My 2cents.... if your utilizing an organic approach, Meaning the microbes feed the plant not the soil, flushing is counter productive and will certainly deprive your girls of needs. Well documented research has been done with organics, and the Rhisophagy cycle is where plants actually "farm" the microbes they need, when they need them. Crazy right!!!! Plants can actually differentiate the microbes they allow a relationship with based on what they need at any given time. Micro organisms do what they do but unless they're enticed and preferred, they won't proliferate. Doesn't mean they just dissipate, they're more less dormant and put into limbo. They'll continue to consume purely for self preservation but they won't duplicate and expand. Basically they don't have a particular job to serve. But when the plant needs them due to what they provide, they're feed and encouraged to divide and replicate, further increasing their purpose and what they bring to the plant. When you flush or leach, your countering their means, and by such, limiting the plants access to complete and fulfill its needs.
If your synthetic feeding, the means of nutrient assimilation is solely based on CEC and whether the plant is "full" or "empty" of any given element. If there's nitrogen present, the uptake of one or more elements WILL have a synergistic effect and uptake another. In the case of "ripening" or "finishing" you don't want an increase, you want a tappering off. With synthetic fertigation applications I always allow the plant to fully ripen, then and only then will I encourage a "flush" to void the substrate of its natural CEC, thus by ensuring a CLEAN and unadulterated finished product.
Nowadays, for some strange reason, growers tend to focus on bag appeal over proper nutrition. There's nothing wrong with healthy green plants at finish. By flushing in the last 2 weeks, growers actually inhibit the full potential of the cannabonoid profile of any given cultivar, and terpenes are most prevalent in the final stretch, so they're actually hurting the true effects that that cultivar is said to have.
Organic/Veganic is king!!! It ain't the cheapest, but damn it's worth it!
