How to properly flush plants

I was wondering what is the ideal way to flush plants that are in soil. I have 5 girls 3 weeks into flower and they are starting to show signs of burn and wilting. They have never been flushed and have been in the same 1 gallon pots for about 6 weeks. Since I havent changed anything in my nutes or watering and they have been beautiful up to this point, Im thinking I need to flush them. Can someone tell me the best way to do this process. Thanks

Flushing just means giving the plants nothing but water for a couple days if there nute burned.People usually do this about 2 weeks before harvest also so the smoke doesn't taste like chemicals from the nutes.

...... said:

Flushing just means giving the plants nothing but water for a couple days if there nute burned.People usually do this about 2 weeks before harvest also so the smoke doesn't taste like chemicals from the nutes.

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Iv heard that if you keep them in the same pots for a long time that there can be a build up of salts from unused nutes that can eventually be toxic to your plants. This is what I was referring to on flushing is to run water through the plants to "flush" out all of the salts in my soil medium. Am I mistaken on this and need to look for problems elsewhere?

if you mind i would like to address your pot size, dpending on how large of a plant you want will determine your pot size, for example if you want a finished plant at 3ft tall you need a 3gallon pot, another rule of thumb is 1gallon in size per month you want to keep the plant alive. for the flush many people just wait it out until the final flush which is where you only feed plain water, i personally believe in monthly flushing for maintenance. flushing depends on a few things, one of them is the frequency of your feeding, light or heavy feeding, the more you feed the more salts will biuld up in your grow media, the more salts built up the more of a chance you will have a root zone and soil PH that is out of whack, causing you to think you are deficient in nutrients when your nutes are locked out, this will lead you to keep giving more nutes without seeing improvment. now you understand why i would flush once a month right? now if you are burning your plants it is the right idea to flush with plant properly PH'd water, your going to need 2-3 x the volume of the pot, so your 1gallon pot will need 2-3gallons of plain water, as you start pouring water through your plant grab a sample of the runoff and test the PH, this will give you an idea of whats going on down there and also lets you know if it is indead lockout if you are deficient, but since you think you burned the plant its probably over fed. you said the plant has been in the same pot for 6 weeks but what kind of soil? did it already have nutrients in it? you also said the plants looked good until now, this could be salt build up. when in doubt flush it out

u basically want to run 3 times ur pots volume of water through the soil and let it run through out the pot, best way is in a bath tube if u have that option, i just used tap water but make sure the ph isnt different from ur regular water or they will curl. Some people use distilled water which works better but also costs more and has to be brought in.

well you said that you havent gave the thing any higher dosage of nutes then youve been giving it the whole time, so i highly doubt its nute burn. your plant may be sick of that tiny ass pot, although you can do a full grow in a cup. i would flush it, and if that doesnt work you may need to transplant or do a multitude of different actions. pictures would really help us help you, these plants yellow and curl for many different reasons and pics really help determine what is the cause

also during the last two weeks..2nd to last week--distilled water w/sucanet, molasses,etc...last week--distilled only...

Thank you all for your help, I did flush them but only with about a gallon each and I had to leave for the week and will be back to see them on the 28th. I have watering set up so hopefully they look better when I get back. If not, I will try the 3 gallon flush and put up some pics to help out (would have put first but I was running out the door when I posted this) +rep to all

A watering setup is not going to have run off and will add to your problem. When you water you need to have some good runoff at least every other time you water, you do not want to keep watering and nothing ever comes out the bottom.

dont laugh but am i understanding this right, do you pour the 3gal of water all at once and let it all run through the drain holes then let the soil dry and then chop?

maybe somebody can field this question
i let my water stand for a couple days to dechlorinate
so the implications are obvious
if i want to flush, do i need to use dechlorinated water?
i think so, but would like to hear something like
"nah, no way, you don't need to do that cause ........"

Pyr8 said:

dont laugh but am i understanding this right, do you pour the 3gal of water all at once and let it all run through the drain holes then let the soil dry and then chop?

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yah and if plant not ready then just dont use any more nutes

hmm maybe im going over kill on my flushing then, i start two weeks from harvest and only use water , making sure the soils nice and moist constantly use just under a liter for each time i water. ive never flooded the plant with like a shit load(say 8 liters) and then let it dry out and chop, if so this would mean i could slip in a couple fertilizer feedings before harvest with out effecting the final product. can someone tell me if im over doing it , im still a noob sorta so any advice would be great

jeffchr said:

maybe somebody can field this question
i let my water stand for a couple days to dechlorinate
so the implications are obvious
if i want to flush, do i need to use dechlorinated water?
i think so, but would like to hear something like
"nah, no way, you don't need to do that cause ........"

Click to expand...

as long as u have your water stored somewhere with alot of surface area like a jug etc .. then u only need to let it sit for like 2hrs max .....and u can use water straight out of the tape and it wont kill your plants although it might not be the ideal ph/temp it wont do to much dmg basically the choloring will just kill of some of the small living bacteria thats good for the plants.