To flush or not to flush

[ismiami]

I took the best producing plant from 35 feminized seeds last harvest and grew mother plants from it. White Widow but the seeds were really bad (Seedsman), every plant entirely different and some not even worth cleaning.

This coming Sunday they have been flowering for 8 weeks and looking at the few amber trichomes it is time to start flushing I think. Do you agree? I am growing on 80/20 perlite/vermiculite w/ AN Grow Micro Bloom and Bud Candy. I stopped giving them Bud Candy a few days ago. Gonna use Final Phase for flushing.

The first 2 images were just taken, the 3rd image 4 days ago. 2x 600W and I hope I will make the kilo.

 

[drolove]

i would flush them

 

[fir3dragon]

i would flush.. i didnt and it tastes like perfume lol.. but its up 2 u

 

[DustBomb]

ok.... i've never flushed and had good medicine based on how i dried and cured, but one day i thought to check my runoff in 100%perlite and the color of the runoff after a few gallons made me wonder... so then i checked the ppm and it ran 200-500ppm even after a few gallons being run through... so i've been flushing for a week or so and the runoff is finally running clean... so yes i would agree... flush. this isnt based on taste yet but just from that alone i think its worth it.

 

[RottenRoots]

Flushing releases the nitrogen in the soil, nitrogen makes your buds taste like ass. Also flushes the salts from chem nutes out of the soil which makes buds taste chemically. So all around flushing makes you're smoke taste better from my experience.

 

[Jar Man]

About 10 days to 2 weeks left looks like. Perlite and Vermiculite? Yeah, you're about ready to begin flushin 'em. Never could understand why some say flushing isn't needed. The only way is if you've already been tapering off the nutes down to about zero right before harvest, the same result. Too many built up salts stored in the plant at harvest is reflected in the taste, and can make the buds not burn well even if cured properly.

 

[purklize]

Flushing is a bunch of bullshit. No one has ever been able to distinguish flushed from unflushed buds in a blind taste test. All it does is rob the plants of needed nutrients in the last few weeks when they put on the most weight, robbing you of yield and detracting from the final quality. The way you get white ash and smooth taste is by curing properly. You don't flush tomatoes or tobacco... real horticulturists laugh at shit like this.

 

[scroglodyte]

the age-old argument. one of them, at least.

 

[Sir.Ganga]

Flushing is a bunch of bullshit. No one has ever been able to distinguish flushed from unflushed buds in a blind taste test. All it does is rob the plants of needed nutrients in the last few weeks when they put on the most weight, robbing you of yield and detracting from the final quality. The way you get white ash and smooth taste is by curing properly. You don't flush tomatoes or tobacco... real horticulturists laugh at shit like this.

Well I beg to differ, not only can you tell by taste if you don't flush you can smell the difference when burnt. My product gets tested 3 times a year and there are noticable differences in salts and mineral content if you miss one day of flush. Sadly your mistaken about robbing your plants also. The last 7-10 days of growth has been programmed already by your plants eariler growth, flushing does not affect size or quantity of your final product, if done correctly. Water is all they require in the final stages to finish their cycle. Plain water in the final 7-10 days will actually fatten your flower, so don't kid yourself...you lose nothing!

Actually the greenhouses I deal with ALL flush, for 2 reasons, one as mentioned and the second is money, no nutes saves money.

I wouldn't call you shit, real horticulturists have a use for shit.

 

[purklize]

People who have tried my unflushed hydroponic buds have raved about the great organic taste and thorough flush. It's all in the cure, the rest is luck and imagination.

 

[ZenOne]

I say Flush!

 

[Amaximus]

And here we go again...

 

[Jar Man]

Flushing is a bunch of bullshit. No one has ever been able to distinguish flushed from unflushed buds in a blind taste test. All it does is rob the plants of needed nutrients in the last few weeks when they put on the most weight, robbing you of yield and detracting from the final quality. The way you get white ash and smooth taste is by curing properly. You don't flush tomatoes or tobacco... real horticulturists laugh at shit like this.

There's no argument, per-se. You're just being misleading about the reality here. Did you even read what I said just above your post? If there's not too much stored up salts in the plant material flushing is not needed. There's a grey area here that accounts for a host of possibilities, and you and others draw hard line distinctions where it doesn't fit. So aren't really addressing what's going on in the plants. First off most who grow tomatoes or tobacco don't feed nutes right up till harvest anyway. Then soil or hydro also has a determining facrtor in this. Cannabis growers tend to load up their plants with all sorts of nutes and additives and overdo it to some extent, while some use their nutes sparingly and the nute buildup in the plant tissue isn't significant anyway to begin with, and so don't really need to flush the plants before harvest, hydro or soil. In the wild for thousands of years a high nute consumption plant like cannabis uses up the available nutrients in the ground and there's almost none by the time the plant is maturing that last week or so. This is what cannabis is genetically geared for, and recent breeding efforts in the last 20 years certainly didn't change that. To extend on what another poster stated, it's a well known fact in botany and horticulture that at the final stage of the plant's life, the last week or so, the plant is no longer growing tissue and the metabolic process changes where what's happening is primarily a chemical change of what's already there. Thus for most growers the plants already have more than enough stored nutrients in the tissue to complete the process of ripening at that point. And this helps explain why some swear flushing isn't necessary and is outright BS, while others refute such. When in fact both are right and are arguing over a whole lot of nothin'. Personally I've found that even veg tops have a nasty taste and smoke harsh if I just changed my reservoir and high nitrogen levels are present, and would wait till I was about to change mix when ppm levels are low in the mix before sampling from then on.

 

[purklize]

You don't harvest the plants in their last week of life, not usually at least... my plants really pack on weight during weeks 8-10.

Tomato and tobacco growers do feed right up to harvest - I grow a lot of tomatoes myself outdoors and I don't ever flush the soil before harvest. Imagine the fertilizer runoff issues we'd have from commercial farming if it was policy to flush all the fertilizer out of the soil every harvest! It would be impractical anyway, as many of the tastiest tomatoes are indeterminate varieties, meaning harvest lasts for months... plants can't last months without food.

I have never seen the slightest shred of scientific evidence of any issues from not flushing - it's all anecdotal, with a lot of people like myself who actually tested with and without flushing and could find no difference, throwing doubt on the anecdotal evidence, if you could call it that... I've seen thoroughly flushed bud crackle and burn black, and I've seen unflushed bud burn smoothly to white ash. Again, it's all in the cure, the rest is imagination. I suspect the reason more growers don't come out and condemn flushing is because they're commercial mmj growers and worry people will think "OMG! CHEMICALS! POISON!" when they see their horrible unflushed bud. But I'm not commercial so I don't give a shit.

I think this idea that flushing makes bud taste better is comparable to starving your cattle to make better steak.

 

[skunkd0c]

both sides of this argument are pretty stupid imo,
i do not flush my plants, i have flushed them to see what the fuss is about in the past, i did not notice any changes with taste or yield .. so flushing is just unnecessary work imo
it will not change the taste in any way i can notice and it will not harm the yield either
this really is a non issue to me

 

[k0ijn]

You don't harvest the plants in their last week of life, not usually at least... my plants really pack on weight during weeks 8-10.

Tomato and tobacco growers do feed right up to harvest - I grow a lot of tomatoes myself outdoors and I don't ever flush the soil before harvest. Imagine the fertilizer runoff issues we'd have from commercial farming if it was policy to flush all the fertilizer out of the soil every harvest! It would be impractical anyway, as many of the tastiest tomatoes are indeterminate varieties, meaning harvest lasts for months... plants can't last months without food.

I have never seen the slightest shred of scientific evidence of any issues from not flushing - it's all anecdotal, with a lot of people like myself who actually tested with and without flushing and could find no difference, throwing doubt on the anecdotal evidence, if you could call it that... I've seen thoroughly flushed bud crackle and burn black, and I've seen unflushed bud burn smoothly to white ash. Again, it's all in the cure, the rest is imagination. I suspect the reason more growers don't come out and condemn flushing is because they're commercial mmj growers and worry people will think "OMG! CHEMICALS! POISON!" when they see their horrible unflushed bud. But I'm not commercial so I don't give a shit.

I think this idea that flushing makes bud taste better is comparable to starving your cattle to make better steak.

While I fully agree with the points you're making, I'll just say this;

You're wasting your time.
Some people don't value scientific evidence or fact.

This topic is brought up all the time here and it always follows the same path.
There are those with personal opinions who won't listen to reason and those who argue based on scientific evidence and fact.
These two groups will never see eye to eye since the understanding of plant biology, microbiology and chemistry is so far apart it's not even worth wasting your time arguing your side of the case.

Having said that, I appreciate you standing up for science and disregarding myths and tales which are so abundant in the Cannabis community.

 

[DustBomb]

u guys are making it seem as if flushing is an extra step.... like i said before my medium had soo much left over, that flushing would still be giving it needed nutes in the first week then it starts just getting the rest from itself... i agree most of the "white ash" and all that other shit comes from the dry and cure but just seeing that i had 500+ppm in a medium that was flushed with several gallons a few times in 1 week just made me wonder... like i said its now running clean and i'll throw up a taste comparision in a few weeks.

 

[Huel Perkins]

The only time you ever need to flush is when you have over fed the plants. With a proper feeding schedule there is no need to flush because there will be no build ups of nutes if you're feeding properly in the first place...

 

[Geezy101]

My biggest question is.. even if u flush. doesnt the plant suck out nutes from the fan leaves anyway. leaving the plant still sippn on nutrients regardless if u flushed it out of the soil?

 

[DustBomb]

yup, but making it do that is the biggest part