Different buds, different flush

Hi guys,

I've been noticing, specially on my last crop, that on the same plant, different buds are not flushed the same.
To a point where i can roll a joint that's gonna burn to a light fluffy white ash and then roll another bud that's gonna burn dark and hard.
Not every plant though, some are fine all around.
How do you prevent that?

I flushed my plants between 2 and 3 weeks depending on when i harvested, just giving them PHed tap water

I grow with biocanna in light mix, so maybe organic is not as easy to flush

But i guess i had too much nutrients in the medium before i started flushing.

When you guys flush, do you just water like usual but without nutes or do you really flush the medium with 2/3x the amount of water so that you really get the EC of your soil as low as possible?

Could i flush my plants in my shower with straight tap water (ph is about 8) and full of chlorine or chloramine, and maybe give them a normal watering with PHed and dechlorinated water to bring down the ph a little bit? but the chlorine would still kill my beneficials? is it bad for the last weeks?

i'd like to hear your thoughts guys.

thx
sk-

How about flushing in the shower with good water. Don't think killing the beneficials will be beneficial.

Do the nutrients have a chart, thay may have figured out the best flush. I have used a couple different flushes in a couple different media. Each with different nutrient lines.

But I am still figuring it all out. My last run in Coco with NFTG organic nutrients I followed the instructions and it seemed to work great.

the problem is not where to flush but the amount of water needed. It was 12 plants in 11L pots so if i want 2x amount of water i need to prepare more than 250L (66gallons) of water to let the chlorine evaporate and adjust PH. I don't have a big enough reservoir.

I think a flushing agent is useless with organics because a chelating agent is for minerals nutes but i might be wrong

what i don't get is why i have perfectly flushed buds and unflushed buds on the same plant, i'm guessing most of you harvest a plant in one time, so obviously some leaves will be yellow/crispy/dry/dead/empty of nutes, and some lowers will still have some green/nutes in them.
Or do you harvest in different times to let the lower buds flushed longer?

For me, I worried more about harvesting when the plant was at its peak of THC ripeness
I flush a week or 10 days hoping to get timing right. I think you can go longer with your flush. Or perhaps the strain you are growing wants to go another couple weeks of maturing then flush.

I have found that the flowering times that come with seeds are fairly accurate, but I am not in a rush, so I let them grow as long as possible. I have had excellent results waiting a couple extra weeks.

Still i am fairly new to growing so I don't have tons of experience. I have found lack of Patience is usually at the bottom of any problems I cause.

I flush with humic acid and add enzymes once a week. For about 2 weeks or so. I don't flood the rhizosphere, I just keep it moist. Never letting it dry out. Works great

Same thing for me ,my theory is that it has to do with the amount of light the particular bud receves.
It seems that the closer the buds are to the light source the faster rthey turn yellow ,this on a same plant.

I agree. The bud facing the light ripen faster. I'll have mostly dark hairs on one side, with white hairs on the opposite side.

yeah i agree too, does it happen to everyone? Do some of you harvest in 2 times to prevent this? Or do you have another technic?

One other thing i usually notice is that the better buds are not the tops, they are flushed well but the terps are not preserved as well as the buds in the middle, because they get a little more heat and wind maybe, and then there's the lowers who are not as good because not mature and flushed as much

Many peeps use the term "flush" when they really mean stop giving the plant any nutrients and only give them water.
What I find that works for me, organically is with up to 4-5 weeks to go I give them a tea that has molasses for molasses is a natural chelate and this helps move nutrients into and within the plant.
Usually @1 tsp./gal.
With 3 weeks left I will only give rain water.
Now that's just my style.
Ratz

What do you guys think about flushing in the shower with a lot of water to remove all nutes in the soil?

Is it ok to kill the bacterias with the chlorine and mess a little bit with your ph? Maybe 1 week before harvest?

Anyway you want the plant to finish the nutes stocked in its leaves and not use it from the soil anymore? Or is it bad?

chlorine? not recommending using that in a flushing agent.
No expert here, but it doesn't sound good.

I would search these forums for flushing in your specific grow media.
I would wager there is an active argument going on over the different methods

Levitationofme said:

chlorine? not recommending using that in a flushing agent.
No expert here, but it doesn't sound good.

I would search these forums for flushing in your specific grow media.
I would wager there is an active argument going on over the different methods

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Lol, no i wouldn't put chlorine to flush, but chlorine or chloramine is present in tap water, that's why you leave it out for a few days before using it for waterings, because chlorine or chloramine kills microbes and bacterias, which is not good for your soil life. So i know it's bad. What i'm asking is, is it bad to kill your soil life in the last week? Because you don't want nutes from the soil anyway, and so you don't have to prepare hundreds of liters of water to flush all your plants with 3x water compare to soil (ex: pot=10L you flush with 30L of water)

Has everyone tested and compared the effects of flush / not flush? Is there any science showing differnt values in bud f/nf?

I'm not a believer but ive got a plant that is taking longer than expectec to finish so shes getting a two week water only im curious if ill find anything more than bro science.

http://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/to-flush-or--not-to-flush/

I have learned to use less and less nutrients over the years, to the point where I don't really need to flush a bunch of gallons of water through my medium anymore. But when I feed heavy, I always do a big flush with 2 weeks to go. I will add about a gallon of water to the pot, let it sit for 20 minutes (to help dissolve the nutrients and get them ready to flush out). Then I set my plant on top of a piece of 2x4 wood I place across the top of a rubber maid bin (so I don't have to carry the plants out of the room) then I run 2-3x the water through it.
Just as I am flushing the last gallon of water thru the pots, I add 1/2 to 1 tbsp of molasses to the water. This helps the plants to finish strong and still taste great.
Then I just water with plain RO water for the next 2 weeks.

I've found its just best to feed lightly the whole time. I use organic nutes and only feed once per week, then I rotate between plain water and a mix of Humic/Fulvic acids and Amino acids the rest of the week, plus 1 watering of enzymes per week too. This makes sure the plants use up the nutrients I gave them earlier in the week. This is in Pro Mix with little to no nutrient value.

I used to feed every watering, or every other watering but I wasn't getting the deep taste and smell I wanted. Now that I feed much less I find the results are much better. I may sacrifice a tiny bit on yield, but the quality difference makes it totally worth it by far.

You may want to think about adding a flushing agent if you are using tap water to flush. Remember tap water has nutrients in it. I would recommend getting an RO filter, or at least buying some buckets of RO water from your local fish/aquarium store to flush with.
Also, check out Herculean Harvest by nectar for the gods. It's organic bone meal. It's great for flower and it also works great to flush (with 2 weeks to go, not used until the end). I will see my leaves start to yellow the very next day after flushing with HH. I usually only use it during the grow now a days though. Or if I run into a problem with nutrient imbalance.

sourkush said:

Lol, no i wouldn't put chlorine to flush, but chlorine or chloramine is present in tap water, that's why you leave it out for a few days before using it for waterings, because chlorine or chloramine kills microbes and bacterias, which is not good for your soil life. So i know it's bad. What i'm asking is, is it bad to kill your soil life in the last week? Because you don't want nutes from the soil anyway, and so you don't have to prepare hundreds of liters of water to flush all your plants with 3x water compare to soil (ex: pot=10L you flush with 30L of water)

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From what I understand, Chloramine does not evaporate no matter how long you leave the water set out. Chlorine evaporates, but not chloramine. So if your tap water has chloramine in it and you are not using a filter made to remove it, it's probably been killing off some of your microlife anyway.

I'd be more worried about the nutrients that are in tap water during the flush. You can't get a true flush with tap water IMO.

As far as micro life - are you reusing the soil? If not, I'd be focusing on flushing the plants. I don't see where killing some off during the last week will hurt much of anything if you are not reusing the soil (and trying to cultivate that micro life and keep it alive for next grow).
I worry about smoking nutrients though. I want my smoke as clean as possible.

TedNugget said:

From what I understand, Chloramine does not evaporate no matter how long you leave the water set out. Chlorine evaporates, but not chloramine. So if your tap water has chloramine in it and you are not using a filter made to remove it, it's probably been killing off some of your microlife anyway.

I'd be more worried about the nutrients that are in tap water during the flush. You can't get a true flush with tap water IMO.

As far as micro life - are you reusing the soil? If not, I'd be focusing on flushing the plants. I don't see where killing some off during the last week will hurt much of anything if you are not reusing the soil (and trying to cultivate that micro life and keep it alive for next grow).
I worry about smoking nutrients though. I want my smoke as clean as possible.

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Hi Ted, thx for your answer.
Lots of points to answer.

I too am feeding organics (biocanna) and believe too that less is more when it comes to nutes. I grow only for my own and want clean tasting meds.
I've never grown with mineral nutes but i guess organics might be a bit harder to flush because they are slower to decompose and stay longer in the soil. So if the plant hasn't used enough during life cycle there might still be plenty in the soil.

About herculean harvest i'm not in the us so i don't think i can access it easily.

About chloramine, i know it's very hard to get rid of it but from what i understand after 5 to 7 days of aeration it's very low level and doesn't impact much.

I'd like to get a RO filter but it seems a pain to install and a lot of wasted water, i'm in europe, water is drinkable, it might not be has bad as in some part of the world, not much growers use RO here.
And to buy it from a store would be too much, i usually have about 12/14 plants in 11L pots, so 150L of soil, i would need to buy 450L to flush well...

When my plants have used their nutes they taste perfectly, but this time some of my plants have a dark ash even if i harvested them with mainly yellow leaves.

I don't plan on reusing my soil, so i think from now on i will flush them in the shower just to be sure there's no nutes left in the soil the last week

So no one has scientific evidence that flushing has an effect. It seems like bullshit to me for many reasons. "Why flushing is a stoner myth" is all over the internet. On the other hand force of habit and "white ash" seem to be the supporting reasons.

Are there any other crops that flush? Tobacco? no i dont think so, fruits veg etc??? no

Also the chlorine chloramine effects are very misunderstood. Considering the PPM of those agents in tap water the sanitizers are instantly oxidized/deactivated by organic matter.

Using molasses and talking flush is questionable. Molasses is loaded with K Fe and S. Also stimulating the life and then death of micro organisms is gonna give a flush of mineral nutrition, it's not much different that feeding ions.

neverforget4/20 said:

So no one has scientific evidence that flushing has an effect. It seems like bullshit to me for many reasons. "Why flushing is a stoner myth" is all over the internet. On the other hand force of habit and "white ash" seem to be the supporting reasons.

Are there any other crops that flush? Tobacco? no i dont think so, fruits veg etc??? no

Also the chlorine chloramine effects are very misunderstood. Considering the PPM of those agents in tap water the sanitizers are instantly oxidized/deactivated by organic matter.

Using molasses and talking flush is questionable. Molasses is loaded with K Fe and S. Also stimulating the life and then death of micro organisms is gonna give a flush of mineral nutrition, it's not much different that feeding ions.

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i don't have scientific knowledge on this subject

But i think everyone has experienced buds burning to a dark, hard ash, and it seems accepted that this is due to nutes being still in the buds. And buds like this don't taste clean, my only goal is to avoid this

i've read stories of people thinking it was a myth and then a friend of them grew the same plant but flushed it and it tasted much cleaner.
I don't really want to take the risk to have bad tasting buds just to test the myth, and anyway at the end of maturation it seems that the buds are fully developed and dense so why would they need more nutes?