How important is it to keep track of when flowering began?

[anomolies]

My plants are outside and they all started flowering at different times. Some are 4 weeks apart. So I have no idea when they started exactly.

If you go by amber trichs, is the flowering time irrelevant?

I mean, how do I know if the buds have completely filled out / swelled?

 

[lowrider2000]

when most the trichs turn is the best time.You cant just havest them all at one time is all your cool

 

[upthearsenal]

once the nugs get to 1/3 amber trichs, cut em down

 

[welshsmoker]

you will now when they are ready, but dont rush, you got a couple of plants take a couple of samples, you will know then..

 

[darkdestruction420]

You are correct,length of flowering time is pretty irrelevent if they are not ready yet. Here is an exert from fdd's harvest tutorial. It should clear up when it is and isnt ready for you.

 

[darkdestruction420]

Here you go, hope it helps.
"we will start with ripeness. most people say to check your trichromes with 30X magnification. i have other ways. when buds are done they look "done". the appearance of the bud changes. the leaves start to hook upwards and become hard and crispy. the calyxes will swell and the hairs will turn brown. you can see a golden tinge to the bud leaves. this is the amber crystals. they start to turn amber on the leaves first.



not ready..........





ready.......






notice the difference? it's pretty easy to see once it occurs. "

 

[anomolies]

Does this mean I flush after they look ready?

Do you flush?

I heard it makes no difference?

 

[darkdestruction420]

are they in the ground or in a pot? What kind of nutrients have you been giving? have they been organic/organic based? I've harvested w/o flushing due to an extenuating circumstances. I noticed it was a bit harsher and didnt taste quite right compared to the 10-14 approx. day flush i normally do. I continue giving blackstrap mollasses to them, it helps the microbes in the soil that through their digestion process turn hard to use forms of nutrients into much easier to use forms. start flushing at mostly amber trichomes stage is what i'd recommend. they will have a week or 2 left after that usually till they completely finish budding and swell up alot.

 

[JayRolla]

Wait till the calyx opens. It opens when the plant wants to take in male pollen. Sometimes your trics can actually change to amber before the calyx open and people will cut, but after the calyx opens the trics can go clear again and then back to amber. Wait till calyx's are open and then trics turn 50/50 clear/amber. Remember late is always better than early as long as its not too late.

 

[darkdestruction420]

the trichs dont ever "go clear again".

 

[Spanishfly]

If you are an outdoor grower, just watch the trichs. But I haven´t begun to look at mine yet - way too early.

 

[anomolies]

are they in the ground or in a pot? What kind of nutrients have you been giving? have they been organic/organic based? I've harvested w/o flushing due to an extenuating circumstances. I noticed it was a bit harsher and didnt taste quite right compared to the 10-14 approx. day flush i normally do. I continue giving blackstrap mollasses to them, it helps the microbes in the soil that through their digestion process turn hard to use forms of nutrients into much easier to use forms. start flushing at mostly amber trichomes stage is what i'd recommend. they will have a week or 2 left after that usually till they completely finish budding and swell up alot.

Pot. Miracle Grow Bloom / Humboldt Nutrients Ginormous / Dyna gro pro tekt / molasses.

So organic doesn't need to flush? I just remember reading some arguments somewhere against flushing but I forgot what points were made. I'll just have to test it on one plant by not flushing and see how it is for myself.


oh yea here it is, silly me. I posted a thread about this a long time ago. It was in an interview with Dr. Hornby where he mentioned that flushing was necessary though bad because it reduces THC content.

http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/articles/4552.html

CC: I recently heard about a sample that was at 36.8% THC. Do you know anything else about that profile?
DH: Yeah, I did the analysis.
CC: What plant was that?
DH: I watched the thing come out. My mouth was hanging down around my knees. I couldn?t believe it. It was amazing. It was just incredible!
CC: And was it mature?
DH: It peaks?I don?t know if I should be talking about this? well, I guess it?s okay. We?ve recently discovered a phenomenon in growing an eight week plant. The THC peaks between weeks six and seven and it?s about two or three points less at week eight as it is at week seven.
CC: Why?
DH: Well that?s because you?re flushing. And when you flush, you stop your nutrient flow into your plant; it quits producing resinous cannabinoids, your leaf weight increases into the last week, but you don?t see the cannabinoids increase. You?re diluting your cannabinoids in the leaf weight. But if you cut it at week seven, you?re going to get the nutrients in your bud. There?s a catch-22 there. We?re trying to sort out which nutrients are required to keep the THC coming while the flush is continuing, if that?s possible. So, this is news for all growers. We discovered this phenomenon about a month ago. We?ve seen it before ? it just hadn?t really come clear in our minds

Maybe instead of flushing I could switch to an organic nute in the last week? Or some super diluted nute like Liquid Karma..

 

[nickfury510]

Wait till the calyx opens. It opens when the plant wants to take in male pollen. Sometimes your trics can actually change to amber before the calyx open and people will cut, but after the calyx opens the trics can go clear again and then back to amber. Wait till calyx's are open and then trics turn 50/50 clear/amber. Remember late is always better than early as long as its not too late.

Please dont give any advice if you are unclear on what you are talking about. this is how missinformation spreads like wildfire around here

 

[stickey]

i dont even count dayz anymore, when there done there done and thats it

 

[darkdestruction420]

Pot. Miracle Grow Bloom / Humboldt Nutrients Ginormous / Dyna gro pro tekt / molasses.

So organic doesn't need to flush? I just remember reading some arguments somewhere against flushing but I forgot what points were made. I'll just have to test it on one plant by not flushing and see how it is for myself.


oh yea here it is, silly me. I posted a thread about this a long time ago. It was in an interview with Dr. Hornby where he mentioned that flushing was necessary though bad because it reduces THC content.

http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/articles/4552.html



Maybe instead of flushing I could switch to an organic nute in the last week? Or some super diluted nute like Liquid Karma..

You could try it, but really thats what the blackstrap mollasses is for as well as the microbes being helped it also contains very small amounts of organic nutrients. That and the microbes converting any hard to absorb things in the soil into easy to use is enough to stop any sort of defeciency that could effect them the last week or so. I think in that article he only meant for max thc content, that happens when the trichomes are all cloudy and its still growing and not *done* yet but some prefer to harvest for max thc then. At that point i can see a defeciency possibley forming strong enough to have a very slight effect. We are talking about waiting till its almost done and totally finished growing, at that point the thc is already being converted to the cannaboids that give you the stoney high.

I would flush them, if you really want to experiment go ahead though, let us know how it goes, with those nutes it might not go so well not to flush. One aspect of flushing i dont think anyone really touched on yet- flushing can involve more than just not giving any nutes, some people leach the soil as well, which is running 3 times as much water as soil in the container through the pot. I do it for shorter flush periods, longer ones i dont usually do it.