hi all. i'm growing my first few plants here, and would like to know when the best time to start flushing is, and when to harvest. the pistils are just starting to turn amber on my plants (i'd say about 5-10%), and the trichs seem to be fairly much cloudy all over. i've only been flowering for about 3 weeks though... the leaves are also starting to turn yellow and some lower branches leaves are dying and falling off... i've read a bunch of articles on this topic, but really can't seem to find any good guidelines, they all say 'harvest based on the high you want'. so. if i want to be as high as i can possibly be... when would i do these things... ? i don't know strain, it's all bagseed. please try to be constructive. thanks. j.
OK I'll try... You said your trichs are mostly cloudy but you are only three weeks into flowering? How are you examining the trichs? Because that is way early to see anything happening in the trichs. You should be looking under magnification, and when you look take a snipped out from under the grow light (because the grow light can make everything look amber). 'Harvest based on the high' does not mean how strong or weak you want the high but what kind of high. Earlier harvesting is a more cerebral, trippy high, more likely to make you giggle. Later harvesting is a more 'couchlock' body stone, more likely to make you sit on the sofa eating Oreos and staring at the wall for half an hour. These differences are relative, you won't get two completely different highs out of plant, but you can get the high to lean one way or the other based on when to harvest. Final flush about 2 weeks before harvest, then no more feeding after that. This forces the plant to use up its stored nutrients, which don't taste good to smoke so you want the plant to use up its supply. Determine harvest time only by examining the trichs, don't worry about the hairs. Some lower yellowing is to be expected in flowering, especially later in flowering. Hard to tell from your descrip how bad the problem is, but regardless it sounds like your plants could take a nitrogen boost, so next feeding use only half flower fert and half veg vert.
hey toasty, thanks a lot for your reply. i have been looking at the trichs under 10x magnification. this is my first time doing this so i'm having a hard time with the details.... i think 3 weeks is way too soon too, that's why i'm looking for a bit of help. i'll switch the ferts from full flowering ferts to half and half.. the yellowing is really only happening on one of the plants. i keep reading different opinions on when to flush and when to harvest, i know flushing will be the next thing i do so i'm trying to figure out when to do it. i would like to harvest when i'm somehwere in the middle of a couchlock and a cerebral high. for the first time anyways... i guess i'll invest in a better scope, just so i can seem them better, this 10x one i have to squint and squint... but i can see the tops of them, which seem to be cloudy.. lack of experience could have me mistaken though... none of the trichs seem to be amber yet, but the pistils are starting to turn on just a few of the bud sites... i think somewhere i read said to flush when 10% of the trichs are amber..but like i said before. i just think it's too fast. wish me luck, i'm pretty stoked on my first grow. the buds are much more plentiful than i thought they would be for my first time. what with all the silly mistakes i've made. sure learned a lot though!
I am suggesting doing that for only one watering, not "switching" to that from here on out. If the early yellowing is only one plant you may not want to use a half-veg mixture on the others. That's probably not bad for a rule of thumb, but it depends on what ratio of clear/cloudy/amber you prefer and also the plant's maturity timetable. It is hard to know when it's 2 weeks before harvest time until you've grown that particular strain before, so even an experienced grower has to do some guesswork on the best time to flush if they haven't grown out that strain before.
is it possible that the pistils are ambering from something else? should i disregard and keep feeding them for a while longer? in other words, should i disregard the pistils and just go by the trichs? and yup. i'll just give the veg fert 1/2 and 1/2 to that one plant. once. on a sidenote, i've got a couple herms flowering in a different part of the house.. same guidlines for flushing and harvesting them? i plan to make iso hash out of them... maybe some cannabutter too.... thanks again, J.
Correct, don't worry about the pistils, follow the trichs. Are you sure what you have are hermies? Got pics?
they are FOR SURE hermies. at least the one, is covered in male flowers on different budsites than the females, i figured at least i'll get some seeds for another practice grow before i spend a lot of money.. i want to know what i'm doing. the other hermie is the plant i abused, by trying stuff on it, rather than all the other ones. it had a few balls, that's why i moved it into the other room, but no male flowers have popped on it yet, that i can see. either way they each have about 1/2 ounce of bud on them. nice bud covered in thick white hairs. i guess we'll see when i harvest. all of my plants are kept pretty small, under 2 feet at this point.. trying to keep a low profile. sure i've got pics, tonnes of them. but i haven't been able to figure out how to post them yet.
Like biz said if your using a 2700k light it could produce an amber looking color, so look at the trichomes outside of the grow area if you havn't already.
thanks vibe. only the pistils are changing colour. some are amber just at the tips, others are amber all the way to the bottom. but just about 10% of them. the trichs (as far as i can see) are not amber at all yet. but i will give them all a close examination outside of the grow lights. i have now watered with 1/2 veg, 1/2 flowering nutes only the plants with yellowing leaves. are there any strains that could possibly finish flowering this fast? what colour should the trichs be when i flush? i know how they should look when i harvest now.... muchos gracias for all the help. J.
alot of people get male plants and think they're a herm but in actuality its just a male which is virtually useless, unless you're trying to X-breed and make seeds.. also herm'd plants are very very rare, and as far as anyone knows there is no actual proof that abusing or misstreating a plant will turn it into a herm or even a male for that matter, so being able to have ANY control over a plants sex or percentage to turn herm IS A MYTH! now I'm not saying that your plant isn't a herm but I'm highly sceptical if I had to geuss with out seeing your plants and with what little info I have I would geuss that they are just males and if I'm correct then and they are just males then they're worthless to you and wont be usefull to you unless you want to make seeds for some odd reason... you should take some pics and post em to know for sure... well good luck..
i don't think males can grow big female buds, can they? the male flowers on the plants are very different looking than the female flowers, i am 100% sure they are herms. anyways, regardless of whether they are females, males or herms, i'm still going to clip the buds and make hash out of them. male plants do have thc, and these plants are covered in trichs. again, don't know how to post pics, can anyone direct me to a place that shows me how to do that on this site?
this is more than anything a learning exercise for me. i WANT seedy bud, at least mostly on the herms, so that i can try again. i'm not growing for profit or anything like that. i'm growing for the love of the plant and it's many uses.. there's no catastrophe if i find a few seeds. anyways. that's not really what the thread is about, i know about the consequences of keeping herms or males. just trying to figure out how to grow the girls to the best of my abilities.
no they dont!! and thats a fact they s male plant will most defiantly not get you high... for sure!! either way like I said before I'm not saying they aren't a herms but I'm skeptical that they are a herm
be as skeptical as you want. they're herms. if the one is not a herm, then it's a full female, neither or them are fully male. like i said, they're both covered in trichs, (and pistils) and i know these herms will get me high. there's sticky in here called herms in action or something. they look nearly identical to those plants. further into flowering though,