In today’s article, we will talk about how to flush plants without overwatering them. Many plant owners have this problem because sometimes, it’s not so easy to calculate how much water your plants need.
This is the most common issue with cannabis plants since most people drain and then overdo it. That is the first mistake we all do with watering. If you skipped watering, you don’t overdo it the next time.
People with amended organic soil are avoiding this, but what about other growing mediums? What happens with all the nutrients when overwatering? How to properly use a drip tray? On this topic, you can also read How long can flowers go without water.
If you want to find out all about these things below, stay with us, and let’s do some reading.
How To Flush Plants Without Overwatering – Flushing Plants Smart
A plant’s health depends on its watering schedule a lot. But once you water your plants smart and you considered nutrients stored in the soil and plain water issues, along with plant tissues-you don’t have to worry!
If the nutrient reserves aren’t used correctly due to the wrong watering schedule and flushing your plants too much, problems appear. During the important harvest season, flushing too much water on your plant can remove excess chlorophyll and that isn’t good for your plant.
To learn all about water’s effects on salt build-up, root system, excess buildup, and nutrient lockout, let’s do some more reading.
Top 5 Ways How To Flush Plants Without Overwatering
To avoid standing water issues and to save your dark green plant’s leaves, we’re bringing you 5 ways how to avoid overwatering/flushing your plants too much below. Let’s see how can you water your plant in 5 smart ways and still provide them with enough water.
1. Spray Water Supply
We all know how easy it is to fill a spray bottle with water and use them on our plants. This is one of the easiest ways to water our plants. It’s very quick, it doesn’t leave any mess behind and it looks pretty chic. If you buy a pretty one and place it near a plant, it’s a lovely house decor as well.
You can spray the leaves and the soil and that way, your plant will receive proper drainage and you won’t have to worry about overwatering issues.
Spray water is good for the new soil as well that’s not rich in water and air circulation yet. Pouring water rarely helps plants to grow healthily, but believe it or not, spraying water can help a lot.
2. Flushing Your Plants With Sprinkler
There are people who do this as well. It’s much more complicated than the spray water but very effective if you’re trying to avoid overwatering and fresh up all of your houseplants at once during summer days for example.
You should always consider the pot’s volume when watering. Water approximately 20% of the pot’s volume to know you’re using it correctly.
The sprinkler can also help in the salt buildup and total dissolved solids problems. When simply pouring water from the tap, you can’t achieve this as you can with the garden sprinkler.
Just take out all of your house plants, place them on some nylon in order to reduce mess, and put on a sprinkler for a couple of minutes. Voila! Watered plants without overwatering!
3. Use Waterlogged Soil
Waterlogged soil is right in organic matter, has extra nutrients (more than the regular soil) and of course, the most important thing, it keeps the water in longer than classic houseplant soils.
This can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. But today, it is a good thing since you’ll water these plants less and they’ll still have lots of water in their soil for the plant needs.
Available nutrients, with water included, will be there close and you won’t have to see the water, it will be present in the soil along with other minerals.
If you’re used to simply draining your plant into water, this can be a fresh start for your plants, and much easier for you, right? Instead of being afraid of large quantities of water in the pot, you can purchase this soil.
4. Use Kitchen Sink Benefits
A kitchen sink is another great way to control watering. Watering plants from the bottom or the top? You can place them in a sink, water them a bit and immediately remove water from the drip tray in the sink.
Also, you can turn the water in the tap on and leave your plant in, not under, but in the sink. That way, your plant will also cool off thanks to the “water steam.”
That is very good for your plant on hot summer days. Sometimes, when watering plants, you should also consider the ph level of the plant’s soil.
The overall quality of the soil affects that a lot. Acidic soils don’t hold in well water while lightly or not acidic soils hold in the water much better.
Coco coir, for example, sandy soils, and clay soils hold in water well, while perlite, peat moss, and alkaline soils don’t hold in water well.
Nonacidic soils hold the water at the bottom of the pot. Less acid-more water, that is definitely some sort of a watering formula for your plants.
5. Try Flushing Plants With A Dishtowel
Another clean, quick and easy way to water your plant is to wash them with a dishtowel. Carefully and gently wash your plant’s leaves with water from the dishtowel.
This process is relaxing both for you and your plant. This is also one of the key grower’s routines for the plant.
The main benefit is the clean look of your plant, healthy buds, you’ll kill bacteria, and leaves being on point, the light will reflect easier on the clean leaves and you’ll avoid any grower mistakes by doing this.
Those who flush their plants definitely didn’t try this simple way. No need for “leaching” your plant anymore if you have a dishtowel.
How To Flush Plants Without Overwatering? How To Avoid Overwatered Plant?
There are simple tricks on how to avoid overwatering your plants, or even if it happens by accident, how to save your plant from standing water issues.
Below we bring you 3 simple ways how to avoid that or to stop that from happening. Let’s check it out then.
• Make Drainage Holes In The Plant Pot
The easiest way to avoid standing water issues is to make drainage holes in your plant’s pot. Before planting your flower or a small tree in the pot, make drainage holes that will save your plant’s roots from excessive water.
When you overdo it by accident, the plant will have a “back up” and the water will end up in the drip tray.
But also, it is essential to remove the water from the drip tray soon as well, since roots absorb that water as well. To avoid root rot, make holes in the pot!
• Use Finger Check For Excess Water
One thing that will always be correct and true is your finger check. You simply dig your finger into the soil and check if the soil is still wet. If it’s still wet and the soil is a bit sticky, you should wait a bit more before watering.
If the finger is dry once you dig it in the soil, you’re able to give your plants more water. Even when you think that the soil looks dry and needs water, it’s better to check the top 2 or 3 inches before watering with a finger before watering. This test never lies.
• Never Water Directly With Tap Water
Tap water is fine water for most houseplants, but watering your plant directly under the tap has its shortcomings.
With the pressure of tap water you can easily mix and disturb the soil of your plant and that isn’t good for the plant.
The pressure of the water also can get too strong, or you simply can put it on too strong, and before you know it, for your little pot and your little plant, you’ve put too much in the soil of your plant.
This can be especially a major issue for the cacti plants. Never water the small cacti plants like this! Root rot can appear shortly after this.
What Does Overwatering Cause? How To Flush Plants Without Overwatering?
We all know that the struggle and issues with overwatered plants are no picnic in a park. It can lead to some incurable diseases of the plant and problems in the plant that can become unsolvable and your plant eventually dies. In order to avoid that, let’s learn more about the consequences of too much water in the plant’s soil.
– Root Rot And Plant’s Roots Gone Bad
I am more than sure that this happened at least once four you. Root got rot and just like that, your favorite plant died.
This happens when you overwater your plants and your pot probably lacks drainage holes or there was just so much water that even drainage holes couldn’t save your plant.
When this plant disease occurs, it’s not fixable. Root rot is a dead plant. All you can do is remove it somewhere if you don’t want to see your favorite plant dying.
Standing water, lots of it, can kill the plant in 7 to 10 days after you did that. Sometimes even longer, but it depends on the plant and the type of the plant, its root system, etc.
– Droopy Plant Appearance
This can also be a side effect of the root rot that is slowly developing under the soil’s surface. Droopy leaves and the droopy stem are connected to root rot as well.
It is very noticeable that your plant is sick and you should react quickly. Sometimes, root rot still didn’t occur, but it’s very soon so, in that case, the best idea would be to transplant your plant into the new pot and soil in order to save it.
– Flushing Removes The Nutrients
If you for example, just fertilized your plant and then overwatered it, can you imagine what happens to that fertilizer?
It simply travels through your soil with water and ends up somewhere where it can’t have enough sue for your plant.
When To Flush Your Plants On Purpose? How To Flush Plants Without Overwatering?
There will be times when you’ll have to flush your plants on purpose for several reasons (periods or the conditions of your plants). Of course, as we said there is a difference between overwatering and adding a bit more water. A bit more water than you usually pour into your plant’s soil won’t kill your plant.
It will even be good for it if the plant was exposed to too much sun lately, if you’ve been on a journey and forgot to plant it, there are many reasons behind it.
This doesn’t mean that you should even put abnormal amounts of water into the plant’s soil. Let’s learn more about this part.
Flush Away Excess Nutrients
Sometimes, you can even overfertilize your plant. Fertilizer is a big need for our houseplants, but too much fertilizer can actually kill your plant. Too many nutrients aren’t good for your plant. It’s like your plant is literally choking on the fertilizer, avoid it!
In order to avoid it, you can “flush” the fertilizer with water and once you’re done, you need to take it outside in order for excessive water to drop out of the drainage holes and to avoid too much water in the pot issues.
Sick Cannabis Plant Needs More Drain
We took this plant as a reference plant since it’s one of the plants that can die very soon because of the lack of water and also die very soon because of too much water in its soil.
Cannabis plants need a regular watering schedule, they need a lot of care, and people who are growing them for medical reasons know the struggle.
Once you forget the watering it gets this dry droopy appearance and it looks like it’s been through a really dry period.
In order to fix that, it will need more water after that period than the regular plant. Regular plants don’t need much water after a drought period, they just need water again. But the cannabis plants need much more water after that period.
Cannabis plants also need more fertilizer than regular plants. Avoid skipping their watering period since it can affect the plant for longer periods and its greenery will never look the same anymore!
There’s Been A Drought Period For Your Marijuana Plants
As we said above, a dry period isn’t the best thing you want for your plants. But sometimes, even if you don’t do it on purpose, the temperature can change and a dry period can occur if you’re growing plants outside, or if you have them in your cottage home outside the city for example.
In these cases, the first time you “visit” your plants after that, give them lots of water since their soil will be super dry and it will absorb all the water in the soil and its roots super quickly. You won’t have a standing water issue since it will all end up in the right places.
When you do this with your houseplants, a problem appears since your houseplant is used to watering, it has more air circulation and plant soil in your home is actually never entirely dry, especially that middle part you can’t rich with your finger check.
Your Soil Isn’t Waterlogged Soil
When your soil doesn’t have the ability to absorb and hold water much, then you’ll have to water it more.
Waterlogged soils are both good and bad as we said above. If you’re watering them very often, they’re holding too much water in and that can cause root rot very fast.
But other soils that are not waterlogged need to be watered more often since the water will literally just get through the soil from the top to the bottom.
When growing a plant inside, it’s more than important that the plant is fully absorbed and covered with water “inside.” That includes its roots and the lower part of the stem that’s in the soil.
Your Plant Is In Its Flowering Stage
When your plant is in the flowering stage and flower bubs are almost opened, in that period, it’s more than important to water your plant. Make sure you water them properly, and carefully.
They will need more water in that period than in the winter months for example or fall time. Make sure you don’t use liquid fertilizers in such a period because that is too much moisture for your plants.
FAQ – How To Flush Plants Without Overwatering?
As always, we make sure we answer all of your questions properly, so even today, we bring you your, maybe favorite section, the faq section where we will answer the unanswered questions about flushing plants without watering them. Let’s find out more below.
What Happens If You Don’t Flash Your Plants Before Harvest?
When you don’t flush your plants properly or you simply don’t flush them before harvest, even pre-harvest in some cases, your plants can fail to produce flowers/fruits properly.
They can get many negative effects so we strongly recommend flushing them before the harvest season of your plants.
Is Tap Water Good For Flushing?
You can flush your plants with tap water, it won’t kill them, but if you truly want the best option for flushing plants, choose distilled water.
As you already know, it doesn’t contain unnecessary minerals and it’s simply the best choice for your plants in this process.
Especially when flushing your plants before harvest, it’s best to use distilled water or “ro” water for this. Tap water has the ability to remove nutrients from your soil and no one likes that for its plant.
For How Much Time Can I Flush My Plants Without Overwatering?
The maximum time you should use for flushing your plants is 3 weeks. In these three weeks, your plant will be completely free from impurities and there won’t be any excess minerals in your plant. In the end, the final product will be impurity-free and just as you wanted it to be.
Is Flushing Necessary For Plants?
Some plants don’t need flushing in their growing process. they are perfectly healthy and good without it, but some plants simply need it and love it.
For some plants, this part is a big important part of their growing process, especially before the flowering season.
Can you Overflush Plants?
You can overdo anything, and with that being said, you can overflush your plants. As mentioned cannabis plants above, overflushing cannabis plants will destroy and stop their flowers from growing. When flushing plants you have to be careful just like you are with watering.
Final Thoughts – How To Flush Plants Without Overwatering
In today’s article, we learned how to flush plants without overwatering them. If you didn’t know how to deal with this problem until now, with a little help from us, your knowledge, and patience, your plants will sow in your home this season!
Plants need a lot of water, but too much water can kill them very quickly and today we definitely found out how to eliminate that problem once and for all.
During its active process and flowering season, beautiful plants will survive more water in the pot and in the soil thanks to all the tricks you learned today.
This time you don’t have to wait in fear for the pre-harvest season and the flushing process, you are more than ready for that undertaking!
That would be all for today, see you soon with more similar topics.