What causes the infamous hard black ash or crackling? Cool article...

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
So I grew some amazing THC bomb a couple years back in my apartment that was some of the mos resinous pot I've ever smoked. It was just impressive. See for yourself:
http://rollitup.org/t/thc-bomb-exploding-w-pics.842487/

After a proper dry and cure the buds just burned like absolute shit. I'm talking about leaving hard black charcoal like ash in the bowl. It was disgusting and embarrassing to say the least. It even hurt my fillings in my teeth when I smoked the shit. This is something I had never experienced in my previous grows, so I went searching for the answer.
https://www.thecannabist.co/2017/03/28/growing-marijuana-fertilizers-nutrients-flushing/72515/

If you compare the excessive nutrients example on the cannabist to the pictures of my flowering thc bomb girlies from the last grow, the similarities are striking. I overfed my bitches :(

Instead of soil I ran hempy buckets and I added Koolbloom to the mix which which I think was a mistake. I also added cal/mag a couple of times and I ran the nutrients at a very high ratio for the entire flower period. I feel that was the culprit in my terrible tasting buds and resulting hard black ash. My previous grows in soil I did 40% of the suggested nutes on a water, water, feed, water, water, feed schedule and my pot was stellar and was a pleasure to smoke.

Anyhow I'm starting up a fresh grow and I'm going to take it easy on the nutes this time and listen to the plant. If she says she needs more, she will get more. If not, she won't. Genetics and environment make great pot. Not excessive nutrients.
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Im old school i flush

Dont care what anyone says cause its MY opinion lol

But i guarantee if you grew 2 plants side by side and did a PROPER DRY AND CURE ON BOTH

The flushed buds will get smoked before the unflushed.


Not trying to start a whole thing cause everyone is free to do what they like

And i like to see a NICE fade cause i hate chlorophyll filled plants (when its time for chop not growing lol)
 

Kronickeeper

Well-Known Member
Im old school i flush

Dont care what anyone says cause its MY opinion lol

But i guarantee if you grew 2 plants side by side and did a PROPER DRY AND CURE ON BOTH

The flushed buds will get smoked before the unflushed.


Not trying to start a whole thing cause everyone is free to do what they like

And i like to see a NICE fade cause i hate chlorophyll filled plants (when its time for chop not growing lol)
I’ve tried it both ways it’s doesnt make a difference in the end product I’ve fed right up until ready to harvest and chop and with proper dry and cure no black ash, smokes fine. I think the real debate should be is there really any gain in yield or noticeable difference in quality giving it a week of water only vs feeding entire time. I doubt there is much to gain that final week so even though I don’t believe the myth of flushing I think you aren’t gaining anything in that extra week so of feeding why not save money on the nutes that final week and let it eat off it’s reaerves
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
I dont smoke bud that wasnt flushed unless its an oops that broke off.

Except many many years ago

Again differnt strokes for different folks
Ill always flush

Im going to not flush one plant and will see for my self but i dont think my mind will change and
I like my drying and curing regiem
10 days to 2 weeks to dry to 65 % then goes into curing containers
:)
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Do what ever you gota do so it tastes good to the very last hit, lights with one light and stays cherried, and burns to a FINE WHITE ASH

Do all those things and i dont care how you did it :) flush no flush as long as it does those things
 

Kronickeeper

Well-Known Member
I dont smoke bud that wasnt flushed unless its an oops that broke off.

Except many many years ago

Again differnt strokes for different folks
Ill always flush

Im going to not flush one plant and will see for my self but i dont think my mind will change and
I like my drying and curing regiem
10 days to 2 weeks to dry to 65 % then goes into curing containers
:)
Never hurts to experiment I started out always flushing no matter what then I tried flushing and not flushing on some clones of a strain I was familiar with and had ran for two years, couldn’t tell the difference, but one time I pulled a harvest from drying a day or two too early and smoked it and it had black ash put it back let it dry properly and cure and it burned white ash like normal. I’ve gone back personall to water only for the last week not for the flush I just don’t believe you gain anything by feeding in that last week and it’s a waste of nutrients although I could be wrong or just cheap lol
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
I give a fuck about a weeks worth of nutes :) but i get what your saying bud

I hate charcoal bowls lol
 

NGA

Well-Known Member
You need to flush plain and simple if you don't black ash terrible smoke ,anyone that likes chemical tasting obviously never smoked good weed no matter about cure
 

Beachwalker

Well-Known Member
I’ve tried it both ways it’s doesnt make a difference in the end product I’ve fed right up until ready to harvest and chop and with proper dry and cure no black ash, smokes fine. I think the real debate should be is there really any gain in yield or noticeable difference in quality giving it a week of water only vs feeding entire time. I doubt there is much to gain that final week so even though I don’t believe the myth of flushing I think you aren’t gaining anything in that extra week so of feeding why not save money on the nutes that final week and let it eat off it’s reaerves
I agree, I've done side by side clones flush/no flush I don't observe a difference, that said I do a small flush before I harvest of around 5 days or about two feedings, thats probably just my old school ways kicking in
 

chiqifella

Well-Known Member
if I feed my basil to the day of harvest the herb will taste like a golf course treatment.
Same goes for my apples, pears, marijuana, grapes, tomatoes, tobacco, lettuce, and every other crop I grow.
I dont flush. I use a refractometer to know exactly how much fertilizer is needed and when to harvest.
I've seen the klinker when wet weed is burned.
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
if I feed my basil to the day of harvest the herb will taste like a golf course treatment.
Same goes for my apples, pears, marijuana, grapes, tomatoes, tobacco, lettuce, and every other crop I grow.
I dont flush. I use a refractometer to know exactly how much fertilizer is needed and when to harvest.
I've seen the klinker when wet weed is burned.
Seems like a logical thought process to me. This isn't a flush or not to flush type of conversation. What I'm suggesting is what chiqifella stated. If you over fertilize throughout your flowering cycle and then over fertilize all the way up to your harvest day, you will have poor tasting and poor burning flowers due to the excess nutrients present in the plant tissue that have not been depleted.

The plant simply does not need full strength fertilizer towards the end of the flowering cycle. Over fertilization does not produce larger flowers. Over fertilization causes poor tasting and poor burning pot. Over fertilization is an epidemic in marijuana growing it seems.

I've had 5 or 6 successful harvests where I did not over fertilize and dialed back the nutrient's significantly in the 7th week and discontinued all nutrients in week 8. I always had smooth clean smoke.

I'm going back to basics. GH 3 part w/floralicous plus. Occasional hit of cal/mag. The pot I grew from those 5 or 6 good harvests was better than 99% of everything I see in the lansing dispensaries.

Do you want to know what kind of pot jonny sees at lansing dispensaries? Crappy over fertilized pot grown by people that clearly didn't know what they were doing. I've bought weed that looked chronic and then burned and smoked like shit when I got home. Some were due to shitty drying and curing, but some were severely over fertilized. We have all tasted that shit man.

It doesn't really matter if you're growing in soil, hydro, or coco. Over fertilizing does the same thing no matter the medium. That's my story and I'm sticking to it :)
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
if I feed my basil to the day of harvest the herb will taste like a golf course treatment.
Same goes for my apples, pears, marijuana, grapes, tomatoes, tobacco, lettuce, and every other crop I grow.
I dont flush. I use a refractometer to know exactly how much fertilizer is needed and when to harvest.
I've seen the klinker when wet weed is burned.
I think it also comes down to understanding the grow cycle of a plant. In the final weeks of flowering the plant is ripening and swelling, not forming new tissue. I erred in my last grow by over fertilizing throughout the flowering cycle and I failed to reduce the fertilizer accordingly towards the end of the flower cycle. Those poor buds were so full of excess nutrients it was disgusting to smoke. Sticky little disco balls that you didn't even want to smoke...it was a bloody travesty I tell you. But never again...
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
if you're over feeding the whole life of the plant, i guess it could make a difference. the biggest factor is the dry and cure, but if you purposely load the shit out of the plant till the end, i can see that making a small difference. as long as you feed properly, and dry and cure properly, that shouldn't be a problem.
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
if you're over feeding the whole life of the plant, i guess it could make a difference. the biggest factor is the dry and cure, but if you purposely load the shit out of the plant till the end, i can see that making a small difference. as long as you feed properly, and dry and cure properly, that shouldn't be a problem.
agreed. I purposely loaded the shit out of them and then prior to harvest I never dialed it back. I got busy at work and just didn't have the time to tend to the garden and then before I knew it the buds were over ripe and I just didn't have another week to give water only. Don't mind me I'm new here ;)

doing coco / perlite hempy buckets this round with my good old reliable GH 3 part flora series. got some baby's in a dome right now of acapulco gold and skunk #1. also a couple of mystery seeds just for fun. thinking of switching to canna's line of nutes for purity reasons. apparently a lot of these shitty nutes are loaded with heavy metals and canna is not. get what ya pay for (unless we're discussing advanced nutrients).
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
i don't think the flush would have made any difference. once it goes in, you can't wash it out, and a week isn't going to use up a lifetimes overnuting
absolutely agreed. and I think that's why there is so much controversy on the topic of flushing. it seem like a misunderstanding of the plant's nutritional needs by people that have probably never grown another plant in their life. i'm in that category, but I'm improving my understanding a little each grow.

in my previous soil grows I did not over feed at all and had great burning pot. I didn't flush either. I did a water-water-feed-water-water-feed schedule at 50% of the bottle's suggestion and the plants loved it. in the last week of flower regardless of where the feed schedule was at, the plants only received water.

for this grow I'm keeping the fertilizer at low levels and we'll see how it goes.
 
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