First Timer - Do I need to Flush my plants?

I have 3 indoor Thai Skunk plants, I'm 1 week into flowering....I've been reading some posts about flushing the plants on a regular basis....I have not flushed mine ever....should I do that and when?

I'm assuming that means just take the plants, put them in the bathtub and run water through them for a couple minutes...that how it works?

Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks.

dont bathe your plants....please.

tell me more...whats your medium, feeding method and how often, pot size.

4 gallon pots, soil, started with seed....i water about every 4 days and feed them nutes every other water.....

I have not started my flowering nutes yet....I will do that tomorrow.....

you should flush before you start the flower nutes..if you havent already

a lot of people do a feed, feed, flush cycle. i think if you allow for a fair amount of run-off when feeding/watering, you can avoid flushing until the end of flower.

You dont have to flush it in the normal sense... Just when you water the last four times or about i do 2...Dont add any nutes and keep it ph water....this will infact flush your soil enough if its draining properly with less stress then flooding it and letting it dry out. Thyen I start my flowering cycle with some mollassas and bloom nutes.. I stop use of the mollassis then untill the last 20 days of flowering. Smokey is right on though gotta do some kind of flush before flowering nutes to stabalize the NPK

I alternate WATERING with feeding. I do not flush unless there's a specific need to do so, i.e. harvest is due in a couple of weeks or more (waiting too long will leave you with SNAPCRACKLEPOP buds) or an obvious case of nute burn.

I posted this before on numerous occasions, so I'll just copy and paste it here for you.
"I was gonna write that this info I'm giving you was "my opinion", but it's not my opinion, it's a fact. You don't need to flush your plant to get great tasting, super smooth smoke from your plant. I myself, along with NUMEROUS, other long time, extremely knowledgable growers on this site(and other sites also), NEVER, EVER flush. As long as you dry your buds right, and then cure them right, you'll have the best smoke you've ever packed in your bowl. In fact, I'll even go as far as to say that if you do flush, your plants will take longer to finish up. Here's the way I see it. The one time I flushed my plant(b4 RIU existed, when I was a noobie, and went by what some others said), my plant seemed to suffer more than anything. It started to droop, and the leaves all started turning yellow. Yes, some leaves will die and turn yellow towards the end of flowering, but not like mine did and expeditiously following the flush. A flowering plant needs food to produce the biggest, bestest buds possible, especially in the end when it's finishing up. If you strip the grow medium of the essential nutrients that your plant is using, it's gonna suffer. No two ways about it. I feed my plants right up to a week before harvest, and I've been told on more than 100 occasions, lol, that my stuff is the smoothest they've ever had. I've done the test to see if there was a difference, and there wasn't. Flushed one plant(same strain and grow times, etc.) and left the other one alone, and you would never be able to tell the difference between the two."

Antman said:

I posted this before on numerous occasions, so I'll just copy and paste it here for you.
"I was gonna write that this info I'm giving you was "my opinion", but it's not my opinion, it's a fact. You don't need to flush your plant to get great tasting, super smooth smoke from your plant. I myself, along with NUMEROUS, other long time, extremely knowledgable growers on this site(and other sites also), NEVER, EVER flush. As long as you dry your buds right, and then cure them right, you'll have the best smoke you've ever packed in your bowl. In fact, I'll even go as far as to say that if you do flush, your plants will take longer to finish up. Here's the way I see it. The one time I flushed my plant(b4 RIU existed, when I was a noobie, and went by what some others said), my plant seemed to suffer more than anything. It started to droop, and the leaves all started turning yellow. Yes, some leaves will die and turn yellow towards the end of flowering, but not like mine did and expeditiously following the flush. A flowering plant needs food to produce the biggest, bestest buds possible, especially in the end when it's finishing up. If you strip the grow medium of the essential nutrients that your plant is using, it's gonna suffer. No two ways about it. I feed my plants right up to a week before harvest, and I've been told on more than 100 occasions, lol, that my stuff is the smoothest they've ever had. I've done the test to see if there was a difference, and there wasn't. Flushed one plant(same strain and grow times, etc.) and left the other one alone, and you would never be able to tell the difference between the two."

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that most definetly IS an opinion, NOT A FACT AT ALL.

Absolutely agreed. This is actually the first post I've seen where someone is recommending you don't flush at least two weeks prior to harvest. Maybe he'd like to buy the Cali. Indica x Big Bud I've got sitting here that goes SNAPCRACKLEPOP because I was forced to harvest her before I had a chance to flush.
She was even water-cured because her buds were so full of soil (the plant was blown off the deck, had at least two to three weeks left to go, so I hadn't even begun flushing). And, no, there were not bugs in the buds, either.

I'm not smoking that stuff unless I'm desperate. blech.

SlikWiLL13 said:

that most definetly IS an opinion, NOT A FACT AT ALL.

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IT'S A FACT!! Don't take my word for it though. DO WHAT I DID. Take the same strain, in my case it was "Lethal Purple", grow them both under the same lights, with the same nutes, same everything. Flush one whenever you normally flush your plants, and feed the other one right up to the last week before harvest. Here's the important part so pay attention. Dry both of them CORRECTLY and MOST IMPORTANTLY, "CURE" them CORRECTLY. Have someone pack a bowl of each without telling you which one's which. Let me know how things turn out. Like I said in my first post it's NOT opinion. Don't believe me?, or care to do the flushing/not flushing test yourself?, no matter. I know what happened when I did it...NO DIFFERENCE!! Go find Al B. Fuct and ask him if he flushes his plants. That dude has more knowledge of growing than probably anyone on here and he'll clue you in.

Seamaiden said:

Absolutely agreed. This is actually the first post I've seen where someone is recommending you don't flush at least two weeks prior to harvest. Maybe he'd like to buy the Cali. Indica x Big Bud I've got sitting here that goes SNAPCRACKLEPOP because I was forced to harvest her before I had a chance to flush.
She was even water-cured because her buds were so full of soil (the plant was blown off the deck, had at least two to three weeks left to go, so I hadn't even begun flushing). And, no, there were not bugs in the buds, either.

I'm not smoking that stuff unless I'm desperate. blech.

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Maiden, you're usually right on the mark with your comments, but we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. Sorry to hear about your plant being covered in dirt. I don't need to buy weed from anyone, that's why we all grow our own. Do you think that the reason your weed is going SNAPCRACKLEPOP is because you didn't flush it, or maybe there's still some tiny water pockets inside the bud from the water cure. I've heard of that happening. Have you ever water cured before this time, or did you just do it this time because of your plant landing in the dirt? Like I said, do a side by side test and get back to me about your results. Peace, love and chicken grease.

if youre plants are healthy, whats the point? Are you flushing to PRE-vent a situation? or are you flushing just to flush?

My thought is thats alot of water to run thru if you don't really need to. If we are talking about saving a plant from certain death and yellowing I could see the point, but I think that by the second watering that you may have a chance to reclaim what may have been lost. Or if by the second watering its too late as well, then by all means, try to get that lock-up crap out of there, but that will is a great question, when is it necessary to flush it? And how much may be lost by not flushing. Certainly there are other large factors at play here than to just narrow down on water.

thanks guys for all the replys....my thought in originally posting my question was to make sure that my bud doesn't have any bad tastes.....being a First-timer and doing some reading on this site i thought that flushing was needed, at least in the last week or so of flowering......

snowman - my plants seem to be healthy and doing fine so just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing a step in the process....this is the first time I've ever grown anything...lol....so didn't want to screw things up since the reward is so great......

antman - so you think just continue to nute up until harvest?

I mean doesn't a simple watering flush the soil?.....


thanks guys

theSDkid55 said:

I have 3 indoor Thai Skunk plants, I'm 1 week into flowering....I've been reading some posts about flushing the plants on a regular basis....I have not flushed mine ever....should I do that and when?

I'm assuming that means just take the plants, put them in the bathtub and run water through them for a couple minutes...that how it works?

Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks.

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When they say 'flush the plants' they mean use nute free water (within ur normal watering regime) to dilute and release any unused nutes in the soil and plant.

I tend to do mine every third watering. If you've been growing for years (I have not) and know how quick ur plants are growing and when to use what rate u'll be fine.

But, when people first start growing they/we/I tend to over nute (the more the merrier) - so personally I would recomend a nute free watering every 3rd or 4th watering. It will help to prevent a build-up of un-used Nitrogen in the soil that ur plant will take up in (and therfore lenghthening) the flowering stage.

theSDkid55 said:

thanks guys for all the replys....my thought in originally posting my question was to make sure that my bud doesn't have any bad tastes.....being a First-timer and doing some reading on this site i thought that flushing was needed, at least in the last week or so of flowering......

snowman - my plants seem to be healthy and doing fine so just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing a step in the process....this is the first time I've ever grown anything...lol....so didn't want to screw things up since the reward is so great......

antman - so you think just continue to nute up until harvest?

I mean doesn't a simple watering flush the soil?.....


thanks guys

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If you feed your girls modestly, you don't need to flush them. Like you said, the last watering can be given without nutes if you want and the plant will use up what is left. But to water it with 3X the water of the size of the pot, two or three weeks before harvest, and all that mess is not necessary. Like I said, DRYING correctly, and CURING correctly is what makes your buds smell great, taste great, and smoke great. You'll see.

From what I understand Professional growers (the guys you get the dank genetics from) flush 24hours between every feeding. Then a week between veg/flower and a week in the end.

Never flush? Hum. I wouldnt smoke it.

Antman said:

IT'S A FACT!! Don't take my word for it though. DO WHAT I DID. Take the same strain, in my case it was "Lethal Purple", grow them both under the same lights, with the same nutes, same everything. Flush one whenever you normally flush your plants, and feed the other one right up to the last week before harvest. Here's the important part so pay attention. Dry both of them CORRECTLY and MOST IMPORTANTLY, "CURE" them CORRECTLY. Have someone pack a bowl of each without telling you which one's which. Let me know how things turn out. Like I said in my first post it's NOT opinion. Don't believe me?, or care to do the flushing/not flushing test yourself?, no matter. I know what happened when I did it...NO DIFFERENCE!! Go find Al B. Fuct and ask him if he flushes his plants. That dude has more knowledge of growing than probably anyone on here and he'll clue you in.

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#1. your talking about a side by side taste test....the results of which will be someones OPINION

#2. when we flush we remove the nutes from the soil, but this is not the point of flushing. the point of flushing is to make the soil devoid of nutes so the plant uses its stored nutes. nutes that dont burn correctly like magnesium and phoshorus.

#3. if i understood you correctly, you dont feed for the last week. if your watering with just water, thats flushing.

SlikWiLL13 said:

#3. if i understood you correctly, you dont feed for the last week. if your watering with just water, thats flushing.

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I said if HE wants to, HE can, I didn't say I do. Flushing is a waste of time. It's really too bad that Al B. Fuct ain't around anymore. Oh where, oh where has my Al B. Fuct gone? He could explain it to ya like only he could. LOL. Like I said a couple of times already, IT'S A FACT! I can't give you testimonials from the 100's of ppl who I have SHARED my grows with, and who said my shit is awesome. NOT harsh, smells great in the bag and while burning, NO headaches. SO... do what you like and I'm out. I know what works and what don't. Peace.

cruzer101 said:

From what I understand Professional growers (the guys you get the dank genetics from) flush 24hours between every feeding. Then a week between veg/flower and a week in the end.

Never flush? Hum. I wouldnt smoke it.

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If you classify a "Professional" by "Someone you get the dank genetics from", then I'm a "Professional" along with several other growers on this site. I've seen some ppl on here with some DANK looking grows, along with mine. And nobody says you gotta smoke my weed bro. The line is long, and you don't even have a number. LMAO!!