Doug Dawson
Well-Known Member
Great post, thank you very much.I don't know because there are a bunch of reasons why your friend could be saying that. That is why scientists do a lot of hard work carrying out experiments where they control variables, take careful measurements, and use sound statistical methods to find out the truth.
What if unflushed plants are healthier, live longer after being chopped, and take longer to dry? The explanation could be as simple as moister buds don't burn as easily, but without measuring and controlling moisture levels in the buds then there is no way to know. It is a confounding variable.
What if there wasn't really any difference in ash production but your friend just has that impression? There is no way to know without measuring the weight and color of the ash and logging the results. If you're a believer in flushing then you might not notice when a bowl of flushed buds burns incompletely but when it happens with an unflushed crop it stands out like a sore thumb. Scientists call that "confirmation bias."
On the other hand, some of the objections to flushing are based an actual science. It is a fact that some elements are immobile and can't be translocated once deposited in plant tissue. So if the parts of the plant that need them can't get them from the xylem because they have been flushed out of the root zone or it is simply depleted then the processes that depend on them won't be able to proceed. That is part of why flushing makes no sense. How the elements get "flushed" out of the plant is also a complete mystery because it doesn't make sense. Where do they go?
Ultimately, the proponents of flushing carry the burden of proving their claims. Plant nutrition is a well studied topic so a conventional approach of ensuring all elements are available in proportions that keep the plant healthy would be the null hypothesis.
I'm only aware of one attempt to do something like a controlled experiment on flushing. The results were not positive but the experiment also wasn't very high quality. Needs More Research™️