Flushing Coco

Elevator · May 14, 2016

Hey guys,
I've grown in soil and hydro many times but this is my first coco run and I need some tips for flushing. With hydro, I just used half tap half ro water for the last week and that worked just fine. In soil, I used molasses and tap water for the last two weeks and that worked fine too.

I understand that with coco, it isn't beneficial to flush with straight tap water. What I plan on doing is flushing for one week, with half tap, half RO and about 2 mls per gallon Canna A/B coco base nutes and cannazyme. Does that plan work? Anyone with real world tips?

oldskol4evr · May 14, 2016

Elevator said:
Hey guys,
I've grown in soil and hydro many times but this is my first coco run and I need some tips for flushing. With hydro, I just used half tap half ro water for the last week and that worked just fine. In soil, I used molasses and tap water for the last two weeks and that worked fine too.

I understand that with coco, it isn't beneficial to flush with straight tap water. What I plan on doing is flushing for one week, with half tap, half RO and about 2 mls per gallon Canna A/B coco base nutes and cannazyme. Does that plan work? Anyone with real world tips?

i dont call it flushing,when i get ready to finish them i feed a very low dose of nutrients,i mean just enough that is higher ppm of my water, 250 ppm,i dont put straight water in my coco at all,even while growing i feed and then feed 250 ppm just to keep my media balanced,i reuse all my media,and prefer soil,this last run was coco and never no more,to much work to this shit,water and tea in soil is the way for me,i mix my used coco with my soil for air and by going my route you will not harm or hurt nothing,straight water will flush them as you say,they will yellow up on you quick,if you must,run water threw your coco,check runoff ppm and ph,do it one more time and you will see the huge diffrence

R3LaX · May 14, 2016

Flushing is for queers

greenboot · May 14, 2016

cannazime and water… the enzymes will dissolve dead roots making it plant available food that your plants will use up until you chop down … perfect coco flush

Elevator · May 14, 2016

Ok great, thanks guys. I figured the cannazyme would work well.

We Solidarity · May 15, 2016

Enzymes are great for flushing. In coco I flush with plain water for 10 days, allowing the plants to dry out between waterings. Your flush really depends on how much you feed though. In my opinion the best flush is a balanced feed- if your fertigation is on point there's never any excess buildup hence no real reason to flush.

Elevator · May 15, 2016

We Solidarity said:
Enzymes are great for flushing. In coco I flush with plain water for 10 days, allowing the plants to dry out between waterings. Your flush really depends on how much you feed though. In my opinion the best flush is a balanced feed- if your fertigation is on point there's never any excess buildup hence no real reason to flush.

Ok, I was following something you said on a previous thread about canna. I was following their calculator for a while but I've been running 10-12 ml canna base with some KoolBloom around 1100-1200 ppm .5 scale. I think the cool bloom started to burn them a bit so I dialed that back and now my ppm's for flower week 6/7 have been about 950-1000 .5 scale. I use drip clean and have plenty of runoff, so I doubt there's a whole lot of excess salts in the coco, but I know that cool bloom is pretty salty so I want to make sure to get that out of there. So I was told to never let the coco dry out, but get pretty close. I've been feeding with heavy runoff every other day.

Do I let the coco get dry dry, like soil, during the ten day flush your recommend?

Elevator · May 15, 2016

Elevator said:
Ok, I was following something you said on a previous thread about canna. I was following their calculator for a while but I've been running 10-12 ml canna base with some KoolBloom around 1100-1200 ppm .5 scale. I think the cool bloom started to burn them a bit so I dialed that back and now my ppm's for flower week 6/7 have been about 950-1000 .5 scale. I use drip clean and have plenty of runoff, so I doubt there's a whole lot of excess salts in the coco, but I know that cool bloom is pretty salty so I want to make sure to get that out of there. So I was told to never let the coco dry out, but get pretty close. I've been feeding with heavy runoff every other day.

Do I let the coco get dry dry, like soil, during the ten day flush your recommend?

Also, do you ph your water/cannazyme for flush? My plants don't like the ph down, and it requires a lot. I'm in Aurora and the water is very hard here.

greenboot · May 15, 2016

We Solidarity said:
Enzymes are great for flushing. In coco I flush with plain water for 10 days, allowing the plants to dry out between waterings. Your flush really depends on how much you feed though. In my opinion the best flush is a balanced feed- if your fertigation is on point there's never any excess buildup hence no real reason to flush.

that also depends on what type of food you are feeding your plants and how much salt those products are made with. But enzymes with water work perfectly together as a flushing solution for coco.. lets not confuse our friend.. most people who grow in coco will tell you as a rule of thumb to never use only plain water to flush your plants,,, enzymes (along with water) help the plant eat only what it needs gradually breaking down dead plant matter, and making it (organic plant available food), while simultaneously flushing out excess salt build up from the plant...

greenboot · May 15, 2016

Elevator said:
Also, do you ph your water/cannazyme for flush? My plants don't like the ph down, and it requires a lot. I'm in Aurora and the water is very hard here.

yes i personally ph at 6.2 all the way till chop. but some people lower ph to 5.8 during flush and swear by it so,, i can't tell you not to try that way either.. but yes ph your water /enzyme solution and you should have a smooth, well flushed smoke at the end of the day...

Elevator · May 15, 2016

Great, thanks for the replies everyone, I'm going to go with half tap, half ro and cannazyme as recommended.

greenboot · May 15, 2016

Elevator said:
Great, thanks for the replies everyone, I'm going to go with half tap, half ro and cannazyme as recommended.

also to answer your dry out question. . KOOL BLOOM IS VERY VERY SALTY SO,,,, NO,, DO NOT LET COCO COMPLETELY DRY OUT… coco stores more salt the dryer it gets

We Solidarity · May 15, 2016

Elevator said:
Ok, I was following something you said on a previous thread about canna. I was following their calculator for a while but I've been running 10-12 ml canna base with some KoolBloom around 1100-1200 ppm .5 scale. I think the cool bloom started to burn them a bit so I dialed that back and now my ppm's for flower week 6/7 have been about 950-1000 .5 scale. I use drip clean and have plenty of runoff, so I doubt there's a whole lot of excess salts in the coco, but I know that cool bloom is pretty salty so I want to make sure to get that out of there. So I was told to never let the coco dry out, but get pretty close. I've been feeding with heavy runoff every other day.

Do I let the coco get dry dry, like soil, during the ten day flush your recommend?

With canna A+B I was usually going with 10-12 ml a gal, that comes out t0 800-900 ppm nutrients. That was usually perfect for me - if I added anything it was either MKP or monster bloom at 1 tbsp/50 gal. Canna is a great standalone product def a quality bottled nute.

As far as the flush, I let it dry out as much as I am comfortable - every room is different and thus plants can react different to a dry coco pot, but I'll generally wait until the top is bone-dry and it's light brown an inch or two down (not dark). Letting coco dry to the point where the plants droop is not good to do consistently - especially with heavy salt feeds. Let a plant dry out a little and find the balance between dry and too dry - you'll see there's a point when the plant starts to look confused and that's about as far as I'd push it in coco. Once a plant droops in coco I expect problems from it at some point down the road.

As far as ph'ing the flush water, I've never really done that, but then again I pay attention to water quality like crazy and don't grow in areas where the water may be a problem.

greenboot said:
that also depends on what type of food you are feeding your plants and how much salt those products are made with. But enzymes with water work perfectly together as a flushing solution for coco.. lets not confuse our friend.. most people who grow in coco will tell you as a rule of thumb to never use only plain water to flush your plants,,, enzymes (along with water) help the plant eat only what it needs gradually breaking down dead plant matter, and making it (organic plant available food), while simultaneously flushing out excess salt build up from the plant...

Thank you - to clarify I'm almost always talking about pure salts, I don't use bottled nutrients or 50/50 hybrid formulas. I like the zero bullshit approach and tend to keep it as simple as possible. If I do use organics it's usually dry amendments but I personally don't do too much organic gardening in coco anymore (way easier to just use soil if you want to do organic)

And as far as flushing, I'm not neccessarily trying to "flush out salts", I don't water to runoff while flushing so it's more just forcing the plant to start searching for food and using what's in the pot. I've found with consistent 850 ppm feedings it takes about 10 days for the plant to use any excess nutrients tied up in the media.

I've always flushed this way, when I was getting fancy with it I was starting at about 1.8 ec in week 1, increasing to 2.2 ec by the end of week 3, and then gradually decreasing the feed a few points every week until by week 8 you were basically flushing. That way you were counteracting any buildup in the soil while not having to waste as much food or water with runoff. I went back to plain water and a consistent feed all the way through because it's simple and has the exact same results. It's been about 5 years that I've flushed with plain water, I think I stopped ph'ing it around 3 years ago.

greenboot · May 15, 2016

We Solidarity said:
With canna A+B I was usually going with 10-12 ml a gal, that comes out t0 800-900 ppm nutrients. That was usually perfect for me - if I added anything it was either MKP or monster bloom at 1 tbsp/50 gal. Canna is a great standalone product def a quality bottled nute.

As far as the flush, I let it dry out as much as I am comfortable - every room is different and thus plants can react different to a dry coco pot, but I'll generally wait until the top is bone-dry and it's light brown an inch or two down (not dark). Letting coco dry to the point where the plants droop is not good to do consistently - especially with heavy salt feeds. Let a plant dry out a little and find the balance between dry and too dry - you'll see there's a point when the plant starts to look confused and that's about as far as I'd push it in coco. Once a plant droops in coco I expect problems from it at some point down the road.

As far as ph'ing the flush water, I've never really done that, but then again I pay attention to water quality like crazy and don't grow in areas where the water may be a problem.

Thank you - to clarify I'm almost always talking about pure salts, I don't use bottled nutrients or 50/50 hybrid formulas. I like the zero bullshit approach and tend to keep it as simple as possible. If I do use organics it's usually dry amendments but I personally don't do too much organic gardening in coco anymore (way easier to just use soil if you want to do organic)

And as far as flushing, I'm not neccessarily trying to "flush out salts", I don't water to runoff while flushing so it's more just forcing the plant to start searching for food and using what's in the pot. I've found with consistent 850 ppm feedings it takes about 10 days for the plant to use any excess nutrients tied up in the media.

I've always flushed this way, when I was getting fancy with it I was starting at about 1.8 ec in week 1, increasing to 2.2 ec by the end of week 3, and then gradually decreasing the feed a few points every week until by week 8 you were basically flushing. That way you were counteracting any buildup in the soil while not having to waste as much food or water with runoff. I went back to plain water and a consistent feed all the way through because it's simple and has the exact same results. It's been about 5 years that I've flushed with plain water, I think I stopped ph'ing it around 3 years ago.

he's using kool bloom, in coco.. totally different animal than canna line ,,, it's neccecary to flush with only enzymes and water in order to properly flush out all that extra salt found in kool bloom.. the dryer the coco the more salt coco stores unless you consistently flush. different for rules for coco than soil, especially when using salty fertilizers… it's not rocket science, the less salts left in the plant, the smoother the smoker in the end

We Solidarity · May 15, 2016

greenboot said:
he's using kool bloom, in coco.. totally different animal than canna line ,,, it's neccecary to flush with only enzymes and water in order to properly flush out all that extra salt found in kool bloom.. the dryer the coco the more salt coco stores unless you consistently flush. different for rules for coco than soil, especially when using salty fertilizers...

I'm confused how is canna base (A&B) any less salty than kool bloom?
I'd totally agree feeding 1100 ppm there's gonna be excess salt but it's not kool blooms fault...it's because you're feeding more than the plant is uptaking...that's what causes salt buildup in coco not drying out. Drying out causes the ec of the media to spike which burns plants, swings ph and, when the media completely dries and crystallizes the salts, will burn the shit out of roots. If you're flushing and not adding more salts to the media, you don't need to worry about buildup since the concentration of salt in the media goes down as the plant drinks. I only say let the coco dry because it's the most surefire way to know your plants are still drinking - i've found if my water uptake slows during flush (i.e. the pots stay wet for longer than normal) the crop is lower quality and more prone to root rot and bud mold.

I'm using a dry salt fertilizer right now idk if it gets more salty than straight salt with no dyes or bullshit; a ten day clear water flush works great...tbh I don't remember the last time I even touched a bottle of enzymes.

greenboot · May 15, 2016

We Solidarity said:
I'm confused how is canna base (A&B) any less salty than kool bloom?
I'd totally agree feeding 1100 ppm there's gonna be excess salt but it's not kool blooms fault...it's because you're feeding more than the plant is uptaking...that's what causes salt buildup in coco not drying out. Drying out causes the ec of the media to spike which burns plants, swings ph and, when the media completely dries and crystallizes the salts, will burn the shit out of roots. If you're flushing and not adding more salts to the media, you don't need to worry about buildup since the concentration of salt in the media goes down as the plant drinks. I only say let the coco dry because it's the most surefire way to know your plants are still drinking - i've found if my water uptake slows during flush (i.e. the pots stay wet for longer than normal) the crop is lower quality and more prone to root rot and bud mold.

I'm using a dry salt fertilizer right now idk if it gets more salty than straight salt with no dyes or bullshit; a ten day clear water flush works great...tbh I don't remember the last time I even touched a bottle of enzymes.

i'm telling you that canna coco line base (a) and (B) is not close to being as salty as Kool Bloom.. now if you disagree with me about that,, fine.. but you can't disagree with the fact that adding no salt (no fertilizer at all) while flushing out and dissolving dead plant matter (enzymes) is doing any harm… as for root rot .. that hardly ever happens in coco. because as soon as the water in coco starts to dry,, the coco expands and immediately giving roots more and more oxygen as it drys plus enzymes help provide a better flush. If you don't use enzymes, ok ,, thats you,, but it helps keep plant roots healthy from beginning of veg till harvest. thats why i and plenty others like me use this product…

We Solidarity · May 15, 2016

greenboot said:
i'm telling you that canna coco line base (a) and (B) is not close to being as salty as Kool Bloom.. now if you disagree with me about that,, fine.. but you can't disagree with the fact that adding no salt (no fertilizer at all) while flushing out and dissolving dead plant matter (enzymes) is doing any harm… as for root rot .. that hardly ever happens in coco. because as soon as the water in coco starts to dry,, the coco expands and immediately giving roots more and more oxygen as it drys plus enzymes help provide a better flush. If you don't use enzymes, ok ,, thats you,, but it helps keep plant roots healthy from beginning of veg till harvest. thats why i and plenty others like me use this product…

I definitely don't think adding enzymes does any harm...it's just unnecessary. And coco definitely doesn't expand as it dries but I think I understand what you mean. Root rot should definitely never happen in coco - the only time I see it happening is when people are flooding their plants with clear water. The maturity of the plants and the gradual decline of the available nutrients are what are triggering senescence in the plant (in addition to any environmental changes the grower makes in the cycle), flooding them with water while their metabolism is slowing down is a relatively easy way to stress and mold the plant, just based on what I've seen and my experiences early on.

greenboot · May 15, 2016

We Solidarity said:
I definitely don't think adding enzymes does any harm...it's just unnecessary. And coco definitely doesn't expand as it dries but I think I understand what you mean. Root rot should definitely never happen in coco - the only time I see it happening is when people are flooding their plants with clear water. The maturity of the plants and the gradual decline of the available nutrients are what are triggering senescence in the plant (in addition to any environmental changes the grower makes in the cycle), flooding them with water while their metabolism is slowing down is a relatively easy way to stress and mold the plant, just based on what I've seen and my experiences early on.

And i believe that giving them nothing but water for the last ten day and letting the coco dry out is unneccecary and is not as good of a flush as using water and enzymes. especially since enzymes breaks down dead roots and provide the plant the last bit of a saltless food supply without starving the plant at the last minute…[which also prepares the coco to be reused], by organically acclimating the medium for the reuse of coco, while preparing the root zone for the next harvest,, (the repot of new plants)…. Your flushing techniques may work for you but i think are more suited for soil and hydro, not as much as for coco.. and i also have been flawlessly using coco for a good number of years with great results…. (light greenish /yellow, (but not dead) fall type leaves on time for the chop down,, grey ash, and smooth, sticky, skunk, tasty smoke through and through)… … And i beg to differ about coco not expanding to it's original powder form as it dries out…. which also provides more oxygen to the roots while retaining water at the same time, unlike soil. i have yet to stress or mold any of my plants do to heavy flushing with enzymes at the end of harvest.. (But),,,, when left to dry all the way out without enzymes,, coco unleashes any built up salt onto the roots.. and there are fertilizers that are more salt base than others , (kool bloom is one of them)…. like i said if you don't agree,, i'm not trying to go out of my way to convince you otherwise….. do your own research… i believe he'll get better overall results by following the procedure i follow.. and you have every right to believe other wise.. it's a free country.

Savage Henry · May 15, 2016

I'm gonna chime in here:

@We Solidarity is making quite a bit of sense. I'm in the last couple weeks of a round and it has been the first time I've tested the ec/ph/volume of my runoff daily. The numbers I've been logging match up to what you're saying about plants eating less as they finish. Think I may try your flushing technique.
My only concern is that my coco is heavily amended with perlite making the air/water ratio like 10% higher than with straight coir. So I guess I'll just let em dry out 10% less? Only one way to find out I suppose.

Appreciate the work, sir.

DrMcSkunkins · May 15, 2016

I just flush with the bloom booster and ripener very light in a gallon of tap water straight out the tap, @Og Gong wont tell you his secret but the chlorine really brings out the reds and purples...

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