Looking At Trichomes

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FallenHero

Guest
How the heck do you guys keep a steady hand when looking at the tricomes on your buds? i cant see anything because i cant keep it steady enough. what magnification do you guys normally use? i have a 60 - 100X pocket microscope. maybe i will use a hanging rope to keep it steady, lol, but when my eye is on the eyepiece and i look up i always have it looking somewhere other than the bud. Maybe it's just my unsteady hand.
 
Garden Knowm

Garden Knowm

The Love Doctor
pretend like you are trying to spy on naked chicks with a telescope in a hotel room across from yours while vactioning in waikiki.. i bet your hand gets steady real quick.. lol
 
420penguin

420penguin

Well-Known Member
Anyone have any opinions on this guys post? Here's the URL, but I'll paste in what he says:

Gland color will vary with ripeness of the individual THC glands, starting at clear, turning to milky, then turning to an amber color. There may be some exceptions, such as some of the Blue strains and Blackberry.These will have darker, sometimes purple gland heads. But by far and large, these three steps of ripeness will exist with the vast majority of strains on the market. The first stage, clear, will tend to make for a more cerebral, up high, withvery little body effect. Harvesting at this stage when little if any trichomes are milky yet, can be tricky. Harvesting too early can make for a beautiful marijuana plant that will not have much psychoactive capability! THC needs to "mature" to be able to pass its psychoactive capabilities down to the smoker. This is why I always recommend waiting until 50% of the trichomes hit the second stage: milky or creamy. At this point, you will definitely have a marijuana plant which has reached its genetic potential.

The milky trichomes have some "cerebral" qualities, as well as some of the more "physical" characteristics of the high. The last stage, amber, brings on a more sedative, physical stone. If this is what you're looking for, than I would recommend a sativa/indica cross, or an indica dominant marijuana plant.

Amber trichomes seem to ruin a sativa high if the marijuana plant goes too long. The above photo is a good example of a ripe marijuana plant: at least 50% of the gland heads have turned "milky," some heads are still clear, and a few are amber. This marijuana plant was harvested two days later.

Curing Marijuana Plants, How to Harvest and Cure a Cannabis Plant and Marijuana harvesting

I ask because I've got a lot of yellowing leaves and I tried out the magnifying glass today. I can see the trichomes but they still seem pretty clear to me. According to this guy I should at least wait until they start to cloud up/turn milky? And then I flush for a week? And also turn out the lights for the last two days?
 
Dubbuh

Dubbuh

Well-Known Member
chat room? what chat room?

as for the microscope, trace the eyepeice with some super glue, and stick it to your eye, walah hands free microscopeing, very steady. but you might have to goto the emergency room to get it off. or just consider it, a gift, you can be Microscope Man!
 
DrGreenFinger

DrGreenFinger

Well-Known Member
i hold a leaf between two fingers with my left hand. holding the mic with my right hand, i balance the right hand on the left hand. it still takes practice, but this works best for me.
 
Kaya08

Kaya08

Well-Known Member
the easiest thing to do it to cut off a piece of fan leaf that is sugar coated and use that to view through the scope! one love
 
Little Tommy

Little Tommy

Well-Known Member
I use this method - Cut off a leaf near the bud. Place the leaf on a flat surface and then place the hand held on top of the leaf to look at it. If the flat surface is white, it really helps with the contrast. I use a 60x-100x with a built in light. It is a hand held microscope from radio shack ($10.00) and use all different magnifications to inspect the trichommes. I sometimes take several samples in order to gauge how the whole plant(s) are doing.
 
MrFishy

MrFishy

Well-Known Member
Kaya08 said:
the easiest thing to do it to cut off a piece of fan leaf that is sugar coated and use that to view through the scope! one love
Click to expand...
This ^^^ is a solution.

I bought the RS 60-100X the other day and had a hell of a time seeing diddly w/o molesting the delicious gland-heads. I'm trying focusing it on something tiny first, like my current stash, getting a clear view from as far away as possible (seems this is 1/2") then gently holding the bud area in my left hand and leaning in until they come intro focus, using the thumb of the holding the bud hand to steady my scope hand, and as a gauge of how close I am to running into the growth.
It seems to help if I am sitting down looking, as opposed to standing over the plant. Reverse hands if a lefty.
You're not gonna see the heads clearly with a 30X loupe unless you've really good vision, and then, only maybe.
:blsmoke:
 
DrGreenFinger

DrGreenFinger

Well-Known Member
420penguin said:
Anyone have any opinions on this guys post? Here's the URL, but I'll paste in what he says:

I ask because I've got a lot of yellowing leaves and I tried out the magnifying glass today. I can see the trichomes but they still seem pretty clear to me. According to this guy I should at least wait until they start to cloud up/turn milky? And then I flush for a week? And also turn out the lights for the last two days?
Click to expand...
not an answer to the question posed, but definitely good info. if i were you i would begin flushing immediately, if you have begun to notice red hairs around week 5 (hairs may start reddening early on and revert back to producing white hairs). you want to flush at least 2 weeks before harvest. the yellowing of your leaves could be due to a nutrient deficiency, overfertilizing, or many other reasons. do an RIU and Google search. the info is here at RIU, so if you search Google first, it will more than likely send you back here. also, you won't have to wait for a response. search, search, search. :peace: :joint:
 
TheKramer

TheKramer

Well-Known Member
nzkronic said:
what sort of high would you get off a plant flowered for 35 days?
Click to expand...
n my experience, you certainly know you smoked something, but then your just disappointed because it is nowhere near as good as waiting. Wait Day 60ish (or whatever depending on trichomes) itll totally be worth it.
 
C

C_Pac

Well-Known Member
MrFishy said:
You're not gonna see the heads clearly with a 30X loupe unless you've really good vision, and then, only maybe.
:blsmoke:
Click to expand...
My vision is far from perfect, but in my experience a 30x loupe works just fine. You just want to be able to see the shape, size and color of the trichomes. And don't neglect the size of the trichomes-- you want them to be swollen at the tops.

I find it easier if I remove my glasses, so I'm not trying to focus through two lenses.

I don't have a steady hand either, so I anchor my viewing hand by placing my thumb knuckle right up against my upper cheekbone. It keeps it nice and steady.

Obviously, the plant should be still. If taking a sample cutting helps, then do that, but keep in mind that different parts of the plant might develop at different rates.
 
jonblazing

jonblazing

Active Member
It sounds like I have this same microscope. If its from radio shack or is the same you just put a very small bud on a counter in a bright room and as close to the light bulb as possible (there should be a small light bulb on your microscope). Anyway, you then lean over the microscope with it pinned to the counter with your eye. Then just make small adjustments till you find it.
 
K

kimmisan

Well-Known Member
what about just taking a great quality magnified photo, then getting it into photoshop and looking really close? does that work? my hands are WAYYYY too shaky to try to use a micro.....
xokimmi
 
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