day 58, almost ready to chop?

SpruceZeus

SpruceZeus

Well-Known Member
thelastpirate said:
SZ, Not all palettes are created equal. Harvesting at just the right time is a personal thing, depending on the kind of effect you want from your plants. Robert Clarke describes a "window of opportunity" for harvest, generally between 2 to 3 weeks in duration. By examining the Trichs, one can determine the optimal time to harvest for the kind of high one prefers. Not everyone enjoys being devastated and epoxied to the couch. I prefer to harvest at 50/50 clear/milky, or at the longest, when they are mostly milky. I love the very UP/Chatty/letsgodosomething kind of high I get.
One can harvest too early or too late outside that window, but examining the trichs is the only way to accurately judge the THC/CBD/CBN content. Judging ripeness from the state of the pistils wont give you an accurate time frame. Too many variables are involved with the "turning of colors" of the pistils.

I find it tragic that almost all advice is to wait. And when you've waited and think it's time, wait another 2 weeks. Sure, the result will be potent, whats the good if you don't prefer that type of high? All the advice I read seems to be geared to give maximum couch-lock and immobilization, and not everyone likes that kind of high. Everyone to the man told me I harvested too early at 50% Clear 50% milky, but I thought it was the best high I've had in quite some time!!!
Click to expand...
Why tragic? will the plants be ruined? is my family in danger? jk.
Well put, +rep for a well stated, clear expression of your thoughts.
Now, I know this is gonna catch me some flak (it always does) but the jury is still out on weather or not and early harvest will in fact provide a more energetic high. I've heard this phenominon explained simply, by smoking "unripe" indica marijuana you're simply not getting as high, the "uppiness" being a perceived burst of energy based on the subconcious' expectations of some real heavy effects. now before we rip my head off, let me first say that this is simply an opinion that i've formed from lots and lots of reading, and lots and lots of growing and smoking marijuana. I feel the same effect can be replicated by just not smoking as much, stop after 2 hits on some real "done" weed and you'll see what i mean. or maybe not?
Oh god i shouln't have gotten so high while trying to explain myself...


Its pretty widely accepted that THC-A will, over time break down into other Cannabinoids. THC, CBD AND CBN being the big three, but there are thousands of compounds within the trichomes that, because they occur on smaller quantities are considered negligable. Well one of these little dealys, Tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), found almost exclusively in asian & african sativas, acts with THC to provoke a much more cerebral (read: uppy) high. So if you want an uppy high, its my opinion that an early indica is simply a placebo for that real thing.
okay so i dont think i articulated my point as well as i would have liked to. But let me assure you that there are MANY schools of thought when it comes to harvesting your marijuana at its peak, and like most things, i would imagine the truth lies somewhere in between.
In any event, everyone has their own way of growing dope, and they're all "right". (okay, mostly). As long as it works for you, then whos to say you're doing it wrong. Personally, i like to wait until my buds look done (lots of amber, fully swolen seed bracts....) and then wait another week for good measure. But as i said, whatever works for you is the right way.
 
waterCooled

waterCooled

Well-Known Member
day 66 flower
so last pics you saw were from day 54, here it is at day 66. I think I'm going to go a few more days... it seems to be slow at maturing-



 
waterCooled

waterCooled

Well-Known Member
ive taken a closer look under CLFs (as opposed to the HPS they've been under) and...i've spotted amber trichs!!! phew, i thought they'd never come. I'm going to let them go through the weekend and harvest monday or tuesday!

WOOOO!!
 
P

potorlando

Well-Known Member
Yo water cooled, now that you've been through it... how much difference did the extra days make?

Were you actually able to observe increases in bud size, or resin etc over the last few days?

Was it worth waiting???
 
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potorlando

Well-Known Member
watercooled? Any feedback on the benefits of the extra days?? I can't really make out how much the plants improved.
 
waterCooled

waterCooled

Well-Known Member
potorlando said:
watercooled? Any feedback on the benefits of the extra days?? I can't really make out how much the plants improved.
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hey man, I wouldn't say the buds are bigger (no nutrients for a while now). but i would say there are more brown hairs, and more leaves have yellowed. it does look a bit more "mature", but no difference in size. hope that helps.
 
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potorlando

Well-Known Member
yeah it helps, don't really get the point of waiting for plants to just "mature" (I mean if THC levels are increasing as trichromes go amber or some other unobservable benefit is occuring thats a reason, but if your just waiting for change in color doesn't seem too worth it to me) if nothing else is going on (like increase in weight, resin production, etc).

Thanks for replying!!
 
waterCooled

waterCooled

Well-Known Member
potorlando said:
yeah it helps, don't really get the point of waiting for plants to just "mature" (I mean if THC levels are increasing as trichromes go amber or some other unobservable benefit is occuring thats a reason, but if your just waiting for change in color doesn't seem too worth it to me) if nothing else is going on (like increase in weight, resin production, etc).

Thanks for replying!!
Click to expand...

yea i can see what you're saying potorlando. i think some people believe you get a stronger high when the plant's more mature, this is my first grow so I can't really say. but i didn't really mind waiting it out. christmas kept me pretty busy, from my workload at my job to shopping for presents, the time really flew by.
 
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potorlando

Well-Known Member
cool, keep me informed of the progress on the cut and cure. My first time also and want to see how it goes. Are you gonna water cure any? I just tried and had great results with old schwag but bad results with fresh- even though I din;t do it properly (I'll give you full report on results once the 7 days for a real cure are up).

Laters
 
thelastpirate

thelastpirate

Well-Known Member
SpruceZeus said:
Why tragic? will the plants be ruined? is my family in danger? jk.
Well put, +rep for a well stated, clear expression of your thoughts.
Now, I know this is gonna catch me some flak (it always does) but the jury is still out on weather or not and early harvest will in fact provide a more energetic high. I've heard this phenominon explained simply, by smoking "unripe" indica marijuana you're simply not getting as high, the "uppiness" being a perceived burst of energy based on the subconcious' expectations of some real heavy effects. now before we rip my head off, let me first say that this is simply an opinion that i've formed from lots and lots of reading, and lots and lots of growing and smoking marijuana. I feel the same effect can be replicated by just not smoking as much, stop after 2 hits on some real "done" weed and you'll see what i mean. or maybe not?
Oh god i shouln't have gotten so high while trying to explain myself...


Its pretty widely accepted that THC-A will, over time break down into other Cannabinoids. THC, CBD AND CBN being the big three, but there are thousands of compounds within the trichomes that, because they occur on smaller quantities are considered negligable. Well one of these little dealys, Tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), found almost exclusively in asian & african sativas, acts with THC to provoke a much more cerebral (read: uppy) high. So if you want an uppy high, its my opinion that an early indica is simply a placebo for that real thing.
okay so i dont think i articulated my point as well as i would have liked to. But let me assure you that there are MANY schools of thought when it comes to harvesting your marijuana at its peak, and like most things, i would imagine the truth lies somewhere in between.
In any event, everyone has their own way of growing dope, and they're all "right". (okay, mostly). As long as it works for you, then whos to say you're doing it wrong. Personally, i like to wait until my buds look done (lots of amber, fully swolen seed bracts....) and then wait another week for good measure. But as i said, whatever works for you is the right way.
Click to expand...
There is absolutely no doubt that you are right about the "unripe bud" thing. If I understand this right, "ripeness" is the state of max resin production. From THAT point on, the trichomes tell the story of THC/CB content, and thus, the ability to choose when to harvest within that window of max resin production.
Pistils/Hairs (as I understand them) play no part in determining ripeness or harvest time. They are merely a sexual organ, and die off when their usefulness is over. Color can be dependent on whether or not the plant was fertilized, the pheno, or any other number of factors. This would be a uniquely different time frame for each pheno, and going by the pistils would only give a really rough estimate of the plants stage of development.
It seems to be definitely possible to wait too long. The period of max resin production would be the window during which to harvest for optimal potency, merely differing at this point in the type of effect rather than the potency of the effect.
This is how I understand things. I could be wrong. I doubt it, but it has been known to happen.
 
thelastpirate

thelastpirate

Well-Known Member
waterCooled said:
yea i can see what you're saying potorlando. i think some people believe you get a stronger high when the plant's more mature, this is my first grow so I can't really say. but i didn't really mind waiting it out. christmas kept me pretty busy, from my workload at my job to shopping for presents, the time really flew by.
Click to expand...
Absolutely you'll get a stronger high when the plant is mature. A plant is mature when it has achieved max resin/THC production. What happens during after that is the "degradation/conversion" of the THC into cannabinols. The trichs are an eye into that process, giving a visual indicator of the THC/CBD/CBN content.
Harvesting before the window of maturity is reached is most definitely gonna result in "weaker" weed. Harvesting after the window closes can yield less than stellar product as well.
Reading Clarkes' Marijuana Botany paper is pretty much a must for anyone who can digest it. It IS a bit heady and written more for the scientific community than for the average Joe, but for me, it really filled in the gaps of knowledge between my last grow 30 years ago and now. Back then, I knew the mechanics of growing, now I understand how those mechanics work.
 
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