Flushing advice

Peaceman12

Peaceman12

Active Member
hi I'm nearing end of third grow and my first year growing medical marijuana. Learned a ton, made all the usual mistakes, and am enjoying the hell out of this.
Still a little gray on when to flush. I have 5 plants that are listed as 7-9 week strains, and one that is I believe is 9-10 weeks. My patient likes not being totally couch locked, so my goal is as many cloudy Trichomes without any or few amber trichomes. So, all my plants are 45 days old in flower. The hairs have really turned a lot of orange and my plants are putting on a ton of weight. I viewed trichomes this morning, and literally found 1 bud with a few cloudy trichomes, and everything else was still clear. I really want a good flush for 2 weeks. Any advice on where trichomes should be when I flush? 20% cloudy, 50, 75? Just not sure how quickly over 14 days they change. The last grow they change very quickly.

Here is a pic of one plant with a few trichomes that are cloudy. It's a big blue cheese and its sister looks much closer to done, but trichomes are all clear.
 

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OUTDOOR FARMER said:
better pics of trichomes if you need advice
Click to expand...

I'm not able to get a decent pic of trichomes. I can assure you, except for one bud, they are all still clear. My main question is what percent of Trichomes should be cloudy for a flush two weeks before harvest? How quickly do they turn cloudy once they start?
 
I don't think there is a formula. Sort of varies by strain in my experience. I can be 3 days from harvesting for weeks! They all seem to take forever and then one day, boom, they are done.

Read some other threads on flushing and you'll be surprised how controversial it is. Had to change my opinion on it after giving both sides a listen.
 
Bugeye said:
I don't think there is a formula. Sort of varies by strain in my experience. I can be 3 days from harvesting for weeks! They all seem to take forever and then one day, boom, they are done.

Read some other threads on flushing and you'll be surprised how controversial it is. Had to change my opinion on it after giving both sides a listen.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice. I have done a lot of reading and you are exactly right. I'm not flushing my personal plants, and flushing the patients crop. I will do some side by side comparison.
Your info on speed plants change is very helpful. If you were 45 days into flower and wanted to flush, what would you wait for? Just looking for your opinion. Never grown strain in pic. Was thinking of waiting til 20% turn cloudy and hope they change to nearly all cloudy by 14 days after flush. If they change faster I could harvest in 10 days after
 
I'm growing organic so flushing isn't in my plans. If I were synthetic nuting, I would still not flush because I plan to cure and I would get enough run off every now and then when watering so I didn't have to worry about toxic salt build up.

But to answer your question, you can get an idea that you are getting close to the two week mark when your buds stop enlarging. They seem to not get much bigger in last two weeks, just increase resin production and density. I think the only easy way to really know is to grow clones from a mother plant and get your grow dialed in for repeat-ability.
 
Bugeye said:
I don't think there is a formula. Sort of varies by strain in my experience. I can be 3 days from harvesting for weeks! They all seem to take forever and then one day, boom, they are done.

Read some other threads on flushing and you'll be surprised how controversial it is. Had to change my opinion on it after giving both sides a listen.
Click to expand...
Wjats the contraversy on flushing?? i thought it was nessasary to get the plants true flavours??
 
TheChemist77 said:
Wjats the contraversy on flushing?? i thought it was nessasary to get the plants true flavours??
Click to expand...
By flushing, you mean putting 3 times the pot volume of water through the soil? This is a practice that is very stressful to a plant and it turns out there is pretty strong evidence that a proper cure is all you really need to bring out flavor and smooth smoke. But the practice of flushing has been around a long time and many people are traditional and believe in it. You can read plenty of threads on it so I'm just trying to answer your question at a high level without getting into it.
 
Appreciate the advice. I think I will do a smaller flush 7-10 days for my patient no be sure to get proper potency and not flush my 2 plants. Again like the opinions and value your experience
 
Bugeye said:
By flushing, you mean putting 3 times the pot volume of water through the soil? This is a practice that is very stressful to a plant and it turns out there is pretty strong evidence that a proper cure is all you really need to bring out flavor and smooth smoke. But the practice of flushing has been around a long time and many people are traditional and believe in it. You can read plenty of threads on it so I'm just trying to answer your question at a high level without getting into it.
Click to expand...
I grow in dwc with nutrients,, so the last 2 weeks i flush.. should i stop flushing or is it only for people growing in soil?? sorry about the questions but i dont know how to look that stuff up. im new to computers and find this all so hard to understand.. is it saying that if i dont flush but still cure the flush was a waste were i couldve ben bulking up my buds with more nuts??
 
TheChemist77 said:
I grow in dwc with nutrients,, so the last 2 weeks i flush.. should i stop flushing or is it only for people growing in soil?? sorry about the questions but i dont know how to look that stuff up. im new to computers and find this all so hard to understand.. is it saying that if i dont flush but still cure the flush was a waste were i couldve ben bulking up my buds with more nuts??
Click to expand...
Back in the day when I did dwc I did not know how to cure so running water only with clearex was the best way to get my buds smoking smoother. I think if you are curing you can keep them on nutes, but maybe a lower level? You'll want to get opinions from folks that know more about this than I.
 
Thanks for the tip,,, it would be nice to add another week of nutrients to swell the buds up more anyways...thanks again for the info.. i never heard that before so thanks
 
I am giving them nutrients Sunday day 48, and maybe a small nutrient feeding on day 53 and flush day 55. Depends if trichomes start changing fast.
 
im going to change my res tomorrow its week6 and i just changed it to general hydroponics kleen earlier today..im going to go back to my bloom nutrients for another week after all ive read on this post... nice post i learned somthing here!!!!!
 
ill go to only 1 week of flush,,,, however i did notice on 2 weeks of flush the color change in my plants,,the yellowing fall colors, it wont do that with only 1 week of flush but maybe bud size will increace. i dont know ive always flushed for 2 weeks for over 10 years always 2 weeks flush....im going to spend the next 2-3 cycles comparing 1 week or 2 week flush see how it turns out..im glad i seen your post here!
 
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