Feeling a little discouraged about my first grow... week 7 of flower

Those look really nice man. No where even close to being done though. I say about 4 more weeks.

Stay the course man stay the course.

What they say. More time. Pat yourself on the back too for a job well done. You gots talent.

Extremely impressive even for a seasoned grower.

It's early but that sure doesnt look like the makings of any damned larf to me.

So it seems like the calyxes are starting to swell up and a decent amount of hairs are red, I'd say 25%.... Still think we are weeks away from done? I'm worried my boyfriend is going to fight me and chop them too soon when I think they will grow more if we let them? He is convinced they look ready for flush?

don't worry about the "hairs"!! its deeper than that. stay the course 4-5 weeks. It'll pay off....and that seems to be the judgement I see here, rightfully so...

Yeah you need more time, looks about half way there from the pics. 3-4 weeks. Get a 30X jeweler's loop and look and the trichromes, the white frosty crystals. I like to harvest when when i see 20% amber and 100% cloudy seems to give a good balance of thc and cbd. The color of the hairs means nothing some strai s stay green/yellow other turn brown red orange or even pink. Sorry but dont listen to your boyfriend he has no idea what he is talking about. As for flushing its to clean out grow medium of salt build up or fixing a nutrient build up, not for finishing a flowering plant. It is ok to just use phd water the last week before cutting them down though, this lets the plants use up their stored nutes.

fractalcat said:

So it seems like the calyxes are starting to swell up and a decent amount of hairs are red, I'd say 25%.... Still think we are weeks away from done? I'm worried my boyfriend is going to fight me and chop them too soon when I think they will grow more if we let them? He is convinced they look ready for flush?

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Trust us. Do what you gotta do to keep those girls alive. Now is the time when they will start packing on the weight, starve them now and your shooting yourself in the foot. Easily 3-4 weeks. You'll be thanking us later.

Only thing I would say is don't get discouraged bro. Nobodies as good on their first grow as they are their 2nd and so on and hardly anyone is ever as good as they want to be. Keep at it.

Threaten the cunt with no sex...this is the only way you can guarantee he won't chop..if u chop now ur missing out on alot of extra weight n potency . seriously threaten the fucker you've invested far 2 much money n time to have some dick weed try n muscle in with his ignorance

I harvested a few weeks ago. And between weeks 9-10 (after flip) is when my branches started to break... So that alone should tell ya something. As far as the brokenness (no offense) jobs? It's so much more relaxing knowing you have your bills paid and you don't have to grow to sell. You can just grow to smoke makes life so much easier. And trust me I've had both life styles. Plants look beautiful though.

And I'm no expert... But your pistols still look like they are going strong. My pistols started receding into the buds at week 13 and that's when I had 30% amber trichomes.

Edit: also feel your buds squeeze some, I bet they are not very dense yet... Meaning you cut them now they will be so small and not worth much (to me anyway) keep us updated on those beautiful ladies

fractalcat said:

So it seems like the calyxes are starting to swell up and a decent amount of hairs are red, I'd say 25%.... Still think we are weeks away from done? I'm worried my boyfriend is going to fight me and chop them too soon when I think they will grow more if we let them? He is convinced they look ready for flush?

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Tell ur boyfriend to be patient and wait she is not even close to b done!!#

Blueberries said:

And I'm no expert... But your pistols still look like they are going strong. My pistols started receding into the buds at week 13 and that's when I had 30% amber trichomes.

Edit: also feel your buds squeeze some, I bet they are not very dense yet... Meaning you cut them now they will be so small and not worth much (to me anyway) keep us updated on those beautiful ladies

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They are definitely really solid already but we reached a happy medium and are going to nute for 2 more weeks then flush, he is convinced the trichomes will have ambered by then but whatever, as long as our yield increases at least a little

fractalcat said:

So it seems like the calyxes are starting to swell up and a decent amount of hairs are red, I'd say 25%.... Still think we are weeks away from done? I'm worried my boyfriend is going to fight me and chop them too soon when I think they will grow more if we let them? He is convinced they look ready for flush?

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Definantly don't judge time to harvest by hairs lol thrichromes r the way to go for sure and a little bit on flushing here too...
The plants stores it's nutrients down in the root system at night and then starts moving it up the plant what's lights trn on "photosynthesis" if your plant is let's say 64 day flowerer in optimal conditions .. on day 50 if you are feeding at 2.0 ec for example start gradually lowering the ec over the two weeks on the day before harvest I'm at 0.5 -0.4 ec but I am not flushing the medium thosee 2 later week are critical for weight and bud maturity nurture the Damn thing.. then like I said persay a 64 day flower once u reach day 60 start checking those thrichromes all over the plant not just in one area and when u are going to harvest chop her down before lights on so it doesn't start photosynthesising ... honestly flushing at end of flowering is pointless keep a proper ph and a gradual increase on e.c don't over do fert and ull never have a problem withsalt buildup in your medium and that in my opinion is the only reason you should flush What is happening in the plant during the last two weeks of growth? When I check... I see lots of different names for this period - aggressive bloom, bud swell, and etc. But no matter what it is called, this is a critical period in the development of an MJ plant. Smells develop and mature. Buds are filling with resin. And the plant is undergoing one final major push to produce. So the plant is growing in many ways, just not in physical size.

Why would anyone take away nutrients when the plant most needs them? Doesn't make sense. Ok... I know the argument, the plant is merely moving nutrients from one part to the other. Good argument, but unfortunately it just isn't true in all cases.

For our purposes, there are two classes of nutrients. Mobile nutrients and immobile nutrients. Mobile nutrients are ones that we know the plant can move around inside of itself. The immobile nutrients can only come from the roots - they can not be moved once inside the plant. There are scientific reasons behind this having to do with xylem and phloem that I will skip. If you are interested in the science behind this, let me know and I can give you some pointers.

So which are mobile nutrients? The list is as follows: N, P, K, Mg and S. The other nutrients which are immobile are Ca, Fe, Zn, Mo, B, Cu, and Mn. If you need a layman's thought process to justify this - the mobile nutrients are the ones that cause problems on older growth (they are stolen from old growth to support new growth... thus they are obviously mobile within the plant). The immobile nutrients affect the whole plant at once - and most especially in the areas of growth (the growth shoots or apical meristems) which is at the outside edges of the plant.

The typical recommendation for flushing goes something like this: "For the last two weeks of the flowering cycle, remove all nutrients and use R/O water." Some will suggest a flushing solution which is mostly sugar. In either case, you are severely limiting all nutrients - not just the mobile ones.

So why is this a critical error?

You need to think about what happens when a plant does not have calcium... cell division comes to a halt. This results in "stunted" growth if it occurs during the normal plants life cycle... something we would fight agressively... but we accept it as part of the final flush? Doesn't make sense.

Boron is also essential for new plant growth. Without Boron - you won't get good bud development.

I could go on and point out what each of these immobile nutrients do. But it would be better for you to go and find a source, read about the effects each of these nutrients has, and then decide if that is something that you want stopped during the last two weeks of flower.

The final thing I want to point out is plant stress. You are going from a high nutrient environment to one where you have pretty close to zero. This will obviously put stress on the plant. Think how long it would take for your body to adjust between say... a high fat diet and one based on water. You are not just going to continue in life like nothing happened... The same sort of thing happens to the plant. And plant stress reduces yield.

So I think that I have made my point that flushing is bad due to the science behind growth. But what does actual growing experience tell me?

It is a fact that flushing restricts yield. Don't care the type of MJ plant. I started with two week flushes... then moved to one week to limit the amount of yield loss... and have now moved to 3 days on my latest grow. I can't tell any difference in taste between each of these time frames. And yes, I have had overlapping yields of the same plants genetics - so that I can actually tell.

And someone up in the thread said they need more food lol I don't believe so look at those nutrient burned tips they need less nutrients .. your growing in soil which has a high CEC Cation exchange capacity or ability to hold and release nutrients your root e.c electric conductivity is probably out the roof lol or was and is getting better but still not optimal.. back off on nutrents just a bit if u use a resivoir and don't want to throw out nutrients then add a little more water to the res and mix well this will lower the e.c/ dilute the nutrients more.. your good though just do that for less stress on the plants . I would recommend 3-4 week more but at 3 weeks start checking your thrichromes for optimal harvest time. DO NOT FLUSH honestly it's really a waste of time and water and very stressful for those plants which could take a bullet but don't make me explain lol if u must flush the day before u plan to harvest again by checking thrichromes.. and chop down right before lights on. Next grow check out subcools soil mix it will save you money if you can't afford nutrients. Make the mix and also have extra soil that's not mixed if u use 5 gallon pots fill 3 gallons on bottom with subcools mix then 2 gallons ontop with your regular soil.. let the plant slowly grow into the stronger soil so when it needs it it's there ..and use lows tress training and pruning to maximize bud sites and light distribution over the canopy..if you want cheap way to get yield use the soil mix I told u as grow over time u can alter the mix to ur liking as u learn. Use plain water no nutrients ..as as for my favourite training method for plants SCROG the shit out of ur plants but still excellent job for being new !!! And never give up and or flush unless u have salt buildup or what not but don't flush at end of harvest pointless lol imo

PS. I looked through a jewelers loop and the trichomes are 1/2 milky

fractalcat said:

PS. I looked through a jewelers loop and the trichomes are 1/2 milky

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Just remember not to look at the trichomes on the leaves, just the calyx and pistil....

fractalcat said:

So it seems like the calyxes are starting to swell up and a decent amount of hairs are red, I'd say 25%.... Still think we are weeks away from done? I'm worried my boyfriend is going to fight me and chop them too soon when I think they will grow more if we let them? He is convinced they look ready for flush?

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Youre BF is going to hurt your yields and potency. Dont let him chop early and dont let hin 2 week flush. It doesnt make sense.