WOW Riddle has a question???

I think that in my time here at RIU I have actually asked 3 questions (I could be wrong) but I think I have a question that could spark some good discussion, allow me to preface it a bit,,,,,,,,,,,

Some of you know that I'm in my 50's so been around awhile, I have noticed in my everyday life that common sense seems to be disappearing from our culture, though I am not sure why. I have learned to happily live my life based on common sense, logic and deductive reasoning. I make choices after doing research (and I do deep research, actually trying to prove myself, idea or belief wrong)

I was reading a thread earlier and this question popped into my head, it was a question that I could not answer, but common sense tells me that it does not make any sense what so ever and all of my research tells me that it is nonsense?

So let me ask and lets get the debate going cause I actually am very curious,,,,,,

It is a very common/popular belief/practice to stop feeding nutes and flush only during the last 2 weeks before harvest, this is based on the notion that we are removing nutes from the plant to improve taste and reduce harshness. The result of this practice is that the plant starts pulling stored nutes from the leaves and the leaves start yellowing.

But we don't smoke the leaves, we smoke the buds and the buds don't yellow they stay healthy alive and green till the end because the plant is pulling the nutes from the leaves, So how does this popular practice remove nutes from the buds that we smoke???

Can anyone please explain how this works???

lol catch-22.... i know one person whomight be able to answer that, but he's not on riu to my knowledge.... goes by the name of touchet

dude your hi start with x total nitrates flush end up with -x nitrates in the plant. plants are green from chloryphil cure to break that down and remove green taste of fresh cut bud

fruitrollup said:

dude your hi start with x total nitrates flush end up with -x nitrates in the plant. plants are green from chloryphil

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can you back that up with a study or link or research?

cause I have seen actual research test done on plants each week of a grow on 3 different strains that show high levels of N in the plant, low levels of P and even higher levels of K (and yes I have the link)

PS, I am not high, have not smoked since last night

All that mess is rubbish. I've always heard you're flushing to remove salts which do effect taste. You don't have to kill the leaves to do that though. Flushing the last couple days before chop is plenty fine and only really necessary with chemical nutes.

Just another one of those things that had a simple reason to begin with, then got exaggerated to mountain and the mole hill proportions. Like germinating in paper towels, cutting off leaves, and all that other mess. People with sense know better, but the internet publishes anybody with $20/mo.

IAm5toned said:

lol catch-22.... i know one person whomight be able to answer that, but he's not on riu to my knowledge.... goes by the name of touchet

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this is who i was thinking also
100% correct
go to any of the links in my sig
referral (that hit)

The answers right there. You don't want unmetabolized chemical nutrients left in the plant. The flush is to give the plant a chance to metabolize those chemicals. Just go check all the complaints about the taste of weed grown in MG. I've personally never had that problem.

My grandpa flushed his corn rows, and his tobacco fields. Nothing new.

are u sure your not high? nitrogen makes the plant have nitrates with are harsh and bad for ur lungs. green is not usable light for plants they absorb everything but green which is why thats the color reflected. flush it will munch whats left in side when it wants to eat and soon ull have nice buds

I never got how it is suppose to remove nutes either. They're already in the bud. I planned on 2 or 3 pure watering at the end. I get how the chlorophyll needs to convert, and I've smoked many that weren't cured right. I'm three or four weeks from my first harvest in near a decade so this will be interesting.
Daniels

fruitrollup said:

are u sure your not high? nitrogen makes the plant have nitrates with are harsh and bad for ur lungs. green is not usable light for plants they absorb everything but green which is why thats the color reflected. flush it will munch whats left in side when it wants to eat and soon ull have nice buds

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No, Chlorohpyll makes the plant smell and taste like Hay. This is completely normal and happens in every medium, chemical or ogranic, whether you flush or not.

Chemical nutes on the other hand taste like Chemicals. They also work differently than organic nutrients which are created by microbes in the soil and released slowley. Fast acting chemical nutrients work different. They are Dissolved Salts and that water with "saturated contaminants" is stored within the pipes of the plant - the stalk and vascular system. When you cut the plant down before flushing unused fertilizers from the soil, you get stuck with whatever is left in the pipes.

By Flushing the fertilizer from the MEDIUM. You're simply giving the plant a chance to use up what last bit of chems stored within the plant. Nutrients which have already been metabolized do not cause this problem.

Don't believe me? Go ask a farmer or read any EDU website with an agricultural department. A good place to start would be UGA or NCSU.

Whiteflour nailed it. The salts are flushed, not the green. The yellowing is just a good indicator that you flushed well. Some plants may not yellow, that is not the point of flushing. Nutes are not GREEN!

If flushing is to remove chemicals and to improve tast and appeal? Then why do we not flush other plant's? I have been growing a garden on and off for 20 yrs and I never heard of flushing until I subscribed to a M/J forum. My veggies have always tasted better than any store bought produce and I used chemical fertilizers. Although I don't smoke tomato's, They taste as good as any I have tasted from any stand or grocery store.

As for organic, not sure I believe all the hype. People fertilize with guano, chicken crap, horse crap, cow crap and so on. Why then does the food it is used to grow not taste like crap? And don't tell me they flush before harvest. lol

think maybe the plant lets out the chemicals over time?? for example, you cant water a plant once n jus let it grow. eventually all the moisture is used up, n everythin dries out. n you cant only fert a plant once. seems like jus waterin without nutes a couple times before you harvest would give less of a chemical taste. jus some o tat common sense you were talkn bout... o n people please check out my thread in general marijuana growing called "my li box (need a suggestion)" cause i, um, need a suggestion

bigman4270 said:

If flushing is to remove chemicals and to improve tast and appeal? Then why do we not flush other plant's? I have been growing a garden on and off for 20 yrs and I never heard of flushing until I subscribed to a M/J forum. My veggies have always tasted better than any store bought produce and I used chemical fertilizers. Although I don't smoke tomato's, They taste as good as any I have tasted from any stand or grocery store.

As for organic, not sure I believe all the hype. People fertilize with guano, chicken crap, horse crap, cow crap and so on. Why then does the food it is used to grow not taste like crap? And don't tell me they flush before harvest. lol

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Flushing is quite normal in the garden and is practiced in agriculture. Like I said though organic nutrients are different they are slow released. That's why you'll never see a 1000lb pumpkin grown in cow shit. Might be possible with compost tea but I still find it highly unlikely.

Go take a cup of water, put fertilizer in it, let it evaporate then come back and tell me whats left. That's the same residue that will be left in a dried plant that isn't flushed properly. I can assure you when we grew tobacco it was picked GREEN. We sold it YELLOW. If depriving the plant of nitrogen to make them yellow at harvest made a difference I'm sure the old man would've done it. You're talking a product with 3+ month cure cycle.

This is just a reasoned opinion, I have no real evidence for it only my experience.
I (and I am sure most of us) have tried weed that when you smoke it it cracks, burn hot and tastes like burning death, a recent experience has lead me to believe that this not so pleasant experience was caused by high P buildup. If you flush plants excess P, along with everything else, will be removed. If you have been reading Riddle's and Uncle Ben's pages you will know that most growers use WAY to much P and not enough N during bloom. I recently got to try some weed where the grower used high P on one batch coupled with flush, and more gentel veg nutes on the other without flush. they tasted about the same....

draw whatever conclusions you want, just IMO

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, and a flush isn't always a requirement. Not all chemical nutes are as bad as others. In 100% soil organic grow "flushing" in its true since would be detrimental, as every watering is just making more nutes.

If you're following most chemical fertilizers directions though you're actually already doing a "flush" every other watering. That's the primary purpose of their directions.

I'd be hard pressed for anyone to find a reputable source that recommends fertilizing up to harvest day with any crop. Especially a non-fruiting variety.

Hey White Flour I just wanted to thank you for your input here, you obviously have common sense and come from a growing/farming background which makes for good info. I don't always agree with every one and I certainly do things a bit different. I flush every time I water and I feed till the end, I use chem nutes, my stuff cures out just like any I have gotten from other sources burns great, get nice clean grey ash great taste not harsh.

In the last few months being in colorado surrounded by dispenseries now, I have had the pleasure of tasting over 16 strains and only 3 of them came close to what I grow for myself

discussion and debate without hating and arguing can be a great way to learn, once again thank you for joining in!

I do have only about 5 harvests under my belt, but I have played with flushing on each grow..
I have found that the plants I didn't flush at all.. I couldn't smoke right away (after hanging for a week) they were really harsh and smoked really hot. I currently now have settled on 2 weeks, and I find that once my plants hang for a week, I can smoke it without killing my throat. That's only personal experience from experimentation and personal taste. My plants are green up till I chop.
just my input.

msu also has extensive info also-

i agree, common sense is becoming extinct, and fellows like me along with it (read, not metro, or gay, or momma's boy,)

i also agree with whitey, flushing gives the plant a chance to use what it's already got, kinda like shuttin off the gas and lettin the motor die

i saw an answer that you(riddleme) gave earlier concerning molasses, it's my opinion that it is only beneficial for the bacteria and/or fungus in the soil, my question is;doesn't using chemical salts destroy the beneficial organisms in the soil?
i have seen experienced gardeners say it both ways, and ALOT of people use salts and molasses

Murfy said:

msu also has extensive info also-

i agree, common sense is becoming extinct, and fellows like me along with it (read, not metro, or gay, or momma's boy,)

i also agree with whitey, flushing gives the plant a chance to use what it's already got, kinda like shuttin off the gas and lettin the motor die

i saw an answer that you(riddleme) gave earlier concerning molasses, it's my opinion that it is only beneficial for the bacteria and/or fungus in the soil, my question is;doesn't using chemical salts destroy the beneficial organisms in the soil?
i have seen experienced gardeners say it both ways, and ALOT of people use salts and molasses

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yes chem ferts do kill some of the little myco critters but not all of them and they multiply pretty quickly, is my understanding

I just like the way it makes my nutes fiz and look like coke (the soda)