Hi GC this is my first real grow attempt. I have 3 plants grown from bagseed in FFoF, under 300w of CFL's. Feeding them GH Florabloom every other watering and 2 tbsp of grandmas molasses every watering. I started with 4 bagseed plants 3 of which looked very healthy, one was a very sativa dominant which i gave the chop since it outgrew my flowering area(went from 12" at end of veg to over 36" not including pot), all 4 flowered female. Out of the 4 plants i grew 1 was stunted by what seems to be genetics and began to full on flower during 24/0 veg lighting, because of this i neglected to make note of when it began to flower. My question is based on the photos i have been taking of the top bud i was hoping someone could give me a hint as to how long before harvest of the "runt"? the first photo is dec 2nd, the 2nd photo is dec 8th. [/IMG]
You are still several weeks out from harvest. When you see red pistil hairs covering most of the plant versus white ones, you can start to check the trichromes to see how they are doing. Most strains take at least 7-8 weeks to finish flowering and some are even longer. Then you have a week of drying and a good two weeks of curing to get the best final product. I know - seems to take forever but when you do it right its so worth it.
thanks for the quick reply, it gets frostier by the day. I am very excited to get puffing on some of my own product . when you say several weeks out i should be looking at 2-4 weeks possibly?
How long have they been on a 12/12 light cycle? Are you familiar with checking the trichs on the plant with a magnification loop? Thats your real telltale. Ive had a harvest after just 7 weeks of 12/12 and Ive had others need almost 10 weeks. You look to be in what I would call "mid" flower. I'll say in 3 weeks you will be getting to the point where its worth it to check them each day and it wont be long after that. Personally, I harvest when at least 50% of the trichs are milky or opaque, 40% are clear, and a few(10% or less) have started to look amber. The good news is that they look healthy and vibrant. The skinnier leaves scream sativa! Keep up the good work. Dont over-nute them. Watch the water usage too, they drink a lot when in flower!
they have been in 12/12 for around 3.5 weeks, but the stunted one in above photos was flowering in 24/0 for around 2 weeks before this. I have a 30x/60x jewelry loop for checking trichs, so far they are mostly clear. hopefully i will be able to tell in a couple more weeks when to start flushing
4-7 weeks, looks pretty sativa to me... its definitly gonna be potent. do NOT harvest when a significant amount (>10%) of trichomes are still clear, that way youre missing out on quite a bit of weight and a lot of potency. wait at least until you see some amber on the buds, not just the leaves. the longer you wait, the more couchlocky its gonna be. in my opinion trichomes are way overrated anyways. I prefer to look at the pistils and calyxes without magnification. white pistils are generally attached to calyxes that are still growing and thus visibly smaller - dont harvest before 95% of the calyxes have either lost their pistils or have brown pistils and have stopped growing in size.
so your saying 4-7 more weeks till harvest? 7 weeks seems like a long time for a plant thats been flowering apparently for 5.5 weeks, hopefully the buds start to swell more in the next 2 weeks.
People have had success using the pistil color and behavior too. Whatever works for ya, as they say. You might be correct about the time frame too, I forgot thst Sats take a little longer than Indys. Interestingly, I even read from a reputable source that harvesting when the trichs are still mostly clear is actually when they can be deemd the most potent. Alls I know is when I cook my buds I get blasted so thats good enough for me.
i hope that time frame is a little off in the later department, after a month and half almost of flowering the anticipation is driving me bonkers. i should prolly go pick up a bag soon so i dont obsess over it.
waiting for the right harvest time is definitly worth it, even if it means that you have nothing to smoke for a week or two longer. after harvesting its gonna be at least a week anyways until you can really enjoy the first buds, any faster drying methods suck too hard. go for a 1 week dry with a small part of your harvest to have something while you wait for the rest to dry and cure another 1-3 weeks.
yea i plan on doing something along those lines. the stunted one is going to be done at least a month sooner then the other two, so hopefully it will last me till then . its not noticeable in the photo but i have alot of side lighting, so all the side branches seems to be producing mini colas ftw.
after looking today at my plants i noticed many of the pistils tips changing from white to red and curling. my question is will swelling of the calyx's occur shortly after? here are some photos showing the red pistil tips, i have been watching closely and this change took around 3 days from the above photos from dec 8th. excitement is brewing, each little change to my babies is noticed!
im guessing this is an overall harvest estimate, just was curious when i could expect to start seeing those buds plump up.
From what I've been noticing in my sativias is that they'll start to get noticeably bigger during the last 3-4 weeks then, slowing during the last week... swag
Keep doing wot you ve been doing and just watch the plant change. The site is full of tons of useful info including many ways of telling when buds are ready ,trichs, pistels etc. Take plenty of pics in same position and compare you will be amazed I have a kush which I was going to cut nearly two weeks but is still lights now but she looks much fatter Good luck dave
Keep doing wot you ve been doing and just watch the plant change. The site is full of tons of useful info including many ways of telling when buds are ready ,trichs, pistels etc. Take plenty of pics in same position and compare you will be amazed I have a kush which I was going to cut nearly two weeks but is still lights now but she looks much fatter Good luck dave
Its been 5 days since my last post, i have been taking photos almost daily . heres a pic of the cola heres some lower bud sites that seem to be filling in nicely looks like the swelling is happening . Just gave them a feeding yesterday 2 tsp's GH florabloom and 1 tbsp molasses, i wonder if ill be able to get another couple of feedings in before flush time? lemme know what yall think.
yeah keep feeding it until you think that it might just be ready for harvest... then start flushing and give it another 2 weeks ^^ looks VERY frosty, count yourself lucky!