To harvest or not to harvest...

[battleweb]

Ok,
I've managed to make it past all of the newbie obstacles from underwatering, overwatering, ph inbalance, too little nutes, too much nutes, ect. - I can now say "been there, done that" and I am pleased to say that I have 2 very healthy plants flourishing with about 30+ nice buds growing on each plant. In case you haven't guessed by now, this is my first grow and my girls (Mary & Jane) have been flowering for about 3 weeks now. Now that I made it through the initial stages, I am trying to prepare for harvest and thought I'd seek the advice of some of the seasoned veterens here. I have read that buds can be harvested when 50% to 85% of the trichs are brown depending on the high you want. Is that pretty much all there is to determining when the plants are ready for harvest? Are there other things that I should watch for or avoid? Any and all tips and resources will be appreciated. I figure that I have at least another 3 - 4 weeks left till harvest but I'm going to arm myself with as much info as I can now. Oh, also - the average bud size is about 2 inches in length - will they continue to grow at about the same rate that they have been up until harvest? As far as the strain goes, it's is a new hybrid (M1) with several of the top strains, thats bout all I know about them right now.

[battleweb]

Any suggestions?

[doggg]

depends on da strain. i preferably like to harvest when there are about 95% brown hairs and the tricomes are 60% amber. you get a slightly larger yield and it seems more stony to me.

[battleweb]

Thanx doggg - that sounds like good advice. I've been trying to get more info on the strain - I got the clones from a friend of a friend so information has been kinda limited.

[veethree3]

google "TRICHOME CHART" and check out the one that has four pics of trichomes magnified and it gives info on when to pick for certain effect like a energetic, rushy high or that couch magnet pass me that remote shit!

[The Sacred Herb]

Hey bro. Here's a chart to help you decide when to harvest your herbs.







Check out my thread while your at it. You won't be disappointed.
http://forum.grasscity.com/recreatio...on-thread.html

[battleweb]

The Sacred Herb & veethree3 - very helpful, exactly what I needed - Thanks.

P.S. I gave rep for both of you.

[MedTokeRX]

yeah harvest by that trichome chart you can get a sweet little 100x microscope for $10 bucks at radio shack. the buds will not keep getting bigger untill harvest dont be fooled and harvest to early they will look like they ave stopped growing like 2 weeks befor harvest but they are putting on weight and getting covered with trichs not harvesting is like the hardest thing i everhave to do but waiting is so worth it.

[cultivationist]

so you know you want about 80% brown imo 95 brown is way too much dont go by hairs tho go by trichs
and as far as yeild how can u say you have 30+ buds but your only in week 3 at most of flower
your probably barely seeing white hairs all over each site

trust me youll know when buds form

[Anony]

As stated above - best 10 bucks youll ever spend

[battleweb]

Originally Posted by cultivationist

... as far as yeild how can u say you have 30+ buds but your only in week 3 at most of flower
your probably barely seeing white hairs all over each site

trust me youll know when buds form

cultivationist - yes, they have been flowering for only about 3 weeks (ever since just after the new years) - You can verify this by a previous post I posted around 1 1/2 month ago with some pics when they were just sprouting clones (http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-...-my-girls.html). Also, I think I'm pretty accurate in saying these are bud growths (over 30) - I have took a picture of one of the plants a few minutes ago and you can clearly see the buds yourself, I marked several of them (about 30 with red lines) the more accurate estimate would be about 40 - 50 per plant (some of the extra buds that I did not mark in the photo can be seen, some cant be).

[battleweb]

Originally Posted by Anony

As stated above - best 10 bucks youll ever spend

MedTokeRX & Anony - Thanks for the tip, I just got back from Radioshack and I am now sporting my own 100x microscope, I tried it on one of the strains of bud I have and I can clearly see the trichs and their color. I bought about 8 different strains (Shaman, Grand Daddy Purple, White Widow, Humbolt pruple, Sensei Star, Orange Crush, Blueberry, ect) back when I first got my med card to find which worked best and their trich colors will be very useful in determining how amber I want these new buds to be before I harvest them. Do the trichcomes stay the same color after they have been cured? Anyways, I added rep for both of you, thanx again for the very useful and helpful tip.

[zotex]

you def dont want to harvest that plant..you got a ways to go

[Hashmouf]

OK so when you say the plants have been flowering for 3 weeks are starting from the day you switched to 12/12 or are starting your day count when you noticed visible flowers??? This is a very important factor to having properly mature flowers, I do not start counting days of flower until I actually see flowers, this insures I have a accurate 60-65 day maturity count before I even consider harvest.

If that picture is the way your plant looks presently, then you are about 50-55 days away from harvest. Maybe longer if it is a sativa dominant strain.

[toastybiz]

Originally Posted by Hashmouf

I do not start counting days of flower until I actually see flowers

BINGO!

There has been much debate on this topic here at GC, with many saying that you should start counting "flowering" from when you switch to 12/12. If that's true, then all of my grows have, for some unknown reason, somehow gone 1-2 weeks longer than the breeder recommended. But if I count starting from when I see flowers (usually 1-2 weeks after switching to 12/12) then the maturity time magically is much more accurate. Go figure...


To the OP: any updated pics? It's been over a month.