Interesting article worth a read

He lost me when he stated this: "If you have bud that doesn’t light properly, stay lit, or burn to white ash, that bud needed to be flushed, and is loaded with excess fertilizer salts and other contaminants."
What is he trying to sell and why didnt he even go in to the 3 things "Flushing" can mean. Why didnt he use the Horticultural term of Leaching?
And a "mini flush" why not just call this watering...

 

Yup a little hokey.


Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum

 

In no other realm of horticulture that I know of do growers flush plants. I've read lots of horticulture books by PhDs that say flushing is a myth. I use hydro and never ever flush, because it amounts to starving the plants to death at a time when they need to be at their best.

 

I stopped reading at the point where it said that it's necessary to flush hydro, if that's what you mean by my not reading. There is no answer that will satisfy me about the starving issue, unless it's a reproducible scientific experiment. MJ growing reminds me of a religious cult.

 

It's similar to what I've been saying and is backed up by some research. These long 2 week flushes aren't necessary and don't result in anything but smaller yield and the plant relocating all available nitrogen to the flowers. Anything over about 5-7 days will start to have negative effects.

Flush supplements like GH florakleen and AN flawless finish help speed up any flush so that you can actually do a decent job in the short 2-5 day window. Just water isn't nearly as effective. 2 days is all that is needed in straight hydro to wash the root zone down and reduce phosphorus leftovers in the plant by half. If you're in a medium it's going to take a few more days then that but don't stretch it out.

 

The method for properly flushing hydro is to wait until the plant is all the way done and you want to chop it in about 2-3 days. Then you ph some water and spike the res with florakleen. Sometimes I'll change the water the following day and repeat. I assure you that in that short time window when the plant is already done you don't starve it or reduce the yield. What it really does is reduce some chemicals in the flowers and start the curing process a little faster then no flush at all.

 

Tbone why don't you write some articles for magazines? Or a book? You write really well and always sound very convincing.


Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum

 

I don't have any real qualifications. I can always find people that do and link them as references. I have been thinking that someone should do a very definitive flushing comparison test with lots of real scientific testing involved. There was a flushing debate a few weeks back that got up to about 5 pages. I did quite a bit of research and did end up finding some scientific testing on flushing cannabis.

It was quite revealing. The percentage of nitrogen in the flowers went up by 50% with a 2 week flush of water. Many of the other components that influence bad flavors were significantly reduced like phosphorus was cut in half along with cal/mag. The results led the guy doing the testing to conclude that shorter flush periods were superior if you wanted to go with a flush. Otherwise you're going to increase the time it takes to get rid of the green grass flavor. Much of that is caused by chlorophyll that is consumed when there's a lack of nitrogen. If you do a 2 week flush and end up with more nitrogen in the buds you're certainly not helping rid the chlorophyll from the bad flavors.

 

The question really doesn't seem definitively answered to me. That's why it's such a hot debate. There really does need to be some well thought out experiments to find answers. It's a lot of opinion at this point.

Through all my searching I linked probably a dozen articles. Growweedeasy supports flushing who many people point to as a growing storehouse of knowledge. In the end their article doesn't have the real testing and results we would really want to definitely point to a definitive flush process and reliable results. So does hightimes, maximum yield, and many other growing references.

In fact it's hard to find a mainstream cannabis publication that supports not flushing. Find the article?

 

Read this article. It's pretty amazing. Just one of the cool things I realized from it. There's really no such thing as organically grown. A plant needs elements broken down into inorganic forms for it to be able to use them whether that happens by soil microbes or other means it still always feeds off of inorganic chemical material.
Hydroponic Nutrient Science | Hydroponics

 

10/6/14 is one plant 12/29/14 is post flush results. 1/30/15 is pre flush and 2/16/15 is post flush on second plant bud tissue samples.

 

I was surprised to read the part about how the temperature of the water can change the ph reading. I'm off to recalibrate both of mine right now.


Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum

 

That's one thing about the nicer digital meters. They have a temp gauge included. It will fluctuate as the temp evens out with the medium. Then the reading zeros in.

 

I forgot to say that you have to scroll down at the link. There's an article on flushing specifically. That's where the graphic comes from. The article is constructed so you can't copy and paste it.

It's called flushing science.

 

If you scroll to the bottom of that flushing science article it is full of highly qualified references. There's a laundry list. Many are horticultural textbooks and scientific publications.

 

Your statement could be read both ways..

I think, as i stated on the other flushing thread Tbone refers to that 1/2 the problem is the definition of flushing.
What is it? According to Dyna Grow flushing is running pure water through a plant pot for one week and flushing in dirt is using pure water for two weeks..... how much water? how often? and the soil builders? they flush every day right? When does feeding with water (watering) become flushing? Is watering the plant for the last couple of days flushing? I just water pretty much the entire grow, am I flushing?

This is the main problem with creating new terminology and replacing it with others that already exist. Until we all move back to accepted terms or have a set in stone definition the debate will remain.

Flush or not flush (whatever the 3 or more things that that could mean..) but ALWAYS dry and cure properly. The curing is more important than flushing (whatever the 3 or more things that could mean). That's were the smoothness and the Terpenes flavors come from.