I know you’ve all seen my posts around trying to explain this to new growers. The ones that listen regularly thank me, because “this crop was soooo much better then the last one”, that was chopped early...
I’ve grown quite a few strains, and got a wide variety of phenotypes over the years. And after watching 1000+ plants develop and mature from that variety I learned a few things.
Most cannabis plants follow a very simple growth pattern. The pistils are going to be the first sign the plants are in the ripening stage. They are not a sign that it’s ready to be cut, just that it is finally getting to the end of active bud growth.
Once the pistils change and shrink back towards the buds, then I have found that it is usually 3ish weeks that the plant spends “swelling” internally. This is when everyone freaks out and think their plant isn’t growing and they need to cut it. But it’s stacking weight and increasing density still.
After a few weeks the calyxs will start looking fat and the buds will have a notable plumpness. It’s at this final point that it becomes acceptable to check trichomes. It might even still take a week or 2 depending on the environmental variables as well as strain variables.
I try to encourage people to ignore breeder times. Let their plants actually grow and finish.
It’s Very easy to harvest plants early, but VERY HARD to over ripen plants. I think new growers are afraid to “degrade” the buds, but they don’t realize that isn’t something that happens over night. It takes weeks of ignoring your plant to accidentally over ripen it.