Leaching

Alright, so I need to leach my plants, and it seems simple enough but I'm not exactly sure I get it. When I looked it up I found this several times...

"To leach soil, over water the growing medium until fluid can be seen above the soil line. Allow the swampy mess to soak for a few minutes, then pump/siphon off excess from the "well" at the lower end of the growing area."

Does these mean lower end heightwise? as in there would be a puddle or something there? if that's correct, do i need to drain anything besides that extra puddle? will the water need to escape the pots through holes in the bottom? sorry for all of the questions, but thanks in advance!

Ok. Leaching is actually the run off of dissolved solids into the environment. When we do that to plant, we call that flushing. The whole lower level upper level thing is that water will pool at the lowest part it can arrive to taking the path of least resistance. Like a lake. Rain runs down the hill and pools at the lowest point it can get to without being blocked. Basically, put something under your planter to catch the water that runs thru your planter or youll have a big mess.

Flushing your plant washes the soil of salts that build up as a result of nutes being introduced to the medium and not being used up entirely. These salts in high concentrations can cause plant problems. To flush, add a small amount of nutrients to your water (you are going to use about 3x the amount your planter can hold. If you have a 1 gallon planter, then you are going to use 3 gallons to flush it. Added a small amount of nutes serves as a binder for the concentrated salts in the soil.

Flushing is a good practice to keep your soil and plants healthy. Its also done before harvesting so the plant uses up the nutes it has stored so your buds wont have a chemical taste.

Thanks a lot! I guess it would have helped for me to have figured out what exactly flushing and leaching are before coming here . I'm a bit new at this obviously! Thanks again!