FLUSH OR DONT FLUSH ??

Shooters

Member
I'm using general hydroponics trio series,
My question?
Flush or don't flush, if you say don't flush please explain so I can understand, thank you all in advance.
Growing in 5 gallon swc system.
 

Doug Dawson

Well-Known Member
I'm using general hydroponics trio series,
My question?
Flush or don't flush, if you say don't flush please explain so I can understand, thank you all in advance.
Growing in 5 gallon swc system.
Welcome to RIU. Flushing is to remove salt buildup in medium, it does not flush anything out of a plant. You are not using a medium, you are using water so there is nothing to flush. Hope that makes sense for you. Do yourself a favor and click search on RIU and view the daily flush/dont flush threads. Now queue the angry mobs on both sides of the argument. giphy.gif
 

BIGBALLSJOE

Member
dont flush it will kill your quality, done it for years its a mistake

you want to feed the right amount all the bloom phase, and the most important dont let the salt buildup inside your medium, thats what will lead to black ash/ disgusting taste
every watering be sure to " reset" the ec and ph inside your medium (if you want to measure it you must have ec/ph in= ec/ph out)
the day of chop you want a EC between 1.3 to 1.6 depends of many factors, as RH .. mainly)

dont flush its a bullshit for peeps overfeeding and needing to flush all the shit accumulated by their lack of experience during the grow

DONT :evil:>:(>:(>:(:evil::evil: or the demon of flushing will come for you
and he is a badass
 

Shooters

Member
Thanks for your advise, appreciate it, im growing in a dwc 5 gallon, my medium is clay pellets, does that apply also ???
 

JacFlasche

Member
you want to feed the right amount all the bloom phase, and the most important dont let the salt buildup inside your medium, thats what will lead to black ash/ disgusting taste
every watering be sure to " reset" the ec and ph inside your medium (if you want to measure it you must have ec/ph in= ec/ph out)
the day of chop you want a EC between 1.3 to 1.6 depends of many factors, as RH .. mainly)

dont flush its a bullshit for peeps overfeeding and needing to flush all the shit accumulated by their lack of experience during the grow

DONT :evil:>:(>:(>:(:evil::evil: or the demon of flushing will come for you
and he is a badass
[/QUOTE]
I am interested in how you came up with your advice on maintaining nutes all the way to harvest.
In the test by RX green technologies done on flushing they found no statistically significant difference between plants that were flushed for 14 days and plants that were not flushed at all. No significant difference in harvest weight, mineral content, or subjective taste testing.
So according to this quite scientific test, it doesn't matter at all whether you give nutes in the last two weeks of flower or not. You cannot detect the difference without chromatography and the difference that shows up with such in such testing is below the threshold of scientific meaningfulness. In the taste tests smoking the flowers they got the same basic results -- no statistically significant difference. So why not save the money of nutes for the last two weeks, because you will have more colorful flowers and they will taste and preform the same?
 

JacFlasche

Member
Just did, I believe I understand, im not flushing my plants,
If you are growing hydro it does not matter at all in any way if you flush or not. Your flowers will not be bigger or better by maintaining the same feeding schedule to harvest. This test found no difference whether a plant was given nutes or starved of them during the last two weeks before harvest.
So now the debunker's bunk has been further debunked. Though, no doubt some will find it a debunk too far.
I have to add that if you have a medium, which I do not, and you over feed and your medium is holding nutes, like coco can do, and you flush, you may actually be causing your plants to absorb more nutes by flushing, not less.
 
Last edited:

daadank

Active Member
Its pretty amazing, this thread most say no flush, yet a thread days before this one https://www.rollitup.org/t/flush-vs-dont-flush-argument.1030461/ most say you have to flush.

So have fun with that. Personally I do both every grow, because I have 2-4 week harvest. I can't really tell a difference in taste, smell, ash, due to flushing. Other factors seem to be far more important on taste, smell, and ash, such consistency and timing of humidty/temp of grow and dry. ie vpd. Harvesting the same plant over 30 days, also changes those attributes, for me it seems the optimal window of harvest is somewhat narrow, like maybe 1ish week. Before or after the optimal window I experience different/better/worst taste smell,taste and ash...

The agreement that flushing pulls out 'nutrients' and 'salts' I've yet to see any evidence of. I think people are combining to many commonly known facts, such as how ions cross, some, cell walls due to differences in ion contractions across the membrane. And trying to apply that to flushing. But it does feel like there maybe something applicable to 'flushing'. I guess thats why this discussion will NEVER die.

Usually I lean towards flushing, because there are indisputable advantages such as lower cost...

Until there is actually peer reviewed funded studies taking place, all of this is pseudoscience, and I've found due to other factors it may seem that a flush works on 1 grow but no difference on another. Basically blaiming a flush or lack of as the only factor to influence these important attributes.

I did watch the nutrient company RX youtube and read there supplied materials, that still isn't adquate to prove anything. As for that, don't believe everything you see on tv, or youtube, or internet forums. There is no rule, law or otherwise stopping them from falsifying everything they say. Also watch some more MIGRO videos and credibility drops FAST.
 

bonytang

Active Member
even after flushing the reservoir her root zone will still carry a ton of nutes, aim below 500 ppm if u decide to flush, i'd go up 2 wks+. Smaller plants aim about a week. Usually 1st week with solution/flawless finish then rest of time just 6.0pH water.
 

HighFlow

Active Member
What grafik said.. I drop the nutes down over the last 2 weeks and then do a clean flush for the last day or two before chopping. You absolutely can taste the difference. The pseudo says that the plant utilises what sugars it has in the system and starts changing terpines etc.. whether that's true I don't know, but what is clear is that if you have been feeding heavy and you don't flush, you'll feel it on the back of your throat. That's my opinion anyway. Interesting article there saying the last 2 weeks you can go no nutes with no detrimental affect...maybe I wouldn't try it with an 8 week strain!
 

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
Figure out what works for you. Personally I used to drop the nutrient strength 0.5 EC (400 PPM) every week the same way I scale my nutrient solution (water mixed with nutrients & additives) up by 0.5 EC (400 ppm) every week until I hit 1.6 EC and then I walk it down.

The general rule of thumb is 2 weeks (14 days) of flushing with plain water that is PH balanced. Personally I use House & Garden Drip Clean and still ph balance the water to 6.0 PH in coco.

Here's why:
Drip Clean by House & Garden will ensure that any salts are dissolved and the correct PH will ensure that the dissolved solids are taken up by the root system if not flushed out of the medium. This beats doing a flush where you just run piss loads of water through the plants and instead slowly let the plant eat whats remaining in them and in the root mass.

You will know a flush was done properly and the plant is ripe when the large fan leaves are falling off and or have completely changed color on most if not all strains.
 
Last edited:

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
I just go plain water no ph last two days. Bud smokes good but i doubt its cause of thet i think its the 5 months before that determines the smoke lol.
Yeah the real goal is to feed properly the entire cycle so the plant isn't full of nutrient stores. When you feed aggressively usually a longer flushing period is required so the plant actually uses up those nutrient stores and you're not smoking them.
 
Top