I have a Girl Scout Cookies Extreme Auto that is nearing harvest and I would like to get everyone's opinions on the time to harvest. She is on day 48 of flower, 96 days since seed. This is my first grow so I'm inexperienced at this, but from the pics below I'm thinking perhaps another week-ish? I will be out of town from the 26th - 30th and I'm trying to decide if I should harvest before or after I return. Hopefully it'll be a couple days before I leave so I have a chance to dial in the drying environment. So based on the pics (sorry some are blurry, crazy difficult to hold a wifi microscope still while snapping pics), how much longer do you think she'll need? Thanks in advance!
Definitely could use a few weeks. I’d check the trichs right before you leave and if they are a little questionable, I’d harvest when you are back.
Take a few tiny snips. Fingernail clipping size is all you need. Inside at a table and chair set up and see what you actually have. The top side of this sugar leaf has been artificially ripened by the sun and shows lots of Amber while the true stage of the plant is shown on the underside as clear Trichomes Not even close to being done. All surface trichomes LIE. Take your sample from where the light does NOT shine. BNW
Excellent advice as always, I hadn't even thought of taking a clipping as you suggest. I will try that tonight. Thanks!
Few snips from shaded areas on a couple buds. Looks like maybe a week more? This is tops & bottoms of 3 leaves
So the plant is still holding out and I'm curious what the longest a plant can typically take to fully ripen? I've been regularly checking this gal and although I'm starting to see a few amber trichomes, they are rare and I'm still getting regular new growth at the tops of my tallest buds. I have a couple colas that are over a foot higher than the rest of the canopy that just keep adding new bud growth. I know this can happen if the lights are too close, which they are, but I have them as high as they can possibly go. My real concern is I'm now in week 10 of flowering, week 17 from seed. Is taking this long normal? I'm tempted to harvest now, but am also going out of town for a few days again in a week and want to be sure I'm present for the drying/curing process. Any thoughts on waiting another 1 1/2 weeks to harvest? That would put it right around 12 weeks flower, 19 weeks from seed. Never thought an Auto would take even close to this long.
She's not too pretty atm but here are a couple I took just now. I've had some deficiencies along the way so don't mind the leaves. The 3 or 4 tallest buds are the ones continuing with new growth. The light was about 14" above the tallest bud and I managed to get it another 2-3" higher, but its at the roof now. The next grow will be in a larger tent with more room to spread her out.
As I suspected, I think she’s just stressed out in her environment and is foxtailing. You probably won’t get much out of waiting any longer I’d say. And you’ll probably be better off harvesting now or in the next few days when you know you’ll be able to execute it to its fullest. This is just my opinion though.
Thanks, that's kind of what I was thinking myself but was looking for validation since I'm still new at this. Moving into a 6x9' tent for the next grow so will have plenty of room to stretch out the next one. Now the next issue is, if I harvest today, dry for a week then jar, it'll just be going into the jars before I go out of town. Would it be just better to hold off the additional 2 weeks and then harvest? I think I'm leaning this way since there are only a few amber trichomes that I have seen so far (I'd guess at < 2% amber). I'm a little concerned of the dry/cure not going well if I can't burp daily.
Yeah if you need to hold off I don’t think it would kill you at all. Do what’s best for your schedule at this point.