Re: Aberration Goes ker Bloom! - 2009
Beautiful tasty lookin' nugs!
beautiful pics too!
Given a choice, I'd reach for the Trainwreck, but that's me, they all look excellent!
I knew this part of your journal would be good!
for this yummy update
You are welcome of course, and thank
you as well. The Arcadian TW is good, but not as good as the Kaia Kush or the Lavender. Maybe I didn't grow it to it's potential. I don't know. It's good bud, but I really like other stuff better. <shrug>
Abberation, I noticed u flushed pretty regularly. I would like ur opinion on something. To ur understanding is flushing and leaching the same process? If not how do they differ?
Well, I do two kinds of flush.
One I call a pre-flush. I give it to blooming plants right before their feed. It has liquid bone meal in it and nothing else. Then I follow with a larger volume feed that carries a full load of nutes about 10 minutes later, or whenever I get done mixing and adjusting it.
I'm not sure that this is a proper flush. The usual flush I hear about is alternating with feeding. So in this pattern one feeds or flushes only as the soil warrants (drying), with a flush replacing a feed every other or every third time. Some flush weekly or at longer periods. This is intended to prevent nute buildup in the soil, which could lead to burning the plants.\
I use my pre-flush instead of the flush just described. Which means every time the plant is ready, it gets some water and bone meal to moisten the environment and move old nutes down. Then the new nutes that follow can more evenly and gently reach as much root and soil as possible. That's the theory anyway. I would like opinions.
The only other thing I can say is that after two runs without a single flush of the above kind, I have had minimal to zero nute burn and great growth. I also use organic nutes and additives. So I have no complaints.
The second kind of flush or leach, is the one you use when you have a plant that is in soil and the soil content or pH is totally out of whack. You use something like Clearex or not, but you run enough water through the soil to flush most salts out. This is should allow you to re-apply nutes lightly allowing the plant to recover. It is an emergency proceedure.
3 times the volume of the pot is apparently the agreed-upon standard for how much to flush. So you run 30 gallons through a 10 gallon pot. I only did this once and I don't think it was either of my two most recent rounds. If you are careful, this will never happen.
The third kind is at the end of bloom. By leaching the nutes from the soil, and just providing water, you force the plants to use their reserves and go all out. As a result, you get a final effort, and the harsh chemicals will be removed. I understand it is primarily the nitrogen that we worry about, so I guess yellowing would be perfectly fine during this end-of-life flush.
I do this one, and it's probably the procedure you mean. My current procedure is this: 10 days flush total. 1 gallon into a 10 gallon pot every night. After a couple nights, they pee out the bottom every time. The first five days, I add Clearex per the instructions. After that, just water until they are cut down. Clearex actually ties up the nutes in the soil I think. Seems to work well.
Remember than even with organic nutes, the plant will still use them to form reserve compounds that you don't want to smoke. They make the smoke harsh. If you do this final flush, it will encourage the plant to dissipate it's reserves, either via osmosis drawing them out or the plant using them up to make final bits of bud. Whatever it is, it makes the pot better. Even with organic nutes.
Jeez. I wrote a book there. Sorry.
I just found your grow. I'm 420fied and I'm an instant fan of yours! Excellent work!
Thank you. That means something from someone with you reps. Welcome anytime. Don't be afraid to call me out when I'm wrong - I'm here to learn.
