Too much Light?

[Sir PsychoHashy]

The plants need nutrition right up to the day they are at the desired maturity level, follow that with anywhere between 3-14 days of flushing and the plants will continue to mature during that, but at a much slower rate.  The flush is not to benefit the plants, but to benefit the consumer with a cleaner and tastier product, and is definitely worth it IMO.  How long to flush is up to the individual, but I personally don't see any noticeable difference with anymore than 1 week.  I start flush with a week in mind, but will base harvest day decision on the upcoming weather predictions from the BOM, yeah I know, brave decision relying on them

 

If your'e going to grow your own, then you also need to learn to have enough patience to go through every step of the process in whatever time it takes.  The reward for this is getting the absolute best out of all your time, effort, and risk.

[Jim420]

So is there a rule of thumb with flushing ? I heard you pour double the pot size ? I'm a total noob so not sure if that's true ?

 

I'm growing in 17L fabric pots , so does that mean 2 weeks before harvest , I pour through 34L, in one go or over the last 2 weeks ?

[Apeman69]

Hi all thanks for all your opinions on flushing. Great advice. I have since lowered the plant as said. I think I found a massive heat/light spot directly under the hood, which by itself is not a problem but with the nutrient problems/underfeeding I have had in flower stage I think it has all added up to a stressed out plant. I have decided to reduce the flush to a week. I gave the plant a 9 gallon flush of PH'd 6.0 water and then last flush of 1 gallon with 6ml cal/mag solution and she became a lot greener in 1 night. So I will see how things go/grow.

 

Thanks again.

[merl1n]

So is there a rule of thumb with flushing ? I heard you pour double the pot size ? I'm a total noob so not sure if that's true ?

 

I'm growing in 17L fabric pots , so does that mean 2 weeks before harvest , I pour through 34L, in one go or over the last 2 weeks ?

I don't go by pot size but more salt levels (ppm) of the outflow from the pot. Also I block off my outlet and flood the pots so that all of the salts are able to dissolve, leaving no pockets of undissolved salts, if that makes sense.

[Jim420]

I don't go by pot size but more salt levels (ppm) of the outflow from the pot. Also I block off my outlet and flood the pots so that all of the salts are able to dissolve, leaving no pockets of undissolved salts, if that makes sense.

So you flush when you see a salt buildup one the top of the soil ?

 

Sorry if that's a stupid beginners question btw ..

[nici]

Correct me if Im wrong, but Merl1n uses coco is that right Merl1n? Coco is a different beast compared to soil, with soil just water normally with ph water.

[cardrona]

If you have a descent size large bucket sit the whole pot in it fully submerged till all the bubbles stop ...just watering can sometimes only fall down a bit on the top and the sides ...flood it for 5 minutes then let it drain after doing that watering only will be sufficient.

[Sir PsychoHashy]

Pretty sure Merl1n uses perlite from memory, but same applies.  Soil is completely different to any hydro medium, as should be the feeding regime.  Flushing is a more thorough and important task with hydro as the salts from the nutes build up in the medium, with coco and perlite seeming to like to gather and hold salts more than most.  But unless you are feeding hydro nutes in soil, flushing shouldn't be too big a deal, just a simple case of not adding anything to the soil for a while.  I wouldn't think it possible to flush in the same manner as soil is not an inert medium and would therefore be near impossible to flush to a state of being inert?????? 

[cardrona]

http://www.schundler.com/hort.htm

[merl1n]

Hey drizlax420,

"Sorry if that's a stupid beginners question btw" there is no such thing as a stupid question. If you don't know, you ask. We all had to start somewhere. There was no interweb when I started and I made error upon error upon error and learnt the hard way. You don't need to, you can come ask us Much easier. And if you do ask a stupid question you can be sure someone will tell ya

As for you question "So you flush when you see a salt buildup one the top of the soil ?" No. If you get to the point of salt build up being noticeable on top of the grow medium, underneath the salt levels would be HUGE and your plant would be dead. For the salts to crystalize and be noticeable the entire medium would be saturated with salt. I use a salt meter, called a Truncheon http://www.hydroponics-simplified.com/ec-meter.html It has 3 measures EC, CF and PPM. Basically speaking electricity will not pass thru pure water, it's the salts in the water that allows electricity to pass thru it, the more salts the more conductive the fluid is. EC stands for electrical conductivity. cF stands for Conductivity Factor and PPM stands for Parts per million. The Truncheon measures all 3. Personally I use PPM and run my system around 1300-1500ppm, anything higher and I have a marked decline in plant health. Every 2wks I flush my system with straight tap water to flush out the salts that naturally build up. I measure the salts in my tap water and keep flushing until the returning fluids equal the salt levels in the tap water.

I grow in a recirculating hydro system, so my fluid gets pumped to the top of the pot, drains out thru the bottom and returns back to my heart then gets pumped around again. Here's a bit of a mudmap of my heart setup https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/gallery/image/17475-heart-setup/ and, Yea, SPH is correct, I grow in perlite.

 

Hope it helps

Merl1n