some organic unsulphered mollasses. Seems like that is pretty popular during watering especially after flushing. Gonna try it for the rest of the grow. Probably will do this on water only days throughout my next grow.

Will work for ya for sure!...Just a bit of info regarding molasses, if your in the US, get the brand in my avatar....trust me, the other numbers, like calcium/mag....iron.....potassium...that are in this molasses....are ridiculously high compared to any other on the market! Sometimes I forget....but when I remember ..the Brer goes into the feed. Good luck!

 

[BenFranklin]

throw in a cup of piss..... see what happens.

 

[greasemonkeymann]

Geez that's seems complicated. Is this just to improve the taste or what? Not sure I can get all the stuff I need to do all that in time.

complicated I suppose, but rewarding, in order to grow the best top shelf herb that you can, it does take a lil work, just like anything.
If you want it to be simple and easy, then teas, and organics aren't probably for you.

 

[greasemonkeymann]

I bought some organic unsulphered mollasses. Seems like that is pretty popular during watering especially after flushing. Gonna try it for the rest of the grow. Probably will do this on water only days throughout my next grow.

I don't agree with this, if you want to flush (another can of worms there) but if you do, I don't recommend feeding molasses, I've experimented with different techniques and I've found that feeding molasses throughout (towards the end) the flowering leads to darker colored ashes and harsher smoke, I LOVE molasses during the first 50 days or so though, one of the best foods you can give a plant. There is lots of potassium in it, and not to mention sugars, micronutrients, etc. The only thing i'd use to the end of flowering is a real light tea with worm castings, a speck of alfalfa, and aloe.

 

[H.M. Murdoch]

This is a hot-button topic, but I'd like to give my opinion.

I feed full strength until harvest day. No flushing, no leaving the plants in darkness for 48 hours at harvest time. No tricks of any kind. I feed my plants and let them control their own destiny

I read a scientific report a few months ago that said these things are useless. Starving plants at the very end of their cycle, when they're putting out all the trichomes they can, is just the opposite of what they need. They need normal nutrition to properly finish.

Some people say that flushing at the very end helps taste. I don't see how it can since nutrients are stored in stems and leaves; never in the buds.