Flushing your Plants?

Im a first time grower. Actually surprised I got this far and having a good time.

I have two outdoor patio plants going and seem to be a little stagnant on the growth. I was told to flush them with a gallon of water and 2 Tablespoons epsom salt & molassas. Also to get some Peters npk 20 20 20 food asap.

Im in L.A. so they get hit with sun from 10 am until 6 pm on the deck before the sun drops.

Anyways, someone else in here says flushing is needless. Ill take a few pictures of them and put them up for critique.

So how many of you agree with flushing?

'flushing' is running enough clear water thru the plant, to wash away accumulated chemicals, etc.. why your friend suggested the magnesium/molassess 'flush' is beyond me, without knowing more ... maybe if I saw the pics, I would have an idea of what your problem is ... we don't know enough from your questions, to give answers, post your pics :smokin:

Here ya go... these two are roughly 66 days old and stay outdoors. I know they look a little down and need some water, but I was going to "flush" with a gallon today.

Also, Ive also never given them a food source or any chemicals to "flush out". There just sitting in big $9 bag of miracle grow.

Thanks...

I also see pinpoint sized mites or something on the very top leaves...

your plants have excellent color, and look quite healthy :thumbsup: ... they are a bit small for 60 days, but no big deal, there ... forget flushing, they don't look like they need it ... once a week, use a nice mild fertilizer, be SURE to mix them thoroughly with water, (check the pH of your water, try for around 6.5) ... let's see, my Earth Juice GROW is a 2-1-1 fert (quite mild), my Fox Farms GROW BIG is a 6-4-4, a bit stronger (in comparison, typical Miracle-Gro is 15-30-15, or, 18-18-21 for MG tomato food ... Miracle-Gro is good stuff, it just gets a bad rap from being over-used - it CAN burn the shit outta your plants) ... IF you are using Miracle-Gro potting soil, you should NOT have to add any fertilizer until the flowering stage ... then, you will want to switch to 'Bloom' type feeding, something like Earth Juice BLOOM is good, so is Fox Farms TIGER BLOOM, etc ... there's all kinds of stuff on the market ... TIP: pot plants suffer from too much love, it's a WEED :D ... we get so attached to them, we seem to always think the plant 'needs' something ... nope, feed it when it's hungry, water it when it's thirsty) ... then, cut it's friggin' head off, and smoke it's corpse ! .... :wtf: (thinking of it that way keeps ya from getting too sentimental :D)
P.S. ... look on the underside of the leaves with a magnifying glass, if possible, that's where critters usually hide :(

Thanks for the info there Image.R... Is the MIracle grow going to hurt my roots??

and if Im reading you right you basically said to do nothing since it is in MiracleGrow soil.

Anything I should do to bulk up the veg state since there under sized?!

I see the place down the street has allll the juices... I give up, looking at my plants which should I pick up?



FOOD GRADE
Dyna Grow liquid. 7-9-5.
Flora Nova Grow. 7-4-10
Greenleaves Grow Juice. 2-1-3.

Dyna Bloom Liquid. 3-12-6
Flora Nova Bloom. 4-8-7

Organic Nutrients

Bat Guano 10-3-1 Vegetative
Earth Juice 2-2-1 Grow.
Fox Farm 6-4-4 Grow Big.

Tiger Bloom.
Earth Juice 2-8-4 Tiger Bloom
Bat Guano 3-10-1 "Flora Grande"
Earth Juice 0-3-1 Bloom

If you use any nutrients in MG soil you run a risk of harming your plants. Next round do your self a favor and toss the Miracle Grow, use proper soil where you can feed the plants the food they need to grow big?

Miracle grow is like feeding your plants junk food all the time. NOT good for growing plants like this.

Sorry, but if you can transplant them into good soil you may be all right.

MG is not good for this plant, it can't follow the cycle of life the plant goes through and you can't feed it either.

Good luck and do your best to keep the Ph in check.

What are you thinking I should do with these girls since Im finding out MG is ummm bad.

* Should I buy "grow juice" anyways to help them out?

or

* Should I H2O flush to ease the harshness of this MG soil?

or

* Do nothing


Should I pull them out and rinse the roots, then transplant them into other kind of soil or are they too mature at this point?

Otherwords, whats next?
Thanks again!

im not sure if flushing the mg soil will help, but it seems like it would/should. give it a really good flushing(lots of water) it would be just like flushing if you had over fertilized right? then if you were going to fertilize, for veg. use something high in n and lower in p&k. for flowering use something high in p and lower in n&k. my understanding is that n is for leaf/plant growth, p is for flowers/fruit growth, and k is for root growth. btw i found a place that has the best cheapest soil around. ACE hardware has awesome potting soil and compost, and its only around 3$ for a 40 lb bag. and its organic.

i would like to say once again........

miracle grow is horrible for your plants..it is high in forms of ammonia that arent soluble..this is contained in the nitrogen, and your plant cant absorb what it needs and what it is absorbing, is very low grade...this gives you a low ph all the time...this accounts for the small size...this is why i said to flush and the adding of the epsom salt will help break down what is stuck in the soil and roots and make everything good and clean, help them breathe..yeah, there were no problems yet except the size, but we were trying to avoid one and give you the best gro possible.....i still hold true to what i said to do hollywood....

good luck....

hm. I beg to differ on the action of epsom salts on the chemicals in the soil.
Epsom salts is simply an inorganic magnesium source; specifically, Magnesium sulfate. In aqueous solution, it dissociates into its components, Mg+ ion and SO4- ion. Sulfate has an equilibrium with sulfuric acid, just fyi. Adding epsom salts will actually ADD to an existing lockout situation.
The only thing that will help to remove built-up chemicals and locked salts from your soil is a chelating agent (or a strong acid, but this is not an option for obvious reasons, lol). Chelating agents are compounds that keep individual ions from recombining into undesirable salts. Humic acid, oxalic acid, EDTA, and EGTA are examples.
Flushing with such a strong solution of epsom salts is something I would not personally ever do. If I saw a deficiency, I would apply it as a foliar spray, and at a MUCH MUCH lower concentration. As a fertilizer, even for roses, who love it, a couple pinches scratched into the soil surface is more than enough.
Ammonia in its only form is fully soluble in water. The reason that it makes your medium acidic is that it, like epsom salts, has an equilibrium with an acid, in this case, ammonium (NH4+). The nutrient problem is that it is, as a Nitrogen source, TOO available to your plants. Nitrogen overdose can lead to weakening of the excessive new growth and susceptibility to disease.
I don;t see a need to flush those plants, but you need to take better care that they do not run out of water in your hot, arid climate. This IMHO is the primary reason that they are not as large as they could be.
In general, they look great.

i did suggest a chelating agent as well, if you read the first post.....and you never use epsom salt in a large amount (it was 1 to 2 teaspoons, not tablespoons...).....miracle gro is a acidic fert, and the epsom salt helps break up the urea components in the soil that arent soluble...it also opens the roots up where they can be clogged....everyone has their own opinions i suppose....i just share what has worked for me....

First post? Can't find it.
Urea's solubility in water is 1.08 g/mL @ room temperature. It does not need help.
Excess root mass should be dissolved through enzymatic action (cannazyme), not acids- acids/bases are nonselective and will kill living tissue as well as dead, while enzymes and soil beneficials are safe to use on a living plant.
I don't mean to sound harsh but Chemistry is not a matter of opinion, it's science.

i guess your knowledge outweighs mine stink.......

i obviously dont know as much about chemistry, i will be the first to admit that....but i have used this before, and so have many others, and though the chemistry may not make sense, it did work (for me), for whatever reasons it worked...

you dont sound harsh, just confident....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stinkyattic

hm. I beg to differ on the action of epsom salts on the chemicals in the soil.
Epsom salts is simply an inorganic magnesium source; specifically, Magnesium sulfate. In aqueous solution, it dissociates into its components, Mg+ ion and SO4- ion. Sulfate has an equilibrium with sulfuric acid, just fyi. Adding epsom salts will actually ADD to an existing lockout situation.
The only thing that will help to remove built-up chemicals and locked salts from your soil is a chelating agent (or a strong acid, but this is not an option for obvious reasons, lol). Chelating agents are compounds that keep individual ions from recombining into undesirable salts. Humic acid, oxalic acid, EDTA, and EGTA are examples.
Flushing with such a strong solution of epsom salts is something I would not personally ever do. If I saw a deficiency, I would apply it as a foliar spray, and at a MUCH MUCH lower concentration. As a fertilizer, even for roses, who love it, a couple pinches scratched into the soil surface is more than enough.
Ammonia in its only form is fully soluble in water. The reason that it makes your medium acidic is that it, like epsom salts, has an equilibrium with an acid, in this case, ammonium (NH4+). The nutrient problem is that it is, as a Nitrogen source, TOO available to your plants. Nitrogen overdose can lead to weakening of the excessive new growth and susceptibility to disease.
I don;t see a need to flush those plants, but you need to take better care that they do not run out of water in your hot, arid climate. This IMHO is the primary reason that they are not as large as they could be.
In general, they look great.

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You lost me at hm. LOL

Cheers
NCM

zander you can use plant food with MG dirt just not before flowering, MG isnt useless, just the people that over do it with MG and plant food that causes the plant to burn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HollywoodHigh

Here ya go... these two are roughly 66 days old and stay outdoors. I know they look a little down and need some water, but I was going to "flush" with a gallon today.

Also, Ive also never given them a food source or any chemicals to "flush out". There just sitting in big $9 bag of miracle grow.

Thanks...

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Looks like you don't have enough perlite in the medium to me. should be 15-20% perlite.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by huffypuffy

Looks like you don't have enough perlite in the medium to me. should be 15-20% perlite.

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lol Dunno if u realized or not but the original post was from 2007! Those plants are probably long gone by now ;)