To flush or not to flush

I've got an ebb & flow setup for flowering and right now i've got my first batch of girls budding. The plants I have do not take up the whole ebb & flow tray, and I will be adding more once my clones root.

I only have the one ebb & flow tray, but I would like to stagger harvests from it. For instance, I want to get into a cycle of transplanting one batch of clones in while there is another batch that's 1/2 way thru flowering. This way I can get harvests more frequently. Additionally, I am growing multiple strains so even if I started them all at the same time the two strains would still be finishing at different times.

I've read about how important it is to flush the plants with plain water a couple weeks before harvest. If I do this for the 1/2 of the plants that are almost done then the younger ones won't get any nutes. Will I damage the still growing plants by not giving them nutes for a couple weeks while I flush the older ones, or will it just make them grow slowly until I give them nutes again?

So, should I flush plants that are still growing, or should I not flush the plants I'm about to harvest?

Or perhaps I can use plain water in the reservoir and foiliar feed the younger plants?

I had the same recent problem, I am not using EBB & Flow but same problem. Not flushing is not an option, even properly cured it is real harsh. Like first couple hits are ok, last hit will tear you a new throat.

Just my opinion, but flushing is a total myth, unless you have WAY overfertilized. Give nutes up til maybe 4 days before harvest, then just plain water. I'm sure other with have different opinions.

Hidden Dragon said:

Just my opinion, but flushing is a total myth, unless you have WAY overfertilized. Give nutes up til maybe 4 days before harvest, then just plain water. I'm sure other with have different opinions.

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Totally disagree, try growing two plants and not flushing one, giving the other a two week flush.



Flushing is not a myth. It improves taste, and the quality of how good the bud smokes.

Yeah probably all myths, photon engines and ion exchange, this has to be the shit myths are made of right...

i suppose a plant could be considered a photon engine...

Seems to not be much of a consensus, I guess I'll just have to try it both ways and see what happens.

No it couldn't but it has one installed! Yeah just try it both ways, the answer will be plain as day.

LOL you should def flush your plants. If not a 2 week flush atleast give them one week of plain phd water. There is no need to compare. If you have 10 plants sure dont flush one and see that it is alot worse then the ones you flushed but if you only have 2-3 plants dont waste all the time and effort you put into growing those ladies by fing up the last stage.

the problem is that if i flush one i have to flush them all because of a shared ebb & flow reservoir. i do not want to stunt the growth of the plants not ready for harvest by not giving them nutes.

well, if you're gonna get technical about it, chloroplasts = photon engines. and the plants have many installed. if only the plants grew photon torpedoes too...

Was talking to a friend he was saying something about let the plant dry before flush then after a day or 2 let it go back in water so it can soak up the water after it fully used the nutes inside the plant. Idk if it will increase taste but going to try I will get back to you in 3 weeks when im done.

TheGreenMidget said:

well, if you're gonna get technical about it, chloroplasts = photon engines. and the plants have many installed. if only the plants grew photon torpedoes too...

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lol I was walking by my plants and they torpedo'd me. Too stoned for work boss sorry

Sorry at work and my boss came up I wanted to add some things.. Listen if you had an obligation to a collective here you could not sell them medicine that hasn't been flushed, that is just a little rogue note. But when you chop that stuff and smoke it without flushing you will see why. Now it isn't worthless, water curing will make it usable again. No aroma or fragrance, but the potency will increase with water curing. So it won't be a complete loss, don't throw it out.

myth. ive done side by side tests and the only difference from flushing ti not flushing is a slight yield reduction. ive even given the 2 samples to people and asked them after smoking if they noticed any difference in the 2. the answer was sometimes comical as they would choose the unflushed sometimes. my 2 cents worth.

FLUSHING IS A MYTH.

...on ebb & flo systems. The systems dont retain nutrients and basically flush themselves. Other systems do, and flushing can help *grower error* by removing nutrient buildups.

My recommendation? Leave em alone!

As for you wanting to put clones in the same tray as your flowering plants, that's impossible because you give flowering plants and clones different nutrients, and its impossible to monitor them individually while flooding unless you remove them.

Your better off just puting the clones under a little Flouro at 100-400 watts and letting them veg separately in the correct light spectrum with the correct nutrients and ppm. In fact, that's about the only way you CAN do it! Clones under a flowering plant mean no light to clones (if they CAN get light, it means your canopy sucks!)

Good luck!

auto22 said:

myth. ive done side by side tests and the only difference from flushing ti not flushing is a slight yield reduction. ive even given the 2 samples to people and asked them after smoking if they noticed any difference in the 2. the answer was sometimes comical as they would choose the unflushed sometimes. my 2 cents worth.

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That has been my experience as well. LOL

Flushing is a myth.

As a member of a group of growers that conducted both blind and double blind tests; in all cases subjects preferred the non-flushed bud over the flushed bud.

Can anyone provide another crop which farmers practice starving their plants of nutrients prior to harvesting?

Damn Gringo, it's all in my head then. I chopped a few branches before I flushed again to try again to see if I am just way to fucking stoned.. Maybe flushing is all in my head

In my personal experience, curing is one of the most important, and sometimes one of the most over looked steps in the process. Properly drying and curing the bud will insure that the majority of the unwanted elements will be evaporated off, leaving behind the natural essence of the plant while burning cleanly and evenly.

auto22 said:

myth. ive done side by side tests and the only difference from flushing ti not flushing is a slight yield reduction. ive even given the 2 samples to people and asked them after smoking if they noticed any difference in the 2. the answer was sometimes comical as they would choose the unflushed sometimes. my 2 cents worth.

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that has been my exact experience as well. the flushing/leaching thing for two weeks is a myth. I run it for a few days before, just to burn off excess N. peeps like it better that way. there are a lot of myths about this stuff.