Zeus's Take on Harvesting

HarvestFest2010

Well-Known Member
I have looked at all kinds of shit on here i have seen some of the best are worst plant beings ever. I seen one dude with a damm 7 foot plant harvesting a half ounce dry. Then I have seen a little LST plant all tied down havesting 2 dry ounces. And then when folks post multiples grows, you see progress. And to think theres like 10 of these sites with a million or more members. Great thread though, it makes so much more sence than looking at plant pubes. And plus no scope nessesary, the eyes that god gave us can focus just fine.
 

HarvestFest2010

Well-Known Member
Somebody needs to do like 10 day by day stop motion time lapse and put it on here. A time lapse of each plant. Maybe use that as a selling point on seed sites. I think it would get a billion hits just people wanting to see. There is one with the Aerogarden that is really cool on you tube.....see it i can find..dammit it showed the pistols going out and wigglings, building up. then sucking in and for a while it just fattened up no more accual growth upwards. Very cool, all time lapses are very informative. One for each strain would be sweet...all videos calibrated so its in real time....like it may take 1 minute for indica and a minute 20 seconds for sativa. This way it show autos cool, and all of them. Let people figure out what bush would look good in the yard. Maybe do a bunch of differnt plants and use it to sell landscaping in the software...this what it will look like in 3 months, these will go away, these will come up. Its a very good idea and i am full of them and need a real job badly. Somebody got any R+D positions open? ahaha, love to work with somebody from here. Hell of a lunch hour!
 

Darrens

Active Member
This guy knows his stuff, and it seems it is all based on personal experience.

After a few grows I got to a point where I wasn't running dry before the next harvest, so therefore I had no reason to chop early. I would end up just letting them mature and mature and eventually the pistils would recede into the plant and it would just look completely swollen up and stinky/delicious smelling and that's how I knew it was ready for harvest.

Now I usually ALWAYS wait until that point, because trust me, as much as you may think harvesting early still gives you potent stuff, when you wait it out, it's that much more rewarding. I saw somebody else once say, when you finally let the plant mature and you see how it looks, then you know what to look for as to the signs telling you when to chop.

I think most of this has to come from personal choice and experience although threads like this are the reason I ended up waiting to chop and was very satisfied.

So trust me on this, if you have to ask yourself or anybody on here if your plant "looks ready", it's probably not. You'll know when it looks ready, it just looks like you could almost pluck a bud off and smoke it right there, and that's how you know it's essentially ready. Also, the color hue of the plant will usually get a little bit darker, from my experiences.

Wait it out, and you'll be one happy toker.
 

Green Cross

Well-Known Member
Great info. Makes a lot more sense than buying a microscope to tell if your plant is ready to harvest.
Good thread but folks are still going to come here with all white pistols asking "is it time?" it's still a good idea to buy a scope, but there's no reason to look into it until the most the hairs have turned.

The buds take on an amber color, because the trichs have turned.

Clearly the first pic shows no amber trichs. Amber = red/brown

All strains are not going to look the same when they're done.

This from Amsterdam: " If you harvest later than that the high of a mostly amber trichomed Indica bud will give you couch lock and put you to sleep..if thats your thing. If you harvest earlier you will get more of an up Sativa like high. 60% creamy white and 40% amber trichomes is pretty much a balanced high.
The once white pistils/hairs begin turning amber as well as the trichomes, some say when 70% amber hairs on the bud are showing its time to cut. The best bet is using the microscope to see the color of the trichomes though. Here is some bud right before harvest: Link

There's plenty of good info out there, but most people are too lazy to look.
 
If you want a soaring 'cerebral' high: Get yourself a tropical sativa that contains a high level of THC-V and grow it until it is ripe.
If you want the narcotic couchlock stone, grow a rugged indica until its ripe.
Notice a pattern of growing it until its ripe? Its a really good rule to live by.

Great post Zeus. I came across it awhile back and it was some of the best grow info I had read. It was more of a philosophy than a series of facts and I find the greatest advice usually has a universal message which can be applied to all areas of life.Much respect.

The reason I quoted you there is because I was wondering, if you look for the same characteristics for sativas and indicas when harvesting or are they different? People say, "Harvest when trichomes are clear and milky for a soaring high (sativa) and when they're more milky/amber for a heavy stone effect (indica)". I know trichs arent everything but does this mean a ripe sativa will have clear/milky trichs and a ripe indica will have milky/amber ones? For example would a mostly amber triched sativa be a couchlock or the "high" that it is renowned for?
 

justsmoking

Active Member
Just one thing about final flushing in the last two weeks. I just started my final phase flush last night but only did half because of watering times. Anyways I at first couldn't see the diferance between milky color tricks and clear ones but I did notice that the pistils were dying off and turning orange !! I love that. Anyways then the purple started to come in on this one strain were I thought it would never come out . Any ways I see mainly orange pistils and ambering tricks and they just plain look like buds and still now will because of your great thread will do my final phase as long as I can.
 

poplars

Well-Known Member
just for clarification, THC-A is simply the un-activated form of THC. it is what is on the bud before it is burned. it isn't a predecessor . . .

other than that, good stuff. I don't agree with the use of cannabinoid terms to determine high. I think you should stick with the sativa/indica extremes. pretty much the easiest way to define types of weed. THC-V is primarily found in indica varieties, so I don't think it's going to give you that 'souring cereberal high', I think it's more likely to give you a body high.

so just stick to indica/sativa and it should prevent lots of confusion ;).
 

SpruceZeus

Well-Known Member
just for clarification, THC-A is simply the un-activated form of THC. it is what is on the bud before it is burned. it isn't a predecessor . . .

other than that, good stuff. I don't agree with the use of cannabinoid terms to determine high. I think you should stick with the sativa/indica extremes. pretty much the easiest way to define types of weed. THC-V is primarily found in indica varieties, so I don't think it's going to give you that 'souring cereberal high', I think it's more likely to give you a body high.

so just stick to indica/sativa and it should prevent lots of confusion ;).
I think we have some confusion here. I don't want to split hairs , because I don't have any formal chemistry training, however its my understanding that a predecessor is just that, THC-A will become THC with certain conditions (usually heat and time) either way, it could be I just misused to term, if so, I apologise.

As for THC-V, I was a little taken aback when I read your take on the subject, as it contradicts what I've always assumed to be the truth. I 'm assuming you are a student of wikipedia (no offence intended, I'll be the first to admit that wikipedia is one of my sources.) I'm also assuming that it is this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabivarin) that you used as reference. It really is looking much the same as when i last read it only with just about every reference to subspecies sativa having been changed to indica. I don't really get it, as this is always the information I've been taking as gospel.
Tetrahydrocannabivarin

Main article: Tetrahydrocannabivarin
Tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) is prevalent in certain South African and Southeast Asian strains of Cannabis. It is an antagonist of THC at CB1 receptors and attenuates the psychoactive effects of THC
Now correct me if i'm wrong, but in my experiences, southeast asia and south africa are both famous for their exotic sativa strains.(thai and durban poison come to mind). As a matter of fact, I've never heard of any Indicas being natural to that part of the world, generally they are more associated with cooler mountainous areas of pakistan, siberia and the like.

I'm going to have to do some homework on this one, I really hate to share information that isn't true, and you have me now doubting myself.
 

poplars

Well-Known Member
I think we have some confusion here. I don't want to split hairs , because I don't have any formal chemistry training, however its my understanding that a predecessor is just that, THC-A will become THC with certain conditions (usually heat and time) either way, it could be I just misused to term, if so, I apologise.

As for THC-V, I was a little taken aback when I read your take on the subject, as it contradicts what I've always assumed to be the truth. I 'm assuming you are a student of wikipedia (no offence intended, I'll be the first to admit that wikipedia is one of my sources.) I'm also assuming that it is this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabivarin) that you used as reference. It really is looking much the same as when i last read it only with just about every reference to subspecies sativa having been changed to indica. I don't really get it, as this is always the information I've been taking as gospel.


Now correct me if i'm wrong, but in my experiences, southeast asia and south africa are both famous for their exotic sativa strains.(thai and durban poison come to mind). As a matter of fact, I've never heard of any Indicas being natural to that part of the world, generally they are more associated with cooler mountainous areas of pakistan, siberia and the like.

I'm going to have to do some homework on this one, I really hate to share information that isn't true, and you have me now doubting myself.
upon further reading it seems I mis-read the article on THC-V, it was indeed talking about sativas. it mentioned subsp. indica, which is what caused me to mis-read it.

anyways, the difference between THC and THC-A, as well as cannabinoid and cannabinoid-a is the extra CO2 molecule on the cannabinoid. when cannabis is burned/cooked/vaporized all the cannabinoids go through decarboxylization and that results in the co2 molecule detaching, thus activating the cannabinoid.

so apparently there was only one clarification that needed to be made. anyways right on with the other info int his thread.
 

asdfva

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure the point that Zeus was making, from my
point of view, was that you need not over complicate the
issue of harvest time with unnecessary science; When the
plant itself if completely capable of expressing it's deficiency,
if any, and when it's ready for harvest.

See the whole plant... not the chemistry.

Especially with amateur grows that have no real controls
that are congruent with any actual study.

Just sayin'.

EDIT: To the dude with the 10 week SD... give it 2 more weeks.
 

poplars

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure the point that Zeus was making, from my
point of view, was that you need not over complicate the
issue of harvest time with unnecessary science; When the
plant itself if completely capable of expressing it's deficiency,
if any, and when it's ready for harvest.

See the whole plant... not the chemistry.

Especially with amateur grows that have no real controls
that are congruent with any actual study.

Just sayin'.

EDIT: To the dude with the 10 week SD... give it 2 more weeks.
I think those who are into chemistry (like myself) find it more interesting to focus on the chemistry side, connect the dots so we can understand the entire picture.

I have no problem with it being explained simply. I was clarifying on the chemistry he was mentioning in that post. not bringing it up out of nowhere.
 
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