Have I flushed my DWC enough?

[nightOWL]

Hi all! I'm at the end of my first grow. I have two 5 gallon buckets, one has am ak-48, the other has northern lights.

I got concerned about the yellowing of of the fan leaves and posted a question last week and the consensus was to start flushing. So here's my question...

long story short, my schedule dictated that I wait to flower so the plants are large and unwieldy. Early on, I would mix a new bucket of nutrients and then just pick the net pot up and move it to the new bucket. Midway through flowering, the plants were just too big to move so I would simply mix up the nutrients, slid the net pot enough that I could just pour the nuts in. Here is the schedule for the last 13 days:

Friday - 3 gallons of nutrients added
Monday - 1 gallon of nutrients to top off
Thursday - 3 gallons of fresh water
Saturday - 1.5 gallons fresh water top off
Monday - 1.5 gallons fresh water top off
Wednesday - 1.5 gallons fresh water top off

Tomorrow will be the 7th day of my flush - is that enough? I ask because there is always a little bit of liquid in the base of the bucket when I pour in the new nutrients. Last thursday when i started the flush there was a little liquid left in the bucket... It had been at least 3 days so i'm not sure how much of the nutrients were left in the water.

The other reason I ask the is this: the plants are starting to look a little fatigued. I have a lot of the flowers tied up, but it looks like a few flowers that weren't bent over... i've tied them up, and the stems didn't break, but were definitely bent...

i've got the night free tomorrow... thinking hard about harvesting

sorry for the long winded question, but I could really use some advice!

thanks!

 

[BuddroGreen]

If I understand, you flushed with nutrients?

When it's time to flush your plant(s) for harvest you don't use nutrients, when flushing in DWC use just RO/distilled water or tap water, I prefer RO/distilled water for flushing, tap water can have all kinds of crap that the plant will uptake and be in the plant and you smoke when dried.

I flush for 7-10 days in DWC, I use a product called FloraKleen by GH, I use it for the first 3 days with RO/distilled water, and then the last 4-7 days I will use only RO/distilled water.

Flushing is to remove the salts from the root zone, and also helps the plant to use up it last stored nutrients, that's why plants look like they have problems during the flush, it's natural for the plant to yellow and look like deficiencies when at the last days of life, and when making the plant use up it's reserves.

 

[nightOWL]

If I understand, you flushed with nutrients?

When it's time to flush your plant(s) for harvest you don't use nutrients, when flushing in DWC use just RO/distilled water or tap water, I prefer RO/distilled water for flushing, tap water can have all kinds of crap that the plant will uptake and be in the plant and you smoke when dried.

I flush for 7-10 days in DWC, I use a product called FloraKleen by GH, I use it for the first 3 days with RO/distilled water, and then the last 4-7 days I will use only RO/distilled water.

Flushing is to remove the salts from the root zone, and also helps the plant to use up it last stored nutrients, that's why plants look like they have problems during the flush, it's natural for the plant to yellow and look like deficiencies when at the last days of life, and when making the plant use up it's reserves.

Sorry, I was tired when I typed that last night... I gave the plants 3 gallons of week #8 of flowering nutrients according the the GH feeding schedule, I topped off with 1 gallon of the same nutrients the following monday. Three days later I started only adding water - that was 7 days ago - so they've had nothing but water for a week... my concern was that there was a little bit of the nutrient solution left in the bottom of the bucket when I started the flush... the plants are just too damn big and unwieldy to try to move to new buckets. If I harvest now, after 7 days will that be enough?

 

[BuddroGreen]

Give them 3-7 more days of fresh water, and you should be golden.

Also, invest in a wet/dry shop vac $20-$30 at wallyworld, home depot/lowes etc. That away when they're that big and you cant move them, you can suck out the nutrient solution (be careful of roots), that's what I do and works great.

 

[nightOWL]

Give them 3-7 more days of fresh water, and you should be golden.

Also, invest in a wet/dry shop vac $20-$30 at wallyworld, home depot/lowes etc. That away when they're that big and you cant move them, you can suck out the nutrient solution (be careful of roots), that's what I do and works great.

thanks for the reply... i'm concerned about the flowers though - a lot of them are tied up, but there are a few that weren't and flopped over and bent the stems... i've since tied them up... will they last a few more days after having their stems bent?

 

[BuddroGreen]

Yes, put the stem back up like it was and you should be good to go....for your next grow, check out the supercropping technique, it's where you twist & bend the stem over and they knuckle up and thrive, and you will grow more cola buds.

 

[nightOWL]

Yes, put the stem back up like it was and you should be good to go.

cool! thanks for the help... don't want to harvest prematurely, but don't want to have some flowers ruined either! I guess I'll wait until sunday then...

 

[BuddroGreen]

Always check your trichomes for maturity, that away you will know exactly where you are for harvesting.

 

[nightOWL]

Always check your trichomes for maturity, that away you will know exactly where you are for harvesting.

I've been keeping close tabs on them... they're a mix of milky with some darker ones. my biggest concern was harvesting before i could flush all the nutrients out.