Why flushing is a myth yes and no explained!

Ninjabowler said:

Yup, that why im saying that were going to disagree. I see chlorophyll and water absorbtion speeding the dry of the whole plant and you dont. Im mean, its not like i tested it myself, the OP did and i just think his claim is valid.

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You can't just take it out of context like that and make up my position.
I haven't said water absorption (water potential really) doesn't affect the drying time.
If you have a shriveled plant and a fresh plant, they will obviously dry in different time frames.

But what you're arguing for makes no sense.
Pre-harvest flushed weed does not have less moisture in the stems, calyxes, sugar leaves, roots etc. than normally grown weed.
Just because some fan leaves have fallen off or some are yellowing it doesn't mean the drying period is quicker.

There is no disagreement on how water retention works but you are arguing that pre-harvest flushed weed has less chlorophyll and less moisture because the fan leaves have lost their nutrient supply and thus will dry quicker than normally grown weed.
That in itself is an oxymoron.
You are still giving the plant water. The amount of water needed for the particular plant has not changed.
The calyxes on pre-harvest flushed weed looks just like normally grown weed, with obvious exceptions if you have let your plants go with only water for months, if disease has taken hold, if the pH has been out of wack etc.

The chlorophyll in the fan leaves have no direct effect on the chlorophyll in the sugar leaves or the calyxes.
The cells themselves change, based on the availability of nutrients and the variables (light, CO2, nutrient levels, disease, pH levels etc.).

I haven't seen one picture from the OP either, not that it would prove anything, unless he's somehow harvested weed which has yellowing sugar leaves while still no damage to the calyxes themselves.
That would indeed prove the it's possible to limit the chlorophyll levels in the parts of the plant we smoke.

akula said:

Your partially right here. You did however confuse the xylem/phloem systems. Xylem is the upward flow driven by surface tension and destination leaves. Phloem is the "downward" system driven by osmotic pressure differences that carries sugars/carbs to the sinks.

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Uhhh, partially right? The phloem carries photosynthate......by definition post photosynthesis. It is primarily sucrose that the phloem carries. Peace.

GK1 said:

Uhhh, partially right? The phloem carries photosynthate......by definition post photosynthesis. It is primarily sucrose that the phloem carries. Peace.

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I F ing love this thread! There are some great minds at this table.

Ninjabowler said:

That is a lower canopy fan leaf you say is burnt, and the top canopy leaves like the green one and all the others on her are not burnt....next guess please. This is why i can see the OPs point. Less water and chlorophyll should lead to a faster dry time when drying a whole hanging plant. Troll on UP, RIU is for learning and helping, were not here to listen to how many years youve been doing it the right way

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Ok Rocky Dennis, the ideas you have make no sense at all. You're lower leaves are yellow and burnt up, the top ones aren't, so you have a fucked up plant you're pulling leaves off and trying to compare the water weight in the two in relation to chlorophyll. One of the leaves was burnt, and missing most of it's tissue. Those leaves didn't come off a healthy plant. You're the troll, trolling your crazy ideas and writing them off as "learning". Lmao.

Uncle Pirate said:

Ok Rocky Dennis, the ideas you have make no sense at all. You're lower leaves are yellow and burnt up, the top ones aren't, so you have a fucked up plant you're pulling leaves off and trying to compare the water weight in the two in relation to chlorophyll. One of the leaves was burnt, and missing most of it's tissue. Those leaves didn't come off a healthy plant. You're the troll, trolling your crazy ideas and writing them off as "learning". Lmao.

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Rocky Dennis lol thats funny, this isnt my idea, its the original posters. I just see how he makes sence....and you always make funny assumtions about my plants. Lmao. My plants are as green as they could possibly be. Im useing a high N bloom line. I was just showing the leaf because its relation to drying a whole plant. When theres less water and chlorophyll present drying is faster is what he says. I dont think thats a crazy idea, do you?

I slow flush ( fade )
And will continue to do so.
I've done it both ways and way prefer faded.
The taste difference alone is worth the effort. By the time my plants are done it looks like fall in Kentucky in my room.
I also use Molasses / humic in my flush for the chemical binding.
I grow the best smoking, best tasting weed that I know of. Even the local dispensary Top Shelf blows in comparison. Their weed sucks anyway..crappy hydro.

This is a Blueberry 2 1/2 weeks from harvest.

Slow fade FTW !


Unless your growing pure organics...I would flush.

I've never flushed and always trim my fan leaves and my sugar leaves at harvest. I dry for about 7 days then into jars for the cure. The smoke has always been excellent and I've never had anyone complain about the smoke being harsh. In my opinion flushing is just a myth passed on and on and on until people believed it like an urban legend.

Nightmarecreature said:

There is no difference in taste from flushed or unflushed bud. It's all about the approach of harvesting and drying.

Where you went wrong with the unflushed bud, is that it's best to chop the whole plant from the base, remove the fan leaves and hang the entire plant. Then trim the sugar leaves dry after 12 days and then put them in jars to cure.

Cutting the buds stem from stem and trimming the sugar leaves wet doesn't work well with unflushed buds. It interrupts the biological process. From a previous post, this is how you do it.

Unflushed buds require a different approach and this is where the flushing myth is created.

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So are you saying...

- Cut the entire tree from start
- Cut the non usable fan leaves
- Let plant dry 100%
- Then trim and cure

(if so...man I agree from my experience but I just dislike trimming dried trees...it seems like twice the work)

What do you guys think of my wrong method of flushing. I grow only 4 nodes and top. Once i see the strongest four nodes on those four i top again and trim the rest then let 12/12. I veg with 50% 1000w hps advance nutes gmb bb b52 carbo voodo and a mix of bat guano 10-4-1 for xtra-nitro in veg. Using 8L auto pot system with straight perlite 4 gal res. My ppm near end of flower is around 1000+-ppm. when I harvest i manicure then trim the little soft pieces from the bottom and chop the branch then set it in water. Then i place back in the grow room for about 3-4 day unit i start to see some leaves to go limp. I then trim remain and cut buds off stem and place on screen to dry on both ends. Its done in about 4 days then I jar for 7. Smoke is not thick and does not float around in the air and stink up the environment.

The last run I did smokes better than my friends flushed buds. Now that my buds have had time to cure, I used a humidpack 62, they are some clean smoke. The only time I flush is to clear the roots of excess salt buildup, not to flush and starve my plants in the last weeks of harvest.

Trimming dry sucks but my buds have a way stronger smell than when I trim wet.

Randomly, on the herb I just harvested, I flushed half of it. It's the first time I've ever flushed anything in ~20 years of growing.

For the last 10 days before harvest:

• 25% of my girls got nothing but water PH'd to 5.8 (i know, no need, but I can't put anything in my reservoir that's not Ph'd. It just feels wrong. And I'm kinda neurotic.)
• 25% got PH'd water with a little sugar supplement ... just what I had left over in a bottle.
• 50% got full nutrients all the way until the day I cut 'em.

There is absolutely no observable difference in quality between the different parts of the crop. I think but wouldn't swear that the part that got full nutes is just a little bigger than the half that didn't, but it's less than %5 difference.

That said, I didn't get anything lab analyzed, and it's just one guys observation during one run on two strains. I think I won't bother flushing on the next run, but I might try again next time I use new genetics.

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Better question, IMHO, am I the only one who uses paper as part of my cure? A lot of people talk about how long they hang, what conditions, etc., but it's always hang, trim, glass, or hang, trim, plastic (ugh).

I've always done hang it till it's mostly dry, trim, paper bag it for 4-7 days, then put it in glass. I like the way bagging it in paper bags (approx 1/2 lb per paper grocery bag) slows down the drying just a little bit, even though it's still not dry enough for glass or a barrel. Am I the only person that does it this way (besides my momma, who's the one who showed me )

guevera said:

Randomly, on the herb I just harvested, I flushed half of it. It's the first time I've ever flushed anything in ~20 years of growing.

For the last 10 days before harvest:

• 25% of my girls got nothing but water PH'd to 5.8 (i know, no need, but I can't put anything in my reservoir that's not Ph'd. It just feels wrong. And I'm kinda neurotic.)
• 25% got PH'd water with a little sugar supplement ... just what I had left over in a bottle.
• 50% got full nutrients all the way until the day I cut 'em.

There is absolutely no observable difference in quality between the different parts of the crop. I think but wouldn't swear that the part that got full nutes is just a little bigger than the half that didn't, but it's less than %5 difference.

That said, I didn't get anything lab analyzed, and it's just one guys observation during one run on two strains. I think I won't bother flushing on the next run, but I might try again next time I use new genetics.

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Better question, IMHO, am I the only one who uses paper as part of my cure? A lot of people talk about how long they hang, what conditions, etc., but it's always hang, trim, glass, or hang, trim, plastic (ugh).

I've always done hang it till it's mostly dry, trim, paper bag it for 4-7 days, then put it in glass. I like the way bagging it in paper bags (approx 1/2 lb per paper grocery bag) slows down the drying just a little bit, even though it's still not dry enough for glass or a barrel. Am I the only person that does it this way (besides my momma, who's the one who showed me )

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Random observer of the post and im wondering if theres no difference then why would you waste the nutrients on a last rez change? If its all equal. What humidity do you keep in paper?

TLDR

There is no scientific evidence that flushing does anything but hurt your plants.

In turn flushing starves your plants of Nitrogen and stresses them out. It is my opinion that this is the #2 reason for hermies. #1 is genetics #2 stress(Flushing)

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Genetics rarely are the reason for "hermies" (female plants that produce male flowers).
Most of the time it is due to over fertilization and/or heat stress.
Flushing definitely stresses plants. I do not like to stress my plants.


Flushing for taste and smell is a myth, A MYTH.




Yeth?

It just seems silly to me to think that by running water through your bucket or not feeding it is going to somehow wash the bud clean from the inside out

I personally think that since the plant requires such low levels of food at the end anyway, and its pretty much a guarentee that theres nutrients still in the soil, that if your not actually leaching the soil at every watering that you wouldnt hurt your plant by just giving her water the last 10-14 days. Its fact that theres mobile elements that will come out of the circulatory system but theres alot of things that just wont come out. Dont trick the readers into thinking its a good idea to run 1200 ppm right to chop cause that just isnt right.

My last harvest me and my buddy decided to try to debunk the flushing myth. We flushed one white rhino and didn't flush the other, we cut off one at day 46 of flower and continued to keep nutes at about 1500 ppm on the other until day 60 when they were chopped. We chopped at the base of both took off ALL fan leaves and left in my drying room with 50-55% rh for 3 days then we took off the buds but left the sugar leaves for another week slowly reducing the rh by 5% daily until we were at about 20%. Then we trimmed and cured all buds for 3 weeks burping consistently until we got em down to 10% rh. The flushed buds were MUCH sweeter and smoother but I yielded about 10 grams more off the non flushed. The smoke of the the unflushed was good but not all smooth and tended to make me feel like I was coughing up a lung. Keep in mind they both had the same mother and were cut on the same day with pretty much identical growth. We came to the conclusion that flushing helps smoke but hinders yield to a degree. In my opinion if your cash cropping don't flush if you aren't than make the smoke more enjoyable at the expense of some yield.

I am not trying to trick anyone. derp.

If you feed properly, there is no reason to flush. Flushing soil is dumb.
Some people grow in soil and only feed a couple times. By giving a plant in soil water you are not flushing. Running 8 gallons of water through a 5 gallon pot is crazy.

I run coco and kinda sorta water to waste. I check the runoff. If the ppms are higher going out, I lower the amount of fert and run a bit more through the coco to waste. Some people think that is a flush. I would never run plain water in coco, that would stress the plant.

Rumple said:

They have no scientific evidence that aliens were not at the first Thanksgiving.

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Some say cucumbers taste better pickled.
Buds do not store fertilizer.