Botanicare 2.5gal Clearex (2/CS)

Botanicare Clearex is a water-based electrolyte rinsing solution designed to remove accumulated nutrient salts from soil and soilless grow media. Used during the final 3–7 days before harvest, it helps prevent nutrient lockout and over-fertilization damage, encouraging plants to process stored nutrients and promoting cleaner flavors and improved yields at harvest. This listing includes two 2.5-gallon jugs (2/CS), SKU HGC732615.

Botanicare Clearex Specifications

Physical and product specifications for Botanicare Clearex 2.5 Gallon (2-pack case), sourced from the canonical supplier data and package attributes.

Specification	Value
Brand	Botanicare
SKU / Part Number	HGC732615
Container Size	2.5 gallons per jug
Case Pack	2 jugs per case
Case Weight	25.0 lb
Case Dimensions (L × W × H)	7.0 in × 9.0 in × 14.25 in
Formulation	Water-based electrolyte solution
Recommended Application Window	3–7 days prior to harvest
Compatible Media	Soil and soilless grow media

Why Choose Botanicare Clearex

Nutrient salt accumulation is one of the most common causes of late-cycle crop problems. Over repeated feeding cycles, excess salts build up in the root zone, raising osmotic pressure around the roots and interfering with water and nutrient uptake. When this happens, plants show symptoms like tip burn, leaf curl, and wilting that do not respond to additional feeding — because the problem is not deficiency but lockout caused by salt saturation. Clearex directly addresses this mechanism.

• Removes excess nutrient salt deposits: Clearex draws accumulated salts away from roots and out of the grow media by maintaining an osmotic equilibrium that favors salt movement into the solution rather than staying bound in the substrate.
• Prevents cell shrinkage and irreversible wilting: High salt concentrations around roots pull water out of root cells through osmosis. By flushing salts out of the media, Clearex protects root cell integrity and helps plants recover water uptake capacity.
• Shorter pre-harvest window preserves terpene production: Unlike extended water-only flushing protocols that can run 10–14 days, Clearex is formulated for a 3–7 day window. This shorter flush period is designed to allow growers to maintain active terpene production closer to harvest while still removing salt buildup.
• Triggers the final reproductive stage: When plants are flushed with Clearex in the days before harvest, the clearing of nutrient reserves in the media encourages the plant to draw on and process its stored internal nutrients. According to Botanicare, this process can enhance flavors and improve final yields.
• Water-based electrolyte formula: The electrolyte base helps maintain the solution chemistry needed for effective salt extraction without introducing compounds that would themselves leave residue in the media.

Clearex is intended for growers who feed with nutrient programs that carry a risk of salt buildup over time — particularly in recirculating hydroponic systems and dense growing media like coco coir or rockwool, where salts have fewer pathways to leach naturally. It is also useful as a corrective tool when visual symptoms of over-fertilization appear earlier in the growth cycle.

Best Uses for Botanicare Clearex

Clearex serves both a scheduled pre-harvest role and a corrective mid-cycle role. The following are the primary use cases grounded in the product description:

• Pre-harvest salt flush (3–7 days out): The most common use. Replace regular nutrient feeding with Clearex-treated water during the final week to clear salt deposits from the root zone, allowing the plant to mobilize and process stored nutrients before harvest. This is particularly effective in soil and soilless media where salts concentrate over a long growing season.
• Corrective flush for over-fertilization: When plants show signs of nutrient lockout or over-fertilization — such as dark green leaves, tip burn, or unexplained wilting despite adequate watering — a Clearex flush can help reset salt levels in the media and restore normal nutrient uptake capacity.
• Periodic media maintenance in long-cycle crops: For crops with extended vegetative or flowering periods, periodic flushing with Clearex between nutrient cycles can prevent salt accumulation from reaching levels that stress plants or require emergency intervention.
• Soilless and hydroponic media reset: In coco coir, rockwool, perlite, and other soilless substrates that do not have the buffering capacity of natural soil, salt buildup is faster and the effects are more pronounced. Clearex is well suited to these media types precisely because they benefit most from a dedicated electrolyte-based clearing solution rather than a plain water flush.
• Complementary tool alongside nutrient programs from brands like Advanced Nutrients: Heavy feeding schedules that maximize nutrient delivery to plants can also accelerate salt accumulation in the substrate. Clearex provides a practical end-of-cycle counterpart to intensive nutrient programs.

Botanicare Clearex vs Similar Products

Clearex occupies the category of electrolyte-based salt-leaching solutions, a narrower segment within the broader flush/clearing market. The more common alternative is a plain water flush — using pH-adjusted water with no additives during the pre-harvest period. A plain water flush can remove salts over time, but it typically requires a longer duration (often 10–14 days for soil) to achieve a meaningful reduction in EC at the root zone. Clearex is formulated specifically to shorten this window to 3–7 days by actively drawing salts into solution rather than passively diluting them.

Other clearing products on the market may use similar mechanisms but differ in their electrolyte base, concentration, and recommended dosing. The key question when evaluating any clearing product is whether it introduces new compounds into the root zone that need to be flushed out in turn — a concern Clearex’s water-based formula is designed to avoid.

For growers who prefer to build soil health throughout the crop cycle rather than relying on a pre-harvest flush, organic root-zone amendments such as Earth Juice Hi-Brix Molasses can support microbial populations that naturally process mineral buildup — though these serve a different function and are not a direct substitute for a targeted clearing solution at the end of the cycle.

Compatibility

Botanicare Clearex is compatible with a wide range of growing systems and media types:

• Soil: Standard potting soil and amended native soils. Salt accumulation from repeated feeding is common in container soil, making Clearex useful at the end of a season or cycle.
• Soilless media: Coco coir, perlite, peat-based mixes, and rockwool. These substrates have limited buffering capacity and benefit from a dedicated clearing solution, since they cannot biologically break down accumulated mineral salts the way a living soil can.
• Hydroponic systems: Clearex can be run through recirculating systems (NFT, DWC, ebb-and-flow) or used as a drain-to-waste flush. When used in a recirculating system, drain and discard the reservoir after the flush cycle rather than recirculating the salt-loaded solution back to the root zone.
• Nutrient programs: Clearex is compatible with Botanicare’s own nutrient lines and is intended to complement any nutrient program that involves regular salt-based feeding. It is used at the end of the feeding schedule, not alongside it.

This product is not a fertilizer and does not provide NPK or micronutrients. It should not be used as a substitute for regular watering or feeding during active growth stages.

Dosing Guidelines

The following guidelines are derived from the canonical product description. Always consult the label on the product container for the specific dose rate and any updates from Botanicare.

• Timing: Begin the Clearex flush 3–7 days before your intended harvest date. Do not use Clearex while continuing a regular nutrient feeding program — discontinue nutrient feeding before or at the start of the flush.
• Application: Mix Clearex concentrate with water at the dose rate shown on the label. Water plants or run the solution through your hydroponic system as you would with a normal watering cycle, ensuring thorough saturation of the media so the solution contacts the full root zone.
• Frequency during the flush window: Apply as needed to maintain moisture in the media and keep the salt-drawing process active. In soil and coco, one to two applications per day is typical depending on container size and media moisture retention.
• Monitor runoff EC: As the flush progresses, EC in the runoff from your containers or system will drop as salts are drawn out. When runoff EC approaches the EC of your incoming water, the media has been effectively cleared.
• After the flush: No additional flushing with plain water is needed after the Clearex cycle. Harvest plants according to your usual schedule at the end of the 3–7 day window.

How to Use Clearex

1. Determine your flush start date. Count back 3–7 days from your planned harvest. Mark this as the first day of the Clearex flush cycle.
2. Stop regular nutrient feeding. On the flush start date, discontinue your standard nutrient program. Do not mix Clearex with nutrient solution.
3. Measure and mix Clearex. Shake the jug before use. Add the recommended dose (per label) to pH-adjusted water. Mix the solution thoroughly before applying.
4. Water plants or flush the system. For soil and soilless containers, water until runoff flows freely from the bottom, ensuring the Clearex solution has passed through the full root zone. For hydroponic systems, fill the reservoir with the Clearex solution and run a normal irrigation cycle.
5. Check runoff EC. Measure the EC of the water exiting the containers or the return line of the hydroponic system. A declining EC reading over successive applications indicates that salts are being drawn out of the media.
6. Repeat for 3–7 days. Continue applying Clearex solution on each watering cycle throughout the flush window. Maintain normal light and environment conditions for the plants — do not alter the photoperiod or temperature during the flush.
7. Harvest at the end of the window. After 3–7 days of flushing with Clearex, harvest your crop according to your usual harvest process. No additional plain-water rinse is required after the Clearex cycle.

For growers using root-zone supplements earlier in the crop cycle — such as Heavy 16 Roots to support root mass development — the pre-harvest Clearex flush works as a complement to those programs, clearing the mineral residues that accumulate from intensive feeding before those products begin.

Sources & Further Reading