Amber Trichomes over 50% at Day 45 of Flowering. Ready?

[Aqua Man]

I always go by trichs on the calyx only the leaf trichs will mature faster.

 

[Aqua Man]

But them buds are looking very nice bro it's gonna be a gooder

 

[Tlegacy]

From what I hear and read , harvest when the Trichomes go about 80-95%ish amber is more medicinal, anything less is more psychedelic then medicinal. Correct me if I am wrong.

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Hello farmers,

I have a little head-scratcher here. I have been growing this strain of NL#5xHaze for several cycles now. Normally I would struggle to find any amber trichomes before day 70, sometimes going until day 85 before it looked ready to me. The last month of which the buds would not grow noticeably bigger.

Now I have over 50% of the trichomes looking amber at day 45 since the lights got flipped to 12/12 on 4/20. The buds have grown noticeably in the past week and are almost as big as past grows, their lesser size is within expectations factoring in their shorter veg time and more effective scrogging which produced more colas per square foot.

The main difference this grow was these clones were taken using "monster cropping" technique, taken from a mother that was in full flowering, and then forced to reveg while rooting.

This situation seems odd to me. Not totally believing my eyes.

I am looking for people's opinions and observations on ripeness. Is it possible monster cropping facilitated accelerated maturing? Maybe this is more a result of environmental conditions? Think I should flush (hydroponics) and harvest soon, or wait? @Aqua Man @redshift75 @One drop @stoneyluv

60x pics taken from different sweet leaves cut from different buds, like marked below.


View attachment 981782

 

[Dan789]

Have usually waited for 10% minimum amber on buds, mostly cloudy, recently read that mix should be obtained not from the uppermost buds, but rather those midway down on the plant... (not sugar leaves)

 

[Tlegacy]

Why not harvest when the bud is ready on top. Remove the uppers when they are ready and slowly work your way down as time goes by? It’s like picking apples off a tree.
Otherwise you get a mix of not ready product or over due product.

Have usually waited for 10% minimum amber on buds, mostly cloudy, recently read that mix should be obtained not from the uppermost buds, but rather those midway down on the plant... (not sugar leaves)

 

[threatco]

Why not harvest when the bud is ready on top. Remove the uppers when they are ready and slowly work your way down as time goes by? It’s like picking apples off a tree.
Otherwise you get a mix of not ready product or over due product.

I do that sometimes, but the issue becomes multiple flushing with hydro. Gotta flush before each harvest, then feed em salts again to keep the middle stuff maturing. They don't seem to always like that.

Since I will be processing most of the smaller / non-perfect buds into BHO concentrate, I will probably harvest this all at once. I am leaning towards June 20th as harvest date, but I have a USB microscope on the way, so I will wait for that before any more major trichome examinations.

 

[threatco]

From the same bud I cut off the other day, with my new Inskam USB microscope. Oh, how she glitters!

More relevant samples will be examined and published tomorrow.

 

[Greenjourneyman]

That is some fun technology. What’s your zoom level?

 

[threatco]

That is some fun technology. What’s your zoom level?

It says to 50x 1000x, that video was obviously not that close. It's a bit ticket getting the bud the exact right distance for maximum zoom. But I will work on getting some good pics tomorrow.

 

[threatco]

Flowering day 60.

Inskam cam turns out to be a bit hard to get perfect pics with. The zoom wheel is also the focus wheel, so every zoom level needs a specific and different distance to be in focus. Might shop around for another option.

Here's what I got. Going to harvest tomorrow I think.

Any tips or advice?

 

[Aqua Man]

Flowering day 60.

Inskam cam turns out to be a bit hard to get perfect pics with. The zoom wheel is also the focus wheel, so every zoom level needs a specific and different distance to be in focus. Might shop around for another option.

Here's what I got. Going to harvest tomorrow I think.

Any tips or advice?

View attachment 988579

View attachment 988578

Still looking pretty clear to me but my eyes are not the best. Is this bud from the top of the plant?

 

[One drop]

No still to much clear it’s getting there you trichs are beautiful there reall long and lots of them its going to be a lung buster mate good luck . Od

 

[MIMedGrower]

No reason to look at trichs until most of the white pistils have darkened and died back. Until then calyx are still growing and stacking.

And only check trichs on the actual calyx of the flower never the bud leaves. They give a false finish often.

From the state of the trichs in the pics there is too much heat on the flowers or too much handling degrading early trichomes. Many broken, bent and ambered early on those leaves.

 

[threatco]

Bud is coming from medium height colas, from bud parts in the middle. (some just below some just above a major fan leaf). These ones have not been exposed to the direct heat/light like the top buds. Just a bit of handling/cutting to get ready for scope.

 

[Aqua Man]

Bud is coming from medium height colas, from bud parts in the middle. (some just below some just above a major fan leaf). These ones have not been exposed to the direct heat/light like the top buds. Just a bit of handling/cutting to get ready for scope.

What's temps? Like @MIMedGrower said kinds looks like degradation not so much ripening since to me it appears they are clear but some are amber. Again my eyes are not the greatest and I'm on my phone so pics are tiny to me.

Like the actual temp of the calyx on the plants

 

[MIMedGrower]

Too much pk, direct wind or touching can damage trichomes in my experience.

And some plants ripen weird. Genetics.

 

[threatco]

What's temps? Like @MIMedGrower said kinds looks like degradation not so much ripening since to me it appears they are clear but some are amber. Again my eyes are not the greatest and I'm on my phone so pics are tiny to me.

Like the actual temp of the calyx on the plants

bud surface temps are ranging from 24-26c with topmost bud tips being 27c.

These buds in pics would never have been "touched" not very windy in there.

 

[Aqua Man]

bud surface temps are ranging from 24-26c with topmost bud tips being 27c.

These buds in pics would never have been "touched" not very windy in there.

Not unreasonable but getting up there. Usually the last week or 10 days I drop my air temps to low 70's to help prevent degradation and preserve as much terps as possible as they ripen. Think 80f at the tops may be pushing it a bit but that's just my opinion.

 

[threatco]

The source of these trichomes.

Leaves looked much better a couple of weeks ago before I gave them a flush.

 

[threatco]

Some more pics, taken from lower/mid buds.

I might be convinced to keep them alive a bit longer. Going to take efforts to get temp in there to 16c.