This is my 4th grow, and I've gotten a fair bit of experience of when to harvest, and such. However, this is my first time growing a sativa dominant strain (and, frankly, probably my last!), so I'd greatly appreciate some input! I keep telling myself "ok, just one more week", but then a week later the same happens. They're painfully slow to mature! Here are both my plants. I switched to 12/12 the 8th of September, so they've been flowering for about 11 weeks. Additionally, I've quite recently brought the light schedule down to 9/15 and I've decided to start watering with only clean, PH'ed water (frankly, they don't seem to even need any nutes at all). The plant to the left seems a bit further along than the other; most, if not all white pistils are gone, and the orange pistils have gotten shorter. The plant to the right is lagging a bit behind; there are still quite a few white pistils and the orange ones are a bit long. As always, I'm thinking "one week, then I'll harvest!" and as always, I'm feeling quite confident about that. How many weeks do you guys think it has left? Unfortunately, sequential harvesting isn't really an option due to limited drying space (I have to dry in my grow tent, else ... odor!) so I'll be going by the plant that's furthest behind. Thanks in advance
From the pics it looks like you’re probably ok to harvest anytime. Time to start looking at the trichs. Personal preference at that point.
I wouldn't start counting flower time the day you flip to 12/12. I think you are probably a week or so ahead of yourself. They do look nice though, good job man.
My last plant was a bagseed that went for 13 weeks, from flower, not 12/12, untill I chopped it down. It probably could have gone longer. Yours are looking good, see if it keeps throwing out new pistils and keep eye on the trichs
Looking great! I think you may have a couple weeks left though scope out her trichomes and see ..... mine started flowering 10 days after light flip so counting from there, I took her at 12 wks. In retrospect, I could have waited a week or two longer but all in all not bad.....next time, I am going to let her go to 13-14 wks and see if I like that better
I definitely intend to cut them down at the best time possible, but I'm also afraid of waiting too long. When I look at the trichs in a microscope, I notice that many of them are missing the bulb heads. Does that mean that they haven't developed yet, or that they've degraded?
The ones with missing heads are called non glandular or capitate sessile trichomes. Non glandular - no heads but filled with fluid Glandular - 3 types: Bulbous (all head and no body), Capitate Sessile (all body and no head - forms head as fluid fills) and Capitate stalked (head and body) I think that they produce non glandular trichomes to protect themselves from excessive moisture loss, intense light (more refractive to avoid overheating by scattering the light), contribute to smell to attract pollinators etc - a built in defense system. This allows the glandular trichomes to be protected and free to form and produce the cannabinoids we want.....I could be wrong but that is my understanding of the different types: Plant Anatomy Trichome Overview Glandular trichomes development and bioengineering