tell me how stupid my strategy is-- early harvest

OK. I suggest you buckle up BC this is gonna probably be a long one.

So let me start this out by saying I hate it when I'm right. My girlfriend hates it when I tell her I might as well have a crystal ball, BC I swear I can predict the future.

My plant had pH problems at the beginning of flower (due to me fucking with the pH--if I would've left it alone I would've been fine). Anyways, its delayed my flowering time by about a week, and I was worried that the extra time in flower might cause it to get nanners.

Well, it has only been 6 weeks since it started showing pistils, but already I have nanners.



The plant has been my most vigorous plant out of my first grow. Even tho he is one of the youngest, he has grown to probably my second biggest plant and was outgrowing the others early on. I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm pretty sure this plant has a lot of seeds anyways, which really sucks BC I need to get my money back on this equipment. I don't have a magnifying glass so I have no idea how the trichs look, but the bud is frosty and it has probably (at a minimum) 65-75% red hairs. The tip tops have a purple color, but due to the crazy bushiness of the plant, there hasn't been as good of light penetration as I would've liked, so even though I've lollipopped the bottom buds are still fairly light green.

I have 2 weeks to go in regular flower, but where they were delayed for a week I was thinking of giving them at least 3 more (one is a hhybrid and will probably need more).

So this is what I'm thinking for a strategy: I'm going to aggressively defoliate this plant and stick it back in for a few days. Hopefully removing the leaves will allow more light down into the bottom and help it green up. I know defoliation is very controversial, but I have given the plant its own chance to develop the bottom buds and leaving the leaves on and tucking them just isn't working on this bushy monster. Plus, a lot of the leaves are drying out and getting brittle anyways so they probably arent functioning at 100%. I've defoliated before and the plant exploded with growth afyerwards, with no stress really. I'm thinking, if ever there was a ggood time to expirment, right now with this plant is as good as any.

After I defoliate and put it back in for a few days, I was going to see how it did and if the bottoms don't seem to be developing any more then I'm going to harvest the tops, leaving just a few of the branches at the bottom of the cola. Then they will be getting all the light they need, and I can let them finish if I want to.

Here's some pics so you can get a look at the plant.




Lemme know what you think. And BTW, I just checked the calendwr and tomorrow is 7 weeks exactly since they started sexing.

that's a lot of words. hydroplomic genetics is what your problem is.

I had the same issue with my first plant... but since I viewed it as a test plant, I did exactly what you're thinking about. I literally took off ALL the fan leaves and allowed it to sit for one more week. Every day I went through and tried to get all the nanners and didn't end up with any seeds, but the buds were very premature. When dried and cured, it looked like some sub par mids. But, if the genetics are there, it'll get you high.

But, you gotta weigh your options. I personally wish I hadn't chopped mine when I did and let it finish... IMO seeds aren't as bad as smoking harsh, premature buds.

I'm gonna have to agree with it being a hydroplomic problem. I'm no help on this one ... just don't kill any bees.

thunderrod said:

that's a lot of words. hydroplomic genetics is what your problem is.

Click to expand...

is that spelled right ?
i did a search on it and the only result was this thread

just pick nanners everyday dude, nothing you can do now...do NOT defoliate, just look her over VERY GOOD every day and pick nanners.

tekdc911 said:

is that spelled right ?
i did a search on it and the only result was this thread

Click to expand...

He's yanking ya chain dude

Anyway...I don't think you should cut an already stressed plant. That'll just make things worse. Pick em off when you see em. If it isn't genetic then it should stop em dead. I've done this before, picked off about 15-20, then after a week or two she settled back to being a girly-girl again...

Alright, well as a test I went ahead and stripped some of the colas. There were so many leaves that on 10 inch colas, it started getting lime green like 2 inches down BC it wasn't getting any light.

I know defoliation is a really controversial subject, and I'm not trying to start any arguments, but my experiences have shown me great benefits to light penetration vs. leaving the leaves on. The first time I defoliated, I was really high and not paying attention to what I was doing, and by the time I was done I was like oh fuck-- I fucked up. I literally had taken a 2'³ box and filled it with leaves-more than half of the leaves in my tent. Not only did it seem to not stress it whatsoever, but kind of the opposite happened-- They basically exploded with growth and within like a week you couldn't even tell I had done it.

That was during veg, tho. Anyways, I defoliated half of the plant, so time will tell the results. Technically they are supposed to be ready a week from tomorrow anyways, and like I said this plant absolutely had speed in its genetics, so I'm hoping it shouldn't be too bad. I know that this late into flower in shouldn't matter, but I have a hybrid that's liable to be in there another few weeks and it would definitely have time to develop seeds. We'll just have to see what happens I guess.

Thanks for the responses guys.