Is it better to harvest a week early or a week late?

xX.The.Wolf.Xx said:

The answer can be both. The top buds will almost always be ready before the rest of the plant, if you harvest the tops you can wait a week or two to harvest the rest of the plant. If your chopping all at once air on the longer side, an extra week most likely won't spoil the harvest, if anything you'll have more weighted dense buds. The key really is to look for the tells that the plant is ready, with pistol color, trichome color, some varieties will flop their branches when close when you put them all together you have your finger on the pulse of when to harvest. The only time harvesting early should ever be a thought is when you have a issue you can't control like bud rot or pests. In that case the decision is being made for you. By the way most newer phones have the capability of zooming in to look at tricholm development, so you really don't need a 30x jewelers loop anymore..

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Brick Top said:

About two years ago I had a crop that was close to being ready to harvest. One night I checked the trichomes and a few were beginning to turn from clear to milky white, but only a few. I took a small bud that was beginning to turn and quick dried it and tested it and it had a very strong clear head high.

That night I woke up with severe pains. The next morning I went to my Doctor and he sent to the hospital for tests. I was admitted and the following morning I went into surgery. I was kept for the rest of the day and night and was released the following morning and was home around 11:00AM.

I checked my plants and the trichomes were all brown. I turned off the lights and harvested shortly after and tested another bud and the strong clear head high had become a weak body stone. No amount of drying and curing made an appreciable difference.

So in roughly 60 hours, or two and a half days, my crop went from almost perfect according to my tastes to being compost. It was indoors and it grew to long and it only took roughly 30 to 36 hours to change from being all it could be to being compost.

While I cannot remember another crop changing so rapidly that is an example of just how fast things can change and why it is important to keep on top of things and to never arbitrarily set a date of when to harvest no matter what your trichome color may be when you check because if you wait that long you might end up with compost as I unintentionally and accidentally did.

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mad_jet said:

Wow! 13 years! I’m sure they appreciate your reply

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xX.The.Wolf.Xx said:

I'm sure someone, somewhere, someday might take away something from my reply. People google questions and rollitup does show up in Google. It's not just about the people from 13 years ago, but the people of tomorrow who have the same questions.

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Brick Top said:

About two years ago I had a crop that was close to being ready to harvest. One night I checked the trichomes and a few were beginning to turn from clear to milky white, but only a few. I took a small bud that was beginning to turn and quick dried it and tested it and it had a very strong clear head high.

That night I woke up with severe pains. The next morning I went to my Doctor and he sent to the hospital for tests. I was admitted and the following morning I went into surgery. I was kept for the rest of the day and night and was released the following morning and was home around 11:00AM.

I checked my plants and the trichomes were all brown. I turned off the lights and harvested shortly after and tested another bud and the strong clear head high had become a weak body stone. No amount of drying and curing made an appreciable difference.

So in roughly 60 hours, or two and a half days, my crop went from almost perfect according to my tastes to being compost. It was indoors and it grew to long and it only took roughly 30 to 36 hours to change from being all it could be to being compost.

While I cannot remember another crop changing so rapidly that is an example of just how fast things can change and why it is important to keep on top of things and to never arbitrarily set a date of when to harvest no matter what your trichome color may be when you check because if you wait that long you might end up with compost as I unintentionally and accidentally did.

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PopAndSonGrows said:

I don't want to discount anyone's personal experience, but you must've missed something.. .. cannabis harvest window is WEEKS long, so if your buds went full amber in a couple days, you must have not scoped the trichomes properly, OR, you scoped literally the least developed bud on the plant, which wasn't a true representation of the plant's ripeness.

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bk78 said:

You may be awaiting an answer. He hasn’t logged on in 11 years.

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Brick Top said:

The correct answer is a week early. The plants THC level will not be as high as it would be if waiting until the plants properly mature but waiting a week to long will result in high quality compost.

Once a plant reaches a certain point the THC begins to break down and more CBN is created and the result is when smoked it causes the person to feel messed up rather than high.

Some, many in fact, confuse that for potency. For quality herb CBN levels should be kept to an absolute minimum.

Where the confusion comes from is some people prefer a stone, a couch-lock body buzz and that comes from higher amounts of CBD which dulls the mind and the body while still giving somewhat of a decent high.

High levels of CBN will dull the mind and the body but with a decreased amount of high to accompany it but because the dulled mind and body affects are felt some confuse that with being potent high in CBD herb.

It would be a mistake to intentionally grow plants for an extra week, or for any additional period of time, in hopes of gaining a slightly larger yield at the cost of reduced levels of THC and increased levels of CBN.

For optimal results, which will vary from person to person depending on their preference in either more of a high or more of a stone, a person wants to do their best to attempt to harvest at some point from when the trichome color is milky white to amber, or some combination of the two if they want a combination of a head high and a body stone.

Harvesting earlier or later will assure that what is most desired will not be achieved but harvesting later rather than earlier will result in decreased levels of THC and higher levels of CBN.

While you also have reduced levels of THC if harvested early at least you do not have the increased levels of CBN so it is preferable.

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Grow Monster said:

But are u asking about harvesting to early (like with no cloudy) and to late (like all amber)? Between those two I say late is better. Some folks like sleep medicine. Where to early is bad taste and bad dizzy high.

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VeganMusic said:

I like to flush for 2 months then harvest after 100 days. Tell me what day my trichs turn amber.

In other words, amber trichs is bro science. Better to harvest healthy plants early than sick plants late. You can fry your plants with uvb and harvest early because the trichs are burnt. And pretend that's some measure to go by.. Weird.

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PopAndSonGrows said:

One week will NEVER be that big of a difference though. A plant will never go from all-clear trichomes to all-milky in a week, nor will they go from peak-milky to all or even half-amber in one week.

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