7 days of dark. The final flush.

[OldLuck]

LOL, I'm a nuub and growing a purple strain (thc bomb, querkle). Was wondering if I messed up on choice. Will be growing white widow, black widow and diesel next.

im just kidding man, purp strains are great, amazing bag appeal if thats what you're going for.

 

[MJstudent]

People pay extra for Purps? Well theres my point proven right there.

whats your point ? that you dont rely on no stinkin market? well thats great if your not selling your product, but people do love purple strains whether its better or not, so supply and demand states that people will grow purple whether its the best or not because the bucks are there. things change colors bro its nature, how does it make it worse?

 

[Rumple]

you know the rules here, no pics it didnt happen. 5000's got the pics. you dont

I agree 100%. I think the one week dark period and ice water does more for the grower's peace of mind then for the potency of his product. But...... 5000joints is growing some damn fine weed regardless. To say he can't grow weed (after seeing his photos) is beyond retarded. His method is producing a quality product and his opinion should be taken seriously.

No dark period or ice water:

 

[kermit2692]

the question still stands though...had you gone with a dark period would it have made a difference....definately cant hurt. nice trichrome production btw what strain?

 

[jpill]

I wouldn't flush my plant with plain water at all. Plain water molecules don't bond to fertilizer molecules well (A proven fact) . Why give up the last 14 days of your harvest, a time when you can really add weight to "flush" with water? All that does is deprive your plant of nutrients. Your starving your plant near the end of its cycle. That makes no sense.

What you should be doing is flushing with 100% organic nutrients. "Pure Blend Pro (Bloom)" (Budswel) to name a few.I will edit more organic options tomorrow , its late and i'm tired! Think about it man, flush with ORGANIC nutrients and stop starving your plant. I guarantee you 100% you would have a better yielding , great tasting , non salted toxic medicine if you did this. Plants don't store nutrients. I don't want to hear that BS.

If you watered with 100% organic nutrients for the last 14 days it would be 100 times better than flushing with plain water in every aspect. Since its an organic flush you will have no problems what so ever. As for 7 days of darkness, I wouldn't do that either , the most I would do is 72 hours.

Not trying to be rude or disrespectful, I guess I just grow a little different from you and would like to share my opinion ! Your bud looks great, I just agree to disagree !

 

[tripboufe]

How can I made organic homemade???

 

[Harrekin]

ya harrekin id love to know where you get off telling this guy his method sucks when he has the pics to prove it doesnt...also you say 72 hours of dark is perfect, but you dont back that up any better than 5000 backed his method up in fact at least he has pics...that look quite good i might add...personally i have only tried the 3 days of dark myself and didnt notice a huge difference just a slight ripening maybe i will try a week next time and see what happens...also anyone who has grown should be able to tell after the very first time of flushing properly, that it is a necesity anyone who thinks flushing isnt necesary think about any fruit in the world it starts to die at the end of the season and so leaching nutes and killing the plant in essence lets it know to ripen and finish up, no science there just common sense

Are you a dum-dum or something? The 72 hours dark isn't something I made up, it was studied by an institute called SIMMs, why would they say to do 72 hours if a week was better?

And to the guy who say flush with organic nutes...how does the N,P & K differ chemically if it's organic or "chemical"? There's no sense in flushing, where do the "chemicals" go? They're not "used up", plants don't take a shit or excrete chemical elements, it uses them to build structures.

 

[5000joints]

By the way HarreKnuckle, your signature is disgusting!

 

[5000joints]

I wouldn't flush my plant with plain water at all. Plain water molecules don't bond to fertilizer molecules well (A proven fact) . Why give up the last 14 days of your harvest, a time when you can really add weight to "flush" with water? All that does is deprive your plant of nutrients. Your starving your plant near the end of its cycle. That makes no sense.

What you should be doing is flushing with 100% organic nutrients. "Pure Blend Pro (Bloom)" (Budswel) to name a few.I will edit more organic options tomorrow , its late and i'm tired! Think about it man, flush with ORGANIC nutrients and stop starving your plant. I guarantee you 100% you would have a better yielding , great tasting , non salted toxic medicine if you did this. Plants don't store nutrients. I don't want to hear that BS.

If you watered with 100% organic nutrients for the last 14 days it would be 100 times better than flushing with plain water in every aspect. Since its an organic flush you will have no problems what so ever. As for 7 days of darkness, I wouldn't do that either , the most I would do is 72 hours.

Not trying to be rude or disrespectful, I guess I just grow a little different from you and would like to share my opinion ! Your bud looks great, I just agree to disagree !

I appreciate your opinion. You didnt call me a Padawan, or a Newb. You didnt attack my grow style. I appreciate a post like this even if we dont agree on some points. I use FFOF soil so the plant is still getting the small amount of trace nutrients that it needs between flushes. This is what everyone is forgetting about. I posted all the facts in the first post. Even in the opening lines. But still........I find myself going over and over the same points that people ask me about that was already written pages ago.

 

[cowboylogic]

3 days/72 hrs of darkness works, not more resin, just more potent resin already present. The cold water shock and flushing plus the additional 4 days of darkness is just hype that helps with the POS(power of suggestion)...

 

[Brick Top]

Will be growing white widow, black widow and diesel next.

Are you saying you will be growing both White Widow and Black Widow?

Why? Why would you want to grow a knockoff when you also plan to grow the original Cup winning genetics?

A number of years ago the original White Widow was renamed Black Widow by it's creator, Scott Blakey (AKA Shantibaba). Everything else, everything sold under the name White Widow (or anything sold under the name Black Widow but from a different breeder) is a fake, a fugazi, a knockoff.

If you meant you would be growing both White Widow and Black Widow, I would suggest dropping the White Widow and replacing it with another strain. Possibly Mr. Nice Seeds Medicine Man (the original White Rhino) or maybe Mr. Nice Seeds Shark Shock (the original Great White Shark) or Serious Seeds White Russian (that is if you want to remain in the 'White' family.)

 

[Harrekin]

I appreciate your opinion. You didnt call me a Padawan, or a Newb. You didnt attack my grow style. I appreciate a post like this even if we dont agree on some points. I use FFOF soil so the plant is still getting the small amount of trace nutrients that it needs between flushes. This is what everyone is forgetting about. I posted all the facts in the first post. Even in the opening lines. But still........I find myself going over and over the same points that people ask me about that was already written pages ago.

You still don't get it...noone here cares if you put your dick in the soil for better "rooting" (pun definately intended), they're your plants to do with what you want.

However (and this part is key) without any sort of data proving your claims, suggesting your method is somehow better than the scientifically accepted, universally agriculturally used method of "give them what they want" and then selling your folk stories as fact to poor noobs who know no better is not cool. Especially if your method (3 weeks flushing/1 week of darkness) has the potential to damage growth at a key point in the plants life (as many here have pointed out to you).

I know you want rep and for people to think you're "cool", but your methodology is flawed, your results unrecorded and your "study" subject to extreme experimenter bias.

Repeatability, reliability and relevance, how many of those does this fit into? Only one, and only slightly.

 

[FR33MASON]

Problem with science, you can have 5 scientific reports and all 5 contradict each other. Science is a long long way from being FACT.

Again most of those reports usually have no mathematics with their claim so yes it is only just a claim until the numbers are presented. Mathematics are 100% finite. It is the human factor in any equation that can create mistakes. Without math(the master science) there is no science fact period.

 

[FR33MASON]

In the horticultural world, to ensure that plants will perform in the real world as described, a trial is instituted. I think that a trials thread might not be such a bad idea. Utilizing plant trials utilizes the scientific method and would weed out a lot of controversy over technique and cultivar combos. This dark period issue is an easy one to start with.

 

[Brick Top]

This dark period issue is an easy one to start with.

That one (as in a 72-hour period of darkness prior to harvest) has been scientifically proven. It is just that many people refuse to accept the results.

 

[Harrekin]

That one (as in a 72-hour period of darkness prior to harvest) has been scientifically proven. It is just that many people refuse to accept the results.

And further to that people seem to think they can just add on a few days and expect the result to be better...it's 72 hours, if it was more beneficial to do 96 hours the researchers would've found that.

 

[Brick Top]

And further to that people seem to think they can just add on a few days and expect the result to be better...it's 72 hours, if it was more beneficial to do 96 hours the researchers would've found that.

People refer to plant "energy," I sometimes do myself because it is understood and accepted by most, but in a way it's more like food or fuel, but plants that go without light for photosynthesis to create more food/fuel/energy cannot go on functioning indefinitely. 72-hours is about the max they can continue to do anything, and after that they're just dead plants sitting in the dark.

But beliefs are very difficult to overcome. If someone believes there is a cause and effect, if they believe there are dots that can be connected that will make a picture, they believe it and most times there is no shifting what they believe.

 

[canniboss]

Thanks for the informative post 5KJ. I am gonna try a variation on your technique in the next few weeks, I use a lot of the same nutes as you and have a couple nice NL5's at about 5 weeks flower. Don't worry about the haters, some people just lurk and wait and LURK waiting to pounce on any thread that says anything that might get a few hits and starts flaming in the hope that people will +rep his prickishness. And Yes! I knew you would guess that by some people I mean Harrekin

 

[mccumcumber]

People refer to plant "energy," I sometimes do myself because it is understood and accepted by most, but in a way it's more like food or fuel, but plants that go without light for photosynthesis to create more food/fuel/energy cannot go on functioning indefinitely. 72-hours is about the max they can continue to do anything, and after that they're just dead plants sitting in the dark.

Very true, someone has taken a bio 101 class. More than three days without light and the plant will start to die. You're essentially just starting the drying process early if you leave them in the dark longer than 3 days.

I posted why you ought to flush earlier... but I'll do it again, just to clear up some confusion.

The area around the roots is called the rhizosphere, this where the plant exchanges its hydrogen cation for other cations (your nutrition). When growing "organically" you let the microbes in your soil provide nutrition by exuding it (through death or defecation) in the rhizosphere and the roots exchange their hydrogen molecule for another cation, or an anion is attracted to the hydrogen in the roots and it gets absorbed this way.

The way salt based nutrients (chemical ferts) give your plant nutrition is by skipping the whole process of microbes exuding food and going straight to the roots. Obviously what is not used by the plant is then left in your soil and acts as a build up that can be used later. Most of the time this salt build up is unwanted though and that's why flushing became common practice.

You are flushing to get the salt out of your medium. If you are using organic nutrition that is truly organic then you won't have any salt in your soil, because salts kill bugs. However, there are tons of companies, like AN, that claim to be organic and they're not. Flushing exists because of over feeding to be completely honest. Salt build ups will cause nasty fucking smoke if you don't get rid of it. However, if you are feeding your plant properly throughout harvest, you may not even need to flush, even if you used 100% synthetic nutrition.

This theory that the plant stores energy that will be given to the buds if you deprive your plant makes no sense. The deficiencies that you see from excessive flushing doesn't mean that the nutrition went from the leaves to the buds. It means that the leaves are no longer getting the nutrition they need to go on with their daily function, absorbing light. Now, what's especially interesting about this, is that if you your leaves are not absorbing as much light as possible, your plant is not working at maximum efficiency meaning that bud production is SIGNIFICANTLY reduced. There's a reason why we don't flush our tomatoes or any other annuals for that matter.

If you are keeping your leaves green throughout harvest, you are doing a good job. Uncle Ben says this over and over again, and there's a good reason for it. There's a positive correlation between healthy plants and good bud production. If you make that your primary concern then you will have great smoke, period.

 

[Brick Top]

Very true, someone has taken a bio 101 class. More than three days without light and the plant will start to die. You're essentially just starting the drying process early if you leave them in the dark longer than 3 days.

I posted why you ought to flush earlier... but I'll do it again, just to clear up some confusion.

The area around the roots is called the rhizosphere, this where the plant exchanges its hydrogen cation for other cations (your nutrition). When growing "organically" you let the microbes in your soil provide nutrition by exuding it (through death or defecation) in the rhizosphere and the roots exchange their hydrogen molecule for another cation, or an anion is attracted to the hydrogen in the roots and it gets absorbed this way.

The way salt based nutrients (chemical ferts) give your plant nutrition is by skipping the whole process of microbes exuding food and going straight to the roots. Obviously what is not used by the plant is then left in your soil and acts as a build up that can be used later. Most of the time this salt build up is unwanted though and that's why flushing became common practice.

You are flushing to get the salt out of your medium. If you are using organic nutrition that is truly organic then you won't have any salt in your soil, because salts kill bugs. However, there are tons of companies, like AN, that claim to be organic and they're not. Flushing exists because of over feeding to be completely honest. Salt build ups will cause nasty fucking smoke if you don't get rid of it. However, if you are feeding your plant properly throughout harvest, you may not even need to flush, even if you used 100% synthetic nutrition.

This theory that the plant stores energy that will be given to the buds if you deprive your plant makes no sense. The deficiencies that you see from excessive flushing doesn't mean that the nutrition went from the leaves to the buds. It means that the leaves are no longer getting the nutrition they need to go on with their daily function, absorbing light. Now, what's especially interesting about this, is that if you your leaves are not absorbing as much light as possible, your plant is not working at maximum efficiency meaning that bud production is SIGNIFICANTLY reduced. There's a reason why we don't flush our tomatoes or any other annuals for that matter.

If you are keeping your leaves green throughout harvest, you are doing a good job. Uncle Ben says this over and over again, and there's a good reason for it. There's a positive correlation between healthy plants and good bud production. If you make that your primary concern then you will have great smoke, period.

I once read something about cannabis plants grown outdoors that was rather interesting, and that they basically do something of a flush on their own.

When the days get very short near the end of the growing season conditions can also become bad and the soil can be or nearing being depleted and when the days become short enough plants will cut way back on what they take up from the soil/ground and instead rely on what is stored.

It is a survival technique where they hit a point that they 'know' they can finish on their own, so they do, and it is all to assure that seeds finish being created and mature.

So in a way the idea of a plant finishing it's life cycle by cannibalizing itself is a normal natural function ... BUT only to assure viable seeds, not to bulk up buds or maximize cannabinoids and terpenoids.

Uncle Ben has it right.