Harvesting.. Can a plant look spent before trich's start to change color?

I started a year ago. I'm having trouble determining when to cut them down. What's been happening is that when all the pistols change color to amber I start checking the trich's and they remain clear. Meanwhile the plant looks spent, all pistols amber, seeds starting to fall, but trich's still all clear. I think I've cut a few down a little too early because of this. Like I'm afraid I'm going to miss that week period. The smoke is weak, I cut them down to soon didn't I? So do I need to not worry about "HOW" the plant looks and wait and wait and wait until the trich's start to change? Any help any of you can give me on this subject I would so appreciate!

lighthouse said:

seeds starting to fall

The smoke is weak

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Well there's your problem! You growin some swag dog? lol, J/K. But when a female plant get's polinated and starts to produce seeds the smoke degrades dramatically. That's why when you get some dank nug you can never find a seed in the sac! Because GOOD smoke is grown without being polinated.

I really can't answer weather it's ready to harvest or not though without a pic or 2. Anyways you could post some?

i've see both opinions on seeded bud, some say just as good, just less of it, most of the weight becomes seed
others say it's not as good
back in the day, all that was available was seeded weed, and some of that seeded weed was dank indeed
of course, how good it would have been unseeded, i'll never know now
but if you're trics are all clear, that doesn't sound like the peak of potency

I had ordered some ww seeds, out of all ten seedlings during the cold weather i was able to keep two alive through some mistakes i made and learned from. The two ended up being boys! So i allowed one of them to pollinate my other strands so I could preserve the seeds.I didnt have another space to just pollinate 1. So allowing a plant to be pollinated, could it look spent before tric's start to change color? How long do the tric's start to change in color after all the pistols have turned color?

lighthouse said:

I had ordered some ww seeds, out of all ten seedlings during the cold weather i was able to keep two alive through some mistakes i made and learned from. The two ended up being boys! So i allowed one of them to pollinate my other strands so I could preserve the seeds.I didnt have another space to just pollinate 1. So allowing a plant to be pollinated, could it look spent before tric's start to change color? How long do the tric's start to change in color after all the pistols have turned color?

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i think different strains will vary
but i am growing a northern lights that behaves exactly this way
yellow leaves set in first, not completely yellow, but some, trics still mostly clear
the leaves are just now beginning to look really spent, yellow with darkening veins, and bang, the 1st amber trics have shown
2nd grow for this strain, behaved the same way both times

growone said:

the leaves are just now beginning to look really spent, yellow with darkening veins, and bang, the 1st amber trics have shown

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Yup, same thing with my plants! Not the same strain I'm sure, but that's basically what happened with mine. And I wanted a more cerebral high, so I harvested befor many turned amber at all.

This has also happened with my strain. I started my flush when I started to see it get yellowed leaves and began starting to check trichs. I actually had to give it grow and bloom nutes since flush because it's been so long since I started flushing. I recently saw some amber though so all is well for those who can wait.

So if you cut it down say a week or two before tric's start to turn, the smoke will be week?

lighthouse said:

So if you cut it down say a week or two before tric's start to turn, the smoke will be week?

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it won't be as strong as it would be if you waited those extra weeks
but still could be pretty strong, could also be quite racy/up, early picking will often give a more up high