jonnynobody
Well-Known Member
I currently grow in and love my water to waste dutch buckets also known as hempy buckets. Growth is much faster than in soil, I don't have to haul heavy dirt, and I rarely deal with pests anymore. The only caveat is that it seems more difficult to achieve the desired flavor than growing in soil. When I first started growing about 10 or so years back I always grew in dirt. I wasn't an organic nut or anything. It was just easier than hydro for a rookie gardener. I never once had an issue with flavor. Without effort it was incredible every time. I just gave 'em straight water for the last 7-10 days and let them fade out. When I switched to hydro my first harvest was stellar. Looked like high times centerfold material. THC Bomb grown to perfection. I used the GH 3 part flora series with koolbloom liquid. I did not flush. It was absolutely awful to smoke. I wasn't sure if it was attributed to drying far too fast (4 days with very large flowers) or growing hydroponically and adding koolbloom which I had never used before. Some people said it was probably the phosphorous that ruined the buds. It snapped and crackled. It was truly awful. But it looked like high times shit. I think we've all been down that road where the smoke quality didn't match the eye candy. It just never happened to me with my own home grown until then. I personally feel 3 things ruined that grow. It was dried too quickly, bloom boosters add too much P&K negatively impacting flavor, and failing to allow the plants to fade and ripen with a 7 day flush.
It's been 6 or 7 years since that awful experience. I've learned a lot. I do not use bloom boosters. I give plain RO water only for the last 7 days before harvest and let them fade out to fall colors. I slow down the dry time. I now get excellent tasting buds every cycle. Except for 1 plant this last flower cycle. It is the only plant I did not flush. It was my only black widow in the flower room. It is potent smoke. The flowers are gorgeous and heavy. I was conflicted about putting up a 600W HPS in one of my nursery tents for another week to let it continue flowering, because I felt it really needed another 7-10 days to ripen. There were still quite a few white hairs shooting out the top, but the trichomes were full and milky. I thought what the hell, I'l go ahead and chop it out of convenience and wanting to simply clear the room and be done. I think it was ultimately a bad error in judgment. While I do not feel allowing it to ripen any further would have affected the flavor in a positive way it would have allowed me to complete a 7 day flush. I've heard all the anti flushing arguments over the years and how nobody does that in soil outdoors. That's really a falsehood and misleading. I'll use myself as an example here. When I grew in soil years ago with outstanding flavor results I stopped feeding them fertilizer for 7-10 days prior to harvest as suggested by every experienced soil gardener I followed on RIU and ICMAG. Nobody continued feeding their organic cocktails of seabird guano and worm castings up to the day of harvest. They all allowed the plant to fade and ripen as the plant ended it's life cycle. There was no purpose to dump 1000PPM of fertilizer in the soil after all the buds had grown and the plant was ripening. The same seems to be true of hydroponic gardening. When I flush and allow the plants to fade for 7 days the flavor profile is fantastic. I do not taste any difference between these flowers and my former soil grown plants. However, the 1 black widow I failed to flush and watered 900PPM up to the day before harvest tastes terrible. It's incredibly potent. Mind blowing. And I hate smoking it out of my beloved bong, because it's harsh. I won't even be providing it to my patients, because it isn't up to my standards. I'll be biting the bullet and smoking it myself over the next 3 months. That will serve as a daily reminder to not let that shit happen again. I'm running black widow 1 more time in an effort to confirm my suspicions.
If the widow needs another 7-10 days to finish I will give it to her and I will make sure it receives the same 7 days of 0 PPM RO water as the other plants. I'm so far attributing the poor taste to operator error on my part. I don't want to give up on black widow that easily just yet
I'd sure love to hear some other grower's opinions on this. I'm in a personal bubble of theories and emotion here. Thoughts anyone?
It's been 6 or 7 years since that awful experience. I've learned a lot. I do not use bloom boosters. I give plain RO water only for the last 7 days before harvest and let them fade out to fall colors. I slow down the dry time. I now get excellent tasting buds every cycle. Except for 1 plant this last flower cycle. It is the only plant I did not flush. It was my only black widow in the flower room. It is potent smoke. The flowers are gorgeous and heavy. I was conflicted about putting up a 600W HPS in one of my nursery tents for another week to let it continue flowering, because I felt it really needed another 7-10 days to ripen. There were still quite a few white hairs shooting out the top, but the trichomes were full and milky. I thought what the hell, I'l go ahead and chop it out of convenience and wanting to simply clear the room and be done. I think it was ultimately a bad error in judgment. While I do not feel allowing it to ripen any further would have affected the flavor in a positive way it would have allowed me to complete a 7 day flush. I've heard all the anti flushing arguments over the years and how nobody does that in soil outdoors. That's really a falsehood and misleading. I'll use myself as an example here. When I grew in soil years ago with outstanding flavor results I stopped feeding them fertilizer for 7-10 days prior to harvest as suggested by every experienced soil gardener I followed on RIU and ICMAG. Nobody continued feeding their organic cocktails of seabird guano and worm castings up to the day of harvest. They all allowed the plant to fade and ripen as the plant ended it's life cycle. There was no purpose to dump 1000PPM of fertilizer in the soil after all the buds had grown and the plant was ripening. The same seems to be true of hydroponic gardening. When I flush and allow the plants to fade for 7 days the flavor profile is fantastic. I do not taste any difference between these flowers and my former soil grown plants. However, the 1 black widow I failed to flush and watered 900PPM up to the day before harvest tastes terrible. It's incredibly potent. Mind blowing. And I hate smoking it out of my beloved bong, because it's harsh. I won't even be providing it to my patients, because it isn't up to my standards. I'll be biting the bullet and smoking it myself over the next 3 months. That will serve as a daily reminder to not let that shit happen again. I'm running black widow 1 more time in an effort to confirm my suspicions.
If the widow needs another 7-10 days to finish I will give it to her and I will make sure it receives the same 7 days of 0 PPM RO water as the other plants. I'm so far attributing the poor taste to operator error on my part. I don't want to give up on black widow that easily just yet
I'd sure love to hear some other grower's opinions on this. I'm in a personal bubble of theories and emotion here. Thoughts anyone?
