When to start flushing, harvest, first grow so looking for some help.

sudodaemon

Well-Known Member
First grow, in hydro, DWC. Using CFL lights for this grow, I have about 16-18 26Watt CFL's, a mixture of 2700k and 6500k. I started flowering on 4-11-12... So that makes today day 45 of flowering... I'm growing sensi seeds Big Bud, which according to their site has a flowering time of 50-65 days... I do not have any flushing solution, so I was just going to give her plain distilled water to flush before harvest. My question is, when? I've read to flush 4 days before, 7 days before, 10 days, and 14 days! I know I want to wait for about a 75% cloudy 25% amber to harvest, but if I want to harvest it THEN, how do I know when to start flushing BEFORE it gets to that point. Here are a bunch of pics, I have my wife going out later to get me a microscope from radio shack so I can look up close at the trichs, but I'm imagining they are all still clear... I don't know though since this is my first plant... Any help would be awesome right now, and yes, I know, this thread is all over RIU, but the information varies from thread to thread and it makes me feel better to post pics and get first hand opinions on MY plant and what to do...

I'm using greenleaf nutrients, they imitate major brands, so I got their general hydroponics flora series imitation... gro,micro,bloom... I'm running at about 1000PPM right now... 2.5ml Gro - 7ml Micro - 16ml Bloom per gallon of water.

Here are pics.

photo-1-1.jpgphoto-5.jpgphoto-5-1.jpgphoto-4.jpgphoto-4-1.jpgphoto-3.jpgphoto-3-1.jpgphoto-2.jpgphoto-2-1.jpgphoto-1.jpgphoto.jpg
 

MISSPHOEBE

Well-Known Member
some people flush

some people dont

some people do it for days

some for 2 weeks

everyone has a different way of doing it

theres no right way or wrong way

just do it the way you think is best...........
 

beanid

Well-Known Member
i agree with missphoebe, i dont flush my plants and nutes to the end.

post some pics up in a week or so so we can see how pretty they get!

good looking plant btw
 

sudodaemon

Well-Known Member
I'm just afraid of the harsh smoke and crackling. But then I read that flushing at the end will starve the plant when it needs food the most. Considering my plant right now is drinking a gallon of water every 48 hours I'm thinking a 4-6 day flush would be good. Another question though. If I start to flush when the tricks are 25% amber and the rest cloudy, by the time in done flushing what will the tricks be... How quickly do they change to amber once you see the first ones.
 

ajgrowsalot

Member
I always flush in the first day of the "harvest window" per the breeder then finish with water until they are done, however long that will be (3 days, two Weeks, whatever).
 

spencer2121

Well-Known Member
I'm using synthetic Nutes the whole way until week 6 of flower. Then at week 6, I plan to flush with water, then I'll let them finish with organic nutes until harvest. I'll let you know how it works!
 

M B P

Active Member
the idea of flushing is so that the plant uses up its nutes that are already stored in the system. Meaning, even though you are flushing the plant is still running off of stored nutrients... so the idea that yo are starving the plant is a bit wrong. I can only speak from personal experience... and I've tried a few different ways... but I flush with 10 ml florakleen/gallon 5-10 times over 5 days.

without florakleen i would guess more gallons over more days.
 

sudodaemon

Well-Known Member
the idea of flushing is so that the plant uses up its nutes that are already stored in the system. Meaning, even though you are flushing the plant is still running off of stored nutrients... so the idea that yo are starving the plant is a bit wrong. I can only speak from personal experience... and I've tried a few different ways... but I flush with 10 ml florakleen/gallon 5-10 times over 5 days.

without florakleen i would guess more gallons over more days.
Makes sense... the thing about it using existing nutrients to deplete itself... I'm getting this idea this is one of those things where I'm just going to have to try something and hope it works... So this is my idea... when I see a 75% cloud and 25% amber trich mixtures I flush with distilled water... Do that for about 4-6 days and by 6 days what mixture will I be looking at 50 cloudy 50 amber? My only concern, again, because this is my first plant, is... How quickly to the trichs turn colors?
 

nick88

Well-Known Member
There's a reason why most feed charts from nute manufacturers run high PPM's til the last wk of flower.. The plants need the extra nutes during last 2wks of flower as that's when the most bud development is. If your wanting a 75/25 ratio, then when 90% of your triches turn cloudy just start adding plain water .. Imo people get more of the harshness they experience not from the flush but from drying and curing to fast..
 

sudodaemon

Well-Known Member
Anybody have a guess as to when they think my plant will be done? Not when I should start flushing, but when the plant will be done and ready to harvest. Just curious if I'm 2-3-4-5 weeks away.
 

rjfortune25

Well-Known Member
thats a pretty nice grow for cfls tho! best bet to look at trics with at least min. 30x scope but 100 preferable! possible 1-3 weeks
 

sudodaemon

Well-Known Member
thats a pretty nice grow for cfls tho! best bet to look at trics with at least min. 30x scope but 100 preferable! possible 1-3 weeks
I had NO clue the plant was going to grow this big. It's I believe 85% indica... Well, being 4 ft tall doesn't screm indica to me... All good though, I'm hoping to get a good chunk of weed off this... Next grow though I need to make sure I get a short plant. Even with all the CFLs, there are a ton of dark spots, but I can only do so much.
 

sudodaemon

Well-Known Member
Going either tomorrow or day after to get microscope from radio shack... I think it's 30x or 50x... Well see then where the trichs are at.
 

HapaHaole

Well-Known Member
First grow, in hydro, DWC. Using CFL lights for this grow, I have about 16-18 26Watt CFL's, a mixture of 2700k and 6500k. I started flowering on 4-11-12... So that makes today day 45 of flowering... I'm growing sensi seeds Big Bud, which according to their site has a flowering time of 50-65 days... I do not have any flushing solution, so I was just going to give her plain distilled water to flush before harvest. My question is, when? I've read to flush 4 days before, 7 days before, 10 days, and 14 days! I know I want to wait for about a 75% cloudy 25% amber to harvest, but if I want to harvest it THEN, how do I know when to start flushing BEFORE it gets to that point.
I have been reading lots'o different stuff too lately, but what I am planning on doing is to stop feeding approx. two weeks before and let the stored up nutes be used, which they will, and just use my RO water. Now... my next question is, "do we ADD cal/mag to that? Hmmm... I'm still reading.

Ur ladies look beautiful btw! Excellent job! :)
 

sudodaemon

Well-Known Member
Ok, so pocket microscope was purchased over the weekend... Saturday morning I took a snippet off the plant and checked it out, all the trichs looked clear or cloudy... This morning I checked again, and well... here are the pics...

photo 2.jpgphoto 3.jpg
photo 4.jpgphoto 5.jpg

As you can see there are a couple trichs that have an amber head, and then it looks like a mix between cloudy and clear to me... Any opinions? I'm thinking I check again in 24-48 hours and then start to flush... Any and all opinions are welcome here, first harvest so I'm open to anything.
 

sudodaemon

Well-Known Member
Looked at another piece and I couldn't find any amber, just clear and cloudy... I guess we'll see what she looks like in a couple days.
 
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