Flushes & leaches help take out the stored-up nutrients in your plant before harvest or if your plant is showing signs of nutrient burn. A flushed plant is left with only the essence of the plant, no residual elements that can alter smell and taste.

Flushes or leaching can be broken down into two areas, the flushing of the growing medium or soil and the flushing of the plants themselves. In cases when too much nutrient solution is overfed to your plants, flushing the media and diluting the solution will get things back to normal.

Pre-harvest flushing is used to prepare crops for harvest by tapering off the main nutrients and adding elements that will benefit the plants in the final stages of flowering, heavy elements and salts are removed from the plant, allowing for more aromatic and flavorful fruits and flowers.

Repeated use of a plant fertilizer will become problematic for plants as salt buildup accumulates in a grow media. Growers might find it beneficial, if not imperative, to flush or leach the rooting medium to clear out unwanted fertilizer salt buildup to provide plants with a clean slate. Potted plants often require leaching because salt can build up on the soil’s surface. Leaching potted plants (flushing) entails pouring an excessive amount of water into the pot to completely remove the salt accumulation.