Flushing question...TDS

[00bladerunner]

I've been flushing my plants for 4 or 5 days now, just gave them the second batch of straight water yeasterday. I've been checking the runoff with my TDS meter, and First flush runoff had both ladies at around 5800 ppm....I never get the nutes past 2000 ppm when watering (generally around 1650-1700ppm), so i guess theres quite a build up in the soil.
I did the second flush last night, and measured the runoff again. By the way, I`m flushing with about twice the amount of water that I normally feed them. The runoff this time for plant 1 was about the same 5800 ppm, and plant 2 was down to 4100 ppm. These numbers seem quite high to me, but this is the first time ive checked my runoff ever.
I usually flush for 10-14 days, but at this rate, it doesnt seem like that will be enough. What ppm reading should I be looking for, to indicate that ive flushed out enough fertilizer???? Do I need to add even more water, say 3 times normal amount??

 

[mk6]

I always flush 4 x the size of the pot, i.e 2 gal pot, 8 gal water. take your time
its worth it - you'll get great tasting smoke with nice white ash.

 

[00bladerunner]

oh wow....i better get some bigger water buckets......do you ever check the runoff to see where the TDS are at??

 

[mk6]

no - broke the meter while back... and I use straight tap water that i sit out over night

 

[Bad.Fish]

your runoff ppm is way too high, you need to run more water through your medium so your plants can leech properly. you should flush your plants like this periodically through your grow so your runoff is never that high.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

whens the last time your meter has been calibrated cause them ppms seems real real high plants should have throwen nanners way before this. or died



[I've been flushing my plants for 4 or 5 days now, just gave them the second batch of straight water yeasterday. ]

pls explain better yesterday was second time in 4-5 days plants have recieved water ???

and if you really have a true reading of 5800 ppm...., are your feeding ferts every watering

mk6 advice i've only done for sick plants


when i water i use city tap water my city uses cloriene to sanitize the water so it sits uncovered in jugs min 12 hr before use. my water is PH 7.2 from the tap i adjust my water PH at feeding with or with out ferts to 6.5.

i'll add all desired ferts into each gal jug then adjust ph to 6.5

if i allowed my plants 4-5 days between waterings they would die in 3 shrivel up

i water every other day after plants have established in thier containers. 1st watering in fresh soil is allways plain PH@ 6.5 water the next is ferts and PH'd @ 6.5. i alternate feeding ferts every other watering so salts dont build up.when i water i water for drainage so salts dont build up 10-15% runoff [ dont allow plants to soak up runoff } i use turkey baster for plants in water catch pans.

organic ferts should have 10-14 days plain water flush
chem ferts should have 18-21 days.
good way to tell when plant has been flushed properly clip large fan leaf stem and all chew stem. if its bitter needs flused longer. but if its sweet like water ready to eat tis ready to chop.
to help with salt build up during flush a product called clearex works i use it at the begining of my re harvest flush. for my preharvest flush i like 20% runoff top feed drain to watse just like when i ran coco

 

[daydreamer]

excellent suggestions Major. thanks for the info about chewing the leaf stem.

 

[Admiral Canna]

I disagree with such long flush times....

I use Fox Farm nutes and a few other additives I like. I have been a PPM/EC guy since Day 1.

For over a year, I tested runoffs every time i watered and recorded the notes.

Say you have a strain that needs 60 days 12/12 to finish. My last feed would be Week 7 @ Day 42. I would hit them with a carb product one more time around Day 46. Day 49 would start the flush.....giving them 10 solid day of flush.

My herb produces wonderful smells and taste...as well as the white ash.

I think most people feed way too much. Try feeding your flowering ladies once a week (feed water feed water) at 1000 PPM.

This allows the plant all it needs (most strains) for nutes....without the salt build up.

BUT Maj Pothead said it.....that meter sounds like it needs a cal! My Bluelab Truncheon only reads up to 3600 PPM and I thought that was high! Most digi meters only go up to 2000 PPM.

Ay any rate, if yer meter is cal'd....then IMO, you feed too much and yer plants ain't eatin it all. This over time, causes salt build up...which will either burn the plant OR cause yer pH to drop alot and yer buds will suffer big time.

For what its worth......

 

[00bladerunner]

Thanks for all the responses....
During the 12/12 stage with my HPS I usually water with ferts every time, at about 1650 PPM. This is done every 2 days, sometimes 3 days depending on the strain. My tds meter is new and has been callibrated....it reads 1650 no prob on my ferts, and is definetely reading 5000-6000 on the runoff, and it looks quite yellow. This is the way ive done it in the past, and always had great buring, great flavor and white ash. But ive never checked the runoff before. I have the pots up on 2x4's so they dont sit in the water, and i also use a turkey baster to get rid of the excess from my tuperware container (used just for flushing)
Do you not water with ferts every time??? My tap water is also about 7.2, and I let it sit 24hrs before using, and adjust to to 6.5 for veg and flowering. I guess by the sounds of it, i shouldn't use ferts every time I water in flowering...I normally dont give any nutes in veg, and if i do, only small amounts. I just chewed on a stem, and its a bit bitter for sure, but im only 6 days into flush.
I think i will start to do the water, fert, water , fert thing next time and give it a try.
I guess i need to do alot more research on nutes, and amounts.....I'm still pretty new to it, and have only done about 6 grows so far.

Heres a few pics from yesterday.....day 50 12/12, started flush at days 45. First 2 are pineapple kush, last one is Fucking Incredible, im really likeing the kush.

 

[00bladerunner]

Just did a big flush on the kush tonight. its in a 2 gal pot and I gave her about 4 gal of straight water tonight. Thats all i had declorinated, but now have more buckets on hand. I did various TDS tests in about 3 L of runoff as it leeched out, and test were:
1) 2860 ppm 2) 1860 ppm 3) 1210 ppm 4) 8820 ppm 5) 5250 ppm 6) 4660 ppm
I tested straight tap water between each reading, and readings were between 26 - 30 ppm every time. So i dont really understand whats going on with this meter, but I know i'm enjoying the way my plants are looking. My meter also measures my mixed nutes right on 1650 ppm when I mix them, so maybe the meter is sensitive to certain TDS's???
I'll do my other plant tomorrow night and see what happens with the readings, I just dont think I can go by the readings. I'll use Maj. advice on chewing the stem....its given me the most consistant results so far.

 

[Admiral Canna]

What kind of nutes are you using?

What kind of TDS meter do you have?

In soil, you never feed feed feed IMO.....ALWAYS feed water feed water.

You have serious salt build up going on. Next grow, do feed water feed water and you will note drastic improvements. Not to mention you will save $$$ on nutes.

I'll be back tonight to chat with ya and see how goes.

 

[00bladerunner]

I use Advanced 3 part.... Micro, Grow, Bloom
I also use Big Bud for weeks 2,3,4 of flowering then switch to Supernaturals Bud blaster in weeks 5,6 then flush 7,8.
I use propogator and superthrive for transplanting and rooting. I barely go through any nutes, what you see below will last me 3-4 grows, but im only doing 2 plants at a time.


Heres my TDS meter....i payed $15 on ebay, that might be part of my problem.

I am definetely going to try your method of feed, water, feed, water next time around. When your doing your watering between nutes, do you add alot of water, or same as you would if you were using nutes???

 

[00bladerunner]

Oops....i screwed up on some of my readings.....My first ones were accurate at 5800 ppm.....but Like i said last night:
1) 2860 ppm 2) 1860 ppm 3) 1210 ppm 4) 8820 ppm 5) 5250 ppm 6) 4660 ppm
I tested straight tap water between each reading, and readings were between 26 - 30 ppm every time.
My 4, 5, 6 were actually 882 ppm, 525 ppm and 466 ppm.....i just always figured the x10 was on all my measurements....but the latest readings didnt have the x10, i just wasnt looking close enough at the meter. So that makes me feel a little better about things, the numbers are going down now.

 

[supermanlives]

i am glad i switched to organics. i gave away ppm meters along with ph meters. your revamped numbers dont look bad

 

[Admiral Canna]

Yea...no offense but that meter is shit. Get what ya pay for. A Bluelab Truncheon or higher end meter will run you 100-150 bucks......worth every penny IMO.

Feed water feed water like I said.......max yer PPMs at 1200-1300 including yer pH correction. You will do alot better. Less is more with nutes.

Those nutes should last you a LONG time for only 2 plant grows.

At the end of my flush (prior to harvest) I get my run offs down to less than 300 PPM for the last 10 days.

Hope that helps man.....over nuting sucks.

 

[00bladerunner]

Yeah man, that definetely helps.
I'm sure ive been over nuting, but luckily nothing has died on me yet. I've just been following what the label says on the back of the nutes. Usually i'd end up around 1650ppm, but sometimes higher with the ph correction. I just have a small tent im playing around with, but having lots of fun at the same time, I think i'll run the pineapple kush again, so i can actually fine tune the strain, to grow it the best i can before switching. I have a beauty liitle bonsai mom going of her, just working with the space i have right now.
Anyway, thanks for all the help
Cheers

 

[Admiral Canna]

Yea man, no prob.

The label on bottles of nutes can vary. It seems to me, when you read the directions, they are more or less giving you the amount to use as if it were the only bottle you were using.

Take Fox Farm for instance.....on their feeding sched....they call for Big Bloom in all weeks of flower using 2 tbsp/gal. If you read the Big Bloom label, it calls for 3-4 tbsp per gallon......WTF?!

So thats what I think anywho. Manufacturers word/advice is generally taken with a grain of salt....use their sched as a baseline....and make yer own.

I made my own Fox Farm feeding sched over the years. I use way less than their sched calls for....and it works the charm.

Pineapple Kush you say....mmmm.....may I ask if that is an available strain or is it a local/home brew? Its it Pineapple Punch crossed with OG Kush????

Cheers pal. Grow hard!

 

[00bladerunner]

Yeah, i was getting my 3 part advanced up to 2.07 tsp/gal each, so thats 6.21 tsp/gal on top of my cal/mag, big bud, or whatever else i was using at the time. When I look at it that way, i'm sure I was over feeding. Funny thing is thats i'm only about half way up there chart, so they say for agressive flowering they recommend up to 3.86 tsp/gal of each. Well thanks again for taking the time to help...

Im not really sure where the Pineapple Kush comes from, It definetely grows alot bigger buds then most kush's i've seen. The picture they gave me when I bought the seeds at the local seed bank was the identical picture Barney's uses for there "top dawg" strain. And it is looking very similar to that picture, so I'm not really sure. Barneys says:

"Top Dawg seeds - a hybrid cross comprising Mexican Sativa and Afghan Indica. It is a vigorous growing cannabis variety which has a powerful, fruity smell during flowering, redolent of pineapples. The Afghan component gives a strong indica stone with more cerebral noted provided by the Mexican genetics. Whether it is grown in a SOG or SCROG system the grower will harvest large thick buds which will require little manicuring."

So thats all i really have to go by so far, and it definetely has that fruity smell they talk about. The seeds came in a tiny vial with a white tag someone wrote on.....so that was a bit weird, but thought id give em a go anyway. Ill post some pics in the flower section when im harvesting.

 

[Admiral Canna]

OK cool. Sounds good buddy. I'll be waiting.