Staggered Harvest Tutorial

Green Cross

Green Cross

Well-Known Member
I'm sure you've all heard about it, but I haven't seen it documented, until now. :cool:

This plant was heavily LSTed so the lower buds got more shade than the tops. This caused uneven ripening, so I harvested the tops first - about 3 weeks ago - and left the lower buds to fatten up and ripen. They look equally dank and delicious now. :weed: It was definitely worth the wait.

It's actually very simple. The only other advice I can think to give is to cut the top (stem), just above the bud you intend to leave, so you don't have a bare stem sticking up afterwards.

The plant - not quite ripe in this pic


Here: All the tops were taken, leaving the immature lower buds to ripen further


3 weeks later the lower buds have ripened.


And ready for harvest


Any questions fire away :bigjoint:
 
Joe Camel

Joe Camel

Well-Known Member
Yep indeed an good show for some Newbies.
+ to you my friend.
~~Joe~~

edit:
Damn sorry man cant rep you. I have to pass it around before I can hit you up again.
I tip my hat to you sir/
 
Green Cross

Green Cross

Well-Known Member
Joe Camel said:
Yep indeed an good show for some Newbies.
+ to you my friend.
~~Joe~~

edit:
Damn sorry man cant rep you. I have to pass it around before I can hit you up again.
I tip my hat to you sir/
Click to expand...
I'm surprised we don't see more staggered harvests. After all that hard work, and months of growing, it's a shame to harvest any popcorn. :leaf:
 
DubRules

DubRules

Well-Known Member
i dont think that i have ever had this issue.
i always make sure that they all grow at the same rate by using a screen..

do things right to begin with and no compensation is needed later.
 
Joe Camel

Joe Camel

Well-Known Member
Impatience my friend it gets to all of us.
But yeah i used to harvest like this.

Now i have a phenomenal method.

I use Home depot Security lights for side lighting.
They are 70w HPS i keep them on the bottoms and they nugg up just as fast as the tops. I just rotate the plants around so they all get the juicy delicious light.

I cant find a pic but it looks like this, with a 70w hps bulb in it.
I just wired it with a plug and added it to the timers.

 
Mikey Hustle

Mikey Hustle

Well-Known Member
Joe Camel said:
Yep indeed an good show for some Newbies.
+ to you my friend.
~~Joe~~

edit:
Damn sorry man cant rep you. I have to pass it around before I can hit you up again.
I tip my hat to you sir/
Click to expand...

I can figure out how to toss some rep pts around.. Anyone wanna explain how?
 
Joe Camel

Joe Camel

Well-Known Member
Alright look at the top of my post. See those scales on the top right corner. Next to the #7
Click them, then type:
Joe your awesome + rep
Then rep everyone else on this thread
and you get money sent to you and rep.
Everything is true cept the money part.
~~Joe~~
 
N

newbieneedshelp

Member
Thanks for doing this. So basically you wait till the buds at the top are 50/50 you then either top the plant (stress?) or you cut the buds off. The purpose is to allow the lights to penetrate the bottom buds to turn from pop corn into larger buds correct?
 
mr.woodes

mr.woodes

Active Member
good info GreenCross, I too have my plants in LST and have done a staggered harvest. My lower buds are still going right now. How bad were your plants shocked / stressed? (meaning, how long til you noticed change in the lower buds?)

+rep to you
 
Green Cross

Green Cross

Well-Known Member
newbieneedshelp said:
Thanks for doing this. So basically you wait till the buds at the top are 50/50 you then either top the plant (stress?) or you cut the buds off. The purpose is to allow the lights to penetrate the bottom buds to turn from pop corn into larger buds correct?
Click to expand...
Exactly! Light can now penetrate the canopy so the lower buds can ripen up.

No amount of side lighting could have penetrated that LSTed plant by the way
 
Green Cross

Green Cross

Well-Known Member
mr.woodes said:
good info GreenCross, I too have my plants in LST and have done a staggered harvest. My lower buds are still going right now. How bad were your plants shocked / stressed? (meaning, how long til you noticed change in the lower buds?)

+rep to you
Click to expand...
Thanks bro, Glad to hear you're doing staggered... I believe it's under-rated.

The funny thing is I didn't notice any more stress than normal, after I took the top colas. It seemed like it took forever lol but the lower buds actually took 3 weeks to ripen up.
 
Green Cross

Green Cross

Well-Known Member
A little more info.

Someone asked if they should cut on an angle or strait when harvesting the tops. If anyone needs to know, strait across is always better when pruning, because it minimized the wound size.

The only time I can think of when you want a larger wound (surface area) is when you're taking cuttings, for cloning purposes. this gives a larger area for roots to form. :peace:
 
Joe Camel

Joe Camel

Well-Known Member
Green Cross said:
A little more info.

Someone asked if they should cut on an angle or strait when harvesting the tops. If anyone needs to know, strait across is always better when pruning, because it minimized the wound size.

The only time I can think of when you want a larger wound (surface area) is when you're taking cuttings, for cloning purposes. this gives a larger area for roots to form. :peace:
Click to expand...
Thats is some good advise.
Props GC

 
volcomrider157

volcomrider157

Well-Known Member
I have outdoor and the lower buds are a little behind but man I'd say only by a week or less....I'm showing about 20-30 percent amber trichs up top and only about 10 percent down low.....would I benefit from chopping the top now and waiting a few days or so on the bottom? considering the top is about where I want it....?or will it stress it out and I'll have to wait like a week or more for them to finish out on the bottom?
 
Green Cross

Green Cross

Well-Known Member
volcomrider157 said:
I have outdoor and the lower buds are a little behind but man I'd say only by a week or less....I'm showing about 20-30 percent amber trichs up top and only about 10 percent down low.....would I benefit from chopping the top now and waiting a few days or so on the bottom? considering the top is about where I want it....?or will it stress it out and I'll have to wait like a week or more for them to finish out on the bottom?
Click to expand...
I haven't noticed any plant stress using this method.

If you're outdoors you're probably better off letting the top go 50% and the lowers 30%, but it the top of the plant is shading the lower buds, by all means take it off. :leaf:
 
thewinghunter

thewinghunter

Active Member
Green Cross said:
I'm sure you've all heard about it, but I haven't seen it documented, until now. :cool:

This plant was heavily LSTed so the lower buds got more shade than the tops. This caused uneven ripening, so I harvested the tops first - about 3 weeks ago - and left the lower buds to fatten up and ripen. They look equally dank and delicious now. :weed: It was definitely worth the wait.

It's actually very simple. The only other advice I can think to give is to cut the top (stem), just above the bud you intend to leave, so you don't have a bare stem sticking up afterwards.

The plant - not quite ripe in this pic


Here: All the tops were taken, leaving the immature lower buds to ripen further


3 weeks later the lower buds have ripened.


And ready for harvest


Any questions fire away :bigjoint:
Click to expand...

my plants looks just like this, are the hairs purple/red bc of the strain or bc i let it in the cold too much? what do u have growing here
 
JN811

JN811

Well-Known Member
very nice rep ^ . So if I want to do this I would just harvest the tops and then leave the lower ones in tact. Will this shock the plant?
 
businessmen

businessmen

Active Member
Think it was answered that the plant is not shocked. But it makes you wonder about the extra 3 weeks. If you put your next plants in to flower that were vegging from clones after hacking the tops, in 3 weeks you would have the same amount of bud again. Only it would be unripe.... But someone should do the math. Winghunter, how much did you get the first harvest, and how much the second? How long did it take to flower?

If it took 9 weeks to flower, then 3 weeks is a third of that time. Did you get a third more the second harvest? Then your kinda breaking even. Could even use the popcorn for hash or cooking and throw the next batch of clones in instead of doing the staggered harvest.
 
defcomexperiment

defcomexperiment

Well-Known Member
thanks for this, might help me better manage the limitations on medicine im allowed to keep on hand at a time while getting the most out of my plants... killing two birds with one stone...
 
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