Well, I have been reading and watching videos and it looks like there are a few schools of thoughts on flushing. I plan on doing all organic from soil to ferts. How often do you guys flush (and why)?
I flush when I've caused a lockout to occur and I need to get the plants / spoil back to a neutral. Too much feeding, an imbalance in netrient levels or PH too high or too low can cause a lock out. by flushing you're rinsing out the nutes ect which leaves you with nutrient free or at least a low level of nutrients in the soil. When correcting a lockout situation I've found it best to not feed again or for that mater do anything until the pot dries out again. A full flush should take three times the pot size so a one gal pot takes three gal to flush. Flushing prior to harvest is something everyone should do regardless of the growing style. I like to start flushing about 1 to 1 1/2 weeks prior to harvest. That gives me enough time to let the pots dry between flushes. The idea is to allow the plant to rinse it pipes so to speak of any unused nutrients. Without a propper flush at the end you may wind up with harsh weed that doesn't want to stay lit. Propperly flushed bud sould leave nothing but white ash in the bowl & will burn without any harshness. It's probably better to let the plant run a few days or so long then to chop without a proper flush. With organic growing you still need to flush but probably not as agressively as you would using mineral based ferts. I'm sure they'll be better answers to come....opcorn-2: Duc
yep, what duc said. You don't need to flush unless you screw up. pay very close attention to your measurements, and pay attention to your leaves. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688 The above link is an amazing guide to any and everything that you could possibly fuck up with your plants. If you do have something going on, then you would flush. The only 'scheduled' flush you do is at the end. I've read 2 weeks is a good time to do it. The debate with that is if you should adjust the pH of your water when you flush. To me, it doesn't make sense, since the reason you adjust it in the first place is so that nutrients will properly absorb, but I"m sure one of the old heads around here will chime in and correct me if I'm off on that... GTWT :XXhippylove:
Ideally only once. The final 10-14 days of flowering in soil. I ph my water during pre-harvest flushing out of habit but don't really think t makes too much of a difference.
Flushing is used because salts build up in the soil and interfere w/nutrient intake (ie lockout) and/or cause poor pH. Avoid commercial nutrients (ie Miracle Gro) because they have lots of salt. If you notice nutrient burn in leaves you might want to flush or use another method, get pH back to normal (7.0) or check lighting. And if you notice plant growth is stagnant then it's not getting nutrients due to lockout, bad pH and/or other conditions so work on solving the problem: getting temp/humidity right, improve pH, etc.
In RDWC I flush weekly, at each res change. Then the last two weeks of flower I just don't add nutes and let them have fresh clean water. I don't know much about flushing in soil. In hydro, no matter what problems show up in the plants, you can get to a clean slate with a res change.
the key is in the runoff if you feed water water feed feed water water feed, and give yourself a 10 percent runoff you should need to flush until the very end especially with organics and there are some things that you can feed them all the way up till the end it will actually help them burn up stuff in the plant and the soil which actually makes it taste better and stronger without any adverse effects if you know what you're doing organically
