Flushing before harvest MythBuster

I've seen a lot of people state the necessity of flushing your plants X number of days
before you harvest to avoid your weed tasting like crap.
I've also seen a few regulars on these boards saying it's not needed, commercial grows
don't bother, the nutes don't get in the bud in their original form, etc.

If you have experience with flushing, or not flushing and getting crappy weed, or not
flushing and still getting great stuff, weigh in. Let us know what you know.
If you don't have firsthand knowledge but you wanna post, please make it clear that you're spouting untested opinion.

Note: if your buddy always flushes and claims you need to, that's irrelevant. If your
buddy doesn't flush and you know from his generosity that his stuff tastes fine, that's relevant! :thumbsup:

I can definately tell the difference, I can taste the nutes clearly when it hasn't been flushed properly.

How long before harvest?

I do it 2 weeks before harvest and it does make a difference. Take a look at the color of your burnt weed. If it burns black then your flush was shit and your smoking your fertilizer. The point of the flush is to get rid of that. After a good flush your pot should burn to a white ash.

pot can be good without the flush but to someone with a well conditioned pallet. Well they would deffidently have an appretiation for well flushed pot.

i have flushed, non flushed, cured and uncured bud. non flushed is much harsher, with a burning sensation to the throat, though the taste is great. cured and non cured taste different, as fruitiness cam out with cure...

after my last grow, i think hydro nutes (or perhaps gh) is less effective in altering the taste and harshness with no flush. in dirt with other nutes, no flush produced almost un-smokable buds... in hydro, the same plant (clone) tastes much much better with no flush, gh three part nutes.

just my 2 pennies...

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Originally Posted by Scarlet Sky

i have flushed, non flushed, cured and uncured bud. non flushed is much harsher, with a burning sensation to the throat, though the taste is great. cured and non cured taste different, as fruitiness cam out with cure...

after my last grow, i think hydro nutes (or perhaps gh) is less effective in altering the taste and harshness with no flush. in dirt with other nutes, no flush produced almost un-smokable buds... in hydro, the same plant (clone) tastes much much better with no flush, gh three part nutes.

just my 2 pennies...

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WHERE THE HOLY.....FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN.??? I hope you know I am NOT AMUSED....:wtf:

Sorry....back to the thread.

I definitely notice a difference in taste if I don't flush.....sort of dirt tasting and it will give me headaches after awhile....unflushed weed.... blah.

Have done both, you can tell the difference. Why wouldn't ya flush? The one time I didn't flush enough was because it was completely unpractical to do a solid flushing because my irrigation system wasnt working properly. Plan ahead and the flush shouldn't be a problem.

So flushing is a good idea eh? :)

my trichs are just now going from clear to cloudy. Should I begin flushing now? Is it 2 gals of water for every gallon in size your container is?

FLUSH FLUSH FLUSH FLUSH hydro nutes are mainly cemicals if you dont flush you will be smoking this shit and all the salt and that can cause all sorts of problems for you

Thanks xxxhazexxx, this is a soil grow. Would now be a good time to flush?

Yeah, is this more of a necessity with hydro grows than with soil?

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Originally Posted by turksteelman

my trichs are just now going from clear to cloudy. Should I begin flushing now? Is it 2 gals of water for every gallon in size your container is?

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Its 5 gallons of water for every 1 gallon of soil that you have. So 5 gallon container = 25 gallons of clean, PH'd water. laterz..

Seems to me that there are some things that a plant needs to grow and mature. One is nutrients. If you stop feeding your plants 2 weeks before harvest, isn't that two weeks you could be using to get bigger buds? As you can tell I don't flush, and my weed tastes just fine. I have had many compliments on it. However I have yet to try a side-by-side study. I may try flushing next harvest to see if I can notice a difference. I feel it will be slight, if any.

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Originally Posted by Opie Yutts

Seems to me that there are some things that a plant needs to grow and mature. One is nutrients. If you stop feeding your plants 2 weeks before harvest, isn't that two weeks you could be using to get bigger buds? As you can tell I don't flush, and my weed tastes just fine. I have had many compliments on it. However I have yet to try a side-by-side study. I may try flushing next harvest to see if I can notice a difference. I feel it will be slight, if any.

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You can mix molasses and Sweet in with the flush water the last two weeks and this will help increase your bud during that final two weeks. (It helps to add both all along, the point is you can continue during the flush period.)

PC :smokin:

Are those things alone proper nutrients for a plant? Or at least OK nutrients? I'm not trying to play devils advocate here, I want to learn.

The thing is, the plants have stored nutrients and you don't want any nutrients left in your plants when you harvest. The molasses is high in carbohydrates; the Sweet is a carbohydrate synthesizer. The carbs aren't chemicals and it's the chemicals you want to get out of your plants.

For a more in-depth discussion:

http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...y-anybody.html

To directly answer your question, they are supplements, not nutrients. (You couldn't grow on molasses alone.)

PC :smokin:

i might flush.
will it change my bud size if i dont?

No, you don't have to flush. But as the alternative, just water with plain water for the last 1.5 to 2 weeks before harvest if you're worried about any taste from some of the wacky high residue ferts available.

Molasses, no, why bother. Add molasses to the soil early on, to promote soil flora and fauna that will be beneficial to the plant. Carbohydrates do not get absorbed by the roots of plants.

Try this test: flush one pot, leave the next. Harvest, dry, smoke. save the completely burned ash, and you see if you can taste the difference.
I didn't think so.

Now go and check the heat of vaporization for different inorganic and organic salts.

Why does organic outdoors soil taste good? You certainly can't flush the earth.

I use organic based nutes. Maybe that's why my weed tastes just fine without flushing. Does this make any sense? Would you need to flush if you use organic nutes?

I have flushed and then not flushed. They were both great, and I never had a single complaint about either. There is a difference though. It depends. Flush if you want less harsh and harsh tasting weed. Don't flush if your lazy and don't mind harsh and harsh tasting weed. Simple really

jesus,you have to flush how many times are we going to say this i dont care what some ppl say you have to flush you got to wash the cemicals out if its hydro or soil the stored nutes are in the shade leaves and they feed the plant in the last 2 weeks,you wont get the real flavors of the weed if you dont flush.

i dont flush, but the difference is "i could taste sea bird shit in premature buds" if organics, stop a while before the harvest. 2 weeks seems to work for me.

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Originally Posted by Opie Yutts

I use organic based nutes. Maybe that's why my weed tastes just fine without flushing. Does this make any sense? Would you need to flush if you use organic nutes?

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Some one was incorrect in thinking that molasses is not a nute.
Molasses Avg. NPK = 1-0-5 along with micro elements.
As far as using any organic nute till harvest, I think stinky could chime in here...
I only use 1 or 2 organics but mostly chems so I'm not sure on this one.
The fact is I didn't even know I could use molasses until harvest, Stinky corrected me when I thought I had to stop using.
I do flush, and because of that my friends know what ferts taste like(after having smoked my clean).

hmmm....so general conscences is 2 weeks flush?? I was thinking 1 (7 days) week....:hippy:

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Originally Posted by Zcomp

Some one was incorrect in thinking that molasses is not a nute.
Molasses Avg. NPK = 1-0-5 along with micro elements.

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That would be me, and I appreciate the correction. Ya learn something new every day.

However, if one is making a distinction between nutrients and supplements, wouldn't molasses fall into the latter catagory? I mean, it wouldn't really be adequate as a primary nute, would it?

PC :smokin:

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Originally Posted by PharmaCan

That would be me, and I appreciate the correction. Ya learn something new every day.

However, if one is making a distinction between nutrients and supplements, wouldn't molasses fall into the latter catagory? I mean, it wouldn't really be adequate as a primary nute, would it?

PC :smokin:

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I have read about molasses in the organic nutes section of some garden sites.
But your probably right on the count that molasses in our application falls under supplements. I say that cause of the benefits we extract from molasses. But it shouldn't be ignored that it does have nute value that will affect your total NPK ratio.


Also I'm sorry for quoting the wrong person there(Kinda High).

FLUSH 4 SURE

This way you are certain that the plants use all the nutrients stored inside the buds.
A plant stores nutrients for the future , so if you keep on giving them nutrients they will store more nuitrients inside.

It is better to flush at least 10 days with plain water , this way the plant uses the chemicals stored within her to survive , but she'll have none to store , so this way you are sure you are only smoking the bud with no nutrients , and maybe uyse a kleening additive at the end to ensure good taste , and not chemical tasting buds.

Hope it helps !

What kind of cleaning additive do you recommend?

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Originally Posted by highallthetime

FLUSH 4 SURE

This way you are certain that the plants use all the nutrients stored inside the buds.
A plant stores nutrients for the future , so if you keep on giving them nutrients they will store more nuitrients inside.

It is better to flush at least 10 days with plain water , this way the plant uses the chemicals stored within her to survive , but she'll have none to store , so this way you are sure you are only smoking the bud with no nutrients , and maybe uyse a kleening additive at the end to ensure good taste , and not chemical tasting buds.

Hope it helps !

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I use florakleen from General Hydroponics .

Flushing works

I was hoping to get a second harvest out of my plants. I read that you need to leave the lower buds on for places to grow when you go back to veg. Still flush? Maybe foliar feed after harvest?

If I was going to reveg, I don't think I would take the chance of flushing out all the plant's nutrients, or maybe just do it the last two days or something. If it's important to you your plant survives, anyway.

FLUSH !!