Micro grow joe
420 Member
Great read bruda respect I’m flushing a girl now lol thinking should I bere: Flushing & Leaching & Final Bud Swell
I'm also starting to question the efficacy of flushing. On the surface it seems like it works. It's logical, certainly, but I'm not sure the plant can work the way described. Let me explain.
The point to flushing is to remove excess fertilizer salts from the grow medium, forcing the plant to consume it's own energy stores. I feel like this is maybe 100% functional for most parts of the plants, except the part we care about, which are the flowers.
Flowers are sinks, not sources, meaning flowers don't provide anything to the plant, it only receives. So, while it makes sense that maybe the leaves would benefit from a flush, the buds really have nowhere to offload excess fertilizer, if any even exists in an available form within the plant matter. I was also thinking that, rarely do we burn flowers with nutrients. Nutrient burn is caused by excess salts forcing water out of cells, at least in essence. If there were excess nutrients in the flowers, flowers should nute burn. But rarely do they. It appears that the vast majority of nitrogen and other elements we feed as fertilizer, are incorporated into the plant matter, not stored or just sitting, but being part of the cell, so, not something you remove via translocation.
I also joined a forum for growing tobacco. Funny, they're just as tight knit community as over here, with different strains and breeders. Cool stuff.
But anyway, these guys don't flush, and laughed their asses off when I explained it to them.
They then, after composing themselves, explained that flavor and harshness are controlled with the cure. They then described their cure methods, which jive with Ed Rosenthals latest grow guide.
Basically, we all have it backwards. We dry and cure, while they cure, then dry.
It was explained that a proper cure of any plant matter requires a period of fermentation, which begins imediately after chop. Curing without fermentation is apparently not actual curing. The cure breaks down most of the nasty plant material via fermentation, so, cells are broken down, gasses release, and any of those elements that had previously constituted the matter of the cell are released, which these guys say takes between 4 and 16 weeks in low/no light, medium humidity and temperature, with air circulation.
After the cure, they dry it to the right humidity just like us, and then age it for a few years.
No flush, no flushing agents, just a really long, true, cure.
Most of us let the buds dry in about the same conditions tobacco usually cures, little to no light, medium humidity, moderate temps, some air circulation. So, we probably are benefitting from a fairly short cure during our drying period, and if we are letting jars air out regularly (air in, actually, a true cure requires oxygen.) So, if you slow dry, and are good about airing jars out, and you do this properly for longer and longer periods, as everyone recommends, you getter better flavor, as everyone seems to say. If you're doing this, you're benefitting from a true cure.
I also found that while oxygen can degrade thc, light is a much bigger enemy, and if cured properly even in the presence of oxygen, the bud should lose very little potency.
I'm not about to bet the harvest on this, but I will be setting a few buds aside for a proper long ferment/cure. Ed says it's best. Others say the same. All of them say it's all about the proper cure, and that our traditional methods are just quick and easy. They work, but could be much better.
So, anyway, aside from our apparently not curing properly, it looks likely that flushing does nothing at all for the flowers, maybe something for leaves. It definitely clears out soil though, so at the least, you aren't pulling more nutes in.
Again guys, this is meant to be a discussion on what's actually happening in the plant. While I appreciate other harvest tips, that's not what this thread is about. In fact, it's these types of tips I'm trying to understand. Too many people just do things either because they seem to work, or at least do no harm. I want to know why it works, not just that it does.
That's how things like Miracle Grow become so popular. Anyone using it thinks it's miraculous, because they don't understand anything about plant nutrition.
Their shit plant looks great after use. It's a miracle!
No, it's just NPK.
The bud tastes better after flushing.
No, it's just the cure.
And I'll continue flushing until I am convinced one way or the other. I lean toward it not working, but the marketing guys (and at least half of you guys) have me scared to risk it for now.
Debate!