How important is it to flush?

Flushing is a myth
poor tasting weed can be many things, some strains/phenos have very little taste to start with
some are very leafy or lack resin, or dried to quickly or not cured correctly
bud that is still spongy even with a small amount of moisture will lack flavour

when you find a tasty plant you enjoy and are able to dry and cure it correctly and also remove all the little leaves from the buds
they can spoil the flavour too there should be no problem with taste
the amount of nutrients left in the plant matter would be so small by weight to suggest it would have an effect on the taste is silly
you would require superman like taste buds to detect the traces left behind i am sure

i doubt very much any of the fruit and vegetables that are available in supermarkets have been flushed
i have never heard of anyone complaining that they can taste nutrients in their strawberries lol
perhaps it is just some form of misguided pot-snobbery

UrbanRemo on youtube says it doesn't light as well if it isn't flushed. He's probably right. Might as well flush, if only to save money on nutrients. If you smoke out of a bong or vape, you probably won't notice a difference in taste.

Flushing is a myth to keep eager stoners not to chop too early. Only reason I might give it plain water towards the end is because I'm too lazy sometimes to care. If you've grown these out right, it doesn't matter what you do the last 5 days.

Nine weeks sometimes means ten.

We have tried it both ways. Flushed weed tastes much better. Same clone same setup, the flush stuff is of better quality. Your results may vary.

You necessarily don't have to flush.... just do not feed a week before harvest. Just water it regularly a few times before u chop w/ h2o and let it dry out the day before.

Bud that has been fertilized to much does crackle when its smoked. But its rare u taste it, unless they foilar fed and was sloppy

In a dwc system, it's easy to see that the girls want less water and nutrients after they're done peaking. As long as the ppm are brought low to say around 600ppm (my low is other people's high), the plant will not burn and the leaves and buds will be very healthy upon harvest. If the plant looks burned or has hard leaves with spots and burning edges, it's probably because you fed it way too much P during early and mid flowering.

My strategy for a "flushing" solution is an NPK ratio of 1-6-3 at 600ppm, and this is only for the last week, when the plant still has all its green leaves.

Really though, the biggest difference in taste has more to do with how much starch the plant has in it when it's done curing, and most of that has to do with how much starch the plant has when you cut.

Plants store starch in their leaves during the day and burn off all of it during the night. They plan out exactly how fast they must burn starches at night to make it through the night because they can anticipate night length by its circadian rhythm. This means if you cut immediately after the lights turn out, they will have the maximum amount of starch content, and if you cut right before the lights come on, they will have the minimum amount of starch content, about 0, because it knows exactly how much it needs to burn to burn all of it in one night.

Weed only stores enough starch in its leaves to last for one day, so the idea of flushing it out over the period of weeks doesn't make any sense. Even shorting day lengths over the last few weeks wouldn't really help much because it figures out exactly how much starch to burn over the night to end up with 0 at dawn either way.

Here, check out this starch iodine test (areas with high starch content turn black):



Fig. 7. Iodine staining of rosette leaves from each plant. Rosette leaves were obtained at the end of the night (EN) and day (ED) from wild-type (WT), TL46, and transgenic plants (Twt-1, Tup1-9, Tup2-1, and Tup3-2) and then treated in iodine solution.

Source:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168945205002670

If any of the starch doesn't finish breaking down before the cure ends, it will go stale. You all know that smell... and it breaks up terribly.

My guess is that cutting right before the lights comes on will provide you with better tasting weed than flushing and cutting right before the lights go out. I say "guess" to be honest. I've never actually "flushed" before to compare.

holy smokes there really doesn't appear to be a definitive answer....im using hesi coco nutes in an autopot setup....i thought the point of flushing was not.to starve the plant of.nutrients but to get it to use the nutrients.stored in its leaves...therefore the buds are still being fed...right? and anyway....all this talk of.plumping up.cows before slaughtering.them....that aint the best frikkin beef to be eating is it? thats like saying oh but kfc feed the shit out of their.chickens....sounds like quantity over quality doesnt it?

at the same time.people have a valid point with veg n fruit, dont know much about it bt im.guessing they dont get flushed...the hesi feeding chart says to flush....and they dont have a flush product....so im intending to flush, just with phd water

budbuddingding said:

holy smokes there really doesn't appear to be a definitive answer....im using hesi coco nutes in an autopot setup....i thought the point of flushing was not.to starve the plant of.nutrients but to get it to use the nutrients.stored in its leaves...therefore the buds are still being fed...right? and anyway....all this talk of.plumping up.cows before slaughtering.them....that aint the best frikkin beef to be eating is it? thats like saying oh but kfc feed the shit out of their.chickens....sounds like quantity over quality doesnt it?

at the same time.people have a valid point with veg n fruit, dont know much about it bt im.guessing they dont get flushed...the hesi feeding chart says to flush....and they dont have a flush product....so im intending to flush, just with phd water

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Autopots are a little different since there is no waste or runoff normally. They will build up a lot of salts. You will need to flush the salts at the end for the best taste. Pour in a gallon of tap water and check your runoff for ppm. If it's higher than what you feed with then you will need a flush. You should do a mini-flush occasionally with autopots to keep your ppms in range....but for sure flush at the end

i always at least back off nutrients and make sure the last watering is straight ph'ed water, let the plant shows signs of nitrogen loss, and then chop in the morning, right before the lights go on (to avoid extra starch in the plant system)
after I let it Whole hang dry for 5-8 days, then chop it up and put the buds closer together and into a small box, hanging.
from here i try as hard as i can to make it to the 14 day point~ usually i cant make it past 12 or so days
for the remainder i check the buds each day until ready for cure, giving them a 1 hour burp

also forgot to mention that I do my trimming before i go into jars, ill take the stalks and put em in a plastic bag for a few hours; once the moisture has transferred i trim the buds off and down and put them to the cure jars

its very important the buds are grown FULL, this means not growing a plant thats just a bunch of popcorn , it will dry way too quick and your left with a chlorophyll

as far as i know the chemicals have nothing to do with whats in the fruit; i could be wrong but i've done a lot of looking around for the answer to this and to my understanding a proper dry and cure is the most important and the drying part is just like flushing, and the curing is then done
you can get a hygrometer for your jar just to be sure its not too humid in there.

I flush. I tasted 2 week cured /non flushed, tasted very I chemically, flushed out same strain and smells and taste better and is more potent. Maybe from trichromes aging more. I love experiments .

EvlMunkee said:

Autopots are a little different since there is no waste or runoff normally. They will build up a lot of salts. You will need to flush the salts at the end for the best taste. Pour in a gallon of tap water and check your runoff for ppm. If it's higher than what you feed with then you will need a flush. You should do a mini-flush occasionally with autopots to keep your ppms in range....but for sure flush at the end

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cool i have been.doing.occasional flush, as theyre only autoa they aint int them.for that long anyway, and start them.off with top watering fot a bit.too but now theres no doubt im 100% gonna flush. do hydro/coco sytle setups need a week of phd water or as it drains so well will one flush at the end be aufficient do you think?

2 or 3 days before chop you flush your hydro crop . 1-2 weeks for soil

budbuddingding said:

cool i have been.doing.occasional flush, as theyre only autoa they aint int them.for that long anyway, and start them.off with top watering fot a bit.too but now theres no doubt im 100% gonna flush. do hydro/coco sytle setups need a week of phd water or as it drains so well will one flush at the end be aufficient do you think?

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It depends on your runoff ppm. Check it. It's the only way you will know. I do not ph my last water. I put a gallon of plain water or enough for runoff. If the ppm is half of what I use for feed then I let it dry and then cut. If not I add more water until it is below half normal ppm. Then I let it dry and cut.
So is you are keeping your ppm in range there is no need for a full flush(3-4 times volume of pot), but if you have let it build up you should flush some of it out.

I read a few times that people claim a chemically taste without a flush. Wtf kind of nutes you guys running? You guys ever grow tomatoes using the same nutes? Tastes fantastic without flush.

EvlMunkee said:

It depends on your runoff ppm. Check it. It's the only way you will know. I do not ph my last water. I put a gallon of plain water or enough for runoff. If the ppm is half of what I use for feed then I let it dry and then cut. If not I add more water until it is below half normal ppm. Then I let it dry and cut.
So is you are keeping your ppm in range there is no need for a full flush(3-4 times volume of pot), but if you have let it build up you should flush some of it out.

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i dont have ec/ppm pen, using hesi coco nutes, apparently due.to.some organic compounds they use.it.throws of such readings.....but will defo give a good few days flushing...theyve had a good few weeks, possibly coming upto.a.month with no flush so will do it thoroughly.....

so.

if one were to feed.right.upto chop, would fan leaves still yellow towards the end.of a plants life?

budbuddingding said:

i dont have ec/ppm pen, using hesi coco nutes, apparently due.to.some organic compounds they use.it.throws of such readings.....but will defo give a good few days flushing...theyve had a good few weeks, possibly coming upto.a.month with no flush so will do it thoroughly.....

so.

if one were to feed.right.upto chop, would fan leaves still yellow towards the end.of a plants life?

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yes. flushing accelerates it tho

Growing hydro DWC for 5 years. Never flushed. Reefer taste great.

Well, I grow organically so I stop using teas two weeks before harvest and stop molasses one week prior. My second grow ever was w/ miracle grow, not flushed, and it tasted fine but would spark when you lit it, had low smell and no distinct or memorable taste.