When to harvest?

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by frequent_flower, Apr 23, 2006.

  1. hellow all,

    Im about 40 days into flower and im kind of confused of when exactly to harvest. Ive done alot of reading and have heard its ripe when anywhere from 50-80% of the pistils have changed color, Which is it? I know its more specific to each strain but im just growing some definatly indica-dominant bagseed. Ive also been watching the trichomes for cloudiness. I just want some of your experianced opinions.

    thanks in advance, this seems like a cool place
     

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  2. Another Question.

    The higher buds seem more mature than the lower ones. Can I chop the main cola first, the move the lights closer to the lower branches and harvest them say a week or two later?
     
  3. in response to your first question, it depends how you like your high. if you like a soaring, heady high, harvest ealier ( when 40 - 50 % of the trichomes are cloudy.) if you prefer a couch-lock stone, harvest when up to 65% of the trichomes are amber in colour and have fully formed heads. in response to your 2nd question, yes, you can perfom what is know as a "staggered" harvest. you can cut off all the buds that are mature, and thus allow the lower, shaded buds to develop more. hope this helps!
    Just Blaze It.....
    ...........................
     
  4. looks like some nice ass bud :) +rep
     
  5. ok im either 49 or 50 days into flower now. What do you all think? I was planning on cuttin it in 4 or 5 days after 48 hours of darkness.
     

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  6. plants lookin quite scrumptious, i think they r ready but that's just cuz once my plant looks like that i can't resist :D but otherwise i see the orangeish brownish coloration on the flowers, which is prime, dont wanna wait too long as THC begins to decrease and the CBD chemical begins to increase which give u the couch potatoe like stone as Just baze it mentioned above, the earlier, the more pure THC, its your choice, i hate tellin people wut to do
     
  7. well its not as brown as it looks, my camera did that
     
  8. I say let it go for another week and see if you notice the buds fattening up at all. if not, then go ahead and chop. :]

    maybe pluck off a tiny piece of bud and quick dry it & see how it smokes? a little sample won't hurt much of anything.
     
  9. I cut off a lil nug last week, just a bowls worth and it got me high as hell. I cut another a few hours ago which is drying now.

    It hasnt really bulked up that much over the last 10 days, just more hairs turned red and the trichs are clouding up. As of now, im planning on cutting it friday or saturday
     
  10. hold on are you counting your flowering from the time you turned your light back to 12/12 or from when your plants actually showed its sex????? it makes a big difference
     
  11. Nice plant, frequent_flower. How long did you veg her for? Also, what nutes did you use during the flowering stage?

    Good luck with the harvest. Be sure to come back and post the dry weight.

    So you start counting days until harvest after plants show signs of sex?
     
  12. Yeah, you don't start counting that until the plant shows its sex and begins to flower.
     
  13. Im counting from when it actually showed sex and I only veged for about a month, Gotta keep em small indoors ;)
     
  14. looks real nice ....
    id have to agree with letting her a little while longer ...
    i might reduce light hrs now 1 hr a day til they go dark n harvest ..... if you are gonna harvest the whole thing at once ... not if youre gonna start taking off what looks ripe..
     
  15. Yeah, if you don't think the buds are fattening up much, you could increase the dark period to 14 or 16 hours to mature them a bit more quickly. This can reduce yield a little bit though, so make sure you are sure the buds aren't bulking up before doing this. I say wait a week, and then if they haven't gotten any bigger, switch the dark period to about 14 hours for 2 days, then 16 for 2 days, then leave them in the dark for 48 hours to trick the plant into creating more resin because it thinks it's dying (which it is) and harvest. I think you'd get good results with the product that way, even if the buds don't gain much in size.

    p.s. this is also if you are harvesting the whole thing at once. if you plan on harvesting the buds at different times then don't give them this much dark period or the lower buds won't do much better. it's up to you. it looks pretty nice though, so I don't think you are going to hurt much of anything by experimenting here with your harvest. are you watching the trichs? going solely by them and not the size of the buds, I myself would harvest when most of the trichs are cloudy and maybe 20 percent of them started turning an amber color, for a more energetic up high. If you like the sedated, "couch lock" type of high, wait until 50 or 60% of the trichomes are amber. Personally, I like more of the THC high, more in the head... As the trichomes turn amber I think this is when the THC is starting to degrade, turning into the other cannibinoids, which produce more of the sedative, sleepy feeling, but some people like this better. either way you like, definitely wait until all of the trichomes are no longer clear. before they turn cloudy they appear clear, almost like water droplets... these are immature. as the trichomes mature, they turn foggy or cloudy... somewhat grayish and no longer clear. none of yours may be clear anymore... I wouldn't know, but I'm just giving you the info. :]
     
  16. The only way to truly tell if she is ready is to look at the trichs under the microscope. Or you can do my favorite option, the smoke test. Reducing the photoperiod ripens it up not increasing it. I would NOT recommend tampering with the photoperiod. Just keep her on 12/12 all the way through.
     

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