Ok…being new here I only recently learned that time release Miracle Grow is not the best soil to use. Having encountered an auto flower now, I understand why.
I pulled out my loop to check my tricomes and discovered that I am further along than I thought. I see much more amber than I expected. Not a bad thing to harvest sooner than later except for my flush!
How can I flush when adding water will release nutrients? I now know this has been part of my disappointment with my previous harvests.
I need help with flushing my little girl. I considered clearing all the soil off and placing her in an old 10gal. aquarium I have, but I no longer have a pump to aeriate the water. Any ideas please!
Yikes, that’s a problem child.
First, depending on how long you have had it in this soil, the time release nitrogen might already have been used up. That would explain why it seems ahead of schedule.
Second, since autos are so much quicker, the plant may not be retaining nutes so the flavor of the bud might just be fine.
Third, if you insist, you can just remove the plant from the pot, wash off the roots and place it in a bucket with water. Change the water daily and it won’t go stagnant on you. But don’t try this unless you are about to harvest in a few days since this will really drain the plant of nutes quickly.
Personally, I’d go for the rinse and soak if I were sure that it’s ready to be harvested.
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I always hate time release soils but contrary to popular beliefs you can flush or should I say draught your plants by reducing how much water you give them misting leaves at right before lights on to give them more moisture and watering them only lightly everyday with no nutes only ph’d water. The by reducing the moisture level in soil the nutrients don’t saturate and break down as much in your soil this reduces avail nutrients forcing plant to use it’s stores. This is theory I haven’t tested but many older growers used to do similar tricks week in advance of harvest to stress plant and force it to finish faster.
In soil I rinse 2-3 weeks prior to harvest depending on how fast they are drinking then put them on ph’d water only diet letting them dry out for day or so before harvest plant consumes only water and nutrients stored in it seem to get cleaner finish this way.
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@Sir_Charles_Kane & @Donaldjn I agree with both of you great answers !
B Sabre
Will
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@Donaldj - I too have heard of this technique, but if I read between the lines right, the newbie grower believes that his trichomes have already turned amber and that harvest is rapidly approaching. Plus I always avoided water at night since here in Hawaii we fight botritis with cool damp nights.
Either way, the bottom line is start with different soils next grow so that this won’t be an issue.
I’m constantly learning usually at the expense of yield but this is a highly variable crop and outdoor grows vary greatly. Some day I hope to have a formula to maximize things for my conditions. So if you live at 900’ elevation, two miles from the Pacific, with 90" of rain a year and an annual max/min temp of 90 - 60, will I ever have answers for you. Lol.
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I thank you very much. I will go ahead and just try flushing the soil using twice the capacity of the poet’s volume.
Logging everything is another of my learning curves. I believe it was mid February when she went into her pot, so I’m gonna hope the time release has been used up as it only claims to feed up to three months.
Rough estimate on amber coloring is around 30-40 percent coverage. I’m not looking for total couch lock. I’ve experimented with harvesting at different stages before, just unsure about how quickly the coloration is progressing.
Thank you again.
Use an air pot to grow inn, when using an “all in one” soil. It so much easier than the alternative. Wash away the soil. Put said plant back in the air pot, Set air pot in a 5 gallon bucket of in Ph’d water {dump out water daily and use a fan}…And enjoy! That’s the easiest way. Hope that helps! Peace!
I know this thread is old, but I was wondering what happened if you recall @FloridaSon …was the harvests taste up to your standards? Which route did you take?
And @buzkillington is it easy to dry buds that been harvested off a plant which roots have been sitting in water? Does that really flush your plants?
I wonder because I have a few of my plants that are nearing the harvest stage and are in mg soil. My other plants that are in my own soil mix have already faded while the the mg soil plants leaves are still green with a small hint of autumn effect, but all plants are starting amber trichome phase…
Has anyones take on this matter evolved ? Thanks !