When To Flush (signs)

RoloTomassi

RoloTomassi

Active Member
Hi, this is an old topic, I've looked at a bunch of old threads on RIU and other sites that posed similar questions but the answers for the most part ignored the question and went more in the direction of "well if it's a 10 week strain obviously, you flush at the end of week 8, duh".

However -- If I'm given an 8 week strain and everything goes perfectly, I know that I can begin a 2 week flush at the end of week 6 but environmental factors and genetic variations could lead to a longer flowering time. For example, MNS SSH is listed with a 8-10 week flowering time but in some cases there have been reports of it taking much longer., up to 20 weeks. If one diligently flushed on the basis of the published flower time, alone, he could ruin his crop.

Anyway ... assuming I'd want to harvest when the trichomes are almost all cloudy (say around 95%) and a little amber (say 5% or so) .... then what sort of signs am I looking for as far as trichome colors and/or pistil colors that will let me know when to flush?

Do I want to think about flushing when the pistils all turn brown? or 50% brown? Should I ignore the pistils entirely and focus solely on the trichomes? would 25% cloudy be a good bet?

Just trying to get a feel for that indicators that will let me know when to flush, as a first timer.

Thanks.
 
djruiner

djruiner

Well-Known Member
the question you need to ask is why at the most crucial point in flower (when it swells and packs on its most weight) would i deprive the plant of food when it needs it the most....answer that and get back to me.
 
E

ExtremeMetal43

Active Member
I searched for a good example pic while i was in that situation and could not find one. It seems it'l be strain dependent etc and depend on a lot of things. There's zeus guide to harvesting which i thot was the best write up on when theyre done. I noticed on mine they started to look dont at about 8 weeks but all the buds shot out new flowers that took about 2 weeks to develop. there was a lot of threads about new flowers developing at about that time and they took 2 to 3 weeks to develop but ymmv.

Thats the advantage of growing clones for a couple runs because youl know when theyre suppost to be done and its a clone so theres where its at.

With response to above im undecided to flush or not but do not ovefeed your plants at that point i did that my first harvest and was very detrimental.
 
RoloTomassi

RoloTomassi

Active Member
djruiner said:
the question you need to ask is why at the most crucial point in flower (when it swells and packs on its most weight) would i deprive the plant of food when it needs it the most....answer that and get back to me.
Click to expand...

As I understood it, the conventional wisdom was that you flush to wash the chemicals out and get a cleaner taste. How much do the buds develop in size in the last week of growth? How much do they develop in size during the last 2 weeks? Answers to these questions might alter my approach on flushing; and to what extent is taste effected by not flushing? Since I've never done a harvest Im just trying to do my best to take the information that's out there and incorporate it into my grow. Now that I see there are two opposing camps on the issue of flushing it seems like I accidentally stumbled onto a contentious topic... not quite the point of my thread but oh well...
 
Tonaloc989

Tonaloc989

Well-Known Member
i think that a week of over watering or flushing works best. then after that you dry it with all the leaves on it for four days or so. after about four days, shorter if its really dry, you trim all the fan leaves off and wait for another 3 or 4 days longer depending on how wet the bud is. after all that the chemical and green taste of the buds should be gone
 
BendBrewer

BendBrewer

Well-Known Member
I have seen this topic again and again and I have concluded that the specific nutes people use determine if they flush them or not. Organic guys tend to not flush. I think the quality of the chemicals used determine if Chem guys flush or not. So from what I have taken from it, if you use good quality nutes, there is no need to flush but you aren't going to hurt anything if you decide to.
 
A

a dog named chico

Well-Known Member
I always flush...it takes an eye to gauge it...if you have grown a lot of one strain you will get the hang of how it grows in YOUR room and when it finishes. same thing if it is a new strain well look at the plant and try to guage how long it has left (or post a pic here, FDD has a thread) some more experienced members can tell you how many weeks they think the plant has left...then it is just simple math...I ran into this with the sharks breath i just finished, I started the flush too late and chopped half a week in...it is good shit don't get me wrong...just not as smooth as the other strains that i did flush properly, try it yourself take two plants of the same strain and flush one and tell me which one is smoother
 
djruiner

djruiner

Well-Known Member
RoloTomassi said:
As I understood it, the conventional wisdom was that you flush to wash the chemicals out and get a cleaner taste. How much do the buds develop in size in the last week of growth? How much do they develop in size during the last 2 weeks? Answers to these questions might alter my approach on flushing; and to what extent is taste effected by not flushing? Since I've never done a harvest Im just trying to do my best to take the information that's out there and incorporate it into my grow. Now that I see there are two opposing camps on the issue of flushing it seems like I accidentally stumbled onto a contentious topic... not quite the point of my thread but oh well...
Click to expand...
well first the term "flush" has been a word used just for marijuana cultivation...research on "leeching". i personally "make it rain" in which your leeching the soil (flushing) every other water...feed..flush...repeat. the ONLY reason to flush is to remove salt build ups that lead to nute lockout. it does not flush the nutes out of the plant..no matter how much forum trolls want to argue that. people read these forums and take most of what they see as fact...bad idea. do some research outside of marijuana forums...this is a plant before its a drug...nature knows best.
but yes...most of the weight can be packed on during the last 2 weeks of flower...and if you "drown" your plants (which i wont get into here since this is about flushing) you can almost double your weight during the last 2 weeks of flower. during the last few weeks a ton of weight gets added to the plant in a last ditch effort to reproduce/survive...if you deprive it of food it will start taking food from the leaves...which is why so many growers on here have half dead yellow plants at harvest...they dont feed them enough...and then to cover up for them half killing their plants...they claim that yellowing in flower is normal...excuses for lack of knowledge....lets not forget how important to curing is nutes at the end...a lot of people wonder why they have that "hay" smell to their harvest...its because they starved their plants at the end...there was no N in the plant to help converting sugars and starches and it never properly cures...why? because instead of giving the plant what it needs...they try to do what other growers say to do on forums. i feed up until the last watering before harvest....for the most part all my plants stay green till chop...some strains wont stay green to the end because of genetic factors...but saying a plant thats almost all yellow at the end due to 2 weeks of flushing isnt normal...its starved. and the flushing is just removing the nute build up in the soil...not removing anything from the plant. i never flush my plants and they always burn great...and i NEVER cough off my stuff..not harsh at all. but if you have a bunch of dried yellow dead leaves on the inside of your bud...prepare to cough your ass off.
 
djruiner

djruiner

Well-Known Member
Tonaloc989 said:
i think that a week of over watering or flushing works best. then after that you dry it with all the leaves on it for four days or so. after about four days, shorter if its really dry, you trim all the fan leaves off and wait for another 3 or 4 days longer depending on how wet the bud is. after all that the chemical and green taste of the buds should be gone
Click to expand...
just drying the plant isnt going to remove the green hay like taste...thats whats curing is for. and leaving the leaves on during dry is best...that helps protect the trich heads during dry.
 
Tonaloc989

Tonaloc989

Well-Known Member
djruiner said:
just drying the plant isnt going to remove the green hay like taste...thats whats curing is for. and leaving the leaves on during dry is best...that helps protect the trich heads during dry.
Click to expand...
protect the trichs? ok thats a possibility but when you dry it the chlorophyll drains out... doesnt it? maybe you should put up a link and show me whats up
 
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