Tell me your Flush!!!

I have a few grows under my belt,(DWC) and have always used plain PH'd water. What is the advantage if any to using flush products? What products do you use? Thanks everyone!

I tried to be "all natural" with my flush and used plain vinegar, then realized that was just really stupid since I was getting wild pH swings and using a lot of vinegar. I found just using pH down and tap water was the best route. I haven't tried any of the "flush treatments" out there but then again I'm a minimalist.

The advantage is to the seller

I do not flush plants, I fade them with a weak solution.

Flushing is not science.

tap water, let to sit over night. not a clue what the ph is.

i drain the system and replenish with clean water phd to about 5.8 - 6.0 about three weeks bfore cropping. some folk only do one week but i think you need longer as it takes time for the plant to rid itself of the chemicals in it. it does make the difference in the finished product i think.i dont see the point in flushing agents, let the plant do its own work.

i agree,this is good advice too follow.

I have to agree with Analog on this one. (Not that I ever disagree)

Remember that we live in a Capitalistic society. If you're willing to buy something, there's someone out there willing to sell it to you; whether it'll do you any good or not.

I don't go over about 850 ppm's in full flower mode. About 2 weeks out I drop it to about 650, then about 450 for the last week.

Starving the plants at the end of their life does nothing but damage for the flavor, smell and potency of the product. If they aren't overloaded with nutes along the way, "flushing" isn't necessary.


Grow well,
B.B.

my

I have done some experiments with flushing.

I got some Clearex and applied as specified on bottle to my res. Other res had straight RO water unph'd. I flooded my system and recorded the ppm from before flood and after. When the cycle was done the clearex solution was higher in ppm than the straight ro water test. Also the clearex got the return ppm lower way faster (lower ppm in fewer cycles)than using just RO water. I changed the res' after each flood cycle, 4 times a day. In conclusion, the herb was identical at the end of a one week flush with and without clearex. Don't bother with it anymore, or flushing tests lol.

Now I do like the clearex for getting my hydroton clean and flushing soil plants. It’s good for removing built up salts from media.

According to Lucas, as long as your root zone doesn't get above ~1200ppm you don't need to flush. I've never been able to bring myself to test it though, I'd hate to ruin a couple months of work by not doing any kind of flush.

My flush methods vary depending on what media I'm growing in.

With soil & hempy, about 10 days before chop, I'd flush with 3x the pot size of un-pH'd water, with the last one being correctly pH'd. Then I just gave straight water as normal 'til harvest.

In DWC I would drain & refill the res with pH'd water, let it go for ~24 hrs, drain it & refill again with fresh pH'd water, topping off with ph'd water until harvest. (I also did that method for ~10 days).

Now I'm running a combo of Ebb & Flow for my moms & DTW for veg & flower. Still looking into flushing methods for DTW but it seems pretty simple. I'm actually running a plain pH'd watering every night during lights out to clear out the drip lines & keep the salt from building up in the rockwool, so I may not even need to flush, we'll see in a couple months.

I used to do all of my flush pHing with white vinegar (hate the smell), but I ran out one time & all I had around was GH pH Down. So I used it instead & didn't notice any difference at all in the finished product. So, now I just use normal pH down, I hate vinegar.

Gotta agree with EMj about the flushing products. I bought a bottle of Florakleen years ago, used it a couple times, then forgot to use it. Noticed no difference at all in finished product. Like he said though, it is great at removing salt residue from hydroton in a soak.

Not trying to thread hijack, but I have a related question for someone. Should I flush my moms (6" square pots, hydroton, ebb & flow) once every couple months to clear out any salt build up? Kind of like preventative maintenance. Or, should I just let 'em go & only flush if I see a problem developing that needs it?

Sorry 'bout the book.