flushing - is it necessary

[keepleft]

hi im curious on thoughts re flushing your medium? (grodan in this case - but could relate to any medium)

 

do u believe it is necessary to flush the medium regularly? (eg forthnightly?) with plain water to remove salt build up?

 

i've been told that "If you have to flush your plants because of salt build up it means there is somthing wrong with with your system or your watering cycles"

 

so assuming that you are watering correctly, with sufficient run off etc. does that make flushing uneccessary (except for the end prior to harvest)?

[nitram]

I wil just give you a short response. Hydro = flush & Compost/Coco = Optional :smoke

[everest]

:smoke my last bubbler i flushed when i switched to 12\12 & changed nutes ... then i just run nutes till a wk before chop ... didn't have a problem :smoke

 

so yea , i reckon during the flower period , usually 6\9 wks .... in a good set up ya don't really need to flush .... to me those "lost" days on pure water ... your just wasting flower time

 

ev :smoke

[WantDaChronic]

i believe in giving the plants a really good flush every 2 or 3 weeks, its drains out any salts and nutes + the plants love it

[Frazz]

Roots are growing in a soiless medium, you feed the plant with a solution of water and dissolved nutrients salts at the reccomended dose ok

now come the hot weather the plant begins to increase its transpiration in an effort to keep plant temps down, the roots take up more water than nutrient salts

where are the unused nutrient salts....still in the medium, so over a period of weeks the concerntration of these nutrient salts can reach a toxic point and result in "burning" of plant tissue

therefore i always flush my medium on a regular basis, i have one of those truncheon ppm thingos and often check the flushed out nutrient levels to actually see the degree of build-up :smoke

 

 

 

edit:spel

Edited January 14, 2006 by Frazzle

[Chev]

Yeah, definitley give your girls a flush at least every couple of weeks. For reasons everyone above has already mentioned

[Luke Skywalker]

Yes.

 

It is practically impossible to irrigate with enough run-off to keep salt levels in check. Even at 50% run off you'll have some salt build up.

[Nath]

Days after the flush you will notice your plants pick up heaps, even if there is slight nutrient er.. lock out? or something

 

People say to do it every 10 days, but once every couple weeks is good, in hydro. I been growing with coco and the next grow will be coco, so flushing only takes place once every 2 weeks for me... and even then its not the best flush, just run heaps of PH'd water through the plants.

[keepleft]

what is the best way to flush?

 

1. run the system on ph adjusted water for a certain amount of time (eg a normal 24 hr cycle) and then run with a newly made up batch of nutes as normal; or

2. dump alot of ph adjusted water through the medium in 1 go (eg 10 or 20 litres per plant) to flush the medium and then run on a newly made up batch of nutes as normal.

 

i was thinking number 2 would be best as the plants dont have any 'down' time when they are just running on plain water.