Trichomes & Harvesting

say mucky, those pistols look to have been squashed in a bag rather than curled in , looking nice though, however the difference will be massive imo if you wait a week or so.

the odd time i have taken them down early i noticed that even a couch lock strain would feel like a sativa head high when early and the smell when cured suffers for the early bird , i have found anyways.

I'd wait a week or so at least Mucky. Looks real sweet. BTW whatcha use to photograph those trichs?

Can u help me out ? This is my first grow and was wondering what if I cut my plant right now in hole the plant is about 50percent brown in hairs and there also curling, but I'm wondering what type of hi ill get since all the lil mushroom things are all white still. Idk I think I'm about ready to harvest but idk need help Iflushed it about three times already alll mycolas r deasint size I guess there filld with crystals everywhere there coming out better then expected but I do not no if I should harvest or not.??...

Blue-Mystic
Not sure if she is ready, flowered on the 4/14 the appearance of the flowers are not what Iam used to seeing compared to the trichromes. This is the first time growing this strain. Any help would be appreciated

It seems to early, considering 8weeks would put me around 6/14 and from what I have read about this pheno. It takes anywhere from 8-9 wks. Not six!!!

thehole said:

If you are referring to "the best way to know is to know" is by testing your bud right off the plant then fine. I myself would never test bud fresh off the plant, I allow mine to dry and be cured for at least 2 weeks before I touch mine. But that's just me. If you pluck a bud off a flowering plant and it gets you high then you know that after drying and curing it will be twice as potent.
But, this IS IN NO WAY the proper way to judge when to chop.

Flowering time is MORE accurate when starting the count on the first sign of pistils, not the switch to 12/12 lighting. The seed shops may use the times they give for flowering specific strains from 12/12 switch, maybe that's why I have never had a strain finish on or before those times.
You use flowering times from first pistils to BE MORE ACCURATE, not to calculate exact harvest times.

But to say tricohmes are not a good accurate way to judge when to chop is a ridiculous statement. It is the best way to determine harvest time.

Your way is actually more inaccurate being the THC isn't even fully processed until dried.

I suggest you refrain from calling others retards, not only won't you last long on here with that attitude but you won't be taken seriously.

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really? can't decide who your response was for...but just to CMA I never mentioned any member being a "retard". Just needed a little FRIENDLY advice about the clear to milky white trics. not being as advanced as the flowers look/appear( pistils and calyx's recessed and swollen,majority of the pistils are also org/amber, plus the terpins are soooo. strong right now I can smell it outside my casa). I would never be as disrespectful as you just portrayed your self to be, so lighten up, smell the roses, enjoy life, smoke a bowl for fucks sake! Also I've never been able to dry AND CURE any bud I've ever grown in two weeks

k0ijn said:

Nutrient storage in cannabis plants is rather complicated, I've written extensively about it on this forum, you can find it if you search my nick and nutrient storage so I won't go into much detail here.
Suffice to say that you cannot 'clear' chemical taste out of cannabis, since it won't have any chemical taste in the first place, unless the particular strain you're growing has that trait.
Nutrients are not stored directly in the buds or calyxes. Nutrients are stored in the leaves and roots and transported around to fit the needs of the plant.
But nutrients moved to the calyxes are used up very fast, it's almost impossible to have an abundance of nutrients in the calyxes, where it is quite possible to have that in the leaves and roots.

Therefore there is no need to clear anything out of your plant.

You should not stop giving nutrients to your plants at all, it will slow growth and production in the most critical phase of flowering (end flowering).

Yes that is also a myth.
Most of the stuff you hear or have heard about 'bringing out more crystals, pushing out more crystals, explosive growth due to bla bla bla' is here say and a myth.

What you can trust to work is giving a balanced nutrient supply so your plants are as close to critical nutrient mass (neither abundance nor deficiency), which will allow critical production (get most out of your plant possible).
Keeping a proper light schedule is also key, as is air circulation and a ton of other things.

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NICE! This is something you RARELY hear on this site or anywhere on the net or in grow books!!

Impman said:

NICE! This is something you RARELY hear on this site or anywhere on the net or in grow books!!

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couldn't agree more..thanks compadre

Hey K0ijn, would you be kind enough to tell me what you think of these please?

Strain : Jamaican Pearl from Sensi Seeds (sativa)
Switched to 12/12 : 7 weeks ago tonight (Day 49)
Flowering period (according to the seller) : 50 to 75 days

If I count from when I switched then am about at the min flowering stage, but if I count from when the pistils started to show then its only about 40 days. The pics aren't great. What do you think? Having looked at your pics first and then with my untrained eye at mine, they look cloudy to me....but she can't be ready yet.



Thanks for your help! Lady Hx

Lady Helena said:

Hey K0ijn, would you be kind enough to tell me what you think of these please?

Strain : Jamaican Pearl from Sensi Seeds (sativa)
Switched to 12/12 : 7 weeks ago tonight (Day 49)
Flowering period (according to the seller) : 50 to 75 days

If I count from when I switched then am about at the min flowering stage, but if I count from when the pistils started to show then its only about 40 days. The pics aren't great. What do you think? Having looked at your pics first and then with my untrained eye at mine, they look cloudy to me....but she can't be ready yet.

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Thanks for your help! Lady Hx

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Hello Lady Hx,

I would always, as a rule of thumb, go by the date when flowering showed on the plants, not by the date when you switched the light schedule.
Which would make your plants 40 days old (in flowering terms).

From what I can see you have a mixture of clear & cloudy trichomes.
The pictures are not of high enough resolution for me to be able to see every trichome but to me it looks like you have more (slighty perhaps) clear trichomes.
Which would make sense (regarding the 40 day flowering) & the plants being Sativa.

I think you still have a while to go, I can still see some fairly young looking pistils and not many of the coloured pistils seem to have receded fully (from what I can tell by the pictures).
I also can't quite see fully developed calyxes yet, it might just be how you zoomed the pictures to get proper shots of the trichomes, but my spidey senses tell me the calyxes have yet to fully develop.
If possible, could you take some overview shots, of the entire plant(s)?

If I would have to take a guess I'd say these plants have at least 2-3 weeks to go (quite possibly more depending on development).

k0ijn said:

Hello Lady Hx,

I would always, as a rule of thumb, go by the date when flowering showed on the plants, not by the date when you switched the light schedule.
Which would make your plants 40 days old (in flowering terms).

From what I can see you have a mixture of clear & cloudy trichomes.
The pictures are not of high enough resolution for me to be able to see every trichome but to me it looks like you have more (slighty perhaps) clear trichomes.
Which would make sense (regarding the 40 day flowering) & the plants being Sativa.

I think you still have a while to go, I can still see some fairly young looking pistils and not many of the coloured pistils seem to have receded fully (from what I can tell by the pictures).
I also can't quite see fully developed calyxes yet, it might just be how you zoomed the pictures to get proper shots of the trichomes, but my spidey senses tell me the calyxes have yet to fully develop.
If possible, could you take some overview shots, of the entire plant(s)?

If I would have to take a guess I'd say these plants have at least 2-3 weeks to go (quite possibly more depending on development).

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Hey Thanks K0ijn!

Yeah, I have a shitty little Sony CyberShot, can't do much better than that I'm afraid. I'm sure you are right, I feel she has a few more weeks but after reading your excellent thread I had a look just to check. They looked cloudy to me so I was a bit shocked. hehehehe. I think your Spidey senses are spot on. There are a few swollen calyxes but not many.

I have a ton of pics for you to look at. I have LST'd and defoliated her from 3 weeks so she's small but compact. Tell me what you think.

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It's my first grow and my only lady left as 2 out of 3 turned out to be male. Feels good to be entering the home straight at last!

Lady Hel x

dude i trip out on this concept. i see so much bud porn on here with dead and dying leafs all around the buds! its like the norm. then all this talk about flushing to improve taste. then there is so many ways to cure weed you could make it into a 4 year college course on the nonsense. If Your weed tastes funky it is cuz you treat your plant like shit, kill all its leaf and energy production and stress it to no end! then everyone is like duuuudei didnt get the cure just right.
Best weed i ever smoked was guerilla grown humboldt that was dried in the sun and only fan leafs pulled off.
although there may be some value to these concepts I have began to hate them and caste it off as myths (as far as practicality vs cost and over all quality ) I submit : PHing is not at all required, tap water is fine, Co2 not worth the time or cost, potassium boost is way over rated, curing = drying slow and helps so little, stressing your plant is ALWAYS a bad idea.
I grow so basic now its crazy from when i started. i began growing by jorges and eds stupid books. i read them cover to cover a few times. my ignorant ass did not think to pick up a plant science book and get real. my buds taste so clean and get so fat just by keeping one simple concept: keep your leafs green and healthy! duh!!!
why was that so hard for me to do? why is there so much ,misinformation on growing a plant?
You can achieve amazing results with a 3$ bottle of MG with the correct NPK and inexpensive potting soil.

To me I've always thought of plants as needing similar treatment like humans do. everything is so similar....so it'd be like telling a woman in her last few weeks of pregnancy to go on a fast before giving birth...makes zero sense..thats when she really needs to keep up her nutes.....and I couldn't agree more with K0ijn about getting back to basics..I've also read time'n time again how people are feeding nutes to their girls every other watering which seems crazy to me...two times a week seems perfect usually. I stick to the FF feeding schedule and almost always get optimum results...

2 months veg and nowI'm in almost six weeks of flower from firsts signs of pistils..all with the FF scheduling system...Hoping to get another 2-3 weeks of flower to put on some more nuggy weight..the left airpot is Violator Kush and the right is Samsara's Sweet BlackAngel...a freebie

Lady Helena said:

Hey Thanks K0ijn!

Yeah, I have a shitty little Sony CyberShot, can't do much better than that I'm afraid. I'm sure you are right, I feel she has a few more weeks but after reading your excellent thread I had a look just to check. They looked cloudy to me so I was a bit shocked. hehehehe. I think your Spidey senses are spot on. There are a few swollen calyxes but not many.

I have a ton of pics for you to look at. I have LST'd and defoliated her from 3 weeks so she's small but compact. Tell me what you think.

View attachment 2735016View attachment 2735017View attachment 2735018View attachment 2735019View attachment 2735020

It's my first grow and my only lady left as 2 out of 3 turned out to be male. Feels good to be entering the home straight at last!

Lady Hel x

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You're welcome!

The attachments seem to not have worked properly btw, I cannot open them.

Cheers Imp & abuilder for the kind words

Skunk #1 from Sensi Seeds - Day # 67 and not a single amber trichome. I keep noticing growth spurts and foxtails so I have no idea what the inside of the buds look like. I am thinking of cutting one open to see what is going on in there. I did a final flush 8 days ago so I am hoping the lack of nutrients will force the plant to stop the growth spurts and begin to age the trichomes.

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Hey K0ijn

I'm trying to upload some more pics of the whole plant for you. I am guessing she started to show signs of lowering from 6/06 so yesterday (date of pics) it was day 43 of flowering. She's nearly ready and I'm getting itchy fingers! What do you reck? Lady Helena x



And although they are still too low res, here's a couple of close ups from yesterday.


Thanks for your help. x

Lady Helena said:

Hey K0ijn

I'm trying to upload some more pics of the whole plant for you. I am guessing she started to show signs of lowering from 6/06 so yesterday (date of pics) it was day 43 of flowering. She's nearly ready and I'm getting itchy fingers! What do you reck? Lady Helena x

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And although they are still too low res, here's a couple of close ups from yesterday.

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Thanks for your help. x

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The plant looks great, it looks healthy!
Which is more than I can say for most people who post their plant pictures (especially those who pre-harvest flush).

I would still give it another two weeks if it was my plant though.
The pistils have not fully receded and I see new growth still sprouting up from the calyxes.
I also think the calyxes could swell up more if you give the plant a bit more time.

I cannot see the trichomes fully, but based off of the previous pictures and the ones you posted now and how the plant looks I don't think the trichomes would suffer, in fact I think they would improve given extra time.
I see a fair amount of cloudy trichomes and some spots of clear & amber, which is the norm at this stage of flowering.

The only thing I would say though is that you should keep an eye out for how many amber trichomes are "popping up".
If you start seeing too many amber trichs I would harvest, but as you are looking now, my guesstimate is another ~two weeks (just keep close supervision on the trichs).
Patience is key in growing and I think you'll be even more jubilant if you give it just a bit more time.

k0ijn said:

The plant looks great, it looks healthy!
Which is more than I can say for most people who post their plant pictures (especially those who pre-harvest flush).

I would still give it another two weeks if it was my plant though.
The pistils have not fully receded and I see new growth still sprouting up from the calyxes.
I also think the calyxes could swell up more if you give the plant a bit more time.

I cannot see the trichomes fully, but based off of the previous pictures and the ones you posted now and how the plant looks I don't think the trichomes would suffer, in fact I think they would improve given extra time.
I see a fair amount of cloudy trichomes and some spots of clear & amber, which is the norm at this stage of flowering.

The only thing I would say though is that you should keep an eye out for how many amber trichomes are "popping up".
If you start seeing too many amber trichs I would harvest, but as you are looking now, my guesstimate is another ~two weeks (just keep close supervision on the trichs).
Patience is key in growing and I think you'll be even more jubilant if you give it just a bit more time.

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Thanks so much K0ijn for taking a look. Don't know how I'm going to get through another two weeks! May have to tape some big-ass woollen mittens to my hands to stop myself from sipping bits off! The last bit of the waiting game is always the hardest hey! Must be patient. Must be patient.

I'm with you on the timescales but someone mentioned fox tailing and re-veg to me yesterday. The fox tail thing doesn't sound like it will affect the bud/yield any but I don't want Pearl to re-veg! Would this influence your call on when to harvest her?

Thanks Lady H x

Lady Helena said:

Thanks so much K0ijn for taking a look. Don't know how I'm going to get through another two weeks! May have to tape some big-ass woollen mittens to my hands to stop myself from sipping bits off! The last bit of the waiting game is always the hardest hey! Must be patient. Must be patient.

I'm with you on the timescales but someone mentioned fox tailing and re-veg to me yesterday. The fox tail thing doesn't sound like it will affect the bud/yield any but I don't want Pearl to re-veg! Would this influence your call on when to harvest her?

Thanks Lady H x

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You're welcome
I was on a long "weekend" holiday, therefore the delayed response.

That is always the hardest part of growing imo, you have to be very patient, unless you've grown Cannabis for a while and you know exactly what you're doing it's quite hard to not get excited and want to get the harvesting under way asap.
Even experienced growers can't help but get somewhat excited about a really nice looking harvest.

I don't see any signs of fox tailing, which in any case won't ruin your harvest if it does set in, and takes weeks to form fully.
Re-veg is something else entirely.
You won't see your plant re-veg by itself if it's under a flowering schedule, I wouldn't worry about that at all!

So I wouldn't let this influence what I see from your plant directly from the pictures, the two things that person mentioned are in one case, a very low chance possibility which only happens in certain genes and strains or under high stress, and in the other, a near impossibility unless you intently put it into motion yourself.

I think your mantra will suit you well btw ^^