Well guys I am pretty much right on week 5, which means next week and possibly beyond, I am going to have to make a decision about flushing. I am wondering of any opinions of Florakleen by GH or any similar products. Is it necessary? Or is it a waste of time with a good ol' 2 week+ flush in soil? The idea of dissolved mineral salts does appeal, but if they go away on their own, then I won't waste my time. Also, I've read that it's instructed to use the last few days of flushing before harvest. I am wondering if it would be more ideal to use it once on the first day of flushing, since the whole idea of flushing is getting rid of any nutrients / chemicals in your soil besides water. Or would this just speed things up too quick and push you to an early harvest? What do you guys think? People who have experience with using these products and not using them in soil grows with bottled nutrients preferred.
What is the best chemical to use to eliminate the chemicals you have been using because the chemicals you have been using go up through the plant and make the flower taste bad when you smoke it? I don't know, I guess which ever flushing chemical tastes the best if that's the way it works. I flush with molasses and phosphorus, no lie (not a joke), so I have my own myth busters to deal with. And I start the first day I am only waiting, no further growth or bud development expected. I just think that makes them finish better. Hey, if you can believe yours I can believe mine.
I use a flushing agent only 2 days before expected harvest. This way if I get it wrong and the plant rehairs over and over I won't have starved it for too long. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Waste of time. You cannot leach a chemical out of the cell structure of a plant, even with another chemical... (which sounds kinda counter productive even if it worked..using a chemical to replace a chemical??) Thats why so many who grow in soil do so organically.
Why would it matter if you have chemicals in your soil for so close to harvesting? I can understand needing to leach the soil medium of salt buildup from over feeding if it was earlier in the grow.
If you're gonna grow hydroponically, grow hydroponically - not hydroponically in soil. If you're gonna grow in soil, grow organically or with a minimal of chemical fertilizers. I never understood so many folks using expensive store bought soils - let's use fox farms or Roots as an example - soils that use worm castings, kelp meal and other organic soil amendments as their base food - and then dump chemical fertilizers into it. Often, mucho chemical fertilizers. Oh well. J
Right next time I will be using the no-till method. I decided I am not gonna use florakleen. To earlier responses the idea wasn't to use a chemical to get chemicals out of the plant but the soil to dissolve the mineral salts. I don't think it id needed though if you flush properly. Lotta people like florakleen and have success so Im not going to knock it if its working. Its gonna be a lot less hassle without worrying about nute burn or anything. I figured id give the bottled nutes a go for the first time, under someone else's advise. I knew the supersoil / no-till was a much better idea deep down and figured it later. Im not gonna waste any time with nutes in the future. Thankfully they didn't end up costing me too much. The only thing I won't do with supersoil is add any neem, its poisonous for my lupus. Maybe for a mother plant but that's all.
As far as fox farms, I found myself having nutrient deficiencies early in veg, about 3.5 weeks in with happy frog, namely nitrogen. I had to buy grow nutes, it fixed my plants right up!
One of the best things about florakleen is it speeds things up. I do a 2 day flush with it in DWC. Multi week flushes are not the way to go. Feed the plant until the buds are as ripe as they are going to get. Soak the pot down with the florakleen once. Let it dry 2 days soak it down again, let it dry a day then cut. In soil it takes longer then DWC. Starting flush at 6 weeks is a good recipe for small yield. My plant was still drinking a gallon a day of medium strength nutrients until week 10. If I would have stopped feeding at week 6 I would have half the bud.
Oh yeah it will. You're cutting off feeding when the plant is wanting it in large quantities to swell the buds and pack on weight. 6-8/10 weeks is the ripening stage when I feed GH dry koolbloom at 2-45-28 along with a little micro. I'm certainly not giving it just water. It would turn yellow and stop growing in a few days in hydro. In soil florakleen may be a waste of time. I do use it for my promix/perlite plants to wash out the medium at the end before chop but only 4-5 days. Long flushes just starve a plant. They don't make a huge difference in bud quality, only quantity.
A lot of that greener flavor that you're trying to avoid by flushing actually goes away significantly if you let the plant fully ripen then yellow slightly by tapering nitro the last few weeks instead of everything. I just did a recent experiment where I cut off two colas from my current Blue dream crop with no flush at all 9 weeks in. After drying 5 days on my rack I sampled it and it was as smooth as the bud I flushed with florakleen. I think the smoothness had more to do with light feeding through the grow cycle and allowing the plant to fully ripen. 10 weeks is pretty normal for photos. I see way to many people thinking their plant is done the day of week 8. I've only seen one strain that was really that fast.
Why does everyone advise for 2+ weeks, you never taste nutes? The flora kleen doesn't cause problems with the plant taste adding it that late? Im slightly confused, how could you flush for such a short amount of time without this product, wouldn't I still taste salts after 4-5 days of flushing in soil?
My entire plants are gonna be turned into fresh frozen full melt and rosin from the lower grades so I won't have to worry about the green anyways! My interest is peaked with this flush. 10 weeks? I was thinking possibly 60 - 65 days, you don't get too many amber trichomes? I am looking for max yield with a well rounded effect. I don't mind waiting another 2 weeks!
No you get denser buds and more glands total. Florakleen is much more efficient at removing salts from the medium then just water. It's basically citric acid and sugars that help dissolve the salts that are otherwise very difficult for just water to remove. Florakleen won't do anything to the plant or add any flavor. It will just aid in quicker dissolving of chemicals.
I think I will extend my grow period and use flora kleen, it sounds nice that you can flush with it so dang fast. You know you're right, these buds could use extra development. 9 - 10 weeks instead of 8 - 9. I am not the biggest fan of overly stimulating highs either.
Wow @tbone shuffle you helped quite a bit. Thank you for helping me understanding flushing, as well as harvesting, a lot better! I feel much more at ease with this process. I don't want to ruin a lot of those leaves, they're very frosty!
I see this argument all the time and your right....but you can stop feeding and building up those chemicals in the cells and instead allow the plant to use up what it has stored. I do a 1 week flush use floraklen the first 2 days and the straight ph water for 4 to 5 days.
I dont think the plant uses its cells to feed itself. I understood it used the saved sugar/energy/food in the fan leaves/leaves. (hence the fading effect). Im not saying that leaching the medium of salts is a bad thing, if you happen to have a build up of salts. If in soil and with proper watering {20% runoff) then you shouldn't. But its something that does happen. On another site a grower has a theory that flushing doesnt rid the flowers cells of added chemicals but due to the nature of clean water it may start the cure earlier. Which is interesting but is just a theory and plants grow green in plain water (look at a cutting) so doesnt have to much weight..unless maybe the nutrients you have been using have preservatives...?? But then if your in soil then your not flushing, your watering. We all know that its the Chlorophyll in the plant that makes the bud harsh to smoke and a proper cure fixes this.
I'd have to do some digging to find it. If you look at the older flushing thread from a few weeks ago I have links. I actually found a guy who did 2 week flushes on a couple of plants and did lab tests on the buds. After a 2 week flush the nitrogen level in the buds was 50% higher then before flushing. Many of the other elements of the feed when down almost in half like phosphorus but nitrogen content in the buds actually went way up from the flush. Talking with other plant experts the theory is when you starve the plant all mobile nutrients are drawn to the still growing parts of the plant (the buds). So in a long flush you actually do more harm then good. You starve the plant reducing overall yield since the buds can't swell that last two weeks with very little nutrients and you end up with more nitrogen in the buds then when you started making the cure take longer. Taste is so subjective it could possibly be argued that it does improve flavor since phosphorus is responsible for many bad flavors but so is nitrogen and with a 2 week flush you're increasing the percentage in the buds. Based on these test they guy recommended keeping flushing short 2-5 days max.