Harvest advice for first grow

[Bode180]

First grow and learning as I go. Going into week 6 of flower, Ive seen pictures of other plants where there has been serious defoliation almost to the point where it looks like there are no fan leaves left. Is this something done close to harvest? What are the tell tale signs you look for when a plant is close to harvest? The leaves have started to yellow a little and since I’ve only given light and water to this point I wasn’t going to chance screwing something up by adding nutrients so close to the end. Should I trim away all the fan leaves at this point? Any tips how to proceed from here?

 

[SchwiftyGrower]

First, welcome to the farm!

At this point IMO it’s personal preference on how you want to finish your harvest, you’re going to get multiple opinions regarding what is best.

I personally only defoil by the 3rd week of flower and will only remove damaged/dead leaves from the plant. Anything healthy will stay for me. Flushing is also a personal preference, and a decade ago, I flushed religiously. I harvested without flushing and saw no difference.

At this point I wouldn’t give any nutrients as it looks like it’s starting to get to the last couple of weeks or more or less and I’d just ride the storm and let the leaves slowly die and let her feed on whatever is left.

Bud looks great and hope it gets you some great medicine!

 

[Ganjadad]

Welcome and looking good for your first grow
I agree with everything schwifty said.
Signs that it’s getting mature is the white pistols will turn orange. When you get a 70% orange and 30% white get a jewelers loupe to start checking trichs. Your looking for a nice cloudy and a bit amber trichs. But that will also be a personal preference when you start harvesting with different trich colors until you find what you like. After the plants eats up the big fan leafs pluck them off especially in the middle but wait for her to consume them first. You want good air flow in the middle to prevent mold and it’s good to get light in the middle bud sites. Your almost there!

 

[Bode180]

Thank you and thanks for the feedback, I have a quick question. I’ve noticed that there are a few bud sites further down on the plant where the pistols are still all white. Do you wait for those to also turn orange? Is there a point if you wait for the lower buds to turn the buds on the upper part of the plant turn bad so to say?

 

[Ganjadad]

Thank you and thanks for the feedback, I have a quick question. I’ve noticed that there are a few bud sites further down on the plant where the pistols are still all white. Do you wait for those to also turn orange? Is there a point if you wait for the lower buds to turn the buds on the upper part of the plant turn bad so to say?

Yeah definitely will see that a lot. The lower canopy will also be slower to mature. You could always harvest the top colas and let the bottom canopy fully mature. But that all depends on if you want to spend more time for the popcorn buds and what flower technique your doing natural grow, topping, scrog, lst, manifolding etc. some growers with lollipop the lower canopy bc it doesn’t get sufficient lighting and the plant is wasting valuable energy and nutrients growing them when it can be focused on the top colas.

 

[Bode180]

what flower technique your doing natural grow, topping, scrog, lst, manifolding etc.

Mind blown, are there certain techniques for certain strains or certain types of grows? I assume ther are negative and positives for each, any recommendations for a first time harvester? Once again thank you for the patience and feedback.

 

[Ganjadad]

Mind blown, are there certain techniques for certain strains or certain types of grows? I assume ther are negative and positives for each, any recommendations for a first time harvester? Once again thank you for the patience and feedback.

Definitely are. Say you have a bushy indica strain, those you want to lst or manifold to open her up so it will help prevent mold in the middle. Now say you have a lanky strain but limited on height, you want to use a scrog in combination of either topping, lst, manifolding, super cropping which ever you like doing to control the height. Using a scrog in a tent maximizes the yield bc you can maneuver the plant around to fill all sqft. That’s just a quick answer, there is so much more I don’t know. This is just what I e learned so far.
Edit- in doing these techniques like lst, manifolding/main-lining , you have to start it early on and go slow. And super cropping you do later in veg stage before the flip and you have to be really careful or you could break the branch And the plants will take a bit more time to recover from the stress so it does add a bit more time to the cycles. So I guess that’s a negative bit I feel the positive will out weigh it.