Nightmarecreature
Active Member
The reason why flushing is such a heated debate is because it is misunderstood. I wrote this in laymans terms for everyone to understand. Does flushing work? Yes! Does not flushing also work? Yes!
Flushing:
In nature Chlorophyll breakdown can be seen in the seasonal changes as the plants lose their green color in the autumn; it is also evident in fruit ripening and flowering. People flush their plants mimicking the fall harvest where plants lose their green color.
In turn flushing starves your plants of Nitrogen and stresses them out. It is my opinion that this is the #2 reason for hermies. #1 is genetics #2 stress(Flushing) The plant wants to make seeds and when it knows the end is near, it tries to pollenate itself. Not all marijuana does this but some strains are very prone to it. While it's a natural process it's not what we want. What I mean by that, is we don't want pollen flying around our grow rooms or our plants making S1's (selfed first generation).
Back to the maintopic. What flushing does is breaksdown most of the chlorophyll prior to drying. This makes the marijuana less harsh and gets rid of that hay taste and smell. Where the confusion comes in, is that it takes less time for the buds to be ready to smoke. Here's an example; One grower dries his flushed buds for 7 days. The same grower dries another unflushed batch for 7 days. Of course the flushed buds are going to be a better smoke because there is less chlorophyll in the flushed buds. The conclusion is flushing does work at the expense of stressing out your plants and the possibility of having a smaller yield. The upside to flushing is that is takes less drying time compared to unflushed buds to get a good smoke.
Unflushed:
Unflushed buds have the advantage in that your plants can uptake nutrients all the way through flowering and up to the chop. I believe this increases yields and I know it reduces stress.Unflushed buds will smoke as well as flushed buds if the drying time is increased. It's best to chop the whole plant from the base and remove all the fan leaves while keeping all your sugar leaves. You want to keep your sugar leaves because removing those leafs causes your buds to dry faster and traps chlorophyll.You can trim your sugar leafs wet but your buds will dry faster and I think it reduces the taste of the buds. The drying process is more important than the curing process. In order for your buds to smoke as good as unflushed bud, you will need to dry them for about 12 days in 55%-65% humidity.This will remove the chlorophyll and it's basically the same as flushing except your flushing the plant once it's finished. The disadvantage of unflushed buds is the longer drying time.
Both methods work and when someone says flushing is a myth, it's both yes and no. It boils down to which method you like to use. I prefer the latter one.
Doing a cure on both methods will reduce harshness of the smoke even further.
Flushing:
In nature Chlorophyll breakdown can be seen in the seasonal changes as the plants lose their green color in the autumn; it is also evident in fruit ripening and flowering. People flush their plants mimicking the fall harvest where plants lose their green color.
In turn flushing starves your plants of Nitrogen and stresses them out. It is my opinion that this is the #2 reason for hermies. #1 is genetics #2 stress(Flushing) The plant wants to make seeds and when it knows the end is near, it tries to pollenate itself. Not all marijuana does this but some strains are very prone to it. While it's a natural process it's not what we want. What I mean by that, is we don't want pollen flying around our grow rooms or our plants making S1's (selfed first generation).
Back to the maintopic. What flushing does is breaksdown most of the chlorophyll prior to drying. This makes the marijuana less harsh and gets rid of that hay taste and smell. Where the confusion comes in, is that it takes less time for the buds to be ready to smoke. Here's an example; One grower dries his flushed buds for 7 days. The same grower dries another unflushed batch for 7 days. Of course the flushed buds are going to be a better smoke because there is less chlorophyll in the flushed buds. The conclusion is flushing does work at the expense of stressing out your plants and the possibility of having a smaller yield. The upside to flushing is that is takes less drying time compared to unflushed buds to get a good smoke.
Unflushed:
Unflushed buds have the advantage in that your plants can uptake nutrients all the way through flowering and up to the chop. I believe this increases yields and I know it reduces stress.Unflushed buds will smoke as well as flushed buds if the drying time is increased. It's best to chop the whole plant from the base and remove all the fan leaves while keeping all your sugar leaves. You want to keep your sugar leaves because removing those leafs causes your buds to dry faster and traps chlorophyll.You can trim your sugar leafs wet but your buds will dry faster and I think it reduces the taste of the buds. The drying process is more important than the curing process. In order for your buds to smoke as good as unflushed bud, you will need to dry them for about 12 days in 55%-65% humidity.This will remove the chlorophyll and it's basically the same as flushing except your flushing the plant once it's finished. The disadvantage of unflushed buds is the longer drying time.
Both methods work and when someone says flushing is a myth, it's both yes and no. It boils down to which method you like to use. I prefer the latter one.
Doing a cure on both methods will reduce harshness of the smoke even further.
