How do i know when to harvest??

Hello,

I am into my first grow. My plants are flowering and I see buds that has what appears to me lights hairs. My question is, "How do I know when to harvest?"

What are the signs I need to see that is it time to harvest my plants. THEN...once I harvest, "What Do I Do?"

Excuse my ignorange. I appreciate your help!

the white hairs turn brown and if you have a 100x magnifying microscope you can check the trichomes on the buds they should be milky/cloudy but not clear.

and when you harvest trim the leaves off and hang the branches and let them dry for 2-4 days, check on them as well and make sure the humidity is below 60% and the buds should be drying in a dark place.

420Ben said:

and when you harvest trim the leaves off and hang the branches and let them dry for 2-4 days, check on them as well and make sure the humidity is below 60% and the buds should be drying in a dark place.

Click to expand...

your totaly right on all but the dry time 2-4 days is way too soon you want more like 7 days for better taste and smell

eww 4 days ... u wana hang them up for atleast 7 , i prefer 10-14 days tho myself

you should have put that same question in GOOGLE.

As the plant matures the new calyx (flower) will form making new pistals (hairs). As each calyx ripen the pistals in those individual calyx will shrivel and receed back. You're going to see a bunch of new calyx form with new pistals that shrivel, that's what makes up the bud. When it comes time to harvest you're going to be looking for a number of things at once, not just the trich color like everyone says, there's more to it.
Here's the order the plant matures so you know what to expect-

1. calyx and pistals form
2. pistal hairs turn color and shrivel back to calyx which will have started swelling
3. calyx swell with resin
4. **Now is when to look for trich color**

The trichomes can start changing color from the time they develope so you can't rely on just that to judge harvest time and pistals have nothing to do with it since they form and shrivel up up until harvest.

Hope that helps.

Thanks to everyone that replied. Geesh! Now we got some overnight rain. This is the first time my plants every got wet. Will this rain hurt my plants? More advise please...thanks so much

i dont think a little rain is going to effect your plants. i have 3 6 footers outside and I got rain saturday night also. For some reason it almost looks like a little rain helped my plants. the only thing i would really pay attention to is if they get to wet and leave standing water on them for a long period of time. then i would be worried about mold developing