What if there was one thing you could do right before you harvest, and no matter the strain, medium or nutrients you were using, this one thing would greatly increase the quality and size of your yields?
Sounds like a magic trick, right?
But it turns out that there is such a trick like this.
In today’s article, we’re going to discuss flushing, including:
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If you’re not flushing already, then before you harvest you need to read this guide.
If you’re already flushing before harvest, then keep reading because you’re sure to pick up a few techniques, tips and strategies that can really maximize your results!
What Is Flushing?
Flushing is the process of cleansing your plants of excess salts, Flushing is the process right before you harvest of trying to flush out all the excess salts, nutrients and other contaminants that build up in your plants.
To wash out the excess buildup, most growers flush their plants by giving them plain water with no nutrients for a set period of time.
There can be a downside to flushing like this. You may want to think twice before flushing your plants with plain water.
Why You Should Flush Before Harvest?
Flushing before harvest is a free and straightforward way to enhance the quality of your final yield. The growing process causes plants to absorb and accumulate excess salts and other harsh compounds. Flushing removes these excesses, thereby improving the smoothness and taste of your harvest.
Benefits of flushing your cannabis plants include:
- Improved smoothness of the final product
- Reduction of harsh chemical tastes
- Increased terpenoid production due to slight stress from nutrient deprivation
- Enhanced bud swell in the final days before harvest
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By getting rid of excess nutrients left over from the growing process, you improve the smoothness of the final product.
The smell and taste of your harvest can also be improved.
It’s also important to note that you can see an increase in both bud size and terpenoid production after the flush, because your plants have more energy to devote to swelling buds and terpene production. They’re not having to spend energy to intake the nutrients you’re normally feeding them.
So the bottom line is that most growers flush to improve the potency, taste, aroma, size and overall quality of their final harvest.
Should All Growers Flush Before Harvest?
The good news about flushing is that it’s a trick that works, no matter what type of grower you are and no matter what type of strains you’re growing.
For example, if you’re an outdoor grower using any type of soil as your growing medium, flushing will deliver the same benefits to your crops.
Likewise, if you’re growing indoors and you’re using coco coir, perlite, or other growing mediums along with hydroponics, you can still flush and improve the quality of your harvests.
Deep dive further into the subject of flushing with our article "Dispelling The Myths: The Importance Of Flushing Your Plants Before Harvest."
Pro Tip:
The main difference is that depending on how you’re growing, you have to adjust how long your flush lasts. Here are some quick guidelines:
- Soil growers should flush the longest, at 1–2 weeks.
- Coco coir growers should flush for a shorter time, around one week or less (watch to make sure your plant doesn’t turn too yellow too fast, because coco does not hold on to as much extra nutrients).
- Deep water culture (DWC) and other hydroponics growers should flush the shortest time, only 1–2 days, because you’re immediately cutting the plants off from nutrients.
When to Flush Based on Trichomes?
You should wait until you think you’re ready to harvest your plants, and then start your flush.
If you flush your plants too early, you can reduce yields and potency. You’ll be starving them of the nutrients they need, right when they need it.
So how do you know when it’s time to harvest your plants?
The best way to see if your plants are ripe and ready for harvest is to look at their glandular stalked trichomes (a.k.a their resin glands) using a magnifying glass. These trichomes look like crystals or frost on well-cultivated buds.
Trichomes change color as they ripen. They start clear, then turn translucent (or milky white) and finally they turn an amber color.
Pro Tip
You’ll have best results when roughly 50 percent of the trichomes on your plant have turned a milky-white, translucent color. It’s then that most strains are at peak ripeness.
If in doubt? Just wait a little longer.
In short, it’s better to wait a little longer than to flush too early, because you don’t want to reduce your yields in any way.
How to Flush Coco Coir
Coco coir growers should flush for about a week or less, closely monitoring the plants to prevent them from turning yellow too quickly due to nutrient deficiency.
WARNING: Flushing With Plain Water Can Cost You Yields!
There’s a big problem with flushing with plain water that you might have thought of already.
The point of the flush is to remove any extra and excess contaminants that you don’t want in the final product. And when you flush with plain water, you really are only relying on the water and essentially washing the plant, root system, and growing medium to remove those excesses.
When flushing with plain water, essentially you’re starving your plants of nutrients right before harvest, which can rob you of the last-minute vigorous floral growth and resin production you crave.
So there’s a better way to make sure those excess contaminants are drawn out of your plants, and do it in a way that doesn’t starve your plants in the process.
How To Flush For Maximum Results
Instead of flushing with plain water, which starves your plants and reduces floral growth and resin, you need Flawless Finish®.
It uses a broad range of empty chelates — which are like tiny, powerful vacuum cleaners — to remove excess chemical residues from your growing medium, roots and other plant tissues, including fruits and flowers.
It’s important to understand that Flawless Finish contains a broad range of chelates. This is because there are many individual metals that need to be pulled out of crops. Chelates come in different shapes and sizes and are attracted only to certain metals. Without a diverse range of these chelates, you can’t be sure you’re getting everything out of the crops that you need to get out.
When you use Flawless Finish, the end result — as proven by scientific testing — is a stellar crop of plants that will be free of at least 85 percent of the stored materials they held before flushing.
Now You Know How To Flush Your Crops For Maximum Potency And Yields
As you’ve read today, flushing your crops before harvest is an easy way to improve the quality of your end product.
There are many benefits, and no matter what strain you’re growing or how or where you’re growing it, flushing can benefit you.
Just remember, for best results you’ll want to maximize your flush by using Flawless Finish.
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