Flushing with R O water

mokeSweed420

mokeSweed420

Member
Whats up fellow canna-lovers.

I am from the greater-flint area (although not directly connected to their water source). In the past year of my life I have had just about every major life change you can imagine, (kid, marriage, bought house, bought new car)... etc

My grow room setup went from one small 12 by 10 bedroom to two 34 by 14 rooms.

In the midst of all this chaos I forgot one of the most CRUCIAL components to having healthy, happy ladies... my water source.

A year after being in my new setup, and experiencing generally lack-luster results, I decided to get back to the basics.

Changed all my bulbs and cleaned all the glass on my air-cooled 1000 watt lights, calculated and created perfect amount of air circulation, have my temps dialed in, as well as humidity levels. blah blah blah.. so last but not least I check my (tap) water source..

800 PPM OUT OF THE TAP :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
AGAIN, I am from the greater-flint area so i'm sure my initial water source isn't the best, not to mention the plumbing in my home is likely from a long, long time ago and I assume the interior or all the plumbing is corroding.

Needless to say I about cried when I read 800 ppm on my TDS meter (surprisingly I have been able to maintain the health of my plants throughout their entire life as well as creating a potent, tasty, sought-after finished product.. the only thing lacking was my yield. I range from (sadly) .224 to .336 grams/watt.

About 2 minutes after I check my tap water ppm, I was on amazon purchasing a REVERSE OSMOSIS SYSTEM...

Two days later and I have my R/o installed and slowly, but surely producing a much much much cleaner water source (40-45ppm).

Now, Reverse Osmosis is something I have never used before in my life although I am not new to gaining knowledge about reverse osmosis (as well as every other anything you could research about growing cannabis).

After 1 single watering of a balanced feeding schedule with the RO WATER my plants look ultimately way happier. (week 5 of flower). Within the first three days post-RO-Watering, I noticed tremendous perkiness in all the leaves as well noticeable bud growth.

However, I am weeks away from beginning the flush period, and I have really NO idea how to flush with Reverse Osmosis Water.

I have two opinions that contradict each other.

1) It seems logical that during the flush you would want to make sure your water is p.h. balanced therefore allowing the plants to continue absorbing and digesting any residual salts/nutrients within their soil and within their stems/leaves etc, along with flushing enough of that same fresh water thru the medium to achieve runoff. How does one create a stable p.h. with (almost) perfectly clean R O water? I don't want to add ANY nutrients to the flush water at all.

2)Some have the opinion that the more important aspect of a final flush (rather than having correct PH) is running ALOT of fresh, clean water thru your medium. So if I flush plain R O water thru my medium (at 44 ppm) until I receive that same PPM in the runoff thru the bottom of the pot.. would that be considered an appropriate flush? Will not balancing the PH have any ill-effects on my plants last week or two?

be gentle
 
deno

deno

Well-Known Member
mokeSweed420 said:
Whats up fellow canna-lovers.



2)Some have the opinion that the more important aspect of a final flush (rather than having correct PH) is running ALOT of fresh, clean water thru your medium. So if I flush plain R O water thru my medium (at 44 ppm) until I receive that same PPM in the runoff thru the bottom of the pot.. would that be considered an appropriate flush? Will not balancing the PH have any ill-effects on my plants last week or two?

be gentle
Click to expand...
RO water has a very low buffer, that is to say it does not take much additive to move the PH. If you are growing in soil, there is absolutely no need to adjust RO water during your flush. The soil will move the PH to where the soil wants it, to the PH of the soil. If you had adjusted it, there would be so little additive that it would have no effect on the soil PH. For that reason alone, I would skip additives.

FWIW, I don't flush - I just water w/o additives in the last week or so.
 
mokeSweed420

mokeSweed420

Member
deno said:
RO water has a very low buffer, that is to say it does not take much additive to move the PH. If you are growing in soil, there is absolutely no need to adjust RO water during your flush. The soil will move the PH to where the soil wants it, to the PH of the soil. If you had adjusted it, there would be so little additive that it would have no effect on the soil PH. For that reason alone, I would skip additives.

FWIW, I don't flush - I just water w/o additives in the last week or so.
Click to expand...
ok thank you, I will try a controlled experiment, both a heavy flush, and just watering fresh water for the last 7-10 days. Will be back with the smoke report, yield etc..
 
mokeSweed420

mokeSweed420

Member
rkymtnman said:
drain to waste auto feed GH waterfarms.

last 2 weeks, buds put on most weight. why starve them?
Click to expand...
I prefer a more relaxed high so i generally pick em later in the harvest window. That being said my flushes generally happen around the time the ladies have finished swelling (I THINK) 8-9 weeks I start flushing (strains are 9 weekers ISH)

How about carbs/sugars during final weeks? good to do or waste of time and money?
 
deno

deno

Well-Known Member
mokeSweed420 said:
ok thank you, I will try a controlled experiment, both a heavy flush, and just watering fresh water for the last 7-10 days. Will be back with the smoke report, yield etc..
Click to expand...
You should try that. On my last cycle I 'flushed' two plants, and kept feeding three right up to the harvest. The three that were not flushed came out MUCH better, but it was due to other factors I believe. I had two different phenoes in the bunch (and because of this the harvest was separated by about 10 days). Moral of the story is that my little experiment was not controlled, so means little if anything. It's still worth while to try things out like this, though. You refine your grow skills, and expand your knowledge of how the plants react to different conditions.
 
mokeSweed420

mokeSweed420

Member
deno said:
You should try that. On my last cycle I 'flushed' two plants, and kept feeding three right up to the harvest. The three that were not flushed came out MUCH better, but it was due to other factors I believe. I had two different phenoes in the bunch (and because of this the harvest was separated by about 10 days). Moral of the story is that my little experiment was not controlled, so means little if anything.
Click to expand...
right on, I have four ladies per thousand watt and for the most part i have the same strains from the same moms under each light (for even canopy/water needs etc). Will split one light down the middle, two ladies get a flush, two ladies get a few fresh waters. Will post results (in roughly 1.5 months)
 
Lordhooha

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
mokeSweed420 said:
ok thank you, I will try a controlled experiment, both a heavy flush, and just watering fresh water for the last 7-10 days. Will be back with the smoke report, yield etc..
Click to expand...
They are correct proper drying an curing are the key. I had plants I took to Clio for for the high time cannabis cup one was flushed the other was feed all the way to the chop, both were dried and cured properly. Most ppl couldn’t tell the difference others chose the one that was fed up to the day of the chop thinking it was the flushed plant lol. But flushing is a junk science. Sucks the water is so bad down there I’m glad I’m way up northern mi and have wells on my property. That’s all they get is pure well water.
 
skippy1

skippy1

Well-Known Member
Hi. Did you buy a portable ro filter, or one that you hookup under the sink? What size did you get?
My well water is is around 800 ppm and I'm seriously tired of buying distilled every week. Been reading and researching a bunch on them.
Good luck with your future grows!
 
NanoGadget

NanoGadget

Well-Known Member
If you are in soil and choose to flush I wouldn't worry about pH adjustment. As was stated above, RO has so little tds that it will pretty much take on the pH of whatever it is added to. Personally I don't flush according to the traditional definition of the term. I taper my feed slowly over the last 2 weeks and give water only for 2 or 3 days before chop. The one thing I will say is that a traditional flush will tend to shorten the amount of time your harvest takes to dry and cure. This comes at cost of slightly reduced yields but for some the trade off is worth it.
 
MichiganMedGrower

MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
NanoGadget said:
If you are in soil and choose to flush I wouldn't worry about pH adjustment. As was stated above, RO has so little tds that it will pretty much take on the pH of whatever it is added to. Personally I don't flush according to the traditional definition of the term. I taper my feed slowly over the last 2 weeks and give water only for 2 or 3 days before chop. The one thing I will say is that a traditional flush will tend to shorten the amount of time your harvest takes to dry and cure. This comes at cost of slightly reduced yields but for some the trade off is worth it.
Click to expand...

For highest quality and yield I do it like you. And I have done tests every which way.

I do tend to go 10-12 weeks with sativa leaning hybrids.
 
mokeSweed420

mokeSweed420

Member
skippy1 said:
Hi. Did you buy a portable ro filter, or one that you hookup under the sink? What size did you get?
My well water is is around 800 ppm and I'm seriously tired of buying distilled every week. Been reading and researching a bunch on them.
Good luck with your future grows!
Click to expand...
I went on amazon and got the hydrologic stealth R/O 150 gallon per day. Its only filtering my water in my grow. I’ve wrapped my head around r/o for so long before I actually bought my friend and I don’t know what I was waiting for. I don’t like wasting water with the r/o but... i was wasting a BUNCH of electricity using my gross tap water. Highly recommended!
 
mokeSweed420

mokeSweed420

Member
mokeSweed420 said:
I went on amazon and got the hydrologic stealth R/O 150 gallon per day. Its only filtering my water in my grow. I’ve wrapped my head around r/o for so long before I actually bought my friend and I don’t know what I was waiting for. I don’t like wasting water with the r/o but... i was wasting a BUNCH of electricity using my gross tap water. Highly recommended!
Click to expand...

Oh also I installed a faucet in my grow that has the same threading as a hose connection. Very easy RO install!!
 
mokeSweed420

mokeSweed420

Member
NanoGadget said:
If you are in soil and choose to flush I wouldn't worry about pH adjustment. As was stated above, RO has so little tds that it will pretty much take on the pH of whatever it is added to. Personally I don't flush according to the traditional definition of the term. I taper my feed slowly over the last 2 weeks and give water only for 2 or 3 days before chop. The one thing I will say is that a traditional flush will tend to shorten the amount of time your harvest takes to dry and cure. This comes at cost of slightly reduced yields but for some the trade off is worth it.
Click to expand...

Ok thank you! I will try tapering off the feeding as well as a plain r/0 flush and compare results. My patients are such smokers that its hard for me to hold any amount of meds too cure!
 
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