Flushing ....

[SukonmiSkunk]

people use RO water so they have total control over the nutrients they are adding into the system... of course RO water is not necessary .. but with a reputable brand of nutrients you should never have any problems as most nutrients are designed for RO water...

 

chato uses RO water.. I think he has to... the building he lives in is all on RO water as the water in china isnt fit for drinking.. but youll have to see chato about that.. I am not exactly sure... Chato???

 

every commercial crop ive seen.. talking veges/herbs here.. grown in hydroponics has ro filters... the herb farm I was working at .. the RO shed was MY problem.. it WAS my job to make sure the filters were cleaning right.. it was my job to test the supply to the main tank.. and the run off...when the ppm's went above 20.. we changed the filters.. we had a anti saline filter as well... which is mainly activated carbon.. that was changed on the month evey month.. that was part of my job too...this had to be done.. as all the supply water was from a bore... not that the bore water was dirty as such.. but like I said.. on the limestone coast the bore water contains unusually high levels of calcium and lime.. taste ok to drink.. sort of... but the with the calcium and lime levels.. the plants wouldn't grow anywhere near as well.. sort of clogs the pours in the roots or something my boss was explaining to me... thus reducing yields dramatically...

 

we had 4 RO filters in the shed.. I was my job to install and plumb them into the system... each filter new cost $55000 so I am sure if it wasnt needed.. they wouldnt have bought them..the RO shed all up was worth about $400 000... so.. obviously it was needed...

[sols]

g'day; i hand feed mine in pots with water can, i premix 20ltr of canna nutes at dose recommended on bottle...100ml per 20ltr of water and hand feed, i rarely need to flush plants thru veg or flower times.

i do always....flush flowering plants for 1 to 2 weeks before harvest.

smoke is clean and not harsh on throat if flushed.friends who no nothing of my grow think i been giving them 'bush' buds they are so clean.they dont like commercial grown 'hydro' because it is too harsh to smoke!

[SukonmiSkunk]

of course you can... hand feeding isnt the best way... id be setting up an auto fed.. but thats me just being the lazy fuck that I am..

 

I cant see why you couldn't mix up a nutrient... depends on what medium youre using... in soil you may not need all that much .. if youre in a soil less medium .. then yeah.. mix up at half strength and see how that goes.. increase the strength slowly as needed... a ppm or ec meter might be the go.. just to make sure the mix isnt too hot/strong... ph meters arent all that necessary but might be worth getting one of them too...

 

do they look like they are suffering at all.. if they look ok nice and green.. maybe its not necessary..

plants will adapt.. i think this is what tiapan is getting at.. no point dosing plants with nutrients if they dont need it.. and I do agree with tiapan.. less is sometimes better...

[Frazz]

Heya Taipan , please dont shut up .. cause when someone like you comes along with a slightly different method /idea it really makes me re-evaluate the way i operate my hydro ... and thats a great thing I listen to everyone and if it takes me fancy i take it home and try it out ...

 

this Ozstoners site is the only way we small-time personel weed growers can swap ideas in relative annominity , and imo that makes us an elite group in our chosen pursuit ..meaning, we know better than most .. what our weed responds to, in some cases we may grow a particular strain of a know genetic line that has been bred generation after generation on high levels of nutrients , plus we have an unusually close relationship with our chosen weeds and have learnt alot through trial and error

 

whereas legal commercial growers who grow vegies or flowers, they can have big conventions where growers can met and share the knowledge with scientists and biologists ... and i agree we could prolly learn heaps from them too

 

 

anyways, i had clone in 36litre of perlite & scoria rock, fed daily at EC 1.2 / 600ppm by 3.5l , runoff 1l to waste .. for 5-6 wks .. then flushed with 4l of ph adjusted water and the runoff measured EC 1.8 / 900ppm ... plant was super healthy and happy

 

as a rule i stick to flushing every coupla weeks , but as a result of this discussion iam going to experimental flush with nutes with a low EC

except for the final flush of course

[bufo marinus]

Fuck sake, hehe I dig what your saying taipan. Maybe it's a coco thing? as always, thanks for a good read man.

I think you may have highlighted some different approaches in regards to water quality.

 

adelaide tap water at the time measured at around 600-750ppm.. on any given day... so I can see where ya coming from about using just water for your grow.. how ever.. id lacks the potassium and phosphorus levels you need for flowering... and the nitrogen levels needed for growing...but even then I was mixing the ppm's to around the 1800 mark...

 

So Sukonmi Skunk you were feeding your plants at 1050-1200 or 2400 2550 ?

[buddy.g]

Hi all as a newbe to this forum i am a little concernd about the way the moderators have conducted themself.

Its like for the first half they had there blinkers on (Living inside the square)

They did come around at the end that someone has had success with another style of feeding.

 

Dont get me wrong it was a good debate with positive(and negatives from both sides)

 

However i hope you havent scared any other newbes from stating there opinions or experiences on your site.

 

As for me i have done it both ways and great success with both.(Same yummy buds).

 

In the end it is up to the individual to make there own choice and do it there own way.

 

Loved the thread and look forward to lots more in the future.

 

Cheers to you all.

 

Buddy.g.

 

p.s. please dont jump down my throat for the critisisim(or bad spelling)

[Budman2012]

Heheh , People just need to loosen up and mellow out a bit I reckon .. Don't ask me how tho , I have no idea

 

But seriously , This is an excellent thread

 

I am just hand watering pots with trays ... It was an instinct to weekly or so give a very diluted solution and sometimes just fresh water ..

Because the Perlite I figure the buildups would always be there to some extent because of It's porous nature (spl?) .. So then If I just water thru the top with plain water there should still be an amount of excess nutes in the tray?? ..

 

Halfay thru flower now and I'm gonna do a proper complete flush and rinse the trays now and give normal strength nutes again Until the Final week or so and ofc just plain water then until harvest

I'm sure I could get away with no full flush until the final one .. but There is abit of Burn on the lower fan leaves and I don't want that to get too much worse ..

 

I'm only learning myself , So does that sound o.k. ya reckon?

Also , WIth pots and trays .. Should I flush them , let them dry out abit then give em nutes? , or just leave abit of fresh water in the trays for 24hrs??

 

Cheerz

 

Budman

[F420]

One of the places I was growing at, had pretty decent tap water. It was under 200ppm total on the truncheon.

The rainwater wasnt much good there though, it was too acidic and mucked up the ph readings.

Where Iam now, it has good rainfall and its clean. Although I havent tested it yet, it tastes better.

Im planning on using rainwater soon for my grows here.

 

Rainwater is very good, if your rain is clean. Alot of it depends usually on how close you are to the city and smog etc? but usually its a wise decision.

 

The EC metres are worth their weight in gold, just to know if you should use your tap water or boil it.

Alot of servos around here have machines where you can buy R/O water. Its bulk stuff, like 20 litres etc for about $1.

 

water quality makes a big difference to the taste for sure.

 

Hi all as a newbe to this forum i am a little concernd about the way the moderators have conducted themself.

 

The moderators are just members like me and you. I would rather have straight up mods. Than mods that sugar coated everything. The way i read this thread, is as if it was conversation.

 

[elki]

Hi, had a bit of a read, not really interested in joining in the argument, but I can offer this... I have run side by side tests for three consecutive grows during the end of flowering flushing stage and have added

 

50mL vanilla essence

 

to plain water in the res tank for flushing one pair, and just plain water to the other.

 

I always flush for two weeks at the end until the leaves turn a bit yellow.

 

What does it do? well, there is no sugar in vanilla essence, so it doesn't provide any sort of nutrient or anything BUT I promise you the buds taste even better and the smoke smells lovely and sweet! Don't reckon it tastes anything like vanilla but there is definitely a positive difference... give it a go.

 

I have tried other 'essences' but vanilla works best because it contains no glucose...

[Dave The Nefarious]

Just in regards to the FINAL flush, Ive only smoked one plant that I wasnt able to flush at the end, it was a Nirvana AK48, a very surprisingly nice sativa pheno with beautiful crystally buds and it was the easiest manicure ever too, but I had to harvest early (and without any final flush at all) due to various complications. Not surprisingly it also turned out to be the harshest crap i've ever smoked - very hard to smoke two cones without nearly throwing up from coughing, it left my throat and mouth feeling itchy, and gave me watery eyes and made me sneeze a lot similar to a mild allergic reaction. Just 48 hours of flushing wouldve almost certainly made it far more smokeable, but I generally aim for 1-2 weeks of plain water during those final days before harvest