I've got some ladies that are nearing the beginning of the 10th week. My buds tell me she will finish in 10 weeks, but most of the hairs on the plant are darkly orange already. Doesn't that mean she's done? Also curious, what happens if you don't cut down the plant? Does it just wither and dry out and die from lack of nutrients? Is it still smokable after this happens?
close your eyes and throw a dart at a calendar. Examining trichs under magnification is the only reliable way.
id say pull em now. You can notice amber vs. white trichomes on a plant though. Look at the leaves closely along with the pistels etc. you can spot a brown/gold color on them
If you haven´t even got absolutely BASIC equipment (like a magnifier, that costs just CENTS) then please don´t come on here wasting the time of us serious growers. EDIT - if you have an old 35mm SLR, the standard 50mm lens makes a quite good magnifier.
Well the general rule of thumb is to pull the plant when the hairs are 75% red. I'm with Canth though, get a magnifying glass at Rite-Aid or something. They are pretty cheap. Timing is fairly crucial and when you harvest the plant will decide if your plant will give you a nice stoney head high, or a couch-lock body sting.
The magnifying glass does not have to be anything special, you can use any that has at least 50X or better and they are cheap at any store, shit I seen some at Walmart for like $1.99. You can go by the hairs, however sometimes the hairs will turn better than 75% before the trichs get cloudy. Also, the magnifying glass works so you know when to flush, once the trichs begin to get 50% or better cloudy is when I begin my flush, then I just wait for the bigger leaves surrounding the flowers to yellow and die off, by then, about 2-3 weeks, the trichs are cloudy and I have about 40% or better amber. less
A typical "magnifying glass", such as you would expect to see Sherlock Holmes (or Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther) carrying around, is not strong enough -- those tend to be in the 5x-10x range. You want something in the 30x-75x range.
I have a 30X pocket microscope that I bought on line for not much - it is brilliant for trichomes. I also have a 9X watchmaker´s eyeglass that I use for sexing.
