First time grower, need flowering timeline advice.

[BadBrad97]

Hello. I have been reading as much on here as I can. It seems like a great community. I am about 5-6 weeks into my grow of White Buffalo sativa. I have 3 - 5 gallon pots in my 2x4 tent and my plants are doing great but my plants seem a little small maybe 10-12 inches. I am looking at my timeline from flower to drying and really wonder how to judge it. (I am going to be traveling in February so harvesting might be a problem timewise)

Here is my question: (if there is a wiki someplace I haven't found, I am sorry)
How do you know when you only have a month or so left of the grow in order to do the steps at the end?

I understand the steps as you wrap up the grow.
Dial back the nutes right before the end?
Turn up the heat the last few weeks?
Flush the grow medium right before the end?
Watch the trichomes and when a few of the cloudy ones turn amber, then harvest?

 

[JIMKSI64]

Do not turn heat up.
Many university and commercial grow operations have shown a link between temps over 75 degrees and reductions in potency. Some strains as much as 20% reduction.

Flushing is more bro science. Blind taste tests and plant tests can not prove or disprove any benefit.
Tricome color is used by many to judge harvest. Most incorrectly look at sugar leaves and not the plumped up bracts when looking at tricome colors.

Some ideas that people follow are also strain specific. Some strains seem to frost up quicker with a sloped down light schedule at the last 2 weeks.
There is also a bag appeal method of reducing temps to get a color change but as this does not impact potency or flavor I am not steering my harvest for purple leaves.

 

[BadBrad97]

Do not turn heat up.
Many university and commercial grow operations have shown a link between temps over 75 degrees and reductions in potency. Some strains as much as 20% reduction.

Flushing is more bro science. Blind taste tests and plant tests can not prove or disprove any benefit.
Tricome color is used by many to judge harvest. Most incorrectly look at sugar leaves and not the plumped up bracts when looking at tricome colors.

Some ideas that people follow are also strain specific. Some strains seem to frost up quicker with a sloped down light schedule at the last 2 weeks.
There is also a bag appeal method of reducing temps to get a color change but as this does not impact potency or flavor I am not steering my harvest for purple leaves.

Thanks! That helps dispell some things. I am afraid that I will think I am close to harvest and start winding everything down too soon. I guess maybe waiting until the trichomes turn cloudy to start getting ready to wrap it up.

 

[JIMKSI64]

Prolly the best advise I can give you is to hit those 3 horizontal bars on the top left of the screen. Use the navigation to find forums and then categories.
Page through until you find grow diaries. Once in grow diaries use the spyglass feature to search for topics like what grow media ( soil, coco, straight hydro ) and nutrition selection ( organic, chemical, living soil,) and even strain of weed growing. Now when you search it will show grow diaries who have done the job and have the pics and will be detailed with numbers and will be very organized and some not so much.

 

[BadBrad97]

Prolly the best advise I can give you is to hit those 3 horizontal bars on the top left of the screen. Use the navigation to find forums and then categories.
Page through until you find grow diaries. Once in grow diaries use the spyglass feature to search for topics like what grow media ( soil, coco, straight hydro ) and nutrition selection ( organic, chemical, living soil,) and even strain of weed growing. Now when you search it will show grow diaries who have done the job and have the pics and will be detailed with numbers and will be very organized and some not so much.

Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you

 

[BadBrad97]

Need more advice. I have not been able to find a grow diary for White Buffalo (not auto) so it's really hard to tell where I am in the cycle. I found a few Blackberry Kush diaries which is a strain in White Buffalo and tried to see what their plants look like. But they look like mine now and then they harvest like 2 weeks later. I don't think I am even close to that and can't tell where I am "weekwise".

I started growing from seeds Nov 15th
Moved to 5 gallon pots Dec 1st
Flipped to 12/12 on Dec 20
Here I am about 4 weeks later. I am trying to figure out again how close I am to the end. Does this look like week 4 of flower?

Thanks again for all the fantastic information on here!

 

[orggrwr]

If you haven't grown that strain before it's really hard to guess how long they have left with any accuracy. You can get within a week or two but some finish quick and some seem to take forever. Your setup, light,etc can effect flower times also. And like someone already said don't raise the heat or flush your soil, just cut back on the nutes. Good luck