University of Guelph paper- Flushing is a myth!

[Charles Dankens]

The way I see it I'm a driver not a mechanic. I don't need to understand why something works I just need to drive fast and not crash. Of course I'm not a caveman, I'm curious about how stuff works but it's not essential to grow great stuff. Of course I can build up my own theories, the God Shiva blesses my plants and they don't need fertilizer because Shakti keeps them running the last couple weeks.

This year outdoors I'll probably 'flush' for 4 weeks. With the slow release nutrients and manure I've been using they're so well fed there's no need to keep wailing away. I want to give them the right amount of fertilizer, enough so they can finish their life cycle but not so much the winter weeds get huge.

Flush is an unfortunate word, I'm not trying to 'flush' my extra nutrients down the drain, I don't want to keep throwing food at them when they're entering senescence. I'm not into these kind of studies that much, they never really change how I do things. They say the amount of nutrients in the leaves stays the same whether your flushing or not but why would it? They aren't using the nutrients anymore anyway because they're entering senescence.

When my grandma got her blood tested she had plenty of calcium in her blood, the right amount for someone her age. She declared she didn't have osteoporosis. She was wrong, she's got a terrible hunchback and has shrunk 4 inches in the last 10 years. The body doesn't work that way, you can have a healthy diet and not be anemic and your body still steals calcium out of your bone. There's a baseline amount of nutrients in the blood unless you're really sick and malnourished.

I would think it's the same way with a healthy leaf. I'd like them to test some of the red and purple and yellow leaves falling off my plants to see how much nutrients are in them. I'm guessing not as much because they're dying. But they don't need those leaves, they're moving the nutrients to the flowers to build seeds. It seems like simple stuff to me but maybe that's not how it works. All that matters is that my stuff is frostier and tastier and stonier then yours.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=79864&pictureid=1963064

 

[therevverend]

Right back at you Charles. The people who get all excited about this kind of study. Whatever it's for or against. Are people with very little experience who are looking for guidance from authority and take this kind of stuff at face value. I'd be very cautious about that, you'll get much better advice from actual growers who get their fingernails dirty.

I'd also be cautious about these grandiose all encompassing type statements. 'Dieting is a myth', 'Tomatoes are unhealthy'. Life is more complicated then simple yes or no stuff. Those are headlines not science.

 

[Gauss]

Just ignore him, he clearly has nothing to offer.

 

[BongFu]

Ooooh look at that, the imbeciles have overrun the asylum

 

[xavier7995]

Apologies for rambling about tomatoes.

I do think flushing is a myth. Having overfed a plant for most of its life, then flushed and have it enter senescence, still smoked like crap. I dont think that you can undo damage once its done. Now i try and stick to very low feed levels throughout the plants life, both less wasteful and results in higher quality. Recently i ran low on weed and was tired of smoking scraps so i just chopped my least desirable plant, gave it a rough wet trim, and dried it in two days. Smokes great, no flush.

 

[TnTLabs]

not sure if this has been mentioned already, but most of you will know Hemp is a accumulator of heavy metals and can be used to remediate contaminated soils. im guessing to a certain extent Cannabis will do the same, i dont have any papers on it but maybe someone wants to search... anyhow with that in mind it would be best to feed less nutrients...
and what most forget when they talk about white, black or grey ash... its not as plain and simple that hydro harsh smoke will be grey or black when not flushed well... its more complex than that, and most of the time its also down to what humidity the bud has when smoked!!!
maybe the plant is "programmed" to take up a certain nutrient profile, fitting best to reproduce, i.e make seeds... so it doesnt matter what you feed it, you just have to feed according to a established nutrient profile and it will take what it needs suiting the environment... that would coincide with the leaf tissue analysis mostly beeing the same

 

[Charles Dankens]

Just ignore him, he clearly has nothing to offer.

Ooooh look at that, the imbeciles have overrun the asylum

 

[Gauss]

IMO when you have a bunch of folks who take 30 days to study for a piss test you're going to get a bit OT now and then. I like tomatoes a lot, and asparagus, dill, broccoli, and beans/peas are my other mainstays.

Does anyone find firsthand credence in the notion that harvesting should be done at night, ideally after 24 hours of darkness? If so, the underlying logic is that the sugars and starches stored in the roots are not transported to the above ground mass and will give you a better smoke in the end. I've always done this with my indoor, but don't think it'd be an honest comparison against my dawn harvested outdoor.

The paper fails to define when their plants were harvested, I wonder if this aspect may illuminate a great deal of disagreement regarding the conclusions it makes.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

I like to pick fruit early morning. But only because it lasts longer when it's been chilled at night.

Having less sugar in cannabis certainly would make it smoother.

I have a brix tester for maple sugar (sap). I'll try to figure out how to use it for plants.

 

[MedFaced]

I have a brix tester for maple sugar (sap). I'll try to figure out how to use it for plants.

Prick a fan leaf in the center vein. Test the drop.

This dude smashes a leaf...same quest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BytEY9suKyo

High Brix growing is all about maximizing sugar content in the plant.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

I'll try it at harves time.

 

[CannaRed]

I would like to see wide range of testing on the leaves and flowers throughout stages of plants life.

Nutrients like this experiment. But also brix like Tycho is talking. Also like to see the chlorophyll levels.

What else?

Flavonoids?

What about the waxy cuticle on the trichomes? How does it change throughout growth and how does feeding/flushing relate? How do these changes affect taste?

How do all of these variables effect the ash color that many seem so proud of?

It would be interesting to test the mineral content of a "perfectly flushed" white ash and compare to grey ash.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

It would be interesting to test the mineral content of a "perfectly flushed" white ash and compare to grey ash.

This is interesting. I've never noticed not flushing to change my flower ash color. I get a white ash mid-flower without the flush. Well, it's slightly off-white but it's the same as what I have at harvest. I don't think I'm using enough calcium yet for the white-white ash.

 

[CannaRed]

This is interesting. I've never noticed not flushing to change my flower ash color. I get a white ash mid-flower without the flush. Well, it's slightly off-white but it's the same as what I have at harvest. I don't think I'm using enough calcium yet for the white-white ash.

I don't think mineral content is only factor. I think how hot it got factors. And I would think that the heat would dependant on moisture levels. But maybe minerals as well

 

[GuerrillaRed]

Threads like these are why I love ICMag so much.

To be completely 100% honest, I have never really noticed a difference. I still flush for the last week just to save on nutes but in some ways it seems very counter productive to starve and disrupt the plant's routine and metabolism in the last week or two.

I've also always been confused by the "white ash from flushing" myth as I've never seen much of a change but this is something I've always been afraid to admit out loud.

 

[Dropped Cat]

I read that sugar content in the buds leads to ash color.

Although I've never had anyone comment on ash quality,
my goal remains to grow the cleanest product I can in
the environment I have.

Using nutes at less than published strengths is a good start.

 

[pinkus]

The thread isn't separating good growers from bad, but it is certainly exposing lots of condescending ****s.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

When truth seems condescending, you should take a second look at what you're doing.

 

[Gauss]

I don't think mineral content is only factor. I think how hot it got factors. And I would think that the heat would dependant on moisture levels. But maybe minerals as well

IMO everything matters when it comes to growing, and it matters differently respective to each different strain and specimen. Each factor works individually and collectively. There are still reliable tests people can do on their own to discern their own way to do things that will apply in an almost completely uniform sense. You don't need a lab coat to lecture you on how your lady likes it, you just learn. When people expect information from others to give them all the answers they expect less from their own intelligence. There is no master grower or magic bullet for the perfect anything in cannabis, anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool.

 

[pinkus]

LOL. It's the uncalled for insults I am referring to. There are many ways of looking at the data. There is no reason for the condescension. If you can't separate the difference between insults and analysis that's your own predicament.