This thread was never for debate... Only "how to" purposes.
From what I have been reading for the past few hours makes all of this seem very simple. People who flush essentially begin the metabolic breakdowns in their plant earlier before drying and curing. Thus creating a smokable herb with smoothness minus the lenghthy curing timetable to achieve desirable smoke. While it may produce the better taste quicker I see problems with this method for longer storage purposes.
The whole debate that if you dont flush your plant it will have harsh nute flavor and not get white ash is easily rebuttled by "giving it a proper cure mends all". This also makes sense because curing is breaking down the compounds inside the buds which are the chemicals that have been stored during the grow.
I'm no scientist or scholar but I would like to make an assumption... If you have more in your weed- Chemicals or nutes or whatever. It should store longer and retain or at least have flavor over a longer period of time vs flushing and storing. What I am essentially saying is they will both break down in storage and you will lose taste in both but since you achieved desired taste faster in the flushed product it will be less desirable down the line after longer storage periods. I have no proof and this is all speculation. I have done no test is this is not for people to take as valid information.
I digress. this thread is for search purposes for those who want to learn to flush in DWC...
Flushers wanted with methods!
Well if you start a thread on how to use nitrogen to turn buds blue, somebody has to tell you it's physiologically impossible. Same here, discussing different ways to do something that doesn't even happen makes it irrelevant to discuss how to do it, since the reason WHY to do it doesn't exist. But I can tell you more or less just don't want me posting anything that discredits flushing anymore, so I won't after this. I just feel the need to point out that NOTHING has ever proven flushing to be an effective way to rid your buds of ANYTHING toxic, distasteful, or whatever else. It stops the plant from taking up MORE nutrients by removing access to them, but doesn't cause the plant to work in reverse like you believe. I gave the best layman's version of the technical information I have access to(you're more than welcome to look for
peer-reviewed studies to the contrary, I have and failed, I have no vested interest in anyone flushing or not and am simply trying to make sure the FACTS are understood before generalizations and assumptions are made, since a conclusion based on false info is likely even more false)
The 'cure fixes all' mentality is applicable to the concept of
drowning a plant in water that I already mentioned, and which you reiterated. But flushing is totally different and DOESNT start those processes.You're talking about trying to
flush all the salts out of your medium to force your plants to use their stored energy instead of being able to take more in. Why? Also, flushing seems useless in a water medium, doesnt it? "flushing" in DWC is nothing more than pulling out the nutrient solution. You can't do it so simply with soil, you have to run enough water through to pull all the ions and salts out with it. And for THAT, there is certain merit to having something like EDTA in your flushing agent because it binds to metals(mn, mg, ca mostly from what I recall) and pulls them out. But if you can just remove the entire solution and replace it with water, what need is there for EDTA that would bind to something that isn't there?
And the concept of pulling "extra nutes" by making the plant use its stored energy does nothing for flowers. The plant doesn't change what it does just because you removed nutrients. It just starves, because its still alive. You're trying to 'use up' nutrients in the leaves when you flush. Why? What does having more nitrogen in your leaf tissue have to do with your flower tissue?
So, "drowning" has been proven to kick-start some of the processes we try to induce through curing, but "flushing" in the way you speak of it is a physiological impossibility, and therefore does nothing to your buds while it stresses and starves the plant.
Good luck with however you choose to finish your plants.
edit: to add real quick, the chemicals/nutes that are stored and "
supposedly" removed during flushing are different than the terpenoids and cannabinoids that you want to develop during a cure or by drowning, and which affect flavor/smell. I think this misconception is what leads so many people to believe that flushing works.
