how and when to Flushing your Coco

[superbudding]

Interesting that a lot of the farmers here like long flushes in coco - 2 to 3 weeks it seems.

I was under the impression that one of the benefits of coco is that you can get away with a 5 - 7 day flush and that a 2 week flush leads to a loss of potency and yield.

Coco simply doesn't hold nutes to the extent that it warrants a long flush. Why deprive your plants of food unnecessarily and risk cannabinoid degradation?

Now I realise I'm being a bit argumentative here, first post and all, but really I'm just playing devil's advocate here. I don't have a firm opinion either way, just throwing this out there in an attempt to learn more about coco.

What difference would you expect to see between buds that were flushed for 3 weeks versus those that were flushed for 7 days? Do you really expect salt-based nutes to be still present after even a few days flushing?

I kind of agree with this, coco is an inert media to all intents and purposes we treat it like Hydro.
If you 'flushed' a hydro plant for 3 weeks there wouldn't be anything left to draw on for those last 3 weeks of power growing that we see. Oh shit end of season nearly dead pile on the weight only have this bit of xyz left best stay small.
If you flush coco plants all you are doing is flushing the coco and stopping any access to any needed micro or macro nutrients.
The flushing argument rages on and will do for eons in the future but Coco I was told never ever feed with only water always some elements of nutrients. You are feeding the coco and the plant takes what it needs removing nutrients from the mix cocks up the fine balance and availability of free nutrients in the media, and fancy words like chelation and precipitation and one chemical becoming another etc.

Always told that in the final weeks a nice low nutrient solution will force the plant to use up NPK reserves and still allow micro nutrients to be utilised to finish up, keeping the chemical makeup of the coco intact and give you healthy green plants to finish.
Hanging with the stalks attached gives any uneeded nutes time to migrate to the stalks and out of the buds as it finally finishes it carries on after you crop.
Throw a load of harsh hydro chemical ferts at a plant and I imagine a flush makes a difference to final flavour and smoke but early cut buds and flushed buds taste the same to me.

These are my thoughts on it from my brain!
:P

 

[Og Gong]

I flush for 2 weeks in botanicare ready gro. 1 week I use vegamatrix primezyme 15ml per gallon then the next week plain water. This brings out the fall colors in my grows.

 

[Funkadelic]

I kind of agree with this, coco is an inert media to all intents and purposes we treat it like Hydro.
If you 'flushed' a hydro plant for 3 weeks there wouldn't be anything left to draw on for those last 3 weeks of power growing that we see. Oh shit end of season nearly dead pile on the weight only have this bit of xyz left best stay small.
If you flush coco plants all you are doing is flushing the coco and stopping any access to any needed micro or macro nutrients.
The flushing argument rages on and will do for eons in the future but Coco I was told never ever feed with only water always some elements of nutrients. You are feeding the coco and the plant takes what it needs removing nutrients from the mix cocks up the fine balance and availability of free nutrients in the media, and fancy words like chelation and precipitation and one chemical becoming another etc.

Always told that in the final weeks a nice low nutrient solution will force the plant to use up NPK reserves and still allow micro nutrients to be utilised to finish up, keeping the chemical makeup of the coco intact and give you healthy green plants to finish.
Hanging with the stalks attached gives any uneeded nutes time to migrate to the stalks and out of the buds as it finally finishes it carries on after you crop.
Throw a load of harsh hydro chemical ferts at a plant and I imagine a flush makes a difference to final flavour and smoke but early cut buds and flushed buds taste the same to me.
These are my thoughts on it from my brain!
:p

This makes the most sense to me. THANK YOU for your detailed explanation here, bud.
This is one of the most important threads Ive ever seen here. Thanks to all ...

 

[Funkadelic]

Update- did nutes to week 7.5, then topped rez with h20 so it tapered down to week 9 chop.

Lots of insect frass and a couple little sampler bottles of Heavy16 Finish.

Upped to 3 (1 min long) waterings, from 2 usually. Everything smells sweet, natural,distinctive as its hung, trimmed, and cured. This after being fed GH. Win.

 

[oldskol4evr]

Interesting that a lot of the farmers here like long flushes in coco - 2 to 3 weeks it seems.

I was under the impression that one of the benefits of coco is that you can get away with a 5 - 7 day flush and that a 2 week flush leads to a loss of potency and yield.

Coco simply doesn't hold nutes to the extent that it warrants a long flush. Why deprive your plants of food unnecessarily and risk cannabinoid degradation?

Now I realise I'm being a bit argumentative here, first post and all, but really I'm just playing devil's advocate here. I don't have a firm opinion either way, just throwing this out there in an attempt to learn more about coco.

What difference would you expect to see between buds that were flushed for 3 weeks versus those that were flushed for 7 days? Do you really expect salt-based nutes to be still present after even a few days flushing?

im not going to get into the side choicing but will say this its a good idea with plain water,for the fact im going to reuse it and 2 weeks of water would flush for some clean coco in the end result,just a thought,lol

 

[Mndovrmnky]

Molasses at 2 weeks and tap water chilled in the fridge for the last week.

 

[vangs]

Update- did nutes to week 7.5, then topped rez with h20 so it tapered down to week 9 chop.

Lots of insect frass and a couple little sampler bottles of Heavy16 Finish.

Upped to 3 (1 min long) waterings, from 2 usually. Everything smells sweet, natural,distinctive as its hung, trimmed, and cured. This after being fed GH. Win.

how did you like the h16 finish? does it do anything that plain water cant? just bought a bottle to give a shot.

 

[hermit186]

I grow in 70/30 coco and perlite then I top the pot with the really course coco. Good quality coco holds very little nutrients it requires a short flush. I run small quantities of sweetener after 2nd week of bloom thru 5th week reducing amount every reservoir change more is not better. I take my sprayer and soak the plants on the first two days from the top with RO water ph ed to about what is coming out shock at this moment makes very harsh weed. I also back down the ppms on my reservoir for last 2 changes this will help plant to use the day light leaf which is a good thing. Now after flushing from top I up the level of the water in my system to 2/3 to 3/4 of the height of the pot and flush with RO water until the out water reading is under 400ppm. In dirt it takes 8 to 10 days to get there and a hell of a bunch of RO water. Flushing to remove something you can measure should not be measured in time but in the reading that proves where you are. Mine burns to a fine white ash if not your flush was not right. Many strains flush better than others if you use to much sweetener your ash will be black and to much chemistry it will be black and stay together when touched. Not one of theses methods are 100% right for you growing harvesting and curing is not something that works every time and with the many strains I must say Take your time and learn as 10 years from now it will all be different.

I will say this in 10 years everything will change but one thing will remain the same its a weed and you have to kill it

hermit186

 

[Funkadelic]

how did you like the h16 finish? does it do anything that plain water cant? just bought a bottle to give a shot.

Great question and I have to qualify that I used a big tea bag, like a sock, full of insect frass until flush.
I had 2 sampler boxes of Heavy16 so I had a couple small bottles of Finish to close the cycle with.

I end with a long dark cycle to ensure terpenes in buds not stems, chop under green led to prevent photosynthesis, and cure pitch dark with 2 dehumidifiers.
I ... take precautions.

End result was delicious and not chemmy, very distinctive per patients.

I would use it again. In fact I should get some for next takedown

 

[Mr.Xagain]

What about flushing the coco before ur next run? That's what I wanna know. Say I am usisng a high pk finisher don't I wanna flush the coco out before I plant new clones? How long do most of you flush bdfore u add new plants in the beds?

I always add new coco to my recycled coco.

 

[eternalroots]

It takes a bit of time to get the hang of it, and vigilance, but my favorite way to finish a plant, especially in coco, is to start about 12-14 days before harvest, and start reducing your feed. I personally went from about 1000 ppm feed at the height of flower, to about 500 ppm feed. I use small pots, so they received this level of feed every other day for 8 days. Runoff kept getting lower and lower, then five days before harvest, i switched to just water (pH'd) which it got three days. No flush though, just same volume water as I would give them food. Last two days, no light, then harvest. Last runoff collected was at 60 ppm, and plants came out wonderful. But i say let them eat themselves slowly at the end, its much less shock than some other methods

 

[Savage Henry]

Lots of insect frass

What # was the mesh on the bag you used? I just ran some frass in a tea bag in my Rez and had to clean the disk filter out after every irrigation cycle. Plants seem to like it, though.

 

[Funkadelic]

What # was the mesh on the bag you used? I just ran some frass in a tea bag in my Rez and had to clean the disk filter out after every irrigation cycle. Plants seem to like it, though.

thanks for asking. Sadly it was just a random gauzy gift bag something came in. But did the trick.
I keep things like that around when I find them.
I want to get more sachets for sure. If I find something online, I will share for sure

 

[Tejashidrow]

Growing in 1.5 gallon hempy only gets flushed in container at end of grow
I cut plant and useing a trowel dig around stump. Till I can pull it out.
Leaving the rest of the root mass as is. I do a 1 gallon flush with my home made proprietary flushing agent that includes top pond enzymes.
Pop the next clone in and ready to roll.
These get enzymes throughout the grow till the last 2 week where I drop the enzymes
I donot believe in heavy ferts.
And have gone up to 4 grows in the same coco root mass.
The only reason I only go 4 cycles is cuz I start to feel bad...
Relax and grow on