Ready to harvest first home grown. Hoping to hit the sweet spot. Could use some advice.
I am pretty much shooting in the dark as this is my first experience growing. My 2 plants are in a greenhouse in a New York winter, and I do not know the varieties as the seeds were given to me.
Seedlings popped on September 18, vegged 10 weeks until November 26 when I flipped to 12/12.
Sex pronounced on December 5, they stopped there stretch on December 13, and they have been in flowering stage now for 5 weeks, or 6 weeks if you count from 12/12 flip.
The buds are frosty with trikes, sticky and smelly. White hairs are starting to shrivel up and turn orange brown. Could they be getting close to peak harvest time already?
View attachment 1204509Pinched off a sample bud and crudely quick dried it under a light bulb with a fan. Smoked up very smooth, was strong and trippy.
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I know affects will change as bud ripens, from low resin and THC levels with trippy effects, to perfectly ripe with max THC and affects typical of the strain, and then on to overripe with THC degrading into CBD and becoming more stony in effect.
Question:
Can I/should I harvest some now, some in a week, and the rest sometime later, covering all bases, or should I go for the home run and try to catch it at its peak?
Question:
The buds on various parts of the plant are in different stages of development. If I take off the top, or apical cola, which is most farthest along to maturity, how will that affect the secondary buds growing down below on the stem?
Will the plant suffer or going to stress if I cherry pick harvesting the buds?
I bought one of those wireless digital microscopes, but it is still very difficult to detect any changes in the trikes. I am still learning how to use it and not very good at it. These pics are pathetic, but hope they are some help.
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I recently installed some supplemental UV lighting and I am slowly ramping it up to help resin and THC production.
Any thoughts, suggestions, or advice would be greatly appreciated.