Maximum Yield Australia/New Zealand July/August 2020 | Page 39

Flushing Removes Stored
Nutrients in Plants
Excess reserves are mainly stored within
the stem and root ball. With a plant growing
in a natural environment, these deposits
would consist of natural low-level chemical
elements, ready to be released as the plant
needs them.
In a controlled indoor growing
environment, plants are given nutrient-rich
feed which is more concentrated as you
are trying to replicate the natural growing
cycle, but in a shorter space of time. To
do this, there is normally a chemical-rich
nutrient feeding solution that fuels the rapid
growth of the plants. While these nutrients
are a vital part of producing your crops,
they often leave unwanted chemical traces
within the plants. These traces can manifest
themselves in the plant as a chemicallike
taste, smell, or colour. To remove these
unwanted effects, most hydroponic growers,
whether they are hobbyists or commercial,
will flush their plants. This flush is
intended to clean the plant of the unwanted
chemicals still being stored within.
Flush Plants with Chemicals or Water
With flushing you have two options: a
chemical nutrient flush, along the lines of
the feeds and supplements you have already
been using, or simply use water. Of course,
whatever you choose is a matter of personal
preference, however, what I can say is using
a chemical flush will certainly help speed
things up. I must add at this point that if
you do decide to just flush with water alone,
remember it is important to hold the pH
of the water during the process. If it is too
high or too low, your plant can absorb extra
aluminum and salt from the water, which will
lead to a whole new set of problems.
Flushing: A Two-Part Process
The first part of the flush process is where we
halt all further intake of nutrient elements
and remove the excess chemical traces of
nutrients from the plant’s system. The second
part of the flush, or the ripening, is where we
want to drive out the active chemical elements
stored as reserves in the plants’ vascular
system and push them into your plants’ fruits.
The focus and key to this process is on speed
— the faster the plant is flushed of all active
chemical elements then the faster it can move
on to the ripening stage where the plants’
reserve stores are being used.
On entering the ripening phase, whether
you were or were not previously using a
chemical flush, you should now switch to
just water as this allows the plant to utilise
its reserves as quickly as possible after
the chemical flush has done its job. By
forcing the plant to use these reserves you
are boosting your plants and the fruits will
quickly grow again in size and weight.
“
WHILE THESE
NUTRIENTS ARE
A VITAL PART
OF PRODUCING
YOUR CROPS,
they often leave
unwanted chemical
traces within the plants.
These traces can manifest
themselves in the plant
as a chemical-like taste,
smell, or colour.”
Maximum Yield 39