when to stop "feeding"

[jrm500]

Hi

I am a first timer and have five girls in soil indoors under a 600w HPS. They are; two Skunk one Big Bud one Hindu Kush and a Super Skunk. The two Skunk have been on 12/12 for 37 days and are buding up nicely so I think that I am about two weeks away from cropping.

I am feeding them all Bio Biz Bloom and Bio Biz Top Max (both100% organic)

My question for you experienced guys is; when should I stop the feed before cropping or should I stop at it all?:lite:

[trillions of atoms]

i stop feeding a week before chop...let the bigger shade leaves die off and when trim leaves start to yellow time to chop.


its all in the cure really.

[Useless]

i stop feeding a week before chop...let the bigger shade leaves die off and when trim leaves start to yellow time to chop.


its all in the cure really.

Not really TOA. Its all in allowing the plant to metabolize any stored minerals. This is what makes the best flavor and burn. A cure will enhance the flavors true, but it will never have the terpene and terpenoid profile a properly flushed plant will have.
My most flavorful and pungent buds come from plants that have 14 days flush time, and do NOT turn totally yellow prior to chop. Slight, very slight yellowing, not wilted and dead.
The smoke is just more pungent and flavorful. Yellowed leaves indicate a deficiency. Deficiencies in the last part of flower will take away from the terpene and pertenoid profiles. Excess will do the same. I agree it is a fact, excess minerals, at the very least nitrogen, severly inhibit terpenes and terpenoids. But, the trick, is to have the plants not in a deficiency, and not in excess, but the balance point where a deficiency is merely a few days away. IME anyways.
Using organics is much more difficult to determine the proper time to flush. Those little benies have a mind of their own, and can pull minerals into the plant long after nutrients are no longer supplied in the feed/nutrient solution.
(this is BTW, why I think organics folks think it tastses better. There are almost always trace elements left in the bud that change the overall terpenoid profile, and thus the flavor. Some like it, I dont. I just want to taste the ganja, nothing else. I dont want added flavors from unmetabolized minerals.)

To the original poster, given your strains, I will speak generally of flush times since I dont know what phenos of the strains you are running.

The easy one is Hindu Kush. Finished and ready for chop by day 56-50. Start flushing this one in 5-7 more days.
Big BUd, well thats a tough one. Can go anywhere between 56-77 days. Depends on the genetic background. Real original BB from the PNW in the 80's at least 9-10 weeks, sometimes 11. The dutch seedbanks BB have all been outcrossed to to something (usually skunk or NL), and will reduce the flowering times down to about 8 weeks.
The Skunk - where did you get it? Most skunks are running 56-70 days. The more sativa leaning sweet skunks are running a bit longer (70 days), the indi dom phenos are ready earlier (56 days or so).
Your super skunk should be finished right around 56-63 days. Its a sativa pheno skunk, crossed with an indi pheno, for the purpose of stabilizing the strain, while shortening the flower time.

So, I would start flushing 14 days from before the projected finish times just listed. Seems you are a bit anxious to finish up, and nothing wrong with that, as we have all done it! But be patient, it will only reap you the rewards of a great harvest in the end.

Cheers

[jrm500]

Thanks Useless

You are right, I am impatient!

Living where I do means a sparse supply of good, or indeed any weed.
However I will curbe my enthusiasm to crop too soon and take your advice. I will flush and switch to plain water around day 40/44.

Thanks again.

[Don de Marco]

I usually give my plants a good dose of molasses around week 5. The last three weeks it's adjusted water mostly - with some casual exceptions.
I don't like yellow single bladed leaves, so I usually chop then - like toa.