Flushing too soon?

[George]

High everyone, I think I made (another) mistake having wrongly interpreted some data:I’m running a Critical + in DWC, in their website they say the flowering stage was 45-50 days indoor, I started to count when I changed the light cycle to 12/12 ,later I noticed you start counting after you see the first change (pistils one week later in my case), someone also told me he always flushed in the seventh week of that stage (which was my case before finding out it was my sixth week).

So I flushed and next Wednesday the plant will have lived three weeks with no nutes. Fortunately, I’ve seen one farmer that flushes three weeks, I thought two weeks was the limit. Still don’t have any amber trichomes and I don’t know if this lack of nutes can affect the final result and if there is anything I can do about it. Leaves are clear green and many yellow, so she is cannibalizing herself but I don’t know if it will be enough. I attach some pics from right now, thanks for your help …

[slain]

You know, personally I am not sold on the whole notion of flushing. Biologically it doesn’t make sense to me at all. For example, the plant requires the nutrients for cellular activity, and they are not ‘stored’ in the plant only to be combusted and effect taste.
I am willing to be convinced that this is not one of those cannabis "lores ", but I personally have not seen any advantages to it. If someone more knowledgeable than me can explain scientifically WHY this is a real thing, I would love to hear it.

On the other hand I HAVE experimented with adding various levels of salt in the last two weeks, so up to 300ppm of regular table salt, wich upsets the ability of the plant to take up water and mimics water stress.
I tried this after reading various studies that this increased essential oil production in herbs, and sugars in vegetables when grown hydroponically. So far I think it works, slightly effects yield but not overly and the aroma seems a lot stronger.
So far not a very scientific approach however.

[Doulovebeef]

Hey bro, I start my count down when I flip 12/12.

I grow in coco with synthetics. It is my personal opinion that flushing is only to be used if u overfed the plants.

4 days before chop they get non pH adjusted RO water. That’s it.

[George]

@slain Thanks for your reply, this is not intended to be a discussion about to flush or not. My plant has now clear green and yellow leaves because she is feeding with the nutrients it has stored there, so guess if you don’t flush you will smoke them. Regarding the salt, regular salt has Sodium that would kill the plant, Epsom salt or similar has Magnesium which is good for flowering stage, as I’ve been told.

@Doulovebeef Nice tips, thanks, if I count as you say my plant is in her 63rd day of flowering stage, which is a lot of time if apparently it is not ready yet, which I am worried about …

[slain]

Yah,sos I didn’t mean to hijack the thread. Well at high levels salt can/does damage them sure. But see here for a reference on how it can be used to boost ‘essential oils’ in other herb crops. There is a fair bit of other research out there along similar lines.

NaCl stress-induced changes in the essential oil quality and abietane...

[Palindrome]

Reg plants you count from flip to 12/12
Auto’s you count from seeing first flowers.

I useually start my flush 10-14 days before harvest, so it’s different from strain to strain.

It’s never to late to start flushing, unless your plant is dying. You can just give it a bit longet, letting the flowers ripen a bit more.

[George]

Thanks Palindrome, I will wait some more as you say, I hope she will have enough nutes until then. How do you know when the plant is ready to flush if the counting days from the start of flowering period is not reliable? Cheers …

[Palindrome]

Get a magnifying glass and look at the trichomes, it’s for all I know the easyest way to see how far your plants are.

In general - there are different types of trichomes, but in rough terms.

Clear trichomes are not ready and unripe - gives little buzz.
Milky trichomes are active but still not fully ripe - can be very potent, but often wears off fast.
Amber trichomes are fully ripen and most potent. - Will get you the most high, and the high will last long.

It’s different what people enjoy the most, and how wasted they wanna get and for how long.

If your only 50 days in, and you haven’t fed her for 3 weeks. I would give her a small feeding, but hold back on the dose and don’t give it anything with a high N value.
Once you start to see ambers, flush your medium with pH adjusted water.
And reflush her, and cut when you have any where between 5-20% ambers. By then she should have yellowed up nicely as well!

Never grown Critical Plus, but with the linage. Id say like 90% of all seed vendors, don’t trust the flowering time.

Skunk and Big Bud Id say are both 8-9-10 week strains, depending on he home growers smoke preff. And sure you can money crop them at 7 weeks, if you grow for quantity over quality.

My thump of ruel, is adding 2 weeks to the flower time, when I deal with seeds from seedshops.

[Esrgood4u]

There is a lot of different factors to take into consideration.
I start counting from the day they start throwing pistils. I’ve noticed different environments can change the bloom period by quite a bit. My old hps took on average an extra week or two on top of the breeders suggested times but since I moved over to LED the stated times have been a lot closer. I don’t know if its because the LEDs are a lot more intense.
When it comes to flushing. Plants put on the most weight in the final 2 weeks so to me at least it seems counter productive to starve them when they need fed the most. People flush to help reduce the harshness. Just trim as much of the leaf matter from the buds (leafs hold the most chlorophyll that causes the irritation) and allow a slightly longer cure.

[George]

Thanks again, Palindrome, I actually have a magnifying glass but had ordered an electric portable microscope. I’m actually in 63 days, I will give here some nutes (special for flowering stage, no N) and flush again when I will see the first ambers, that seems logical for me and was the answer I was waiting for. As I am in DWC I just change the whole reservoir water, my pH measurer was coitus and still waiting to have it back from repair. As I was using Advanced Nutrients pH perfect that was not a hassle, now for flushing I use the water drained from the dehumidifier, hoping the pH is balanced. The plant will be happy with this new feed, it’s a way to correct in some way my mistake, thanks for your time and input …

[Palindrome]

Even easyer to do in Hydro

I just start my flush by draingin 25-50% of my reservoir and replace it with pH adjusted tab water.
The final week, I let them finish off on pH adjusted tab water only.

What is you Ec at now, before you start feeding. I missed the DWC part, and thourt u where growing in coco or soil.

[George]

High Esrgood4u, I have also heard that one month cure burping the jars will help in getting a less harsh and better flavor, I read somewhere that the clhorophyll was converted to sugar while curing, there’s so many info available that it is hard to understand which is right or not. I think in my next grow I will have a look to my trichomes and flush when they are mostly cloudy and forget about counting those tricky days. I’m really amazed for all the help received, glad I found this site, cheers …

[George]

Water comes from the dehumidifier, so it has just 8 ppm, my target before flushing was 800 ppm more or less, thanks …

[Palindrome]

800 ppm hmmmm what kind of stick are you using?

Personal I only use Ec as I find it’s the most universial way, to messure the conductivity of the water solution.

PPM seems to be diffeerent from company to company, Hanna instruments PPM calculation is not the same as Truncheon/Bluelab. Each pen will give you a different ppm reading of the same solution, but the Ec messured in uS will be the same for all pens if calibrated correct.

Anyway 800 ppm is between 1.2 and 1.6 Ec, if you have been around 1.6 Ec for the past 3 weeks. They have not been flushing, but feeding on a low nutrient solution but strong enough to grow healthy looking plants.
In DWC with the right strains, you can go really high on the Ec during flower. I have done DWC up around 2.8 Ec in the past, with great looking results but the cure takes a lot longer. And the yeald wasn’t really higher, so now days I don’t go much over 1.8 - 2.1 Ec for a short while. Around ½ way to 2/3 into flower, and then cut back to 1.6 Ec the last week or two before I flush.

[George]

Hi Palindrome, I bought a Milwaukee EC59 Ec / Tds /° C, it was easy for me to manage ppm, as I was learning from zero. That 800 ppm goal was before flushing, after done the container had just water drained from the dehumidifier, 8 ppm more or less, so since I flushed the plant has eaten from his leaves (now clear green and big fans yellow). I had nutrient burns in previous growings so thought 800 ppm would be fine, the plant was good looking. Now after all this help and info received I will affront more confident my next grow, thanks for your help …

[Shadey]

Hi George, lots of good info and help here. I was wondering how you were doing after CC disappeared. Looks like you are back on track.

Remember those trichs will keep maturing and changing to amber if you cure them slowly and don’t dry the buds out to much too quickly.

Even clones from the same plant in different grows, I find the trichs and pistils will mature at different rates. I have Tut that were finished in my last grow at 68 days, are now at 72 days and still putting out new white pistils and only a few amber ones, haven’t checked the trichs yet, been sick in bed the last 5 days, I will be checking them tomorrow, and hopefully have enough energy to chop the Hogs and Painkillers down that were ready last week.

I have a grow log just started in the general growing, organics section, under A Shadey place to grow.

Catch you later man.

[Viva_Mexico]

@George

Regarding the salt, regular salt has Sodium that would kill the plant

When using the term salt with fertilizers it refers to the HCL form of a chemical or compound, not table salt. When using “salts” or fertilizer in its salt form for hydroponics it must be a chelated form

[George]

@Palindrome

I would give her a small feeding, but hold back on the dose and don’t give it anything with a high N value.

May I ask what you think on giving the plant GH Flora Ripen for this purpose or any other product you may think it will work better? Thanks …

[George]

High Shadey, glad to read you back, I was really pissed off after CC busted out, I’ve been joining different forums but the feeling was not the same. What makes great a forum are the persons you meet there, not how big or important it is …

Sorry to hear about your illness, your ladies and noobs need you healthy and willing to help as usual, I need guidance at least for my 10 first grows . As I still have weed from my previous grow (Amnesia) I will cure this one burping it daily for a month or more, I will dry it first at 60% humidity in the big tent, but still counting the days to chop. Tomorrow arrives an electric microscope so I will have a better look at those trichomes. I am now more confident now that I have found this great site, thanks for being there once more …

[George]

Hi Viva_Mexico, thanks for your explanation, in this case we were talking about “regular table salt”, so I just pointed out it was no healthy for any plant, saludos …