What Is Flushing?

Growing premium cannabis takes craftsmanship. In this episode of It’s in the Details, DOJA Fertigation Specialist and Integrated Pest Manager, Kevin, shares the specifics of a professional cultivation practice—flushing. 

DOJA cultivates premium flower in the heart of cannabis country— the famed Okanagan Valley.

Flushing is one of the most underrated cultivation tricks out there. In cannabis cultivation, flushing is the process of running pure water through your soil or growing medium to remove excess minerals from the plant. 

The end result? Enjoyable flower with less mineral buildup.

Flushing is an easy way to automatically improve the quality of your cannabis plants. It’s a complementary practice to fertilizing. “We like to flush our mature plants once a week,” says Kevin, intermixing the occasional flush with nutrient feedings.

Over the course of the plant growth cycle, expert growers feed their plants with supplementary nutrients. The plants use some of these nutrients, but not all of them. As a result, excess minerals can build up in the soil and in the plant. 

“When the plant grows, it stores minerals in its tissue and it stores them for later,” explains Kevin, “When we start to use water to flush the plant, the plant is then forced to use those minerals it had stored within itself.” 

You can flush your cannabis at a variety of points during the growing cycle. True flushing, however, occurs roughly two weeks before harvest time. About 14 days before harvest, Kevin and the DOJA cultivation team stop fertilizing and use nothing but pure water. 

Want to learn more about the benefits of flushing? 

Check out the video above and get educated!