Late on flushing. Any hail Marys tricks?

I have a bag seed from Durban Poison, but the herm-donor had to have been some serious pineapple smelling strain, so I didn't have any flowering time estimation. My other store-bought Durban Poison seeds state 9 weeks...
I'd been taking it easy on nutes since completing week 4 and the leaves had been yellowing out, but for whatever reason after completing week 6, I started fearing that they would starve before proper harvest time so I fed them a dose. The very next (2 days ago) day I used the higher magnification half of the loupe and noticed some amber trichromes I flushed the hell out of her and I've been letting her soil dry out since. I'm planning to put her in darkness tomorrow night and harvest her 2 days later.
Are there any tricks I can do to further deplete the bloom nutes?20240312_080420.jpg
 

shnkrmn

Well-Known Member
Flushing does not get rid of nutes in your plants except in the sense you are starving them as they finish. Actually, you said you've been underfeeding since week 4 of flower when most people would want to maximize feeding. Nobody wants to see fading, especially that early. I and many other growers here feed until harvest.
 
Flushing does not get rid of nutes in your plants except in the sense you are starving them as they finish. Actually, you said you've been underfeeding since week 4 of flower when most people would want to maximize feeding. Nobody wants to see fading, especially that early. I and many other growers here feed until harvest.
Just for clarification, that picture with the heavy fading is from an hour ago (6w/3d into flower). She had started the occasional lower leaf fading by week 4 though. I have several clones of her in veg now, so I'll experiment running nutes to harvest on 50% of them. One plant gives me more weed than I can possibly smoke in 6+ months so the rest is just for funsies. I just enjoy growing plants
 

DanKiller

Well-Known Member
Why would anybody want to "flush" is beyond me, the plant is building massive amount of bud mass each day of flower, and this process is very dependable on water/nutrients
Plants even show you when they about to finish and won't drink like before.. Why cut them from the building blocks they so need ?
Its not about science anymore, it's about common sense and reality of what you see.
 
Why would anybody want to "flush" is beyond me, the plant is building massive amount of bud mass each day of flower, and this process is very dependable on water/nutrients
Plants even show you when they about to finish and won't drink like before.. Why cut them from the building blocks they so need ?
Its not about science anymore, it's about common sense and reality of what you see.
This is why I posted this in newby central
This is my first female to harvest... I had 3 males last run
You're saying they drink up less water when they go to finish? How long before amber trichs should this be noticable?
 

DanKiller

Well-Known Member
Us stoners have a hard time keeping track of things, but think about it like this,
You give let's say 2L of water for weeks, suddenly when you are near the finish you go to water again and you notice the plant didnt use all the water from the last time, that's when you know you are close to finish and drop water qty and timing of waterings to allow conditions in the rootzone to be consistent with this new situation until you harvest.
The whole point of indoor controlled growing is to allow conditions to be 110% accurate and perfect throughout the entire grow.
 

shnkrmn

Well-Known Member
Can you please point me to a study? When I made the decision to flush, all I could find is that there were no clear studies for or against it. Has that changed?
Isn't the consensus of responses you are getting in this thread sort of telling? Nobody is replying to you saying yes, you must not feed your plant, especially at the finish. The myth of flushing has been around for years but it's just that, a myth.
 

DanKiller

Well-Known Member
If you need science to tell you those simple facts, your not thinking logically about this.
Its like telling someone go get fit for 10 weeks, feed him good for the first couple of weeks, then deprive him of food and give him only water and not so much of it, can you guess what will happen ?
Plants are like humans, you shall be like the tree in the field...
But anyway, cutting nutes or water during flowering is broscience at best.
Cutting nutes and water at the very late stages can be beneficial as plant don't uptake the same at those stages and you can reach toxicity that will accumulate in your soil and maybe plants
But again, if your a good grower you will know the plants needs and taper off as the process finishes or be light on the nutes from the beginning.
 

StoneDHedgE

Well-Known Member
Great insight, would you mind elaborating how not flushing would result in an inferior product?

If you're right, I just harvested a tent full of gross weed; thankfully you're not.
The studies about flushing are from a College Student and a Nutrient maker. Neither peer reviewed. Overfeeding weed is not good. Imho. I've had hundreds and hundreds of plants to base this on. I can guarantee that, I have more growing experience than the College Student. Plus the Nutrient maker losses 25 percent profit with flushing. Go figure. A flushed end product is way better imho. Based on experience and tons of grows. I'm not pushing flushing on anyone, but there is no doubt it works.
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
I’m gonna say it straight… you goofed.

That plant had some more growth to do - look at all of those unripe pistils. You literally starved the shit out of that plant - look at it.

You want a healthy finish - not bleached of everything … plant will not magically go bad .
PLUS ….. you are basing the harvest time off of some breeder bullshit … plants do not follow calendars / what day it is / what week it is . Plant will finish WHEN it finishes , your skill / environment / etc. play into the final result.

This is why “ flushing “ ANY PLANT is insane.

What other plant needs this ridiculous step ?

IMG_4681.jpeg
 
I'm picking up that this topic is like politics and religion lol.
The argue FOR flushing is PERCEIVED improved taste and reduced synthetic chemicals in your smoke. (I prefer organic vegetables for this reason).
The argument AGAINST flushing is that the plant is being starved of nutrients in the maturation phase of the grow, leading to reduced yield and I'd suspect likely reduced terpenes.
Ultimately, I guess it's personal choice and I plan to go organic after gaining the skills to repeatably produce healthy plants and maintain stabile growing conditions. But with this next batch of clones going into flowering I'm going to try my own experiment and decide for myself.
Thank you for all the replies though!
 

DanKiller

Well-Known Member
The studies about flushing are from a College Student and a Nutrient maker. Neither peer reviewed. Overfeeding weed is not good. Imho. I've had hundreds and hundreds of plants to base this on. I can guarantee that, I have more growing experience than the College Student. Plus the Nutrient maker losses 25 percent profit with flushing. Go figure. A flushed end product is way better imho. Based on experience and tons of grows. I'm not pushing flushing on anyone, but there is no doubt it works.
I agree but it has nothing to do with flushing, it's about maintaining a non toxic rootzone.
As long as you meet that criteria, flushing is a myth.
No doubt overfeeding any plant will cause problems in growth and in the final smoke, fruit or whatever.
A right grown and fed plant all the way will produce both a perfect smoke and yield.
 
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