To flush or not to flush?

I have plants that are 10 weeks into flower. They are various strains grown from bag seeds found in some good medical strains over the summer. They are growing in a 4x4x4 cabinet with a 600 and 180 watt LED. I am using a DWC system and this is my first time working in hydro. I have 6 plants of mixed strain, and one of them is very close to harvest. The rest appear to share more sativa traits and are taking longer.

My main question is, is it a good idea to flush all the plants at this point, then go back to nutes in a week after I harvest the one plant? Or should I harvest the one plant without flush? I know there is some contention on whether flushing is necessary, however I have always flushed when growing in soil and have generally been very pleased with the results.

I was also wondering if my sativa plants look to be on the right track. The buds on most of my plants seem small and immature for being 10 weeks into flower. However, I have mostly grown indica dominant plants in the past and from what I understand, sativa buds fill out differently from indicas. There is also a space concern, as I was not prepared for the explosive growth I have experienced, especially with one of the sativas that has grown to take up most of the space in my cabinet.

If anyone has ideas and suggestions for how I can improve my grow I would really appreciate your input. This is a vastly new setup and process for me, and I am still rather inexperienced. I have uploaded some photos of my plants and setup, and I will try to post some photos with my usb microscope if anyone thinks it would be helpful. Thank you for any help you guys can provide, I have found the user input on this site invaluable the past.

syremusic said:

If anyone has ideas and suggestions for how I can improve my grow I would really appreciate your input.

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Kill the sativa plants like the one(s) in the third picture and buy some decent genetics bred for indoor growing.

The water is your growing medium, your nutes are what make it so, its not like soil.. With soil you flush to get rid of all the salt buildup the nutes you add to it contain while still leaving some of the micro nutes soil has by nature.. With hydro your starting point, ro water or whatever, has virtually no properties that can sustain a plants life besides h20. By flushing the sativas, your gonna wind up doing more harm then good I'd imagine since they won't have any food for a week or however long you flush for. The difference of flushing at the end of your grow being there is no need to sustain the plants life after, there should be enough food in fan leaves/stems etc.. to keep them going until you give em the chop.

Your gonna stress em out. How would you like to live on just plain water for a strait week?

Drinking plain water for a week would probably remove a lot of toxins from your body and clean your entire system out. I would think the same thing goes with the bud. All the starches and nutrients in the buds built up over the months would be flushed out some I would think. I wouldn't do a week flush but maybe 3 days. At least that's what I'm going to try here soon. I've had friends bud they few that didn't flush and some of it seemed to sparkle and crack n pop in a bowl.

Flushing starves plants of needed nutrients. It won't remove anything. If you provide just enough nutrients for the plants to thrive, and harvest and cure properly, they won't have a chemical taste or burn black.

Okay well Im gonna experiment next grow with it and see. I was thinking 3 days would be good. General hydropinics is what I use for nutes and they seem to know their shit. And they say flush for a week. I have the flora kleen. It makes some sense to me. Salt gets built up in your roots and in the clay pebbles or whatever medium and I feel like a quick few day flush would do them good. The plants should have plenty of built up butrients in the leaves to carry them through the 3 days.

GH is pretty solid when it comes to their directions and schedules. I wouldn't worry about going a week if thats what they say and your harvesting all your ladies fed by the res your flushing at the same time. Its basically just keeping buds attached to the root system while they suck up h20. I don't even bother although I just read an article on rockwool and how it's properties are similar to esbestos in that it can be harmful if handled regularly without gloves and a mask which makes me wonder if I should start flushing lol.. Or switch to something more Eco friendly for starting seeds and clones.

Good info above ^^^ it's like fiberglass lol. I use rockwool ATM because I am out of my usual peat-moss cubes. Not the cheap ones.

https://www.google.com/search?q=peat+moss+cubes&biw=1575&bih=945&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=PArXVLzMDdWAsQTQ5IGgCg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#imgdii=_&imgrc=IFrOsCYjjFJFmM%3A;WY-hrJzGudrcPM;http%3A%2F%2Fwww.medicalmarijuanaadvisor.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F01%2FDSC00143.jpg;http%3A%2F%2Fwww.medicalmarijuanaadvisor.net%2Fhow-to-grow-marijuana%2Fgrowing-mediums%2F;640;480


That kind xD