My plant is about a week from harvest. No red hairs yet, all still white. I was wondering, the buds look kind of small. I'm worrying they won't puff up much more than they already have. I want to allow maximum light to the lower buds before harvest in hope they will get bigger and compact more. Is it a good idea to cut off some of the leaves blocking light to other buds this late in flowering or will it only stunt growth? Are their specific leaves I should not trim? What can I do to make them get bigger in this last week? Or is there not much I can do? I have already stopped feeding and have only been feeding mollasses water.
Theres not much you can do now. PK13/14 helps beef up my buds (applied 3 weeks before harvest). No, dont cut your fan leave off, you will send the plant into shock at this stage of flowering. If fan leaves are blocking light, just tie them back.
The fan leaves make the buds. If you cut them off, the plant will attempt to regrow them, so it can get the carbohydrates it needs to make the buds. This will delay budding, in reality. I trim the shit out of the underneath of my plants about two weeks into flowering, after they stretch. They look like this underneath: As you can see, I still leave plenty of branches coming up, but I don't touch the leaves above where I prune. Think about it this way: A lot of really great weed, like Humboldt County bud, gets grown and harvested and never gets touched by a human it's whole life, and it turns out awesome. I think...no I know...that we humans just end up messing with them too much. Here is what those plants look like at the canopy level now. They are 5 weeks into flower, with 2-3 weeks to go on the Kush (all plants but the very front one), and 3-4 on the Blueberry (very front plant). I hope that helps. The pictures aren't quite the same as being able to really look at it, but these will have to do! I would not trim anything a couple weeks before harvest, personally.
try tucking leaves over/under each other to get them out of the way, but still leave them on the plant. or you could just cut the tips of some leaves off, or just a few fingers, if that will help. just don't overdo it or it may stunt growth. your buds also might still look small because they really aren't one week away from harvest. if none of the pistils have changed color yet, they probably need more time, unless you've grown this strain before and know whats up. you can't always trust the flowering time breeders show on their website or whatever. plus, some people start counting "flowering weeks" when they switch to 12/12, and others start counting a week or so later when they feel that "buds started forming." good luck brother
It doesn't sound like you're a week from harvest... sounds more like two to four weeks. But, like Lorenzo said, it really depends on the strain.
the only real way to tell if your plant is ready is look at the trichs with a handheld microscope for $10 you can't go wrong