Hello, i have mid grade indica plants outdoors. i have noticed that some of my buds seem to be maturing before the others, particularly the cola and most outer buds. i have done research and cannot come to a conclusion. can someone please tell me if i should harvest buds individually depending on their ripenes, as to allow the smaller inside buds to get more sunlight and become bigger? or should i just wait and harvest the plant all at once? also if i was to pick the buds off 1 at a time would my plants come back next year after the winter? do they hybernate?
CUTTING for Harvest Properly processing cannabis at harvest is a craft that must be mastered in order to enhance and preserve the psychoactive properties, taste and appearance of the finished product. Many talented growers neglect to implement some of the following techniques, resulting in buds that fail to reach their maximum potential. There are two basic methods used by growers to harvest their cannabis: 1.) cola harvesting (cutting the buds from the branches individually) and 2.) harvesting entire plant (cutting it off at the main stalk near the bottom). The majority of growers find individual cola harvesting to be superior, for several reasons. Some cannabis strains exhibit varying finishing times on the same plant. For example, the top colas may ripen while lower branches are still developing. Tops can be removed to expose the lower branches to light, thus allowing the lower buds to ripen further. Individual harvesting and drying of branches works faster than drying a whole cannabis plant. When a cannabis plant is harvested, the stomata on the surface of the leaves and calyxes will start closing off, allowing only small amounts of water vapor to escape. This forces the excess moisture stored within the stems/stalks to exit through the cuts you've made on them when harvesting. The fewer cuts for water vapor to exit through, the longer the drying time. You can cut off quite a bit of the plant and you won't kill it, I've seen plants cut to a stump come back as long as there was a leaf joint still left on the trunk