Flush Tips

Made a dumb mistake and used too many nutes in my last feed. I did a flush this AM, put it on a riser, and when I came back the swill still tested to be around 5-5.5pH. Not the worst but still not where I want it.

Some more leaves burned (expected, it sat with the nutes for 12 hrs before I caught the mistake), and now it's showing signs of overwatering.

How do you prevent these symptoms during/after a flush?

To be fair, it still looks pretty okay considering what it's gone through. All symptoms are quite early-stage and she's still really green. Top most leaves are now just droopy.

Use coco in breathable pots, you cant overwater them. For now maybe put a fan on the container n dry it out faster...

Always nute lightly. 1/2 of nute company suggestion at best prob 1/4 will do.

A common misconception is nutes are her food- they are not! They are more like vitamins, if you take one vitamin a day prob good for you, willl you be healthier if you take 10? Prob not. Light is her true food. Overnuting is way too common... you wont get more or better weed overdoing nutes...

Huckster79 said:

Use coco in breathable pots, you cant overwater them. For now maybe put a fan on the container n dry it out faster...

Always nute lightly. 1/2 of nute company suggestion at best prob 1/4 will do.

A common misconception is nutes are her food- they are not! They are more like vitamins, if you take one vitamin a day prob good for you, willl you be healthier if you take 10? Prob not. Light is her true food. Overnuting is way too common... you wont get more or better weed overdoing nutes...

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Great advice, thanks! I really like your analogy, putting it that way it makes a lot more sense. I was more thinking that since I went from a 'hotter' soil (FFOcean Forest) to just ProMix, I'd need to do a bit of a heavier feed. When you compare it to vitamins, you're totally right. Taking more when you fall behind has the opposite effect.

StrawberryYields said:

Great advice, thanks! I really like your analogy, putting it that way it makes a lot more sense. I was more thinking that since I went from a 'hotter' soil (FFOcean Forest) to just ProMix, I'd need to do a bit of a heavier feed. When you compare it to vitamins, you're totally right. Taking more when you fall behind has the opposite effect.

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Yea part comes from the term "feeding" em... another part comes from nute companies peddling the more bottles of mystery liquid you feed em the better...

Seriously check into coco, i used to do promix and i know it grows tons of good weed world wide but after trying coco id never go back. I love the lack of dry cycle needed, you can respond to her needs fast but im finding i dont get many issues anymore low concentration of nutes but as often as reasonably possible...

A dry cycle is not necessary to the plant itself but is necessary for heavy mediums like promix to pull in oxygen into the root mass for the plant...

Iv actually gone to a combo of hydro with coco, my coco is watered every two hours by timer and container has drain into the res which can whick water up if pump fails... so its never not wet and fully wet and happiest laidies i could imagine, roots poke right out the side of my fabric container fast... just saying to demonstrate how in a different medium a dry cycle isnt necessary...

Just my ideas but a million ways to skin a cat a million ways to grow good herb

Yeah the more I hear about coco the better it sounds. Rn I've got a ton of ProMix so I gotta get through that before trying anything new. I'd also like a little more experience under my belt. Quick reaction time on plants can be a double edged sword lol One of my saving graces has been the amount of time I've been allowed to put into this one. Like, if I hadn't vegged it for nearly 14 weeks I might have just fried the whole bottom half of the plant with this move.

I over watered once before I even found this site while the plant was pretty young. I use a ruler to create a bit of space between the soil and the planter, and I shimmied some paper towels down as far as they'd go to wick out water. The plant bounced right back in 2 days. I didn't have time to do that before it switched to dark hours. I just bought a gauge to keep track of soil pH and moisture. If I don't see any improvement I'm going to try that trick again.

StrawberryYields said:

Made a dumb mistake and used too many nutes in my last feed. I did a flush this AM, put it on a riser, and when I came back the swill still tested to be around 5-5.5pH. Not the worst but still not where I want it.

Some more leaves burned (expected, it sat with the nutes for 12 hrs before I caught the mistake), and now it's showing signs of overwatering.

How do you prevent these symptoms during/after a flush?

To be fair, it still looks pretty okay considering what it's gone through. All symptoms are quite early-stage and she's still really green. Top most leaves are now just droopy.

Click to expand...

Stop being a nervous nanny and just be patient. If you dont you will be chasing your own tail before you know it. Pot plants are not babies. It can survive being dropped on its head.

Stink Bug said:

Stop being a nervous nanny and just be patient. If you dont you will be chasing your own tail before you know it. Pot plants are not babies. It can survive being dropped on its head.

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Hahaha I'm trying to NOT get nervous. Like I said, even I can tell the stages are early. This post was mostly for tips for flushing in the future. It seemed from what I've read that people's plants thrive after one and I'm still learning so why not post while I'm thinking of it?

Like for example, I saw in a grow store I went to today that they sold "Flush agents" but that just seemed to me like another one of those bottles of mystery liquid that huckster talked about lol

Plant's no longer dropping, which is good. The bad news is that I got a pH meter in the soil like I said, and it's wayyyy too alkaline. No bueno.

Trying to avoid more mistakes so bear with the dumb questions dumb questions, but do I just use the pH up/down kit to adjust? I'd imagine you'd just make your next watering more acidic than normal to lower pH?

I have no idea how the run off water tested so low, yet the meter is reading crazy high. Gonna have to get a soil test kit to be sure - should've just picked it up with the damn meter.

My grandpappy was old farmer stock. Guy could grow anything in anything. He always told me to go with a third or quarter the recommended dosage. It's like salt in a meal: you can always add more, but you can't get rid of it.

I'll second or third the coco. I did a first grow below, and despite the tragedy of errors and comic incompetence, I STILL managed to somehow not kill my plants, AND get a harvest .

https://www.rollitup.org/t/first-cannabis-grow-third-crop-grow-how-do-my-plants-look-feedback-appreciated.961954/

the whole flush thing is bullshit. if you learn a little botany, you'll quickly discover that it actually does exactly the opposite of what it's thought to do. when a plant is in flower, any stress you apply to it is going to have an effect, most of them aren't going to be positive.
if you cut back on a plants source of nutrients toward the end of flower, it will cause the plant to start cannibalizing itself, so it can keep growing flowers. it will take as many mobile nutrients as it can from the rest of the plant, and move them to the buds, so growth there can continue. it's a last ditch effort on the part of the plant to get fertilized before it dies.
if you slowly cut back nutes, you can give them a minimum amount towards the end, that will keep them healthy, without triggering that response, and you actually end up with less nute residue in the buds than if you went through the whole flushing process.

I use Cocoloco, I love the stuff. I let it go almost completely dry every now and then and they love it. I did just get a drip system, to be better timed, and more often, but less.

If your watering with nutes everytime, use 1/4strenthg, because the nutes pyrimid in your medium. 1 water is 1/4, sencond addes 1/4 to the last 1/4, and the next adds 1/4 to the 1/2 from last 2 waterings.

watering should be feed, water, water, water, feed water water water feed.

I recently started 2 plants, 1 has giant beer can buds, the other is short and stout, smaller buds, but respecatable.

I flushed to started the chop, and the bigger, better plant, PPM was 400, the smaller one, PPM was 1400. WTH..

anyways, I flush to 200, big one took 1 gallon, the other took 4 gallons,

cocoloco is 1300 ppm new,

the smaller plant, i never let dry out, the entire time, where as the bigger plant, I let it dry out every 3rd day, almost bone dry.

If your watering correctly, flush isnt really needed, but if your PPMs are thru the roof, flush till your PPM are in line with your daily feed PPM,s

just blabbin,lol,

WTF is a frush,

Roger A. Shrubber said:

the whole flush thing is bullshit. if you learn a little botany, you'll quickly discover that it actually does exactly the opposite of what it's thought to do. when a plant is in flower, any stress you apply to it is going to have an effect, most of them aren't going to be positive.
if you cut back on a plants source of nutrients toward the end of flower, it will cause the plant to start cannibalizing itself, so it can keep growing flowers. it will take as many mobile nutrients as it can from the rest of the plant, and move them to the buds, so growth there can continue. it's a last ditch effort on the part of the plant to get fertilized before it dies.
if you slowly cut back nutes, you can give them a minimum amount towards the end, that will keep them healthy, without triggering that response, and you actually end up with less nute residue in the buds than if you went through the whole flushing process.

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Everything he said! I don’t beleive in starving em nor pounding em w nutes... “steady as she goes” is my method.

InTheValley said:

I use Cocoloco, I love the stuff. I let it go almost completely dry every now and then and they love it. I did just get a drip system, to be better timed, and more often, but less.

If your watering with nutes everytime, use 1/4strenthg, because the nutes pyrimid in your medium. 1 water is 1/4, sencond addes 1/4 to the last 1/4, and the next adds 1/4 to the 1/2 from last 2 waterings.

watering should be feed, water, water, water, feed water water water feed.

I recently started 2 plants, 1 has giant beer can buds, the other is short and stout, smaller buds, but respecatable.

I flushed to started the chop, and the bigger, better plant, PPM was 400, the smaller one, PPM was 1400. WTH..

anyways, I flush to 200, big one took 1 gallon, the other took 4 gallons,

cocoloco is 1300 ppm new,

the smaller plant, i never let dry out, the entire time, where as the bigger plant, I let it dry out every 3rd day, almost bone dry.

If your watering correctly, flush isnt really needed, but if your PPMs are thru the roof, flush till your PPM are in line with your daily feed PPM,s

just blabbin,lol,

WTF is a frush,

Click to expand...

This is a great example of why I love coco! You can treat it like soil or treat it like fully hydroponic style and both work! It’s just so versatile!

Oh and another point on coco- it’s reusable! Blend some fresh in as it breaks down... I let it get bone dry and then u can bust it up to break up the root structure and flush it out if you’ve heavy nuted... use again!

StrawberryYields said:

Plant's no longer dropping, which is good. The bad news is that I got a pH meter in the soil like I said, and it's wayyyy too alkaline. No bueno.

Trying to avoid more mistakes so bear with the dumb questions dumb questions, but do I just use the pH up/down kit to adjust? I'd imagine you'd just make your next watering more acidic than normal to lower pH?

I have no idea how the run off water tested so low, yet the meter is reading crazy high. Gonna have to get a soil test kit to be sure - should've just picked it up with the damn meter.

Click to expand...

I’d just water right for a bit and see what happens. These things got folks high long before soil ph meters...

Don’t worry bout the questions- it’s fun to share our do verses and failures with ya- that’s y we cruise the newbie section we all were clueless once and none of us are ever “there” it’s a journey not a destination

StrawberryYields said:

Yeah the more I hear about coco the better it sounds. Rn I've got a ton of ProMix so I gotta get through that before trying anything new. I'd also like a little more experience under my belt. Quick reaction time on plants can be a double edged sword lol One of my saving graces has been the amount of time I've been allowed to put into this one. Like, if I hadn't vegged it for nearly 14 weeks I might have just fried the whole bottom half of the plant with this move.

I over watered once before I even found this site while the plant was pretty young. I use a ruler to create a bit of space between the soil and the planter, and I shimmied some paper towels down as far as they'd go to wick out water. The plant bounced right back in 2 days. I didn't have time to do that before it switched to dark hours. I just bought a gauge to keep track of soil pH and moisture. If I don't see any improvement I'm going to try that trick again.

Click to expand...

Mix that promix into ur veggie garden or flower beds- make the jump! IMHO

It’s not the scary quick I’ve heard true hydroponic or aeroponics are... you can just respond quicker as in if you under do something you can add more before the next water cycle.

Good catch on flushing agents! I rarely go to hydro store anymore... just for coco and a bulb now n again... but never for bottles anymore

StrawberryYields said:

Made a dumb mistake and used too many nutes in my last feed. I did a flush this AM, put it on a riser, and when I came back the swill still tested to be around 5-5.5pH. Not the worst but still not where I want it.

Some more leaves burned (expected, it sat with the nutes for 12 hrs before I caught the mistake), and now it's showing signs of overwatering.

How do you prevent these symptoms during/after a flush?

To be fair, it still looks pretty okay considering what it's gone through. All symptoms are quite early-stage and she's still really green. Top most leaves are now just droopy.

Click to expand...

Just make sure when u take a dump yah use full flush and half flush when urinating, tips enjoy......

Thank you to everyone for the advise, tips, reassurance, and laughs hahaha She's looking good again. Checked under the canopy when I got home from work and the symptoms have stopped all progression. Gonna take that advise on riding the pH issue out. She seems to be good at handling herself without my helicopter parenting.

Thankfully I've known not to nute it every feed. This was actually the first nutes it's gotten in maybe a couple weeks. Pretty sure the last time I gave it nutes was when I switched to flower and it's in the middle of week 3 now. I just overdid the concentration big time. But THANK YOU for the feeding schedule. I've been seeing people doing some weird ones, but I've always been better with a steady routine.

Also everything about the nutes stacking and gradually decreasing how much you use before harvest makes a lot of sense. I took a few pictures for an update. I'm only using the effing CFLs again for visibility haha

Critique always welcome!
hahahahahhahhahahahahhhhaah "make sure when u take a dump yah use full flush" i think i found my signature

Looking good... next time maybe clean up bottom portion of plant earlier , as in strip the very bottom portion clean...

Its debated to do this once in flower or not...

But its not very debated to do it a week or so before the flip. It saves the plants energy for big tops instead of blowing it on larf

Huckster79 said:

Looking good... next time maybe clean up bottom portion of plant earlier , as in strip the very bottom portion clean...

Its debated to do this once in flower or not...

But its not very debated to do it a week or so before the flip. It saves the plants energy for big tops instead of blowing it on larf

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Yeah I definitely got too timid with trimming. I was afraid to put even more stress on it because of all the draw backs. This thing has been through the plant world version of 'Nam lmao Between the environmental setbacks and the LST, I was scared she would go hermie.

I need to look up some videos and watch people do it. I'm more of a visual learner than by written instructions.

StrawberryYields said:

Yeah I definitely got too timid with trimming. I was afraid to put even more stress on it because of all the draw backs. This thing has been through the plant world version of 'Nam lmao Between the environmental setbacks and the LST, I was scared she would go hermie.

I need to look up some videos and watch people do it. I'm more of a visual learner than by written instructions.

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What did you do as lst, as im seeing a pretty verticle plant. I dont mean that snarky either... Lst usually consists of pretty dramatic bending. I make mine look lime bonsai trees sometimes.

Im just a small hobbyist med grower flower room is 6x6 and i used lst to fill the room w one plant once! Oh and ceiling is only 7 feet so plant could only be about 3 to 4 feet tall! I effed up tho, was going great and i switched UV t5 bulbs and new ones i was told were same as old ones just differnt brand name, not so! They were full UV not just had UV in em- fried the fuck out of her and my face! It survived but whole thing had to go to hash... major screw up on my end!