Flushing

[turksteelman]

Here's one for the experts. Depending on what happens in the next few days I may have to flush 5 plants. The standard from what I read is 3x the amount of water of the gallon you are using. I am using 3 gallon pots so that would be 9 gallons x 5 plants = 45 gallons. I would need to borrow a truck to get that much water home. I have always watered them with RO water from the store in 5 gallon increments. My tap water is 8.5, way too high it seems for plants. Any suggestions on how to flush?

turksteelman Reviewed by turksteelman on 03-02-2008. Flushing Here's one for the experts. Depending on what happens in the next few days I may have to flush 5 plants. The standard from what I read is 3x the amount of water of the gallon you are using. I am using 3 gallon pots so that would be 9 gallons x 5 plants = 45 gallons. I would need to borrow a truck to get that much water home. I have always watered them with RO water from the store in 5 gallon increments. My tap water is 8.5, way too high it seems for plants. Any suggestions on how to flush? Rating: 5

[Mr. Clandestine]

Is there any way for you to pick up a bottle of pH Down? They're all over the internet, and at most hydro shops. I'd imagine that would be cheaper than 45 gallons of RO water... and wouldn't require a truck. :jointsmile:

[turksteelman]

Mr. Clandestine, I do have a bottle of ph down and I guess I'll have to break it out. I was hoping that someone would say its okay to use the tap water for the first 4 flush gallons and then I would only have to adj the final 2 per flushing. Thanks for responding.

[Mr. Clandestine]

Hey turk,

If you're just doing a routine flush to wash away the salts and impurities, you really don't need to flush with so much water per pot. When I do a routine flush, I generally just add water until the runoff is clear. In a 5gal bucket, this is usually accomplished after about 2 gallons of water... unless I've added some gnarly stuff to the soil that's hard to leech out. For instance, I once added way too much blood meal and worm castings to my soil, and I would get a horrid smelling and very dark colored runoff for weeks.

I want to say that doing the initial flushes with your tap water would be fine before adjusting with pH down, but to be on the safe side, you may want to have someone like StinkyAttic confer this. Because you're right, 8.5 is definitely high. Sorry I couldn't have been more help.

[stinkyattic]

I would not flush with 8.5 personally. Even if your soil pH is low enough to cancel it out, I would not go above 8, and if your soil pH is close to correct, you would end up knocking it up out of range.
Just a pH tester and a bottle of pH down to match your flush water to the observed runoff (for example if the runoff is 6.0 you can flush with ~7.5 to bring it up; if the runoff is 6.6, flush with 6.6 because you are already dead on the money). And don't forget that the last step in your flush should be to water with a 1/4 strength complete fert solution.

Another thing you can do to 'cheat' is use the corrected tap water for the bulk of the flush, then do the last bit -like the last gallon or so- with distilled or RO; again, feeding lightly afterwards.

[hanayama]

turk- ive heard that 1 gallon of water per gallon of container is sufficient.
5 gal bucket= 5 gals of water.
someone correct me if im wrong tho.

15 gallons sound alot easier than 45.
just my 2 pennies on it...


ive been flushing once a month and the ladies seem to dig it.imp:

[grey1223]

When flushing the rule of thumb for years was 2 to 3 gallons of water for each gallon of medium. For me that was a LOT of water & I decided to switch to Clearex.

I also used tap water for most of flushing finishing with PH adjusted water. I couldn't tell the difference. The only reason I switched to Clearex was to reduce labor.

[hanayama]

lol i was just coming back here to correct myself.
im not sure why i thought 1 gal of water.but its definately 3 gals.
sorry bout that.
ive been doing my flushings with the 1 gal/gal...i shall amend on the next go around!

[turksteelman]

This is the 5th week flowering and from another thread with a pic, everyone seems to think its just due to N defiency in the last month of flowering. I did PH today and it was 6.5 so I guess I will just run the grow out and see what happens. I have also read the Hashberry does sometimes have a yellowing problem with some phenos. Thanks for the help on this one everyone.