Should water be PHed for final flush?

[BudNoobie]

Water in my area is wicked high, like 8.5. For final flush should I ph it down or does it really matter? This has probably been answered before but I honestly don't feel like searching a million posts to find the answer. Any info is most appreciated.

 

[BudNoobie]

Anyone know?

 

[Green Troll]

you dont need to flush at all. it is a myth that you can taste the nutrients unless you "flush". all you do is slow down growth for the last stage. but if you insist, yes, you adjust the PH like any other time

 

[jackm420]

don't listen to him dude. PH your water and flush

 

[greenlikemoney]

To flush or not to flush is a personal choice, HOWEVER, every single drop of water/nute solution you EVER give to your plants should be ph'd. Every Single Drop.

 

[Trousers]

don't listen to him dude. PH your water and flush

Don't listen to this guy, he can give no reason to flush except stories.
You are telling him to flush and you do not know what medium he is using?
That is fucked for a couple reasons.
I can not believe that in 2013 with absolutely no scientific evidence that people still advocate flushing.

By all means, if you want to unnecessarily stress your plants at a crucial time for no good reason, then flush. But don't psuh that garbage on other people.

If you want healthy buds, then feed properly.

I would rather not argue about how there is no scientific rational behind flushing, so instead I will just say



Flushing, lol

 

[Trousers]

To flush or not to flush is a personal choice, HOWEVER, every single drop of water/nute solution you EVER give to your plants should be ph'd. Every Single Drop.

Unless you grow in soil, especially organic.

I do not ph anything.

Flushing soil is incredibly stupid.

 

[RIKNSTEIN]

After extensive studies and many man hours of testing these theories, (cough, cough) I've come to the conclusion that the plant will take in what it needs, and it's internal system (like ours) takes what it needs and turns it into something it can use positively, and then expells the rest...yes it poops so to speak...so take care if you flush, not to get your hands in it ....bahahahahaha...............

.............seriously though, grow 2 plants and at the end flush 1 and not the other, guess what...THEY TASTE THE SAME AND GOT ME HIGH!!!!............................So the morale of the story here is, if you really want the right answer...find out for yourself...plain and simple...

 

[greenlikemoney]

Unless you grow in soil, especially organic.

I do not ph anything.

Flushing soil is incredibly stupid.

He gave zero information about his growing medium. Rather than even enter the flush/no flush convo I merely commented on his PH issue. If you don't PH anything, then you sir are are as stupid as flushing, as you put it.

 

[RIKNSTEIN]

He gave zero information about his growing medium. Rather than even enter the flush/no flush convo I merely commented on his PH issue. If you don't PH anything, then you sir are are as stupid as flushing, as you put it.

Not true there green...I use a supersoil...it has garden lime in it (dolomite lime) and it buffers the PH for me....so I never PH anything either...so I'm with Trousers on this 1...

 

[Trousers]

He gave zero information about his growing medium. Rather than even enter the flush/no flush convo I merely commented on his PH issue. If you don't PH anything, then you sir are are as stupid as flushing, as you put it.

Shut your whore mouth. My ph pen is gathering dust and my plants have never looked better.
If you would like to come over to the organic section, you could learn a lot. I promise I will not be mean to you over there.


Here's a picture of a male I recently killed. I never once ph'ed anything.
The soil acts as a buffer and little tiny microbes poop food. It is fun and funny.

 

[althor]

After a very long ass time of not logging in on this site, and months of reading these very volatile flushing arguments, I have decided to weigh in.

Whether you flush or not is completely up to you.

1. PH is not a problem. Until it becomes a problem. Then it is a real fucking problem. If the water you are using is ph'd at 8.5+ that is a problem. PH your water down to neutral or buy distilled water.
Lime has a PH of 8.5+. Most soil starts out acidic. As it ages and activates it raises in PH. Using Lime helps a lot in the beginning but can cause problems if overdone at the end.

For a very long time, my tap water was neutral. At some point they switched wells and when they did, my water jumped up to 8.5 ph. I had tons of issues until I broke out my ph meters and realized my water had changed. (I used to be like trousers and that other dude and since everything was fine didn't try to "fix it"). Once things broke, it took me awhile to figure out my issue because I wasnt using a ph meter.

So while there is truth to what they are saying, at the same time they couldn't be more wrong. Just because they have good water running through good soil doesnt apply to everyone and if you dont occassionally check your PH you won't realize it until your leaves turn yellow/brown and start dying and it damned near happens overnight.


Back to flushing....

Someone earlier said they grew 2 plants, smoked them, couldn't tell any difference. I find that to be rather subjective.
Generally, in my experience, I can grow 2 clones of the exact same strain at the same time and I can tell a slight difference between the two plants. So to say there was no difference is kind of hard to believe. Even grown the same way, fed the same way, flushed (or not) the same way, there is generally a slight difference in two plants.

If you take something like oranges. Grow a tree in Cali, grow one in Florida, eat one, a few days later eat another. They will both taste like oranges. If you take a bite of the Cali orange, followed immediately by a bite of a Florida orange, there will be a distinct and very noticeable difference.

Hard for me to believe that if you cut a plant from nutrient depleted soil and one from nutrient rich soil that they will smell/taste exactly the same. Impossible for me to believe really. I AM NOT SAYING one is better than the other. Either or both will be really good.

While I do believe (and experienced) plants uptaking what they need and leaving what they don't to some extent, that would not fit to explain how a plant gets nutrient burned. If that was a stable rule, then a plant would never get nutrient burned. I use my own version of "super-soil" but light and only at the very bottom of the planter.

Now, as far as "scientific facts" go... well in some way this MIGHT apply to flushing...

There is a direct correlation in nitrogen levels and thc levels in hemp (many more hemp studies than cannabis at this point but certainly applies).

**** The HIGHER the levels of nitrogen in the soil at the end of flowering the LOWER the THC levels are *****

so if your objective is to grow nice green lush leaves, then by all means keep that nitrogen rolling through to the end..

If you are like me, and grow for the best possible bud quality (not quantity) you will want to get your nitrogen levels very low the last couple of weeks and when your plant is chopped, plenty of yellowing.
*Side Note* Nitrogen is needed for a plant to process phosphorus, if you have grown properly up to the last couple of weeks you have plenty of nitrogen stored in the leaves for this process which is why they turn yellow.

Now, just so happens that nitrogen is the easiest nutrient to flush from soil. This I know by having my soil tested at three seperate points at my local co-op to see the nutrient levels.


The last and final point before I log back out...
I have seen and heard people talk about "flushing stresses your plants". Pretty sure it is just people mocking what was said by Jorge Cervantes in his grow bible. After thousands of grown plants, 100s flushed and 100s not flushed, I am very curious how it is that a "stressed" plant has immediate bursts of growth? When I flush my plants, it never fails, within 24 hours I have a new burst of green sugar leaves and white pistils. In every other "stress" situation I have seen a plant in, growth stunts.... But you know, someone said it so it must be true....

 

[PetFlora]

I think this depends on what ppm was used. Many use > 1500ppm + boosted with PK so-called bloom enhancers. These need to be flushed

you dont need to flush at all. it is a myth that you can taste the nutrients unless you "flush". all you do is slow down growth for the last stage. but if you insist, yes, you adjust the PH like any other time

 

[Nullis]

He gave zero information about his growing medium. Rather than even enter the flush/no flush convo I merely commented on his PH issue. If you don't PH anything, then you sir are are as stupid as flushing, as you put it.

You really don't need to pH anything if you're growing in a healthy limed soil. It helps when the base material isn't all sphagnum peat, either. I use rain water mostly (low in dissolved solids) and add dolomitic limestone to my soil. If I was using a tap water with a pH around 8 or above, likely due to lime already dissolved in the water, then I probably wouldn't add any lime to the soil at all. Adding in blackstrap would lower the pH at least a little bit, and many liquid organics are acidic so it could still work although mixing with distilled water is certainly an option.

 

[GrowersWarehouse]

you dont need to flush at all. it is a myth that you can taste the nutrients unless you "flush". all you do is slow down growth for the last stage. but if you insist, yes, you adjust the PH like any other time

Flushing is the act of running lots of water through your media to wash out excess salts that may build up, for example you would run 10 gallons of water through a 3 gallon pot. "Leaching" is the act of not giving your plants any Nitrogen for the last couple of weeks of flower. Leaching can actually speed up a plants ripening. Nitrogen is so rare in Earth's soil a plant will always focus on absorbing Nitrogen first, it is just how plants have evolved. So too much Nitrogen will actually prevent other minerals from being absorbed and will lower yield and quality. This is why Nitrogen is the only mineral that will burn your plant. Other minerals in excess cause "Lock outs."

Plants do not need much Nitrogen for maturing they need more Phosphorous and Potassium so if your media has a high Cation Exchange Capacity and is able to bond easily to the Nitrogen leaching the excess Nitrogen will allow your plant to absorb more of the other nutrients thus enabling it to reach it's full potential.

 

[GrowersWarehouse]

pH stands for power of Hydrogen or pondus hydrogeni which is latin for potential hydrogen. Hydrogen is responsible for moving cations (minerals) across the anions (negatively charged root cells). If the pH is too low you can have deficiencies if it is too high you can have burns. pH is also important in organics Lime is used to raise the pH while Sulfur is used to lower the pH. Optimal pH for most plants is found between 6.0 and 7.0 some plants such as azaleas and black berries prefer a slightly more acidic soil.

 

[jondamon]

I'm not going to debate the flushing thing.

Most of you know my thoughts on it.

All I can say is that my weed is stronger and tastier now than its ever been when I used to flush.

At the end of the day its what "YOU" want to do.

And for info I use COCO which is fed with every watering and I never exceed 1500ppm EVER. I very rarely exceed 1000-1300ppm I use a 400w and pretty consistently hit +400g harvests.



J

 

[jarvild]

my coco grows go rarely over 900 ppm under my 400.

 

[jondamon]

my coco grows go rarely over 900 ppm under my 400.

I actually test in EC so I'm guesstimating the ppm's and with ppm's it depends on the scale.

I haven't ever exceeded 2.0EC which is 1000ppm @.5 and 1400ppm @.7 scales. That's ever in 4 years.

My current grow is one of my strongest nute mixes for a while and I'm feeding between 1.6-1.8EC.



J

 

[jarvild]

yea my well water is over 400 ppm to start with and 300 of that is calcium carbonate so it takes 1 1/4 tsps. of gh ph down to get my ph to 5.8 and that's per gallon. The best I do is .85 grams a watt but that's cause I like to grow larger plants and the penetration on the 400s is crap.