Those who grow marijuana and are just harvesting don’t yet know much about its characteristics in the pipe. Even if it’s potent, it might not be pleasant for everyone. Perhaps it doesn’t taste and smell good when dried? One factor that will make even one of your personal favorites not taste good and not work well is fertilizer. Following the motto „more is better,“ many beginners and even experienced commercial growers reduce the water content in fertilizer and harvest before the plant dies. Anyone who fertilizes in a similar way should flush the cannabis so it doesn’t suffocate in nutrients.
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More Fertilizer – Higher Yield?
Fertilizer consists of salts and these retain water. If the salt content in the growing medium is too high, the roots simply can no longer absorb water and die of thirst. It would be more common to call this „burning.“ As long as the plants are still developing roots, less fertilizer would always be better. With too much fertilizer, plants don’t root well or don’t root at all. Consequently, there should be little fertilizer in the soil/watering solution during pre-flowering and vegetative growth phases. For flowering, fertilizer manufacturers recommend not only a different nutrient composition, but also a higher concentration.
Anyone who does everything right now has a lot of fertilizer in the soil at the end. They can harvest a lot, but the taste and effects will be impaired.
Therefore, you should water with only plain water (no fertilizer) for 14 days or earlier, or flush the cannabis directly three days before harvest. Anyone who wants to flush cannabis should continue running water through the pots until it becomes clearer and more transparent. Alternatively, you can also check the EC value in the runoff water to reach a specific EC value when flushing cannabis. This can be one to two liters of water per liter of soil. The water used should always be approximately room temperature and the pH should be roughly correct. The collected water can still be used for watering or fertilizing in the garden.
Why Flush Cannabis Instead of Simply Using Less Fertilizer?
Hydroponic systems are based on constant watering, since rockwool or the respective growing medium contains sufficient air.
Here, about 20% of the watered solution should run through and flush out old nutrients. Accordingly, slightly more fertilizer is used. In recirculating systems where the runoff water is collected again, the fertilizer content in the collection container increases. This effect must be regularly balanced with additional water, and the remaining water should be completely changed every 14 days.
With soil, however, you can simply use less fertilizer to avoid having to flush at all. For soil, it’s unusual to flush plants every 14 days, which many do in hydroponics in addition to the 20% runoff. It’s common with soil to simply stop fertilizer at the end and continue watering with plain water. You shouldn’t flush often because the plants will be sitting in water. However, if they’re in not-too-large pots that quickly draw some water and then get air again, you can also carefully fertilize until the end and flush out the fertilizer three days before harvest. This also works with hydroponics, where most people also simply stop fertilizing.
When plants curl their leaves and even the upper large leaves are already dying at the tips, in the worst case even remaining green, it’s time
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The plants are over-fertilized and already dying. Anyone who stops fertilizer now can watch as the plants still don’t recover properly. The plant can no longer handle what’s already in the growing medium. Flushing the cannabis can still save everything. The pots (whether on soil, expanded clay, hydroponic) should be flushed with one to two liters of not-too-cold or warm water per liter of growing medium. Even if they’re then initially exposed to waterlogging on soil, for example. Then fertilize more carefully or not at all.
Flushing Cannabis: Why So Much Fertilizer?
We’re therefore pouring more fertilizer on the cannabis than it will give us in buds (dry weight). It’s so much fertilizer that we have to flush it out and dispose of it. Does that make sense?
Many say this is fundamentally wrong, avoid fertilizer or fertilize very little and have (according to their own statements) similar harvest amounts of better quality. Fertilizing is less relevant on soil than with a hydroponic system, since the fertilizer is already contained or better bound and buffered. On soil or with special fertilizers, the taste is said to be far better than with hydroponics according to many statements.
Some nutrients are necessary so that no deficiency occurs that would cause the results to suffer. However, not as much fertilizer is necessary as many fertilizer manufacturers recommend. Besides highly bred strains, mainly the original varieties or sativas with high Haze content react very sensitively to fertilizer.
Anyone who fertilizes here to the point that a White Widow can tolerate will kill every one of the more sensitive plants. Moreover, many sativas don’t need 6 to 8 weeks, but over three months for flowering. If you always fertilize slightly more than what’s just needed, the fertilizer accumulates in the growing medium and over-fertilization is inevitable. With faster plants, you have less time to make mistakes. However, in case of over-fertilization or incorrect fertilization, you can always flush the cannabis and carefully continue fertilizing when the plants need water again.
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