I'm growing some cole train and I have grown it before, but this is clearly another phenotype, as it is not looking like the last plant. Anyways, it has lots of hairs, but very little trichs on the sugar leaves. The white widow next to it is the exact opposite, not too many hairs, covered in trichs everywhere. So, my real question is can I conclude anything about a plant that has a ton of long white hairs but not a lot of visible trichromes? This is 6 week into harvest, 5 foot big plant, and the other girls next to her have way more trichs everywhere.
that makes sense, some in genetics too, this is how the other phenotype looked like: not much trichs on leaves but it turned out to be a really potent sativa smoke. but, this one really needs to fatten up to look like these pictures...
I use a combination of trics and hairs to judge when to harvest. If a plant still has a lot of white hairs, that means it's still packing on weight and I like to wait, regardless of trichome color. Of course, optimally I like to harvest when hairs and trichomes are right and it's about 80-90% of the hairs have changed color and there is a good amount of amber. I don't like harvesting too early. IMO a lot of the flavor comes out if you let them develop a little more, and you will get a much bigger yield than harvesting early.
yeah, im not talking about when to harvest, and personally i like to harvest when i see 30% amber, the plant in the pictures went 10.5 weeks but this pic was taken earlier.
Hairs are pretty irrelevant , every strain, pheno will be different. So like you said you don't know this pheno yet, so using hairs, pistols to judge won't be accurate. so imo no. it doesnt conclude any
First instinct tells me ur humidity is too high. If u wanna pump out the trichs, slam ur humidity as close to 0% as u can. Trichs are the plants radiators to keep the seeds cool in the dry autumn they normally flower in, but if ur humidity is too high there's no need for the trichs to form cuz they don't need to be protected from any heat. When I'm looking for harvest time I wait until the pistils retract a little ways and the calyx swells, but not so long that the calyx turns brown because that means the THC has stopped being produced completely and it's dying off. U want a balance of THC being produced and THC being broken down into cannabanoids. U can either look closely for trichs to lean and twist as opposed to standing straight (I don't look for color as I've encountered strains that do not turn amber) because that means the THC has begun to break down into CBNs. Or u can watch for the pistils to retract.
interesting point you make about humidity Ccoastal, but this plant is in a 5 gallon smart pot and it dries up every 3 days, humidity is 40-60%, and like i said,the other girls next to this one are filled with trichs. As I look at the older pics, its clear that most of the trichs in this strain just live close to the bud, there are few sugar leaves, it's def the most unique plant I have grown. But, it is potent as fuck. Anyways, mjmama25, my question was about making a conclusion about potency or healthiness of a plant based on hairs/trich ratio (little visible trichs, a ton of hairs), and I guess the answer is, there is no relation.
I have grown two sativa looking bag seed plants in my last grow. While they were densely populated with pistils, the trichs were barely visible with a naked eye but they were there when I've looked through the scope. The plants in general looked great during the grow but for whatever reason lost appeal after curing. I probably got inpatient and harvested them too early too but that's another story.