Proper way to flush in hydroponics?

[Tmac4302]

I'm using a waterfarm and have a flushing agent, Final Phase. How do I go about using it properly to flush my plant before harvest? Do I just use it at recommended dose and run it in pH'd water for a week? Or what?

P.S. I really don't care if you feel it is necessary or not, I just want to know the proper way to go about flushing a hydroponic plant.

Thanks!
Tmac

 

[edsthreads]

You should take out the top half of your water farm and flush it with un-ph'd water + your flush solution (like 3 x the capacity of the top half of the waterfarm) Then fill up your res with normal tap water & feed for about 7-10 days.. jobs a goodun'

 

[CEEJR]

I used florakleen per directions ln jug to flush my farm nice white ash in the bowl after combustion.

Get ready for an epic flushing argument.

 

[Bernie420]

New at this but wanted to say that I am a fan of the flush. The idea is there just dont know how much good it really does for taste etc. When I flush my plants that I only used the floral clean for a few days then I just used water.

And I changed my water every two days. I found out that after I changed my water and had a feeding my ppm would rise back up so changing the water out helps keep it down.

 

[Warlock1369]

I use flora clean and water. Been doing a full week of flush but gonna try a 4 day.

 

[TriPurple]

I'm using a waterfarm and have a flushing agent, Final Phase. How do I go about using it properly to flush my plant before harvest? Do I just use it at recommended dose and run it in pH'd water for a week? Or what?

P.S. I really don't care if you feel it is necessary or not, I just want to know the proper way to go about flushing a hydroponic plant.

Thanks!
Tmac

1 day (5) 5 minute flushes every 7 to 14 days depending on the size of your reservoir is a proven method. Plain un PH'd water is fine. You just need to remove the excess salts build up so you don't have nutrient lock. Then your back to clean nutrient water & happy roots.........grow some narly bud!!!!

 

[Tmac4302]

1 day (5) 5 minute flushes every 7 to 14 days depending on the size of your reservoir is a proven method. Plain un PH'd water is fine. You just need to remove the excess salts build up so you don't have nutrient lock. Then your back to clean nutrient water & happy roots.........grow some narly bud!!!!

I'm not worried about lock out man. Iz gots some gnarly bud almost finished. I just need to know how to flush my plant with final phase at the end of an 8 week flower.

 

[Tmac4302]

I've just never done a hydroponic flush with a flushing agent before. So I'm just looking for past experience, tbh.

 

[hellraizer30]

Fushing agents are not needed! Just use plain water, works the same and it dont cost

 

[Warlock1369]

Yup. There not needed. Good old tap water is great.

 

[Tmac4302]

Fushing agents are not needed! Just use plain water, works the same and it dont cost

True, but see, I bought it before I knew that information. Soooo I figured I'd just use it since I already forked over the cash for it. I hate marketing and the "MMJ" nutrient scene. VERY misleading on multiple companies part if you were a nub like me and bought your nutes before fully understanding growing. :/

 

[TriPurple]

True, but see, I bought it before I knew that information. Soooo I figured I'd just use it since I already forked over the cash for it. I hate marketing and the "MMJ" nutrient scene. VERY misleading on multiple companies part if you were a nub like me and bought your nutes before fully understanding growing. :/

Sorry, I missed the harvest part earlier. It's really a personal choice you'll hear both sides of the flushing controversy here. Personally I think you have to to flush for too many days to really clean out the whole plant & for me that's too many days without nutes. The taste comes from proper curing. I don't notice the diff. between flush & no flush before harvest. I have however noticed a big diff. in taste between hydro & outdoor. I grew my best plant in a corn field that was loaded with nutes. & it tasted great..... the thing grew 10' tall & a stalk as big around as a soda can. I still can't believe it wasn't spotted from the air.

 

[wesmokedatkush]

How do you take care of any buildup in the various blue tubes? I need help with this problem if you have seen it with yours

 

[youngtrader9689]

change tube

 

[Warlock1369]

I use black and change out every 2nd grow.

 

[Tmac4302]

How do you take care of any buildup in the various blue tubes? I need help with this problem if you have seen it with yours

Personally I haven't had any trouble with any build up. I was switching my reservoir every week with another waterfarm's res (that is currently not in use) till the plant got too big. However, If I were to clean it, I would take a 5 gallon bucket with plain pH'd water being bubbled by an air stone, lift the top bucket out of the WF, set it in the 5 gallon bucket, and clean the WF reservoir. I'd use ~35% Hydrogen Perioxide (you can get it at like CVS, Walgreen's, ect.) and scrub away. You could probably take a snake for a drain and snake the blue tube. Then just pour some hydrogen peroxide back through it to wash all of the crud to the inside of the bucket.

 

[hellraizer30]

I use black and change out every 2nd grow.

This is what i do and between grows i use dawn soap, run it for 24hr and dump and flush out leave no soap film
And breaks up alot of junk! If your using buckets then a shop vac works great!

 

[JJFOURTWENTY]

If you're looking for a happy medium between a short 7 day flush and a yield inhibiting 14 day flush, just split the difference and go with a 10 day flush.

One thing i'd suggest to get the best results in the least amount of time, is to empty the rez, flush for an hour or two, then re-empty the rez and continue from there. This way, instead of having your PPM go from 1200 to 650 (as there's always still some 1200 water still in the table, buckets, etc), you bring it from 1200 to 650 then down even more to 200 or something, for the full flush.

When I flush with RO (10ppm) within a week the PPM rises to around 100ppm (those 90ppm is what's flushed out of the medium minus what the plants are consuming). When that 100ppm drops back below 50 (plants consuming) I know it's ready. About 10 days total.

 

[Tmac4302]

I think that is why a flushing agent is good to have around. It takes out a lot of PPM's in the reservoir and allows less reservoirs to be exchanged. Not that I'm saying is a bad thing. I try to change my res out twice a day. I don't always get around to that, but by the week of flushing is finished, I've have probably changed 8+ reservoirs of fresh water. With the flushing agent, I just do it every day or every other day. My PPM's were sitting around 13 after I took the plant out of the 3 days of darkness.

 

[AWnox]

IMO flushing for 7-10 days in a hydroponic grow (specially a Waterfarm) unnecessarily starves the plant. A Waterfarm specially is a recirculating system that constantly refreshes and balances nutrient solution every few minutes (even less if you have a powerful pump). This provides the roots with a constant supply of fresh nutrient and by the time she's ready to harvest she has grown accustomed to drinking and replenishing her solution faster than a normal soil grow. For me by week 8 (Indica dom strains) most of the time she drinks close to a gallon a day, sometimes I've seen more; meaning that she replenishes and/or circulates fresh nutrient solution every day; meaning letting her starve for a week is really unnecessary. I just flush the Waterfarm 2-3 days before harvest with ph'ed water and molasses then let her die in the dark for 36 hours then chop chop. Those extra days that everyone is starving their plants would and could be used for her to feed a bit more and produce more buds. Anyway that's my 2 cents and my personal preference, take it as you may.