flushing and PH ?

[quizywig]

just been thinking about the final flush b4 harvest, why do we use ph adjusted water when flushing? I thought the idea of PH control was to alow the plant to uptake nutes when the PH is in the corect range. So when flushing why adjust the PH when we dont want the plant to take up any more nutes, I would think the plant would take up the water within not to extreme PH range without adjustment.

any thoughts or experience?

[Pickle]

Maybe it also has to do with the plants ability to process the nutes, if it can't process the nutes it has already taken up there is no point in flushing.

 

Maybe water not in that range has a more detrimental effect than just nutrient uptake, it is a measure of acidity and alkalinity after all.

Edited April 12, 2005 by Pickle

[WantDaChronic]

i think it wouldnt make a difference to the harvest when it comes to pH but i see where your coming from...

 

i flushed my plants with a spring water with a pH of 7.0 for 2 weeks and it made the plants pick up heaps, they say for flowering its meant to be like 5.8 so go figure

[quizywig]

thanks guys, PH here comes out of the tap @ high 8, EC 0.9 the PH is proably a bit too high to leave as is, I dont like the 0.9 EC god knows whats in that crud, so i was thinking a loose sort of PH might stop the uptake of the tap water crud, I probably wont stuff with things to much this time round, as good smoko is the first priority, i miss the rain water i used to use EC -0.1 PH 6, nice and clean. hope Luke comes back he'd be the full bottle on something like this im sure.

[instink]

Well if its only for the last 2 weeks you could just buy a big bottle or two of filtered water, if youre that worried abotu the EC (I would be)

 

Wouldnt be that expensive if it was only for 2 weeks...

[jackfrost]

hey mate,

 

what your trying to do with a flush is cause the plant to use up its supply of NPK chemicals so the taste does not come through into the buds.

 

The PH has to be 5.5-5.8 and you need to change the water everyday for about 5 or 6 days, a EC of 0.9 is OK to flush with, RO water would be better.

 

A three part nutrient is very helpfull withthis as you can virtually stop adding N a few weeks before starting your flush. - I recommend General Hydro as nutes of choice.

 

If the PH is incorrect then the plant wont take up the plain water to shift the NPK left in the plant.

 

Sometimes a product like finalrinse helps remove the buildup of salts a little quicker out of the plant.

 

The leaves should be totally yellow and droping down when the flush is completed properly. If you have heaps of green leaves left on the plant when harvesting then you have not grown/flushed the plant right.

 

hope this helps

 

Jack

[Pure]

Jack I was tossing up between RO and distilled and went with distilled this time , as I was told RO water wasn't as good as distilled for a flush but I couldn't figure out a reason I just went with the advice ( usign final rinse already so not sure if that makes a difference in water) , if it's not a problem at all I would prefer to to use RO as it's cheaper for me and I already have plenty of it around for this run

 

so what are your thought on the comparison , I know RO will have zero minerals where as distilled will alwasy contain some sort of traces

[instink]

Isn't it bad though if you get the really super duper distilled stuff cause if its too close to 0ppm then it actually strips the roots of stuff they need and damages the plant?

 

Just something I heard...

[Pure]

dunno bout it having that detrimental of an issue mabey in growth it would be bad but durign flush you ideally want as close as you can get to 0

 

the only reason I thought the reverse osmosis water could be harmfull was because of the process it goes through but I was only told of this issue I am trying to find some evidence or reaosning behidn it

[quizywig]

"If the PH is incorrect then the plant wont take up the plain water to shift the NPK left in the plant.

The leaves should be totally yellow and droping down when the flush is completed properly. If you have heaps of green leaves left on the plant when harvesting then you have not grown/flushed the plant right."

 

thanks jackfrost the extra input is enlightening, I was wondering that if the PH was out to a more minor degree the plant would still absorbe the water but not be able to take up the nutes or anything else in the water.

the leaf die of is hapening steadily although has slowed a lot in the last week as the hairs are starting to brown off so Ill probably start flushing soon, I've never had all the leaves die off, usually pick a bit to early probably why i dont get nice tasting buds, although this time i want to let it go as long as possible, going to be stuck with tap water cant afford to buy anything else