Reliable signs 2 weeks prior to harvest

SirTitanium

SirTitanium

Well-Known Member
Many resources recommend that you stop fertilizing and switch to pure water during the final two weeks prior to harvest. I understand the telltale signs on the trichomes and hairs for when to harvest, but I do not know the signs two weeks prior.

Can anyone educate me or point me to a link so that I can teach myself?

Thanks for taking the time to read my question.
 
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thalboy

Active Member
You can start analyzing the trichomes now, and see how ripe the plant is. As you know if the plant as the plant ripens the trichomes change from clear=>cloudy=>amber. So if you have a majority of clear trichomes you know you are still a decent bit away. If you partly clear/partly cloudy its probably time to flush. You won't know the perfect time the first time you grow a particular plant out. It could ripen much faster or slower than you expect.

If I had to choose between flushing early and flushing late I would choose early every single time.
 
SirTitanium

SirTitanium

Well-Known Member
thalboy, thank you for taking the time to reply.
If I had to choose between flushing early and flushing late I would choose early every single time.
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I'm going for the "sativa" aspects of a sativa strain so I guess this goes double for me. I should have mentioned this before, but this is a virgin trial, or trial by fire depending on your preference with metaphors. I want to know which aspects of the flush/harvest I've learned to control and which I need more experience and education in.

I've seen the hairs sort of descend down the plant as they take on their tint, descend from top to bottom as they adopt their final color. I've failed to pay the same attention to the trichomes. Do they descend as well as they become milky and finally adopt that amber hue? Or is it more global: do the trichomes all over the plant's flowers undergo their patterned changes more or less at the same time?

So, if our trichomes are on the clear side of 50:50, that may be a good estimate of being two weeks from a fresh "sativaesque" harvest and time to flush. Sound good?
 
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thalboy

Active Member
You'll want to check multiple areas of the plant for ripeness.

Your best bet is to do a staggered or separated harvest.

A staggered harvest would have you cut the upper half of the plant first, and then give the bottom half of the plant more time to ripen.

A separated harvest would require you to look over the plant as you harvest and separate the buds based on ripeness. That way you can try 2 or 3 different levels of ripeness from the same plant. Just label each group and keep them separate.

I understand wanting a sativa high, but I don't think that means you want to harvest on 50/50 cloudy clear. For one your plant can still gain potency and size when the trichomes are that ripe. Second, you may end up with an uncomfortable paranoid or racy high. I actually like to have my sativas go a little more amber than my indicas. A proper indica will already have higher levels of CBD to THC and therefore a more narcotic feel. Most of the time I don't like letting them go really amber because they end up being too stoney and put most or all smokers to sleep.

In short, I'm trying to gauge the harvest to calm the sativas down just a little bit, and bring the indicas up just a little bit.

I think you should start flushing soon and hope that the trichomes continue to ripen at their pace. Check them every day or two so you can judge their ripeness.
 
Freda Felcher

Freda Felcher

Well-Known Member
This answers some questions i have had about this as well, thanks thalboy for the great response and thank you Sirtitanium for asking. Reps for both of you!
 
SirTitanium

SirTitanium

Well-Known Member
thalboy, excellent reply. That answers my questions. At the risk of hijacking my own thread, do I run the risk of shocking my plants (whatever that means) by performing a staggered harvest?

I'm beginning to understand that nothing can replace experience and specific experience with a given strain. Again, thanks a bunch.
 
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ScarletFire

Member
SirTitanium said:
thalboy, thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm going for the "sativa" aspects of a sativa strain so I guess this goes double for me. I should have mentioned this before, but this is a virgin trial, or trial by fire depending on your preference with metaphors. I want to know which aspects of the flush/harvest I've learned to control and which I need more experience and education in.

I've seen the hairs sort of descend down the plant as they take on their tint, descend from top to bottom as they adopt their final color. I've failed to pay the same attention to the trichomes. Do they descend as well as they become milky and finally adopt that amber hue? Or is it more global: do the trichomes all over the plant's flowers undergo their patterned changes more or less at the same time?

So, if our trichomes are on the clear side of 50:50, that may be a good estimate of being two weeks from a fresh "sativaesque" harvest and time to flush. Sound good?
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I've been watching my trichs for the last two weeks trying to understand how they mature. Your post helped. I still have a question related to yours - do the trichs start turning on the buds inside the calyx before the small leaves at the base of a bud cluster? I can't see a pattern yet.

I have another problem - plants that are supposed to be sativa dominant but grow and look like an indica. Nice to problems to have by the way.
 
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thalboy

Active Member
SirTitanium said:
thalboy, excellent reply. That answers my questions. At the risk of hijacking my own thread, do I run the risk of shocking my plants (whatever that means) by performing a staggered harvest?

I'm beginning to understand that nothing can replace experience and specific experience with a given strain. Again, thanks a bunch.
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No problem. You won't cause any stress worth worrying about. A staggered harvest is an accepted practice.

do the trichs start turning on the buds inside the calyx before the small leaves at the base of a bud cluster? I can't see a pattern yet.
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I believe so, yes.

I have another problem - plants that are supposed to be sativa dominant but grow and look like an indica. Nice to problems to have by the way.
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That can happen. Especially if the cross is close to 50/50. The big reason people started crossing indicas and sativas was to take those desirable indica traits: shortened flowering, denser buds, trichome coverage and wanted to move those onto a sativa. Breeders still do this today. The result is many "sativas" look, or are, indica dominant.
 
SirTitanium

SirTitanium

Well-Known Member
ScarletFire - so you're the one who scooped my 1st choice user name =). The stories I could tell. Back to business. So I'm clear, you are seeing trichomes going milky inside the calyx toward the pistil first. That gets back to my question. The flowers across the whole plant. Do their trichomes turn milky more or less at the same time or does this process descend from top to bottom as does the change in the tint of the hairs? Thalboy, feel free to chime in.

thalboy, I think that I misunderstood your suggestion to flush early. Did you mean to give them plenty of time to clear the fertilizer come hell or high water (to coin a phrase)?

Thanks, people. Freda Felcher - you got a sister?
 
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thalboy

Active Member
As a whole the plant should ripen from top to bottom, based mainly on light exposure. My fan leaves stay green for the first few weeks, go to a pale lime green during the next two weeks, and then turn yellow and fall off. This opens up the lower buds to more light. The upper plants should have matured at a faster rate because they got more direct light from the beginning.

I would definitely give them time to flush. The last two weeks of growth is huge for cannabis. They will put on a lot of weight and trichomes during the final weeks of their life, so its important that they have nutrients to do this. However, you do not want to smoke plants that have excess nutes. If you have excess nitrogen you could get small problems like hay smell, all the way through bud that crackles and pops when it burns. Other nutrients cause a variety of problems as well.

So you have two worst case scenarios:

1) You flush early. Result: your plant will be slightly less bulky than it would have been.

2) You flush late. Result: Your buds burn and taste like shit.

I would rather end up with a few grams less of awesome tasting bud, and therefore I advise you to flush when you are about 50 cloudy/50 clear. I'll try and look some more info up about this.
 
riptidefever

riptidefever

Member
...When u say white, milky looking,,do those turn red..i have been flowering for 41 days,,my buds are growing nice and meaty, i have been using little nutes, what are the white tenticles,r those what u mean? what will those look like when harvest is perfect? And will my main cola grow more during the remainder of the flowering,,thanks
 
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thalboy

Active Member
When u say white, milky looking,,do those turn red.
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Yes, trichomes will turn amber as they ripen.

i have been flowering for 41 days,,my buds are growing nice and meaty, i have been using little nutes, what are the white tenticles,r those what u mean? what will those look like when harvest is perfect?
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The white hairs are called pistils. As the plant matures those will turn orange or red. When the bud is close to ready you will have almost no new white hairs.

The best judge of ripeness is the color of the trichomes.

And will my main cola grow more during the remainder of the flowering,,thanks
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It should continue to swell.
 
SirTitanium

SirTitanium

Well-Known Member
I would rather end up with a few grams less of awesome tasting bud, and therefore I advise you to flush when you are about 50 cloudy/50 clear. I'll try and look some more info up about this.
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thalboy, thank you.
 
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thalboy

Active Member
No problem. I wish you the best of luck. If this is your first harvest I could PM you a link to a great tutorial on the perfect dry and cure.
 
SirTitanium

SirTitanium

Well-Known Member
I could PM you a link to a great tutorial
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thalboy, if you could that would be great. This is my first, and a PM on drying and curing would be wonderful. Thanks a lot. Curious about your soil mix as well.
 
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