Hey guys, I just found out that I will be needing to chop my plants about 1 week earlier than I had planned due to some scheduling issues, and I was wondering if a 1 week flush will do a good enough job, or if I'm going to be smoking some harsh bud. The only nutrients I have been using are botanicare pro bloom (organic) and blackstrap molasses, and I am growing in soil. I am not worried about a chemical taste, since I've been using organic nutes, but I am a little worried about the sugars causing a harsh smoke. Any suggestions or comments are welcome.
Nah man you'll be fine so long as you havent been loadin her up with nutes the past weeks. Just give her straight ph'd water like you plan for a week, and when it comes to choppin make sure the pot is somewhat light. That way your buds have less moisture and goes through a better dry and cure. Your leaves should start turning yellow/purple/black/gold whatever by the end, make sure they're not completely dark green. That'll leave more chlorophyl and a bad chemmy taste IMO.
Leave her in the dark for two days (if possible) before you harvest. That should force the plant to use up any remaining nutrients for resin production. To be honest, though, one week sounds like a short time for flushing, so I don't think you will get clean buds. There might be some fertilizer still in it, but you'll be okay. I'm sure you already know this, but drying and curing play an important part in the overall quality of the smoke. So take your time with those (if possible), and you should be able to minimize the presence of fert. Hope it works out for you
So my plan is to chop these on thursday, I have already flushed the soil (not a hardcore flush, but I sent about 2L through) and I will turn the lights off on tuesday night for resin production. I plan on taking about 1 week to dry and about 1 month to cure, so I can get a good quality smoke. Thanks for all your input guys.
Not sure if this will help, but on my first grow, I grew all organinc, but I added all my nutes(Dr. Earth) into the soil, the only thing I added into the waterings was mollasses, about three waterings at the end of the grow. My last watering was just water, about a week or so before harvest, I trimmed them a few days before cutting, then cut then down, hung them up, they dried in 7-8 days, I put the buds in air-tight jars and cured. It tastes great, awesome high. Even with the low buds. I think you'll be fine.
Well I'm gonna just stick with a what I've done so far. Don't plan on watering again before I chop em down.
i think flushing your plants is all bullshit and you should just fert on up to harvest. i do this and my buds smoke is perfectly smooth after a good cure. not sure where this rumor of "harsh" smoking bud from ferts came from. has anyone actually had harsh smoke from plants that werent flushed? i'd say the only time the smoke is harsh is when it's not cured right. hope this ramble doesnt put anyones panties in a twist, im really just curious as to everyones outlook.
So what happens to all of the nutrients that the plant hasn't used when you chop it down? Where does it all go?
i thought the micro colony in the soil is what feeds organic plants. which would mean they only take what they need? I don't know. I feed very light anyway (3 or 4 times per grow) so one week without nutes doesn't really seem like much of a flush to me. But i do think flushing is more for synthetic chemical growers.
Thanks for the input everyone. @imo - I hope you are right, but I'm not too worried either since I went organic the entire grow.