Harvest now and cut my losses?

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
TL;DR at bottom

I have a bag seed outdoor plant that’s getting sorta close to peak harvest right now (from what I can tell), but I have a few factors pushing me to maybe harvest early to save as much yield as I can (this is my first grow and my only flowering plant). I first noticed small hairy buds after a trip on August 4. I’ve been treating that as my first week of flowering, but I just read that buds usually don’t form until week 2-3 of flower. I’ve been saying this is week 8 for the plant, but if what I read is correct than it may be more like week 10-11. Unknown strain but the plant is definitely a Sativa leaner.

I found botrytis on a lower bud three days ago, two days after some light rains that I kept the plant covered with a canopy for, and I snipped the branch. There was also PM starting on a few leaves which I wiped off with copper fungicide on a paper towel (I’ve fought PM the entire flower cycle). However there are at least two more showers coming this weekend per my forecast right now, and I’m definitely worried about an explosion of bud rot/PM that could follow that.

On top of the fungus issues, today for the first time during my daily inspection I noticed yellow thrips/larvae on my top sugar leaves. Maybe 20-50 all around the canopy. I used canned air to blow as many off as I could, but obviously this is gonna continue to be a problem. I’m almost certain I’m not gonna spray the plant with anything at this point when I’ve already seen rot just from indirect rain.

The only thing that pushes me to keep her going is that some of my colas are stringy and stemmy, not filled out properly like the others. Folks in the plant problems sub agreed that the plant probably has too much N at this stage of flower from my top dresses, and those few top colas are getting the worst of it. There hasn’t been any kind of a fade in the leaves. From what I can tell I have mostly cloudy trichomes, but I’m sure I could give her another week to really finish up and get more amber, and that week could also help her run through leftover N and fill out the weirder colas.

So here are pics of my best colas, and the closest trichome shots I can get through my loupe. I’d appreciate if you guys who have more grows under your belt could advise me on what you’d do given these circumstances. For what it’s worth, I steam-dried the healthy remaining nugs from the branch that I cut off on Monday and vaped them, and they definitely put me down, so potency is there even if it could still increase.

TL;DR Plant is week 8-10 depending on interpretation, has had rot and PM, rains coming, beginnings of thrip infestation showing, has some colas not filled out, should I say fuck it and harvest now instead of risk it? Do I even need to let her go longer?
 

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jbcCT

Well-Known Member
Yeah sometimes the weather works against us. I've noticed PM tends to move from the bottom of the plant up. Go with your gut.

You growing that outside without spraying BT? Those larvae stuck to the top of your colas are going to hatch into some sort of worm or caterpillar. I like your idea of blowing them off with air. I've been rolling them off with a tooth pick, sticking them on a paper towel. If you haven't sprayed those plants and your not going to chop soon those larvae assassin's will wreck the tops of those flowers. I hatched a few in a bag this year to observe.

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