How to tell when to harvest if you don't have a loupe, or Don't rely solely on trichomes

[greenthumb]

Right on point sea!!!

I never use the trichome thing to gage end.
SOME strains will never get ambers,but the key
is to have them full of energy at the end stage!
the right kind of energy,not nitrogen,but its very
hard to gage this with every strain being different.

SO,i look to see the fullness of bud,amount of red hairs and how many whities are still poppin......
outdoor commercial you must harvest a bit early,
avoiding rot if possible since thay loose their guard against molds at the 3/4 mark budding.

A seeded crop will get you plenty red trichomes!
making a beautiful hash this way too....

CHEMDOG D,is a strain that should get amber,gold
atleast...
Afghans are this way!

Compost and organics give a better chance of amber at harvest assuming the energy lasts to the end with a good long flush of rain water is best!!!

THESE DAYS,amber trichomes are a hard to find thing as the old sativas with colored blood helped..
in the hybrids,had 1 that would totally get RED resins and was the most potent weed i ever grew!!

i find it harder an harder these days to ripen weed?
it is their blood we are loosing.......
natural settings,taken from their origins to different conditions and constantly breeding HIGH thc sugar plants.
Just my thoughts?
Keep trying to find a way folks,but not all will amber and you only need 5% amber anyhow!!!
peace,LG

I also think it's a shame that cannabis had to be hidden inside and grown with artificial lights and pumped up with chemicals as many do. Hopefully as attitudes are changing and legalization is on the horizon, we can grow freely and naturally outdoors again.

 

[Aladeen OG]

I've ran strains that you could pull at 45 and have decent smokable product with a good strong high, it just all depends on the plants specific essential oil production and where they are at.

Furthermore plant maturity doesn't happen all at the same time so it's hit and miss.... Especially with finicky strains, sometimes it isn't a regimen for feed that is dialing in a plant but paying attention to her and giving her what she needs. Therefore sometimes you give extra N or boost earlier/later which will overall effect the final stages of maturity

 

[Supercharge]

Very informative thread that more would do well to pay attention to. With time this kind of perspective become second nature, but for those starting out it is the way they ought to be going about things.

 

[william76]

Anyone noticed a difference between indica and sativas when it comes to Trich ripening? Iv noticed sats. Take forever compared to indica,like c99 or a haze dom iv got,takes forever if at all to get dark trichs,even past peak ripeness,i don't go by trichs,it's a good indicator in most cases,but not always,I use all the above methods as the way to tell,but I reckon if a newb uses sea,s guide above they should be golden,theres no substitute for experience,76

 

[Seamaiden]

Oh yes, absolutely I've noticed that difference! Btw, brother Loran was the one who taught me that if a heavy Sativa is pulled too early, you can expect a very paranoid high. :)

 

[william76]

Oh yes, absolutely I've noticed that difference! Btw, brother Loran was the one who taught me that if a heavy Sativa is pulled too early, you can expect a very paranoid high. :)

Yea and also takein them to long past peak ripeness can make for an uncomfortable high too,its true what they say,every strains got its sweet spot,just means we have to sample more,and I'm fine with that,lol,keep on growing,76

 

[Seamaiden]

Ah, but the flip side to that is the cure, and my favorite example of that was when I ran Loran's Longbottom Leaf... what, 3, 4yrs ago? I didn't keep any cuts of what I ran because I really didn't like the fuelly scent that was emitting from the sisters (all pretty much identical phenos, 9 girls out of 10 beans). Well, slap me silly! Because at first, a month into cure I still smelled it and thought, Yeah, I'm glad I didn't bother with those! I smoke too much weed to be able to tell much about individual highs, only whether or not something cuts through, if that makes sense. Anyway, I then sampled 2mos into the cure and oh my goodness, a lovely soft lemony scent, very slightly tinged with pine, it smelled a lot to me like Lemon Pledge. I liked how it smoked (about as well as anything else I've grown..? yeah), and then after sharing with some others was promptly kicking myself in the ass for not keeping a single cut.

 

[toquer]

Sea, your thoughts on ripeness testing?
I'm currently talking with a lab and they'll test it four times for a set fee. You send in a gram -10, -5, 0, and +5 days from harvest. Gotta keep one plant growing in this case. They test for transgression of thc-cbd-cbn and a few others.
From what I've been able to learn is that CBN isn't the product that the shops want and there is a peak level after which it's too late.
Thoughts?

 

[william76]

Ah, but the flip side to that is the cure, and my favorite example of that was when I ran Loran's Longbottom Leaf... what, 3, 4yrs ago? I didn't keep any cuts of what I ran because I really didn't like the fuelly scent that was emitting from the sisters (all pretty much identical phenos, 9 girls out of 10 beans). Well, slap me silly! Because at first, a month into cure I still smelled it and thought, Yeah, I'm glad I didn't bother with those! I smoke too much weed to be able to tell much about individual highs, only whether or not something cuts through, if that makes sense. Anyway, I then sampled 2mos into the cure and oh my goodness, a lovely soft lemony scent, very slightly tinged with pine, it smelled a lot to me like Lemon Pledge. I liked how it smoked (about as well as anything else I've grown..? yeah), and then after sharing with some others was promptly kicking myself in the ass for not keeping a single cut.

Y

Sea, your thoughts on ripeness testing?
I'm currently talking with a lab and they'll test it four times for a set fee. You send in a gram -10, -5, 0, and +5 days from harvest. Gotta keep one plant growing in this case. They test for transgression of thc-cbd-cbn and a few others.
From what I've been able to learn is that CBN isn't the product that the shops want and there is a peak level after which it's too late.
Thoughts?

I think potency starts to decrease if you let it go past peak ripeness,not just potency but smell as well,whole other product,even a few days can make a difference,ime,76

 

[toquer]

Y

I think potency starts to decrease if you let it go past peak ripeness,not just potency but smell as well,whole other product,even a few days can make a difference,ime,76

From my understanding THC degrades to CBN... Somebody correct me if I'm wrong please i'm no expert at this end of the plant. Never got to take bio-chem. But as CBN increases THC decreases so harvest is the day before degradation. Right?

 

[william76]

Yea

From my understanding THC degrades to CBN... Somebody correct me if . I'm wrong please i'm no expert at this end of the plant. Never got to take bio-chem. But as. CBN increases THC decreases so harvest is the day before degradation. Right?

. Yea,thats when I try to take mine wen there at there most potent,some people like a lighter stone,just preference,,76

 

[greenthumb]

Ah, but the flip side to that is the cure, and my favorite example of that was when I ran Loran's Longbottom Leaf... what, 3, 4yrs ago? I didn't keep any cuts of what I ran because I really didn't like the fuelly scent that was emitting from the sisters (all pretty much identical phenos, 9 girls out of 10 beans). Well, slap me silly! Because at first, a month into cure I still smelled it and thought, Yeah, I'm glad I didn't bother with those! I smoke too much weed to be able to tell much about individual highs, only whether or not something cuts through, if that makes sense. Anyway, I then sampled 2mos into the cure and oh my goodness, a lovely soft lemony scent, very slightly tinged with pine, it smelled a lot to me like Lemon Pledge. I liked how it smoked (about as well as anything else I've grown..? yeah), and then after sharing with some others was promptly kicking myself in the ass for not keeping a single cut.

Did you say a two month cure!? wow!

 

[Seamaiden]

Yes, I think that's a good start and I find that anything earlier is still too green/fresh for my tastes. I have girls hanging from last year still. 61% RH, 60* (now that it's hot, the area is not yet the 'walk-in humidor' I so desire and need), just grab a few bones off whoever I like, bring it upstairs and smoke away. I'm toking on another Lemon Taffy this morning, tasty. Harvested in... October, third week IIRC. I will keep them this way until I have to harvest this year's girls, and at that point I'll just break them down without deboning, paper sacks that go into stackable opaque bins (I feel strongly that exposure to light, and extreme temperature and humidity changes degrades cannabis as much as it does anything else).

IIRC, someone here mentioned that the Egyptians didn't consider cannabis to be ready for use until it was cured at least a year. It's not something I've ever looked into though.

 

[greenthumb]

Yes, I think that's a good start and I find that anything earlier is still too green/fresh for my tastes. I have girls hanging from last year still. 61% RH, 60* (now that it's hot, the area is not yet the 'walk-in humidor' I so desire and need), just grab a few bones off whoever I like, bring it upstairs and smoke away. I'm toking on another Lemon Taffy this morning, tasty. Harvested in... October, third week IIRC. I will keep them this way until I have to harvest this year's girls, and at that point I'll just break them down without deboning, paper sacks that go into stackable opaque bins (I feel strongly that exposure to light, and extreme temperature and humidity changes degrades cannabis as much as it does anything else).

IIRC, someone here mentioned that the Egyptians didn't consider cannabis to be ready for use until it was cured at least a year. It's not something I've ever looked into though.

You said you have them hanging from last year, don't they get too dry when they're exposed to the air for that long?
I thought of putting the harvested plant in a paper bag to dry, and hang the bag. It still dries, but stays in the dark, and no chance of losing any trichomes falling off as they dry. What do you think?

(I have so far harvested one plant (and hung it up in a paper bag), just because it was starting to look dry and unhealthy, it could have been a chemical imbalance or maybe just the lights burned the top leaves, it was starting to yellow even the small top leaves, so I harvested it. I notice the ones that are a few inches from the cfls sometimes get yellowish or really light green while the lower ones stay darker green. My other three plants look good with riper and bigger buds every day, especially now that they have more space.)

 

[Seamaiden]

Not if you pay attention to relative humidity (aka RH). I like your idea for doing the paper bag thing, just monitor RH. Drying RH for me is in the 50%-55% range, curing is 60%-65%. You can get a small monitor to keep track.

 

[INbreed312]

I like 50% RH for drying myself, and gauge stem dryness (ie does it snap or 'peel' when broken) for being ready to cure. I cure in sealed jars wrapped with panda film though. Is RH still something I should be checking in the jar? I breath them once a day for 5 min and usually prefer a 90 day cure for anything I keep for myself.

 

[steelcanaries]

loving the vibes of this thread Sea....!!! So you use all organics and never flush??? and no problems with the end result??? do you give just water throughout to an amended medium, or do you feed with teas, bottles, etc.....Is the key to doing this, getting good runoff when you water???? would not getting runoff and doing the same, (organics with no flush) give you the same result, or do you think that without runoff, the plants would be pretty much locked up towards the end from excess build up???? inquiring minds wanna know....lol thanks for your time....all the best....be blessed all....steel

 

[Skuna Tuna]

loving the vibes of this thread Sea....!!! So you use all organics and never flush??? and no problems with the end result??? do you give just water throughout to an amended medium, or do you feed with teas, bottles, etc.....Is the key to doing this, getting good runoff when you water???? would not getting runoff and doing the same, (organics with no flush) give you the same result, or do you think that without runoff, the plants would be pretty much locked up towards the end from excess build up???? inquiring minds wanna know....lol thanks for your time....all the best....be blessed all....steel

lets keep this thread about the finishing signs of a plant.

Peep this thread to answer ur questions.
https://www.thcfarmer.com/community...a-bad-practice-based-on-flawed-science.64789/

Unknowingly, u just asked a question that has been spawning major debateso_O

hope this helped
Sküna

*Edit to add* - Cool thread @Seamaiden ! this is a great topic

 

[steelcanaries]

thanks for the link....hot topic huh? lol ill check it out....thx for your time and for being nice about it.....Peace...

 

[Seamaiden]

Oh yeah, VERY hot topic!

loving the vibes of this thread Sea....!!! So you use all organics and never flush??? and no problems with the end result??? do you give just water throughout to an amended medium, or do you feed with teas, bottles, etc.....Is the key to doing this, getting good runoff when you water???? would not getting runoff and doing the same, (organics with no flush) give you the same result, or do you think that without runoff, the plants would be pretty much locked up towards the end from excess build up???? inquiring minds wanna know....lol thanks for your time....all the best....be blessed all....steel

I grow largely by feel (thus the Dx thread, for example). Yes, I use all organics, no, I haven't flushed my media in years. It's just not necessary if you're not using chemical salts, they're not there to build up. I'm happy with the results, with the worst things being that I do still usually find that a moth has found some good top colas and laid eggs in there, that leads to loss that I simply burn.

I do use teas, but not religiously. I do occasionally use bottled amendments, for example liquid bone meal, if I feel it's needed. I water very, very judiciously, so with my soil grows no run-off if I can help it, that's wasteful. In coir I tend to prefer getting some run-off. In perlite it runs through no matter what.

Organic cultivation is really another beast from chemical salt-based cultivation. Because you're not loading up on high concentration salts, there are no salts to build up as I mentioned. The focus is not on feeding the plant, but instead on feeding the soil, and that's what I do, I feed the soil. Then, once fed, that soil food web takes over and just does its thing. Outdoors it works great for me, inside I don't seem to be able to pull off what I can outdoors, so that's on me I think, and my own husbandry skills.

I still find it very weird that I can totally do water in a box like nobody's business, but I can't grow fucking terrestrial plants inside worth a damn (in my opinion).