Auto Harvest Assistance!

[Florushingflowers]

Hi all, I have about 3 weeks till harvest and it is likely the top colas are going to be matured long before every other budsite.
I know people half harvest due to scenarios such as mine but my question is how do I go about harvesting main colas with a 10 day flush to rid of excess nutes without compromising the rest of the immature buds that need time to grow? What is my best course of action?

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi @Florushingflowers! Welcome to the forum!

I like your question and it illustrates the amount of confusion that is out there surrounding the flushing question. Many are now of the belief that the final flush is not even necessary. Also, there are people that half harvest or even take 3 harvests from a plant, and usually this is due to them looking for a specific percentage of amber trichomes in the finished product. Many times I have recommended to new growers to sample several harvests from their plant, so as to be able to experience the high at 1%, 5%, 10%, 20% or more of amber, each with a different high to experience. New growers need to sample this, to find out what their individual preference is, and the easiest way to do this is with several staggered harvests of the same plant.
I think in the solution to your questions we need to first examine your assumption that the bottom buds are going to mature a long time after the top is finished. Usually it does not happen like this. Actually, it is my experience that some of the smaller buds at the bottom of the plant mature slightly before the big ones at the top. Things will even out fairly well toward the end and usually you have to wait for the very top to finally show the amber trichomes you are wishing, well after you have seen what you want on the middle and bottom buds.
Continue with your plan to flush at the end, maybe not so much to flush excess nutes as to clear the salts out of the soil so as to allow unfettered water uptake into the buds that are doing their final swell and packing on their final weight at the end. That flush at the end is very beneficial, but not for the reasons that are popularly believed. Do the flush and trust that your plants have had all the nutrition they needed to get to this point. In that 10 days after the flush I still recommend giving high PK finishing nutes, right up to the last watering cycle, but your plants can do perfectly well after this point with no additional nutes too. The only nute that I totally shy away from in the last 2 weeks is magnesium, because it is my belief that it leaves a noticeable aftertaste to my product.
Consider the organic folks who have their nutrients in the soil all of the time, even right up to the end. They don't flush to rid the soil of nutrients at the end. Why then, do people think that synthetic nute growers need to flush to rid the plants of nutrients? The flush is simply to rid the soil of salts and debris at a critical time so the roots can do what they need to do.
Carry on... you have a good plan.

 

[Florushingflowers]

Great feedback Emilya! Why magnesium to leave the noticeable aftertaste? I believe the top will mature before the bottom is due to lack of light penetration through the bushy foilage of leaves but I'll take your advice and wait a couple weeks to see where we're at with Amber trichs

 

[Emilya Green]

I am not sure why so many people are sensitive to the metallic taste that magnesium leaves behind, but I am not the only one in my crowd that can tell