Flush or Not to Flush, That is the Question...

Thundercat said:

Thank you racer you just saved me the time of digging up that thread.

Mader I gave most of my advice on that thread about the Tahoe. I suggest reading at least the first page of the thread racer linked. Riddleme offers some very good unbiased info I think.

The very basics of the concept are flawed as flushing the medium will not remove anything from the buds. What flushing does do is starve the plants of nutrients they are trying to use to grow. That is why you see the leaf fade while flushing. I feed all the way till harvest and some plants will still fade a little because the are nearing the end and use up the nutes they have. The last 2 weeks of a plants life is when it puts on the most weight trying to "protect the seeds". So to me starving a plant while it is trying to work its ass off making buds and resin would be like starving a body builder when he's trying to bulk up before an event. That guys body won't have the nutrients it needs to build the muscles.

I tell everyone the same thing about flushing basically, try it both ways and decide what you like more. I havn't flushed in years because once I learned how to dry and cure, my bud always burned great, and tasted great. I've smoked true organic plants, and I've smoked other hydro plants, and if the genetics are good, and the plants were grown and harvested carefully its great either way. I feel very strongly that 90% of it is in peoples heads.

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Thundercat said:

Man I'd have to go all back through it and look for a link on curing. Maybe Racer will pop in with that for me too, he's good like that.

If you have the space, time, and environment I feel the best way to dry and cure is as such to maximize flavors and leave you with a smooth smoke. The SLOWER you dry the plant usually the better the smoke will be IMHO. The same basically applies to the cure as well.

Chop plants and remove largest fan leaves and hang the plant as whole as possible to dry. Ideally drying would be done in a dark, room tempish area with good air circulation. This should take 5-7 days on average, sometimes more which isn't bad as long as there is enough air flow so you don't get mold.

Once the plants seem slightly crispy on the surface, and the stems have a slight snap to them when you bend them I would usually finish my trim job. As I'm trimming ALL of the sugar leaves off, if the buds still feel moist inside I'll toss them in a paper bag over night and the next day they are usually ready for glass mason jars. I emphasize all the sugar leaves for a reason. Some guys leave them on the buds, and I don't get it. I understand they are covered in trichomes, thats why I trim them all and use the trim for oil or edibles. I also feel that they make the smoke more harsh because of the extra plant matter. I believe most guys leave them for the extra weight, but I'd rather have oil.

After it goes in jars I check on it and shake the jar a bit a couple times a day for the first couple days. If the buds seem overly moist for some reason I'll leave the jar open a few hours. Once the buds are to a texture I like I just leave them till I smoke them.

There are different things like hygrometers, and the boveda desiccant packs that will help you control/ monitor actual humidity. I've never played with any of these techs, some people swear by them. I mostly go by my senses. I can generally tell how dry the buds are in my jars by shaking the jars a little without even opening them. Dry buds make a different sound on the glass and lid then wet ones do.

Hope this helps. There are tons of threads on here about curing techniques. I am going to be trying Riddlemes root drowning technique here in a few weeks. I've got a batch of 15 plants that are all identical clones. I'm gonna try the root drowning tech on 5 I think and see how the smoke compares to the rest.

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