The Importance of Flushing -- too often overlooked

Many growers these days, it seems, ignore the all-important stage of flushing their buds with pure water (no nutrients) for at least 1 week, preferably 2 weeks, before harvest. Proper flushing has numerous benefits, and results in superior quality bud (that is, if you're concerned about quality. If you're just trying to sell a bunch of crappy weed, then read no further). This is my conclusion, from over 20 years of experience growing marijuana.

Some of the benefits of properly flushed weed:

1. Taste/Smell. Pot that was flushed properly before harvest definitely has an improved taste and aroma to the smoke. Those who deny this are amateurs and hacks. The old conisseurs, like mysef, can tell quite a big difference.

2. It burns better, and has an overall smoother smoke, and is not as harsh on the lungs. Unflushed bud will crackle when burned, and burns down to black. Properly flushed bud burns down to white ash.

3. It's much healthier. Smoking nitrate salts (deposits left from all the nutrients) is NOT healthy!

4. It will save you money! Nutrient solutions are not free. Let the plant use up its nutrient reserves in the last two weeks, and just drink pure water with no ferts.

5. Many other benefits...

More growers should properly flush their crops. It would result in a lot better pot out in the marketplace. Tell all your friends and people who grow -- Please Flush your buds! Together, we can make a difference!!

Thanks for reading. Peace out, and Free the Leaf! Legalize it!!
--Puffaluffagus

okay, since you started it... tell me how pouring a bunch of water into the soil is going to improve the taste of my bud??
i'm not smoking the dirt, and i'm pretty sure nobody else is, so what is the purpose of dumping gallons of water through the soil again??

how does dumping gallons of water through a soil make buds burn cleaner??

Yeah, do you remember getting some bud that just wouldn't burn right in a joint? You could pull a single toke off of it after you light it and it would go right back out. And it would continue to do this until you finished the joint one puff one light at a time. I always thought that was because of not flushing before harvest.

I knew racer boy wouldnt let this thread be..
But i give racerboy credit he makes me question flushing. Im on the verge of not flushing because of him..
You kno what they say-if u say something loud enough for long enough people will belive

kentuckyboy said:

Yeah, do you remember getting some bud that just wouldn't burn right in a joint? You could pull a single toke off of it after you light it and it would go right back out. And it would continue to do this until you finished the joint one puff one light at a time. I always thought that was because of not flushing before harvest.

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Thatsbcause either it was done curing all the way or u rolled to tight. Not because of flushing broskins

I never overlook the importance of flushing ... even in the bathrooms of others.
As for harsh weed, I am of the school of thought that holds it's in the cure. cn

Chiggachamp said:

I knew racer boy wouldnt let this thread be..
But i give racerboy credit he makes me question flushing. Im on the verge of not flushing because of him..
You kno what they say-if u say something loud enough for long enough people will belive

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lol, thanks, i think..

i'm serious though, i have tried flushing and it did dick all for my plants... shit didn't do any of the things i have read that flushing is supposed to do...

my bud never burns bad or snaps crackles and pops when rolled in a joint.. i know that people preach that flushing is all important, i just don't buy into it.. there is no science behind flushing... what exactly takes place in a biological level when you dump tons of water into a medium like soil that has dick all affect on the buds we all care about??
i just get a bit confused what dumping water through the soil is going to do for the buds is all.. until someone can tell me what is actually going on on a biological level by flushing my plants, than i'll continue with the non flushing..
just because someone once said it was a good idea to flush, and people have read it and believed it doesn't make it any truer..

and lastly, i just don't understand why cannabis is any different than any other plant people have grown for centuries.. have you ever heard of any flushing a tomato plant?? and shit, you eat them, they'd surely taste like chemicals right??

Racer.... I "flush" a lot of my garden veggies. Sort of. Meaning I just don't give them any additional ferts (teas, top dressing & so on) a couple weeks before I intend to harvest. On plants like tomatoes that produce over a period of time I go off all ferts in the last month before frost and the very last harvest of the year is the best tasting. Not sure if this qualifies as flushing though.

WyoGrow said:

Racer.... I "flush" a lot of my garden veggies. Sort of. Meaning I just don't give them any additional ferts (teas, top dressing & so on) a couple weeks before I intend to harvest. On plants like tomatoes that produce over a period of time I go off all ferts in the last month before frost and the very last harvest of the year is the best tasting. Not sure if this qualifies as flushing though.

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yah, that's not flushing, i do this as well to my cannabis plants, simply cut down on nutes the last week or so... this is completely different then dumping 3x's the amount of soil in water through a plant, which imo does nada for taste, flavor, or any of the other things people say flushing does..

Flushing versus not flushing makes no difference in the end result.only reason to flush is if there is a salt buildup in the soil

Before I went organic and grew with chemical ferts. If I wanted the best tasting maters I'd have to stop fertilizing and water the crap out of them for a week or two before a big harvest. Drastic difference in taste. Now knowing all I was really doing was stripping the fertilizer salt build up out of the soil.

But now say in a hydro set up. Is it technically flushing to periodically run fresh no fert water through your medium to strip the salt build up???

Obijohn answered while I was posting.........

Does anyone have any facts that support salts being removed from soil by flushing? Or any reason why it would make any difference to the plant or how it smokes or tastes? The whole concept seems like bullshit to me

no clue said:

Does anyone have any facts that support salts being removed from soil by flushing? Or any reason why it would make any difference to the plant or how it smokes or tastes? The whole concept seems like bullshit to me

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for someone with no clue, you sure sound like you know what you're talking about..

no clue said:

Does anyone have any facts that support salts being removed from soil by flushing? Or any reason why it would make any difference to the plant or how it smokes or tastes? The whole concept seems like bullshit to me

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AFAIK salts don't affect the smoke or taste. But they DO affect the plants ability to take up nutrients, and in severe cases even water.

i tried flushing. waste of time and winds up with chlorotic plants

Snap crackling and popping ? Sounds like your smoking MITES! ...or seeds!!
Im with racerboy ! I jus cut back the nutes. I might give em water only for a couple days. but a week to 2 weeks is way to long! I also use Drip clean throughout the whole run to help with salts.

1 last watering with no nutes

Instead of flushing you need to drown. An old hippy told me.

As a last ditch effort to survive the plant will ferment all its stored up sugars (or some such). It may be why flushing "works" for some folks, they may just be slowly drowning their plants.

Of course I'm on my very first grow so this is all theoretical to me.

"Does anyone have any facts that support salts being removed from soil by flushing? Or any reason why it would make any difference to the plant or how it smokes or tastes? The whole concept seems like bullshit to me

"

The base fertilizer salts used in commercial ferts are highly soluble in H2O. That's is exactly why they are used. Easily delivered and imediatley available to the plant w/o needing to wait on the bacterial/microbial/fungal biological process to make it bio-available to the plant in a usable form. Water hits the fert, dissolves and is carried to the root mass by osmosis. The part that the plant uses isn't the problem. It's all the left over that builds up over time that is. With good drainage it stands to reason if you dissolved it with water in the first place then you can simply add fresh water and you'll dissolve the remaining built up salt and push it deeper into the ground past the root zone. Or out of the container and medium you are growing in.Fertilizer salt build up is a proven fact as is getting rid of it by saturating the soil with fresh water to redissolve it and "flush" it out of the soil. What do you think that white crusty shit is that accumulates on the top of old houseplant soil??? Not exactly sure what part of this you can call bullshit on.... as for the build up in the bud. Dunno.... but too much salt inhibits the ability of the roots to take up fresh nutes and in turn hurts the growth of the plant. Unhealthy plant = non-primo smoke.

Try growing a few batches of celery. Do one with nothing but miracle-gro and the other with organic ferts. The Miracle-gro grown celery will be noticeably "saltier" in taste than the organically grown celery. Stands to reason it's because of the higher concentration of available salts present for the plant to absorb. Not too far reaching to think this could happen in cannabis as well.


But on the point that flushing makes the bud smoke better. Fucked if I know. My stance would be to not let the salt build up in the growing medium to begin with.

Wyogrow, something about your avatar makes my neck itch. cn

<add> Imo the rmain reason Miracle Gro will give you "salty" celery is because its N source is urea, which the plant can absorb and store to some extent. cn