As someone who has just started growing their own cannabis at home, there are many different pieces of information that you need to be aware of in order for this task to be successful. For instance, one of the most important things that you need to do once your cannabis is almost fully grown is to flush.
For those of you who don’t know what flushing cannabis is, this is in fact one of the most critical parts of the weed growing process, and if you neglect to do it, the result will be less than enjoyable.
The simple fact is when you grow weed, you’re likely using a whole lot of nutrients, fertilizers, and other chemicals to get those flowers and buds big and potent. However, all of those fertilizers and nutrients aren’t exactly ideal for you to inhale or ingest, which means that you need to flush them out of your weed plants before harvest.
Hence, where the name flushing your weed plants comes from, because you’re flushing all of the excess nutrients, fertilizers, and more out of their systems. Today, we’re going to talk about everything you need to know about when, why, and how to flush your cannabis plants.
What is Flushing Cannabis Plants?
When you grow cannabis, chances are pretty high that you’re using a variety of nutrients, fertilizers, and other chemical substances to help them grow.
After all, the soil or other medium that you are using to grow probably doesn’t have quite enough nutrients to support your cannabis plant. No matter the growing medium that you are using, you’ll eventually need to add some more nutrients and fertilizers to the mix.
However, if you plan on consuming your cannabis, this automatically means that you also need to flush plants because plants store excess amounts of nutrients as they grow, and these excess salts, nutrients, and more are things that you definitely don’t want in your system.
This is where flushing the cannabis plant comes into play, which is quite simply the act of just giving it plain water instead of giving it water filled with nutrients.
As soon as you begin flushing after the flowering stage is complete, it starts to remove those excess nutrients and other substances from the equation.
In other words, flushing a cannabis plant is simply nothing more than giving it plain water without any added fertilizers, nutrients, or anything in between.
Your goal is flushing nutrients out of the cannabis plant, to make it better for you to consume. Flushing involves watering a cannabis plant for up to three weeks before harvest to remove all leftover nutrients before you cut the plant down.
Why Should You Flush Cannabis Plants?
Many people might think that flushing a cannabis plant is not a completely necessary part of the process, but these people are wrong. The simple fact is that you absolutely have to flush your plants, and this is true for many different reasons.
For anybody who wants to avoid flushing cannabis plants, the only real way to do this is to not use any nutrients or fertilizers to begin with, but of course, this won’t result in a big and strong cannabis plant.
Removing Excess Nutrients Before Harvest
The fact is that when most people grow cannabis, they probably use a whole lot of nutrients and fertilizers. All of that nutrient uptake can lead to high levels of nutrient loads and total dissolved solids within the cannabis plants.
Although there are plenty of beneficial microorganisms that are fine to have in your cannabis plants at time of harvest, full nutrient loads are not welcome. If you have many residual nutrients left over in the plant, this his can greatly affect the overall experience.
Excessive nutrients in some cases, especially if they are chemical fertilizers, may even be poisonous, so as you can see, having too many nutrients present is not ideal. When it comes time to harvest your cannabis plants, the only thing you want left are the cannabinoids, the terpenes, and the rest of the plant matter, all without any surplus compounds present.
Avoiding Nutrient Burn
Something else worth noting is that flushing a cannabis plants is not only ideal for removing excess nutrients before harvest, but also during the growth season. The reason we mentioned this is because many people tend to provide their cannabis with far too high nutrient loads in an attempt to combat a nutrient deficiency.
However, many people then provide their cannabis plants with surplus nutrients, which can lead to what is known as nutrient burn. When nutrient uptake is far too high, or in other words, when weed plants get too many nutrients, they can suffer from what is known as nutrient burn.
Nutrient burn is characterized by an abundance of nutrients in the cannabis plant, usually in the growing medium, which can result in the wilting, withering, burning, and overall poor health of your weed plants. Funny enough, eventually, this can even lead to what is known as nutrient lockout.
Removing Fertilizers and Chemicals
Not only is the flushing process with plain water vital for removing excess nutrients in your cannabis plants, but also for removing other chemicals and fertilizers.
If you are looking to achieve the biggest and most potent buds, chances are that you probably used some chemicals that you don’t want to inhale or ingest.
Therefore, flushing plants prior to harvest is essential, or else you may end up with what are essentially poisonous compounds in the cannabis buds, which eventually make their way into your system.
Improving the Flavor and Experience
The other reason why flushing cannabis plants is so important is because it helps to better the flavor and aroma of your cannabis. Cannabis flushing helps to get rid of that unpleasant chemical taste that is often left behind by bloom nutrients, as well as other organic compounds, such as excess chlorophyll.
What it really comes down to is that weed that has not been properly flushed before harvest usually doesn’t taste very good. It can also lead to a very harsh smoke that makes you cough hard.
When to Flush Cannabis Plants
There are two main times when you want to flush a cannabis plant, with one being at any point when you may need to fix nutrient burn comma and the other being right before harvest.
Fix Nutrient Burn – Anytime
First and foremost, many growers flush a cannabis plant when they have experienced nutrient burn.
If you see that the leaves of your cannabis plants are wilting, curling, bending, the plant is very weak, or if it is discolored, chances are that it has experienced nutrient burn. If you notice that this is the case, then you may want to engage in a quick one weeklong flushing process.
Flushing your cannabis plant in the middle of its growth cycle is not ideal, although it may be necessary if there is an excess of nutrient buildup that is leading to excess compounds being present, ultimately leading to nutrient burn.
You don’t want the floral growth of your crop being burned by excessive nutrients, so this is one of the necessary times to flush a cannabis plant with either a quality flushing agent or just plain water.
Flushing Your Plants Before Harvest to Remove Excess Nutrients
As all experienced cannabis growers know, although weed plants do need vital nutrients to survive, you don’t want stored nutrients built up in plant tissues still being present at the time of harvest.
The simple fact is that plants store excess amounts of nutrients, which means that you need to begin flushing a cannabis plant well before you harvest it to make sure that all of those nutrients, fertilizers, and other chemicals have been removed. Generally speaking, most people recommend engaging in cannabis plant flushing about three weeks before you plan on harvesting.
This means that once you notice that your cannabis plant is nearly done that flowering, you want to start the flushing process. Some growers flush their plants for only one week, although a minimum of two weeks is recommended to ensure that plants have been effectively flushed.
How to Flush Weed Plants – Step by Step
Now that you know what it means to flush a cannabis plant and why it’s so important, let’s go through a quick step by step tutorial on exactly how to do so.
1. Timing
Carefully observe your cannabis plants to determine when they are getting ready for harvest. Although some people do fine with a one- or two-week flushing period, many people extend this to a total of three weeks. Therefore, you want to start flushing your cannabis plants when you first start seeing signs that the plants are ready for harvest, such as if the trichomes are mature.
2. Prepare the Flushing Solution
The next step in the process is to prepare a flushing solution for your cannabis plants. Of course, you’re really just using plain water here, but you do need to ensure that it has a neutral pH level, or around 6.0 to 6.5 for soil growers.
3. Maintain a Watering Schedule
You should now choose a watering schedule, which generally means watering your cannabis plants every two or three days. You really don’t want to water them any more or less than you usually would, especially because you don’t want the roots to start rotting or drying out excessively before you harvest cannabis plants.
4. Water Slowly
Once you have picked a watering schedule, make sure to slowly water the cannabis plants. Slowly pour the water onto the soil and let it soak in, but don’t pour it too quickly, because you don’t want to damage the roots. You want to see about 20% of that water coming out of the drainage holes at the bottom.
5. Collect the Runoff
Once you see that roughly 20% of the water you’ve given your cannabis plants has come out of the drainage holes at the bottom, you want to collect that runoff. You don’t want your cannabis plants to absorb the runoff, because this is where the nutrients are.
All of those excess nutrients that you’re flushing out of the cannabis plants are in that run off water, so under no circumstances do you want the canvas plan to reabsorbing that water.
6. Repeat Every Three Days for Three Weeks
Keep repeating this flushing process every two or three days for a total of three weeks until your cannabis plants are completely free of excess nutrient buildup.
What Happens If You Don’t Flush Cannabis Plants?
For anybody who thinks that it is a good idea to not flush cannabis plants, we certainly wouldn’t recommend doing so. The simple reality is that if you don’t flush a canvas plant prior to harvest, the overall result is going to be less than enjoyable. So, what happens if you don’t flush cannabis plants?
- If you don’t flush cannabis plants, excess chlorophyll can remain built up in the plant matter, which at the very least, results in a poor taste.
- If you leave too many nutrients, fertilizers, and other such chemicals in your cannabis plants, not only will it create a poor flavor, but will also make for a very harsh smoke that is not enjoyable for your throat.
- Even worse is that if you don’t flush your cannabis plants properly, there will be many different potentially toxic compounds leftover. Make no mistake about it, all of those chemical fertilizers that you use in your cannabis growing journey are not things that the human body should inhale or ingest.
Conclusion
As you can see, flushing a cannabis plant is extremely important. If you neglect flushing your cannabis plants, you’ll be left with buds that don’t taste good, don’t smoke good, and are extremely unhealthy as well. Therefore, you want to follow all of the steps and tips that we’ve provided you with above, as this will result in a clean cannabis plant that is ready to consume.
