Flushing air pots

[stinkhairs]

I have 4 10 litre air pots, and the on the air pot site there was a nice tip that every now and then, you should submerge the air pot in a bucket bigger than the pot, and let the water soak into the holes for a short while. I tried it once, and the next day the plants were reaching for the heavens (why do they do that?).

Anyway, i done the same again just now, about 5 weeks from germinating, showing some small flowers but not smelling yet. When i lifted the pot out of the bucket the water was yellow, like proper kidney failure piss. I understand that this is the salt's that have built up from feedings (i use the whole canna range).

So i'm sat here wondering:

-is flushing really beneficial? I'm not talking about flavour, or sizzling when you smoke, or anything like that. Just for the health of the plant. I'm assuming the plant growing naturally outdoors would never be flushed?
-is the yellow run-off bad for the plant?
-am i not flushing away food i've been putting into the soil?
-how often should i flush? Again, not referring to pre-harvest, but purely for the health of the plant.

 

[Ski]

1ml drip clean per gallon and all you will never need to flush again.

 

[stinkhairs]

Are you talking about drip-feeding?

 

[logistixz]

He is referring to drip clean by H&G, http://www.house-garden.us/products/additives/drip-clean/

Essentially a micro flush, helps reduce salt buildups in the root zone while feeding so no weekly flush is necessary, reduces the amount of time needed to flush before harvest as well since accumulated salts will be less than without using drip clean.

 

[stinkhairs]

Never heard of that before, sounds good, although i do use cannazyme - i know that is aimed at transforming dead root material into usable enzymes, it would be good if it did something similar to the salts.

So going back to getting the original questions answered - how long does it take / how many feeds before the level of salt build-up is bad for the plant?

 

[stinkhairs]

Anyone else got some answers to the q's in my first post? It would be great to tie up some loose ends.

 

[GrowbagUK]

Heavy rainfall outdoors = a good flushing. So it's not particularly unnatural.
Air-pots tend to lose more water via evaporation, which in turn can lead to salt build-up.
Plants will use the nutrients in your fertilizer at different rates so over time you can get an imbalance in the nutrient content of the medium...a flushing gives you a kind of blank slate.

I would say, if you are noticing benefits from flushing then stick with it, just don't overdo it (once a month at most)

 

[stinkhairs]

Heavy rainfall outdoors = a good flushing. So it's not particularly unnatural.
Air-pots tend to lose more water via evaporation, which in turn can lead to salt build-up.
Plants will use the nutrients in your fertilizer at different rates so over time you can get an imbalance in the nutrient content of the medium...a flushing gives you a kind of blank slate.

Good point about the heavy rainfall, i hadn't thought of that. Also hadn't thought about the faster evaporation of air pots, so thanks for that too.

My plants always did seem to perk up a bit after a flush, and i usually flush twice per grow (once just before flowering, once a few weeks before harvest) but since i grow autoflowers my time for flushing is limited. What factors make you decide no more than once per month?