Flushing Info for pot growers

You may know this already so its just for peeps info really.

Theres always the argument of flushing, with Hydro is a must. Organic in pots some peeps do some peeps dont.

Has anyone ever noticed the start of mould after there flushing(pots)?

I read this interesting info regarding that when you fill your pots with x3 x4 water of the actual pot size, your basically drowing the roots, and with so much water being flushed, it takes days or even up to a week before soil comes dry again. Now if your 10 days away from flowering and buds all fat and juicy you have to be proper careful for mould. If your filling the pots so much that the roots cant really breath and move about for days on end, then this can trigger mould as no oxygen to the rootzone. As where Hydro roots have more space to move about.

The internal humidity of the buds core increases 10fold when you flush.

So tip for the day for pot growers that are coming to the end who has the big fat dense nuggs.

Drip feed ya ladys the last 10 days with plain water, so if i was feeding 5 liters of water to the plant, I through out flowering, the last 10 days I should be flushing with 15-20 litres of water. HOWEVER i only give them about a litre of water every 2nd day of there flush period. This way the soil doesnt become saturated and there is plenty of oxygen in the soil for the roots to do there work still.

Some peeps might say you need to flush everything out of it to improve taste and flavor. Hydro YES. Organic not so much. Ive flushed the hell out of my plants in first few years and now i only drip feed em, there is NO difference in taste or smell end product. And it counteracts any mould probs Ive had in the last 10 days or so.

Obviously good ventialtion is key here but still BIG FAT JUICY BUDS late flowering are prone to mould.

Anyway hope it helps someone!

to avoid a problem like this next time, try using airpots and you wont have a problem, i just finished flushing my airpots and after two or three days i needed to water her again.

air pots? not seem em bf- like the idea tho

check it out the link is in the word airpots.... they are based in the UK but you can get them in the states as well, i will never go back to regular pots, airpots is the best thing ive used for soil.

or you could just realize that flushing doesn't actually pull anything out of the plant and flushing isn't necessary. depriving your plant of food the last 2 weeks isn't a good idea. dry and cure your bud properly and you wont have an issue with taste.

bamfrivet said:

or you could just realize that flushing doesn't actually pull anything out of the plant and flushing isn't necessary. depriving your plant of food the last 2 weeks isn't a good idea. dry and cure your bud properly and you wont have an issue with taste.

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yep, we are growing plants not toliets, hydro or soil flushing is a waste.

bamfrivet said:

or you could just realize that flushing doesn't actually pull anything out of the plant and flushing isn't necessary. depriving your plant of food the last 2 weeks isn't a good idea. dry and cure your bud properly and you wont have an issue with taste.

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Flushing inst necessary? How did you work that one out? Ive smoked weed before and the joint was sizzling when i pulled on the joint, after doing some re-search its very common for joints to "Sizzle" in UNflushed Weed.
So saying its not necessary is a bit vague IMO.

And I dont have an issue with Taste - we were about talking mould dude

Best buds Ill defo look into that, niiiiiiiiiiice1

ZeeeDoc said:

Flushing inst necessary? How did you work that one out? Ive smoked weed before and the joint was sizzling when i pulled on the joint, after doing some re-search its very common for joints to "Sizzle" in UNflushed Weed.
So saying its not necessary is a bit vague IMO.

And I dont have an issue with Taste - we were about talking mould dude

Best buds Ill defo look into that, niiiiiiiiiiice1

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It looks like you need to do some more research my friend. Actual research, not just looking around on this site. There is a huge myth on the forums that flushing is as necessary as having 12 hours of darkness.

That "sizzle" you heard had nothing what so ever to do with flushing. That had to do with there either being tiny unfinished seeds in the weed, or it wasn't dried and cured the right way.

Please, explain to me how exactly flushing helps your plants. I mean actual evidence. Show me how in the plant kingdom all the nutrients are absorbed and then transferred directly into the plant material. Think about it... if it worked that way, then why in the hell would the plant even need those nutrients in the first place?

Come on people, use that grey material inside of those thick skulls and think about the way plants actually work, the processes they go through and not believe everything you read on forums.

Pot that has been fertilized right up to harvest can be harsh to smoke, sometimes the joint will even sizzle and pop as unmetabolized fertilizer salts combust.

So im guessing thats not true then? its a myth? Makes perfect sense to me. That info is not from a forum btw.

Ive smoked weed that has a sizzle and there were no tiny seeds in the calyaxs and it was proper dank looking and smelling. So do you have any other suggestions what it might be? AS i know for sure drying and curing isnt the problem as the weed that had the sizzle, stunk to high heaven, dried to perfection and tasted pukka and totally seedless.

So you may need to have a re think as what your saying isnt totally correct my amigo!

ZeeeDoc said:

Pot that has been fertilized right up to harvest can be harsh to smoke, sometimes the joint will even sizzle and pop as unmetabolized fertilizer salts combust.

So im guessing thats not true then? its a myth? Makes perfect sense to me. That info is not from a forum btw.

Ive smoked weed that has a sizzle and there were no tiny seeds in the calyaxs and it was proper dank looking and smelling. So do you have any other suggestions what it might be? AS i know for sure drying and curing isnt the problem as the weed that had the sizzle, stunk to high heaven, dried to perfection and tasted pukka and totally seedless.

So you may need to have a re think as what your saying isnt totally correct my amigo!

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You sure it was dried right? Because I am guessing it wasn't. Or maybe someone sprayed some pesticides on it. But the "sizzle" isn't from not flushing. I guess if your plant is special and doesn't utilize photosynthesis then there might be nutrients in your plant.... but I am not going to explain to you how plants uptake nutrients from the soil, change it into chemicals it can actually use, transfer it around the plant, use up those chemicals during photosynthesis.

Like I said, read up on how plants actually work and the processes they go through, and you'll finally realize that flushing your plants is a myth. Ask an orange farmer if he flushes his tree's before picking the fruits, it's the same idea. If the nutrients got stuck in the flower or the fruit of a plant like that, then all the fruits we eat would be flushed before they harvest them. They don't do that. You know why? Because it only hurts your plant, it doesn't make anything taste better, get bigger, be more potent, be smoother.

Drying your plants too quick will cause it to taste bad and be harsh, because there is still chlorophyll in the plant. That's the fresh cut grass or hay taste you get.

Go burn some dry nutes and see how much it crackles and sizzles. Now grab some pine needles (some green ones fresh off the plant, and dead brown ones) burn them and listen to the difference between the two. There is our sizzle.

Check this thread out, ZeeeDoc. Lots of great info that might clarify some things for you.

https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/409622-truth-about-flushing.html

Thank you so much Samuel --- I get a bit tired of all the myths floating around these sites. Most growers would do themselves well to simply study and become familiar with plant metabolism.

Flushing a must for hydro? It is so funny to me that so many people think that flushing is some kind of magic bullet to make your buds taste and smoke better. As it has already been said, proper drying and curing is much more important. Yes, lower nitrogen rates in the plant tissue can make a smoke smoother. However, people need to understand that depriving the plant of all nutrients will cause the chemical processes that actually get rid of the nitrogen to shut down.

I've gone head to head with other buds (I flush for like a day) and people can't tel the difference.

However, keep in mind that --- the moment those nutes pass through the root membrane the plant's enzymes, amino acids, proteins and such go to work on those ions and convert 'em into polysaccharides, organic acids, sugars, more protein and other minute stuff. There's no nitrogen, no phosphorous, no magnesium or any of the like stored in plants.

Dude, I think you need to re-read whatever it is that told you that plants don't store or contain nitrogen, Phosphorous, etc in plants. That is basic basic stuff dude. Did you ever hear of the carbon cycle? Plants absorb nitrogen in the form of ammonium, store it in various forms (it's still considered nitrogen) and that nitrogen is ultimately released back to the soil by decay.

If plants didn't contain any of those elements, then why is composted plant material so great for use as a fertilizer?

Btw. A polysaccharide is a complex sugar chain. You seem to imply that polysaccharides and sugars were different things.

At any rate, I'm out, discussions about flushing are almost as dumb as arguments about trimming fan leaves.

legallyflying said:

Dude, I think you need to re-read whatever it is that told you that plants don't store or contain nitrogen, Phosphorous, etc in plants. That is basic basic stuff dude.

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I'm very familiar with the material since at one time it was my college major --- the fact is elements are NOT stored in the manner in which supposed flushing would rid them. Again, the elements do not enter the plant and get moved to some storage unit --- it is broken down, acted upon, used, stored in complex forms and exuded. No amount of flushing will ever cause stored compounds in fruit to leave that fruit --- all you will do is shrink the harvest. The plant does everything it can to maintain the fruit and the roots as a survival mechanism and instead of extracting energy from those places it sends more energy to them.

BTW, in the context of this exchange I think you meant to refer to the nitrogen cycle as opposed to the carbon cycle.

Cheers

What you suggest sounds like under-watering, ZeeDoc. If the plants take 5L and you are only giving them 1L, you are going to have a lot of dried out roots.

Remember, watering also aids gas exchange. This is one of the reasons that drainage is important. As the water is absorbed by the roots, it draws fresh air into the root zone. As long as the soil is allowed to dry out between flushes, there shouldn't be any over-watering problems.

I've never noticed increased instances of mould when flushing. It does make sense though. do you think that one could mitigate the risk by upping the ventilation and/or dropping the humidity?

As for the effectiveness of flushing. It helps.

A while back, I wanted to test the effectiveness of flushing agents so I ran a little experiment:

I took six plants. Chosen by their similarity to eachother in terms of size, growth habit, and health

Two were flushed with DNF Clear.
Two were flushed with straight spring water.
Two were watered normally with straight spring water. These were the control plants.

The flushed plants were given four gallons of water, twice the pot capacity, as needed, for the final two weeks of flowering.

The plants were harvested and processed at the same time, and in the same way. This included a two week cure (I find taste is best at one month, but you know...).

I gave the bud to a few friends. They were given three baggies, each with a different coloured sticker on it. They didn't know the nature of the test either. They were simply asked to take it home, try each one, then tell me which ones smoked best.

They all came back the same. The bud flushed with straight water was voted best, but was only slightly better than the bud flushed with DNF Clear. It basically came down to 'if you had to choose'. The unflushed bud was at the bottom. It was said to be harsher than the others with not quite as good taste.

My conclusion was that the flushing agents weren't worth the money. I think the real benefit of flushing is the removal of excess salts in the growing medium, Nitrogen in particular, since this would fit with what tobacco farmers do to their crops to make smooth smoke.
It doesn't take anything from the plant itself. There were no noticeable differences in plant health between any of the groups.

So, as to whether or not flushing does anything... I have to say it does. While proper drying and a nice long cure make the biggest difference, flushing has it's merits.

Tobacco farmers do that cause they smoke the leaves not buds

heres my take on flushing... if there is alot of nutes built up, from over doings it while feeding, the flush may even out the ph some and help the plant recover to a healthier state to finish strong.
I do flush, well not actually flush flush, I dont run any extra through the pots, I just give water for the last half week or week. Ive been moving away from that and just cutting down the nute doses instead, as I want to plump them up as much as I can at the last week.

I think if synthetic nutes are used, very nasty chemical crap, just water for the last week or a flush would be beneficial. This is just what has been the conclusion I have drawn from other threads on this site.

ZeeeDoc said:

Flushing inst necessary? How did you work that one out? Ive smoked weed before and the joint was sizzling when i pulled on the joint, after doing some re-search its very common for joints to "Sizzle" in UNflushed Weed.
So saying its not necessary is a bit vague IMO.

And I dont have an issue with Taste - we were about talking mould dude

Best buds Ill defo look into that, niiiiiiiiiiice1

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Rofl this is one of the most insane arguments for leeching (it's not called flushing..) I've ever heard.
Do you have ANY shred of proof for what you just wrote?


Leeching (what most newbies call flushing) has not been proved to do anything people keep claiming it does.
It does not increase taste or odour, it does not help the plant grow, it does make the plant produce more trichomes.
It's all the same old bullshit just a different day, people claim this stuff all the time, and there has never been produced only single shred of evidence for it.

Stop believe in hyped up, overrated, false information.
Test things out for yourself and come to your own conclusions and you will surely come to the same conclusions as most expert growers have:

Leeching is only good for one thing; correcting errors.
Mineral buildup, pH problems etc. can be corrected with a leech of the grow medium.
That's about it.

Anything else is just osmosis and it'll harm your plants if you deprive them of nutrients in the most critical stages of their growth (late bloom).

rocknratm said:

I do flush, well not actually flush flush, I dont run any extra through the pots, I just give water for the last half week or week. Ive been moving away from that and just cutting down the nute doses instead, as I want to plump them up as much as I can at the last week.

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That makes no sense.
How would cutting down the strength of your nutrient solution 'plump' up your plants?
What you're doing is that you are depriving your plants of the full amount of nutrients they need to really dig deep and perform for the last part of their flowering stage.

rocknratm said:

I think if synthetic nutes are used, very nasty chemical crap, just water for the last week or a flush would be beneficial. This is just what has been the conclusion I have drawn from other threads on this site.

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What?
Since when are synthetic nutrients 'very nasty chemical crap'?
We've been over this before, the claim that leeching (it's not called flushing..) can somehow 'remove' nutrients stored in the buds (nutrients are _not_ stored in the buds) is not only ludicrous but immensely ridiculous.
It has never been proved and it never will be.


Stop disseminating false information.