Hello GC! I grow five beautiful plants in my grow-cab. Two of them are Snow White clones and three Sensi Skunks (from seeds). I started flowering them on September 4th. Sensi Skunks at that moment were about one month old (were not showing their sex yet) and Snow Whites were just rooted clones. According to Nirvana Shop and Sensiseeds Snow White takes about 9-11 weeks and Sensi Skunk 45-50 days to flower. Pictures below were taken yesterday. So these plants are 6 weeks (~50 days) into flowering. To be honest Snow Whites looks quite OK for me to feed it another two or three weeks and then give it only water for another few weeks preparing it to harvest. But what about Sensi Skunks??? They should be already harvested at this moment, but for me they look way to young for that. Maybe that is because of early flowering? Need advice on this... Snow Whites Sensi Skunks
That skunk looks like it needs another month. Don't go by the breeders stats unless you are replicating their grow. They grow in as near as ideal conditions you can get.
Hey turbovanda, the only really sure way of knowing if your plants are ready for harvest is to buy yourself a magnifier of 30 power or more and look directly at the trichomes on the buds. Radio Shack has a nice little microscope for about $20. I've pictured it below. That one goes from 60X to 100X and makes the Trichomes as clear as can be. When taking a look, I use fluorescent lighting, not HID, for ambient lighting while looking through the microscope lens. This keeps the colors true. I gently put one fingertip behind a bud and again, gently, place the bottom of the microscope against the bud while looking in the lens at 100X. I then focus the lens and have an incredible view of the trichomes on that bud. Here's a guide for what to look for: Mental, "head" "trippy" high: Clear Trichcomes/Cloudy Trichomes 70-30% Head and Body high: Cloudy Trichomes with a little amber about 80% cloudy Trichs. Pure Body High: 40% Cloudy/60% Amber Trichomes Of course, if you ask twenty growers what their guide points are, you'll get 30 different opinions. That's the nature of the process. Anyway, I would strongly advise you to buy the $20 microscope. It's worth it's weight in gold when deciding when to harvest your long worked for crop.
that exact one i got at my radio shack, (in stock even x4). for like 12.99 or some shit.. the thing works great!!!! way better then the 20.00 one off ebay my roomate bought last time. EDIT: the ones from radio shack are actually 100x
Like mentioned, get yourself a 30x scope if you can. I got one from Radio Shack as well. Does the job. If you don't have one though, there are ways to tell with the naked eye. One way is by seeing how fat, or swollen the buds are. You can give them a gentle squeeze, but less contact with the buds, the better. After a few grows, you know when the buds look swollen. Another way is the leaves will start to die off naturally. They'll start to yellow, fall off, then die, pretty much. I find the best way, is by looking at the hairs, or pistils. When approx. 75% of the pistils have turned brown/red, then it's time to harvest soon. Judging by your pictures there, those need at least another month. The pistils are white, the buds are just forming, buds aren't swollen, or that big, or trichy covered either. Like someone said, don't go by what the package says. That's they're approx. in their growing conditions, not yours, so ignore the estimated time altogether.
i'm growing sensi skunk right now. I'm on day 28 right now and they're right on track. I've grown them out in the past to 55 days and they were dripping with resin. i think giving them an extra 5 days is really beneficial. The first time i grew sensi skunk i picked it at 45 days because i was excited and kind of a noob. it was good but not as good as running it an extra 5-10 days.
Am I glad I just read your post. My Sensi Skunk look virtiually identical tho these pics and I wasn't sure how long they needed before harvesting. I was also not sure if I had enough buds as looking at pics of other strains they looked like they had loads more but I'm happy now