This is my first grow, and my babies are approx. three months old, full into flower. I've got thread spool sized buds, and am using like 9 cfls for lighting on 12/12. Every thing's been going surprising well considering I broke on of my three girls in half (it recovered!) among other mishaps. But my main question is: How do you tell when it's time to start harvesting. I've been looking around and finding a lot of good guides on curing and how to harvest, but none that really tell me what to look for it see if it's time. Now I don't have a microscope or anything that fancy, so I can't get the kind of look I've been reading about, and those buds are starting to look very tasty, but I don't want to jump the gun. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'd hate to have gotten this far and muck it all up at the end.
Without a magnafying glass its hard to be accurate you sure you can't just get a $10 for the sake of a good harvest?
If you know what strain you're growing then you can check flowering times online. The best way is to get a magnifying glass, microscope, or even a macro lens. Harvest when the tirchomes are 50% cloudy and 50% amber. Sometimes reddish-brownish-orangeish hairs means its close to harvest but that's strain dependent.
Thanks for the pics and the advice. I don't know the strain, it's just bag seed and I never really even expected it to get this far. I'll probably have to shell out for a magnifying glass or small microscope next payday. What's the smallest (or largest, I guess) magnification that I can get away with for an accurate reading?
Smallest I would recommend is the 30X loupe. Even that was a bit small for me. I'm looking to get a 100X or one of those handy dandy computer USB cameras that does closeups so very well. The reason you'll want it is that the difference in potency between monday and today is the difference between your harvest lasting one month and 4. Ok.. maybe that's a bit much but really, without knowing the plant and not using a glass? You're just guessing. *blerg* Grow ON!
