Sequential harvest and flushing question: coco

[Cwmoore577]

Hey all,

I'm close to harvesting my white widow plant, the top buds are looking great and ready for harvesting (close to 50/50 amber to cloudy trichomes) but there are plenty of the usual lighter green underdeveloped buds from the middle to the bottom.

I started to flush it with FloraKleen yesterday. I'm in coco, I usually like to flush it around 4-7 days at the very least. Since I have a second plant in the tent that's two or so weeks from finishing I thought I might try harvesting the top buds and letting the smaller ones develop more.

If anyone here has experience doing this and has any insight that would be awesome.


My question is, how much will the flushing affect the growth of the lower buds afterwards? Is it worth it?

I should reintroduce nutrients after harvesting the top buds, correct?

 

[Weaselcracker]

You might hear from a few no-flushing enthusiasts here.

I don’t normally flush really but I often slow down or stop feeding at the end which is really pretty much the same thing.

But yes I’ve done that, and continue to do that sometimes- where I leave the lower buds a bit longer. Never amazing results. I don’t generally get them to develop as much as the top buds do, but they do get a little riper and it’s usually worthwhile as long as you’ve got the space and time.

They do need a little food still. They can get some from their own foliage. The flushing washing most of the nutrients out of the coco and the plants will eat whatever’s left, then start eating themselves - hence the colours and deficiencies you see. Normally they do a pretty good job of finding what they need from their own foliage to finish up with, but after more than a week they’ll be running pretty empty.

A lot depends too on when you harvest. By the time I harvest my plants are usually finishing up on their own and not feeding much anyway. But some people chop early like at seven or eight weeks and in that case you’d probably want to feed right up to the end

I think you could gain a lot by just trying a side-by-side thing and starving some of them, feeding some of the other ones at full strength, some at half strength -just to see what the differences are. You’ll learn a lot more than you will by reading opinions. Good luck.

 

[Cwmoore577]

You might hear from a few no-flushing enthusiasts here.

I don’t normally flush really but I often slow down or stop feeding at the end which is really pretty much the same thing.

But yes I’ve done that, and continue to do that sometimes- where I leave the lower buds a bit longer. Never amazing results. I don’t generally get them to develop as much as the top buds do, but they do get a little riper and it’s usually worthwhile as long as you’ve got the space and time.

They do need a little food still. They can get some from their own foliage. The flushing washing most of the nutrients out of the coco and the plants will eat whatever’s left, then start eating themselves - hence the colours and deficiencies you see. Normally they do a pretty good job of finding what they need from their own foliage to finish up with, but after more than a week they’ll be running pretty empty.

A lot depends too on when you harvest. By the time I harvest my plants are usually finishing up on their own and not feeding much anyway. But some people chop early like at seven or eight weeks and in that case you’d probably want to feed right up to the end

I think you could gain a lot by just trying a side-by-side thing and starving some of them, feeding some of the other ones at full strength, some at half strength -just to see what the differences are. You’ll learn a lot more than you will by reading opinions. Good luck.

Yea always a lot of controversy about flushing. I wish I could do side-by-sides, right now I run two plants at a time in a 2x4 tent so maybe when I get more room in the future. Right now the plant is in the middle of week 9 of flower. Top buds have a ton of amber in the trichomes but lower ones do not.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Weaselcracker]

I guess I scared them off ha ha. ‘Flushing’ is a term that covers a few different things and can be used in different ways- so the arguing gets a bit pointless anyway.

Hard to say without having those lower buds in front of me, whether it’s worth going on longer. Probably worth a try just for experience but it depends on your schedule etc. I usually judge by overall appearance and stickiness/ripeness more than anything.

But yeah, when growing the lower growth for longer I’d probably feed them even if it was only half strength.

 

[013]

That’s right WC - you know I can’t resist a challenge!

I’m not a fan of flushing but I’m somewhere between supersoil and living organic soil grower - so the deal for me is don’t weaken or compact my costly & hard earned soil. I try to avoid it like the plague, however if I spilled something or suspected a too hot nute mix or needed to rescue a plant then heck yeah I would flush if necessary but it is my last card and I’m not wanting to use it. But as far as preharvest flushing - nope, not here.

But if I grew hempy, hydro or coco then yeah I would probably flush too. The main caveat I see is this - the plant takes up... what it takes up - period. No amount of coco flushing, soaking hydro ton, rinsing perlite, root washing or spa days is gonna undo that. It’s not gonna suck nutes back out of your buds.

I have done partial harvest in soil, can’t say in coco. Mine worked great it was a tall layered bushy monster, I took the tops, waited about 10-12 days and cut the mids, then let the lowers cook for another 10 or 12 days and chopped them. Should work fine in coco too, if unsure then just do 2 part harvest instead of 3 part. Bag and tag or rather properly label your batches. Low and slow fridge cure in paper bags is tops, terps were amazeballs

But if you feel better about flushing - thats good enough for me!

 

[Weaselcracker]

Good on ya for wading into these things because someone has to do it.

I don’t know why the OP is flushing, but there are a few variations on the practice whether it’s to wash out excess salts, or try to mend nutrient issues or overfeeding, or just to simulate that fade that plants get in the fall. Even than there are variations on each theme and different ways to go about it. I like that fall fade thing which happens to most strains if I leave them long enough. But they generally get their on their own whether or not I stop feeding.

I don’t flush, usually, but I find that when plants get a chance to feed off themselves at the end- they usually do a good job of using up their stored nutrients and they finish nicely. More sticky, more smelly. Riper. I find the same thing with a lot of garden vegetables and herbs. Also tobacco. Usually the vine ripened stuff that’s left long on the plant is the best. Some tobacco leaf cures beautifully on the plant.

Whether that’s what the OP has in mind, and whether starving a plant in coco necessarily has this same effect- I don’t really know. Maybe. It’s also grower preference. Maybe there are a few people out there who believe you can wash flavours in and out of buds, but I think most people flush for other various reasons. Anyway- no one ever died because of it, as far as I know

 

[Cwmoore577]

That’s right WC - you know I can’t resist a challenge!

I’m not a fan of flushing but I’m somewhere between supersoil and living organic soil grower - so the deal for me is don’t weaken or compact my costly & hard earned soil. I try to avoid it like the plague, however if I spilled something or suspected a too hot nute mix or needed to rescue a plant then heck yeah I would flush if necessary but it is my last card and I’m not wanting to use it. But as far as preharvest flushing - nope, not here.

But if I grew hempy, hydro or coco then yeah I would probably flush too. The main caveat I see is this - the plant takes up... what it takes up - period. No amount of coco flushing, soaking hydro ton, rinsing perlite, root washing or spa days is gonna undo that. It’s not gonna suck nutes back out of your buds.

I have done partial harvest in soil, can’t say in coco. Mine worked great it was a tall layered bushy monster, I took the tops, waited about 10-12 days and cut the mids, then let the lowers cook for another 10 or 12 days and chopped them. Should work fine in coco too, if unsure then just do 2 part harvest instead of 3 part. Bag and tag or rather properly label your batches. Low and slow fridge cure in paper bags is tops, terps were amazeballs

But if you feel better about flushing - thats good enough for me!

@Weaselcracker

Yea, always some disagreement on flushing. I can say that my 1st and 2nd full grow in coco I did not flush and in my 3rd I did. It seemed to be a bit smoother but much like everyone else that's totally anecdotal and could have been from 50 other variables, strain genetics, environment changes, additional lighting added, or me just plain getting the hang of feeding schedules. This is my 4th full coco grow and the first with quality genetics from a good breeder and upgraded quality LED lighting.

Theres two plants, one is the white widow. I flushed it and kept runoff under 200 (0.2) EC for 72 hours, then I harvested the top buds that were ready. They've been drying for 5 days and I just jarred them today to begin burping and curing. After the chop I started feeding again at 600 (0.6) EC. Gonna give the middle and lower buds a week or two to ripen and try to harvest both the rest of the white widow and the purple punch at the same time if I can.

Here's some pictures before chop and then now