FLUSHING?

[yetibear]

High All,When flushing are you to use plain water with no nutes but still at the proper Ph level (adding Ph up or down) or just plain water? thank you.:thumbsup:

[copobo]

always proper ph

[ThaiBuddhaMan]

what Copobo said

[canniwhatsis]

+3 :thumbsup:

[cologrower420]

I've talked to a couple of old school guys who swear by flushing with sugar water, 1 tbsp per gallon.

Thoughts? What would be the result of doing this? Is this similar to 'sweeteners' used late in the flowering cycle?

To the original poster, I just completed my first plant. I flushed for about 11 days, and I don't seem to see any problems like dark ash or crackling during smoke.

[ThaiBuddhaMan]

Never heard using plain sugar water but have heard of people using unsulphured blackstrap molasses, specifically the brand "Grandma's", and in the ratio you mentioned.

And to the original poster - you can probably get away without ph-ing the water, but if you're using straight tap - I wouldn't recommend it. I actually don't ph my water. I do run it through a 2-stage filter, one of the filters is a 1 micron filter, and I also airstone/bubble the water overnight (at least - using 24hours). My water ends up coming in about 6.5, sometimes a little less or more depending on the time of the year. Used to use r.o. water but got sick of all the wasted water. Optimally one would use r.o. or distilled as even filtered water is going to provide some nutes to the plant, but I haven't noticed enough of a difference for me to justify the additional costs.

[cologrower420]

Never heard using plain sugar water but have heard of people using unsulphured blackstrap molasses, specifically the brand "Grandma's", and in the ratio you mentioned.

And to the original poster - you can probably get away without ph-ing the water, but if you're using straight tap - I wouldn't recommend it. I actually don't ph my water. I do run it through a 2-stage filter, one of the filters is a 1 micron filter, and I also airstone/bubble the water overnight (at least - using 24hours). My water ends up coming in about 6.5, sometimes a little less or more depending on the time of the year. Used to use r.o. water but got sick of all the wasted water. Optimally one would use r.o. or distilled as even filtered water is going to provide some nutes to the plant, but I haven't noticed enough of a difference for me to justify the additional costs.

I've also seen the argument that you should 'dial down' the nutes during flush instead of going from nutes->zero nutes. Something about shocking the plant?

I noticed a couple of foxtails on my flowers that appeared during day 3-5 of flush. Still curing so I'm not sure if they're hermies or not, but I haven't seen any other seeds. I don't know if it's just the strain (sourdiesel) or stress.

[ThaiBuddhaMan]

I've also seen the argument that you should 'dial down' the nutes during flush instead of going from nutes->zero nutes. Something about shocking the plant?

I noticed a couple of foxtails on my flowers that appeared during day 3-5 of flush. Still curing so I'm not sure if they're hermies or not, but I haven't seen any other seeds. I don't know if it's just the strain (sourdiesel) or stress.

Well in my experience it depends on your grow method. If doing Hydro or Aero, that's true (better to reduce nutes over a couple of days). If doing a soilless mixture, you're probably fine to go straight zero. This is what I do, though my mixture is entirely soilless any more but a mixture of soilless & soil. Next run the mixture is going to be a little more heavy on the soil, and I'm going to try and blend the mixture so I don't worry about adding nutes or flushing - just add water!

As far as foxtails, keep an eye on 'em but it could be the strain. I've run a sourdiesel before but who knows if it's the same as yours, and didn't get those. If you know the person you got the sourdiesel from, follow up with them - hopefuly they'll be able to let you know what's going on.

[cologrower420]

Well in my experience it depends on your grow method. If doing Hydro or Aero, that's true (better to reduce nutes over a couple of days). If doing a soilless mixture, you're probably fine to go straight zero. This is what I do, though my mixture is entirely soilless any more but a mixture of soilless & soil. Next run the mixture is going to be a little more heavy on the soil, and I'm going to try and blend the mixture so I don't worry about adding nutes or flushing - just add water!

As far as foxtails, keep an eye on 'em but it could be the strain. I've run a sourdiesel before but who knows if it's the same as yours, and didn't get those. If you know the person you got the sourdiesel from, follow up with them - hopefuly they'll be able to let you know what's going on.

I followed up with the guy a couple of times. I don't know him well, but every time I talked to him he asked which strain I bought from him, which leads me to question things. Needless to say I won't use that guy again.

It's obvious now that genetics play a major role in producing connoisseur quality medicine, I didn't figure it was such a big factor.

What you do makes a ton of sense.

[copobo]

sugars feed the lil micros which help the roots process nutrients and waste material. I guess this could help the flush complete..

[ThaiBuddhaMan]

...It's obvious now that genetics play a major role in producing connoisseur quality medicine, I didn't figure it was such a big factor...

Huge role! And everyone has an opinion on what's connoisseur. Really comes down to what you like, want and need. There are some great strains out there but some don't yield like I need them too. Here in CO if we want to play by the rules, we have to take that into consideration. If you're just growing for yourself though most should produce enough unless you have some serious issues going on like chemo, etc... in which case you're probably not going to go for connoisseur but for high CBN % and not high THC %.

For me SourDiesel is a great everyday strain which is liked by a broad populace - connoisseur well maybe but not the cut I got. Even within strains, sometimes only 1 or 2 phenos are connoisseur while the rest are just very good.

In a perfect world I would pop about 50 seeds and keep detailed records from start to finish including how they smoked then choose my favorites. That's tough though as you still need to pull clones even before you know what the end result is going to be. Takes a lot of time, patience, work and room! Best bet, get in with a good circle of growers, try out what they have - if you like it, hopefully they have some healthy mothers that they'll pass some cuts to you. Or pop some beans and cross your fingers that you hit on one you like. Good Luck!

[OldHead09]

High All,When flushing are you to use plain water with no nutes but still at the proper Ph level (adding Ph up or down) or just plain water? thank you.:thumbsup:

Only my opionion and I am humble and dumb...Hydro or Organic? Hydro flush with plain PH'ed water and scrub down whole system. If Organic or commercial based I would flush and flood pots under green light 4 hours prior to harvest. I try to flood so roots only absorb fresh water and mychorezzea (sp.) stop doing their thing and therefore stops producing foods for the roots. I have read a few different ways of flushing soil and this is my own idea. I do know one cannot flush all nuturient from soil....and who would want to....the organic tastes, aromas and terpenes are what makes a great tasting medicine!