Flushing before harvest

[MegaOctane12]

Quick question about growing with organics in soil.


Is it a must to flush the soil for a week before harvesting? I know the implications in doing it with non-organics but the levels of salts are much higher, does this still apply?

[xxxhazexxx]

YES YES YES 2 WEEKS:thumbsup:

[keeko]

you can but i dont think it is as important as using chems and flushing. i know if i was doing a gurilla grow and using organics i would not flush at all and it would be fine. that would be way too much water to haul.

[MegaOctane12]

My only concern is that big healthy plants quickly uptake organic nutrients so I reckon if I did this I would see ALOT of yellowing which I'm a bit iffy about. I guess a good week of feeding just before would help a bit. Anyone got personal experience with organics and the difference between the taste in the bud if they did and didn't flush? From research it seems to be the nitrogen that makes buds taste shit.

[MegaOctane12]

After browsing a few forums I gathered this information :

Flushing is a weird term, a few years back it referred to what you did when you had a chemical salt build up mainly in rockwool slabs but also when over using chemical ferts in compost. ie running lots of water through the medium until all the built up fertiliser and crystallised salts were washed away.

Now it seems it also refers to starving plants during the last week or two of flowering. This of course gives an inferior product compared to what each plant is capable of producing within its genetic potential, ie: less psycoactivity and potency, much more CBD and CBN, less THC, less turpenes and finally lower final crop weight.

Some people in the hydro world now think that by running on just water that they can flush out excess chemicals from the plant by some form of reverse osmosis through the roots into the flushing water. Its amazing the myths that grow in the cannabis community.

Outdoors when growing in soil, where cultivated organically it is nearly impossible to remove any nutrients by rain or water running through the soil. It is only with modern farming practices, that huge amounts of chemical salts get flushed/washed from the soil into our water courses/rivers every time it rains. This happens with both chemicals and through the bad practice of slurry spreading.

The major expansion of bud growth happens at least a couple of weeks before they are ready to harvest, you can see when this has happened, after that it is better to have a ratio with lower levels of N and P but higher levels of K and of course lower levels of feed would be needed as the plants metabolism is winding down. Excess levels of residual P make the bud harder to burn and give a nasty taste in the mouth. Also it make the smoke many times more carcinogenic. Bud with low residual P burns to a white ash especially if it has a reasonable level of K, the more P the greyer the ash and the harsher the taste when burnt.

I couldn't say about flushing solutions, personally I would never feed a plant with anything if I did not know what all the ingredients were.

There is a difference between a starving plant that has to strip mobile nutrients from its leaves to survive and try and reproduce and a plant that has sufficient nutrients to grow old and age naturally. A plant short of nutrients looses the ability progressively to convert CBD to THC that and the fact that CBD degrades at a much lower rate than THC means you get an end product that is much higher in CBD, the effect of this is a more sedative stone rather than psychoactive. Look Iâ??m not knocking this some people like a more somatic stone, but me I prefer to get high, something cerebral.

This seems very plausible to me but then again dosen't flip the coin the other way and state the negatives to such a degree. I guess its one of those things where your fucked if you do and fucked if you dont. Either way I hope this has been helpful to someone. Laterz:smokin:

[onequickmove]

makes organic all that much more attractive; soil and organic baby

[Earthy Dank]

Flushing for the last couple days will make the plant use up stored nuterients (nitrates= Carcinogenic) and once it does that the clorophyll in the leaves breakdown(clorosis(yellowing)) which makes it lose that grassy taste/smell and cure faster. I think you should only flush for a few days though... some people do it for 2 weeks.

[kdspecial]

I don't know how many plants you gotz Octain,,, but maybe you should Flush some and not others and then taste the difference yourself and POst ti of course......

I am at the stage right now where my plants are fattining up 2 weeks left or so,,,

SO Im curious if I shoudl full on flush or just start feeding Water to them....

LKast grow I did the water thing for Two weeks. and I personally didn't notice a difference from my othr grows where I was noob like and just feed it right till the end. Except that my plants were totally yellow by the end of it...

I use Botanicae Pure Bloom,, SO its organic based but. I think this time IM gonna try a full on flush Soon and then continue to feed with just water... See if that helps the tase...

YOu see my BUds never really smell yummy,,, They always smell like the Organic shit I feed them when they are alive ... Botanicare Pur Blend and BIO-GENSIS "High Tide"

The only time I had that yummy Smell from the plants while growing was when I used Micirlce Grow and Im not going there no matter how good the smell is...

I bet my harsher taste and smell is comming from my curing method.. I think I put it in Jars far to early... Cuz they are crispy dry when I put em in jars but then all the moisture comes right back to the buds... I have read this is right (and I let them air out a few hours then put them back into jars) but I think Im gona let them get more crispy before I put them in jars this time...

See if that helps the taste and smell of themm...

My home grown always kinda smells skunky,, or like a Barn... I'm no master YET... But I will bee...

kd

[Earthy Dank]

I don't know how many plants you gotz Octain,,, but maybe you should Flush some and not others and then taste the difference yourself and POst ti of course......

I am at the stage right now where my plants are fattining up 2 weeks left or so,,,

SO Im curious if I shoudl full on flush or just start feeding Water to them....

LKast grow I did the water thing for Two weeks. and I personally didn't notice a difference from my othr grows where I was noob like and just feed it right till the end. Except that my plants were totally yellow by the end of it...

I use Botanicae Pure Bloom,, SO its organic based but. I think this time IM gonna try a full on flush Soon and then continue to feed with just water... See if that helps the tase...

YOu see my BUds never really smell yummy,,, They always smell like the Organic shit I feed them when they are alive ... Botanicare Pur Blend and BIO-GENSIS "High Tide"

The only time I had that yummy Smell from the plants while growing was when I used Micirlce Grow and Im not going there no matter how good the smell is...

I bet my harsher taste and smell is comming from my curing method.. I think I put it in Jars far to early... Cuz they are crispy dry when I put em in jars but then all the moisture comes right back to the buds... I have read this is right (and I let them air out a few hours then put them back into jars) but I think Im gona let them get more crispy before I put them in jars this time...

See if that helps the taste and smell of themm...

My home grown always kinda smells skunky,, or like a Barn... I'm no master YET... But I will bee...

kd

I think your taste problem may be genetic... Bad tasting bud seeds grow bad tasting bud:(. I would let them dry until the stem will crack and not bend. All the moisture comes from the inside of the bud once you put it in jars. Buds will usually smell and taste grassy for about a month until it cures. Try using alittle sugar in your solution... Alot of high-end fertilizers have molasses in them which makes the buds fatter and sweeter.
I recently harvested a couple plants and I noticed that all the plants I flushed for a week were very smooth and the plants I only flushed for 2-3 days were a bit more harsh. I did notice a slow in growth though... I would say flush it for 5-7 days.