Curto: I think what you're asking depends a lot on what strain you're growing and how you're doing it. If all goes well, I expect my flowers to look like they did in the past. I want consistency. But I have to admit my buds look a lot different from those of my friends. I grow from seeds I've continued for the last 27 years. I believe they were what most people refer to as bag seed; seeds I picked out of a couple of joints. I have two different strains: a great Sativa and a bushy little Indica. For the last couple of years I've grown them under T-5's and from sprouting to harvest I feed them the complete diet of Technaflora's, "Recipe for Success." My buds aren't as tight and photogenic as my friends who grow under HID and HPS lighting but mine vaporize just as well and they taste better. Mine do a great job of alleviating my arthritis pain and my production costs are a lot less. Since we're talking about fluorescent lighting let me tell you how I do it.
Like a friend who grows grapes and makes her own wine, I'm always nervous as a whore in church at harvest time. I want to harvest at exactly the right moment and so far either the cannabis strains I'm growing are very forgiving or I've been very lucky. Since I only grow for myself, I'm not in a big hurry. I don't push my plants. All I have to do is keep my personal sugar bowl full so I pretty much let nature take its course. Most of my crops go for seven to eight weeks of flowering by the calendar under red 2,700K T-5 lamps set mostly at 14 hours of dark and only 10 hours of light on a weekly progressive light schedule that started at 20/4 and diminished by one hour a week . For me, the whole process is 14 to 16 weeks total, but I'm mostly going by how my plants look.
Do you have a scope? If you don't, you're going to need one. I have cataracts and I'm literally half blind. I have a 5X and an 8X magnifying glasses and a 20X and a 30X hand held microscopes. As my vision deteriorates the magnifying glasses became useless and I use the 30X scope most of the time. If there was a 40X or 50X available at a reasonable price I'd buy it.
What I'm looking for is: no bugs and the condition of my plants; their buds and their 'trikes.' The stems of my Indicas curiously turn a reddish purple green and the leaves darken during flowering. At the end of flowering they wither. The Indica's trikes turn reddish, kind of a milky amber color, and that's how I know they're ripe.
The Sativas are a little harder to read and they go from an almost clear reflective water like clarity to a milky color and that's when I know it's time to harvest. But that's all under the scope. And I've found timing to be critical for both potency and taste.
Both plants weaken eventually, and that's probably my biggest indicator that they're ready to harvest. At around seven to eight weeks of flowering, when all of their energy has been spent unsuccessfully trying to reproduce, they start to wither. After drying and curing for a couple more weeks there's some good meds there. I find a mix of the two is perfect for my needs. I've never had my meds tested. An approved friend who's sampled my goods said I should. I don't know where I'd take it for that or how much it would cost but mine do the job so I'm happy. In a nut shell, find out what you can about the characteristics of the strains you're growing and read everything you can get your hands on about growing in general. I hope this helped. HSA
