All Leaves Yellow. Will Buds Still Ripen?

BadlyDrawnBoy

Active Member
This grow is going longer than I had planned, but I am using weaker led lights and I have under fed for the most part, so it is understandable. I'm over 90 days flower time. I have one indica and one sativa. I figured the sativa may take this long or longer, but the indica i thought would be done by now. Some of the buds are showing amber trichome heads, so it's getting there, slowly. The sativa still seems like it has awhile to go. I've been cutting buds off the indica for the last month lol, a bit racey yeah, but it gets me wonderfully high.

I'm doing a hydro grow, basic dwc, two 5g buckets.

Anyways, the leaves are almost all yellow on both plants, with some leaves shriveling up and falling off. I'm not sure if this was from me under feeding, or just that it is a natural process nearing the end of the grow close to harvest (which is what I've been assuming).

For awhile last month I wasn't feeding them at all, for like 3 weeks, because I just went into this thinking mode that they were almost done and I was moving into flushing them. EC dropped down to 500 or below. But here I am several weeks later, having begun feeding again, as the buds never got to the ripe point, taking the EC up near 1000 again, maintaining around 850.

I see people who cut off all their leaves and allow just the buds to grow/finish under the lights. So I'm assuming the leaves aren't absolutely necessary later in grows.

But my question is...will the buds still ripen alright with all the leaves having gone yellow? I read on a site the other day that nothing will grow if the leaves have no green anymore. The buds look wonderful and I'd like them to finish to optimal harvest potential before picking, but I also don't want to go longer than I should have and risk the plants succumbing to disease or pests or whatever. They are being grown indoors in air circulated/vented grow closet.

I see some people's plants at harvest and all the leaves are still green. Then others have all yellow. And others have no leaves at all. Is it a genetic thing that some plants remain green all the way through, even when the buds are fully ripe? Maybe I prematurely put them into a fasting flush process, but even before that they were turning yellow and the leaves were beginning to fall. Some of the lower leaves on the indica are still green.

Just felt like checking in and getting some advice on this. Any is appreciated.
 

Jeremy Pivens

Well-Known Member
Let's see pics? They might have yellowed out from being done, your thc could be degrading rapidly which will lead to basically smoking grass. 90 days is long enough for pretty much any strain to finish man, even with weaker lighting and less food.
 

BadlyDrawnBoy

Active Member
sorry if the pics aren't the best. i've been going solely by trich color, which is what i've learned here to rate whether the buds are finished or not, and i'm only see a few amber on buds here and there, none on the sativa. so this is why i've been more patient, but the way the plants look now, with the yellowing drying leaves, I began questioning whether I'd be better off just cutting them down now.
 

Benelli

Well-Known Member
Wow, pretty impressive amount of pictures. You must have been pretty stoned when snapping pics.

cut them. Also, just a SUGGESTION, all those dead dried up leaves (the brown and crusty ones) should be removed when you see them like that. You are just inviting all kinds of no fun (mites, mold, bud rot..etc). More air movement inside your canopy the better. Enjoy the flowers of your labor.:shock::wink:
 

BadlyDrawnBoy

Active Member
Well I'm halfway done one plant, she's taken down but only halfway through trimming. A LOT more bud than I had anticipated. Haven't even touched the 2nd plant yet.
 

Uncle Reefer

Well-Known Member
get the stuff that is going brown first, the tops that look like the brown is starting to get to your buds . cut the tops first then you can look at the stuff that is still green and decide
 
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