When to harvest trichome question.

[iruleyou1]

I am on week 8.5 of flower for a 7-8 week strain. At the very top of the colas about 30-50% of the trichomes are amber but I was told to check halfway down the cola which seems to haven't started changing at this point. I am not taking my readings from the sugar leaf tips showing through but from the parts that swell (seed pods if they had seeds). If I went by the sugar leaf tips showing through it would be time to harvest 30% amber) however I was told those change early. Most thrichomes are cloudy halfway down with maybe 1 amber in view under a 60x magnifier. It hasn't changed much in the past week. The strain in northern lights so it is a mostly Indica. Would you say I am ready to harvest? I was going to just flush one of my 6 plants and harvest tomorrow so I can take better readings. It is hard to get a reading when on the plant.

My guess is I am ready but can wait for the different effect. When a seed bank says how long a strain is I figure that is the earliest for any real effect. I think waiting till 9 weeks for the other 5 plants would be a safe guess for the other 5 plants.

 

[dirtrunner42]

I've only harvested once. but the time I did I had 20% Amber tricks on top and really milky as they went down to clear at the baby buds at the bottom. plan on doing it againe this grow it was a more euphoric high like in the head really good effects
. I hope this helps.

 

[iruleyou1]

This is what I was thinking too. I'm almost sure it's not too early but I am trying to go textbook for the first one. I have about 70 colas from training and I harvested one last week drying it for a few days before testing it. Honestly it was the best high I ever had probably because it was what you are describing. I like the fact I wasn't taking my shoes off and falling asleep. I'll probably stick to my plan of harvest one plant now and do the rest at 9 weeks.

I have to think seed banks list harvest times as the earliest because they want to sell more seeds and one extra week isn't bad.

 

[Organic Altruism]

Just as a heads up, you don't need all the buds to go amber for it to be done. I usually cut my plants once i see 95% cloudy and like 3-5% amber. If you want a more "couch lock" effect than an "uplifting" effect, then you usually let the plant go a little more amber. However, if you let them go too long, the plant will start to degrade in potency. If about half way down the cola the bud all the trichs are cloudy, it's ready to be harvested anytime.

 

[iruleyou1]

Sounds good. When you say 3-5% I am guessing that is near the top. If this is the case I will flush a few days and chop.

 

[GBAUTO]

Any info on grow? I will run my girls until I start to see amber trics on flower, then I flush for about 10 days.

 

[RayRay747]

At the very top of the colas about 30-50% of the trichomes are amber

Harvest these. wait on the rest and then harvest those...try harvesting some with more cloudy as another grower suggested to compare the differences in effect if you havent done that yet.

 

[danktoker60]

Harvest these. wait on the rest and then harvest those...try harvesting some with more cloudy as another grower suggested to compare the differences in effect if you havent done that yet.

This is definitely the thing to do. My largest harvest to date has been my last one when I harvested the upper half and then the lower half about a week later. Now I use rubber bands to train my plants vertically and can yield the same amount I had before in a 3 gal instead of 5. So, I recommend trying some form of LST in the future to increase yields and to help your plant finish up faster. BTW, you should have some stony ass shit!

 

[iruleyou1]

Harvest these. wait on the rest and then harvest those...try harvesting some with more cloudy as another grower suggested to compare the differences in effect if you havent done that yet.

I figured I would show a few pictures to make sense of things.

I broke this by accident a week and a half ago so it is not as mature as the photo of my grow room taken tonight. I am just using it for my explanation. The top inch is 30-50% amber. 1" below that is maybe 10%. Rest mostly cloudy and clear which is under the canopy. You can see wet it is about 1.5oz. My plants do not have much more than this all the way down so I can't really cut this off and leave on what is below. Maybe a small popcorn bud.



The same cola dried 4 days in low humidity .4oz


A picture of my grow area with 6 plants. I probably have another 60-80 colas since they are all pretty even in size. Next time I will use a scrog net to tuck those leaves down more which may help with sides maturing faster. Since I ran 6 dwc bubble buckets this was not an option. This was my first grow ever and I invested in a better system to make things less work.

When people say harvest in levels I don't think they mean split a cola in half or do they? My plants are a little over 2ft tall.

 

[iruleyou1]

Bumping since I added pictures.

 

[Chip Green]

I am trying to go textbook for the first one

The "When to harvest" textbook has to have upwards of 50,000,000 pages.....

 

[iruleyou1]

The "When to harvest" textbook has to have upwards of 50,000,000 pages.....

I've read hundreds of those and get a 20 different answers. Some use a leaf tip but don't tell you were (middle or top).

The "When to harvest" textbook has to have upwards of 50,000,000 pages.....

I am not really finding the answer to my question and believe you me I have searched. I find "you can harvest in stages" or "leave lower branches and harvest a week later." I'm not finding if it is ok to cut the top bud in half and leave the rest on the plant because that is what I would need to do. The next set uf buds lower on the stem are a few popcorn buds and below that there is nothing. These are short plants about 28" tall..

Below is an image of one of my chopped buds explaining what I am talking about better. Just the top inch is ready and the rest has almost no amber. I could make a cut between the clear and cloudy section but I don't believe that's what people mean when they say harvest in sections. I think they mean take off everything I did in this picture and leave the popcorn buds below. They probably also mean take off the highest branches and leave the ones that didn't break the canopy however my plant was trained pretty even.

I'm sorry if this question has been asked before but I am asking more specific than is usually discussed. The very top inch of my bud sites are about over done and I want to know what to do.

 

[SPLFreak808]

the foliage is getting light thats for sure, however i think your phenotype/grow style isn't allowing much penetration below the foliage and if coupled with low temps, you will likely have slow ripening bottom nugs.

 

[iruleyou1]

the foliage is getting light thats for sure, however i think your phenotype/grow style isn't allowing much penetration below the foliage and if coupled with low temps, you will likely have slow ripening bottom nugs.

Good call on temperature. Being the winter my basement is 50 degrees outside of the tent and the air gets pulled in under the canopy. Above the canopy is warm but if I place a thermometer under the canopy it reads low 60s. With the plants being dense and leafy I think the leafs are blocking all the light. I did a ton of leaf tucking but that would only last a few hours.

Since my buds have weight I had to have done something right. I am running 860ish cob watts in a 5x5. With the walls sucking in it becomes more like a 4.5 x 4x5 and I also have an oil heater taking up room since its the winter.

Next time I will be running 6 5 gallon ebb and flow buckets. I will never again "dedicate my life" to running individual dwc buckets but it was a good learning experience. Stabilizing PH is impossible when a plant can take the water level down 50% in 24 hours.

Any ideas on what I should do now with this grow? I could chop the tops off at a node and leave the rest for another week or would you just leave everything in longer? The tops are close to over done.

 

[GBAUTO]

Any ideas on what I should do now with this grow? I could chop the tops off at a node and leave the rest for another week or would you just leave everything in longer? The tops are close to over done.

This seems like the best option to try and let each section mature. I know it's disheartening to have to dissect cola schlongs, but like a song I heard in school long ago said-It's not the meat, it's the motion...

 

[SPLFreak808]

Good call on temperature. Being the winter my basement is 50 degrees outside of the tent and the air gets pulled in under the canopy. Above the canopy is warm but if I place a thermometer under the canopy it reads low 60s. With the plants being dense and leafy I think the leafs are blocking all the light. I did a ton of leaf tucking but that would only last a few hours.

Since my buds have weight I had to have done something right. I am running 860ish cob watts in a 5x5. With the walls sucking in it becomes more like a 4.5 x 4x5 and I also have an oil heater taking up room since its the winter.

Next time I will be running 6 5 gallon ebb and flow buckets. I will never again "dedicate my life" to running individual dwc buckets but it was a good learning experience. Stabilizing PH is impossible when a plant can take the water level down 50% in 24 hours.

Any ideas on what I should do now with this grow? I could chop the tops off at a node and leave the rest for another week or would you just leave everything in longer? The tops are close to over done.

i would pull 1 plant out (the furthest along) and harvest it, then i would drop the wattage a bit and let the rest of the plants go another 10-12 days

Now would also be a good time to try to clean up any damaged/fallen leaves from the inside/outside of the foliage.

Next time, try to clean them up in the late veg/flower pre-stretch stage or try different genetics?

That's just what i would do.