Have I let my widow over ripen? When to harvest?

Hey, just need to know if my white widow auto CBD plant is over ripe, I have two, one is two weeks younger than the one that I think I have let get over ripe. I thought that I had to let the trichomes ripen to 70% amber but now I think I've been too patient. Please take a look at the pics and let me know if I should harvest now, thanks very much in advance if you can help me out. The first 5 pics are the plant I think could be over ripe.(& yes that is my toilet in the background, the bathroom has the best lighting)

Lots of clear trichs
I’d let it go another week or so at least

hillbill said:

Lots of clear trichs
I’d let it go another week or so at least

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G'day. Thankyou for your reply. Yeah that's what I was thinking it's just the older one is 15 and a half weeks old now and it's starting to look a bit burnt almost and it smells sort of weird now like a slight melting plastic smell, what do you think that is? Thanks again

If those are my plants I chop them today.

WW normally is what, 10 -11 weeks flowering time? 15 and a half is too long. If you want to amber up a strain you shouldn't pick a sativa dominant hybrid like WW.

BibbyMcBuds said:

Hey, just need to know if my white widow auto CBD plant is over ripe, I have two, one is two weeks younger than the one that I think I have let get over ripe. I thought that I had to let the trichomes ripen to 70% amber but now I think I've been too patient. Please take a look at the pics and let me know if I should harvest now, thanks very much in advance if you can help me out. The first 5 pics are the plant I think could be over ripe.(& yes that is my toilet in the background, the bathroom has the best lighting)

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Overripe is almost a myth. You have to intentionally let plants go an absurd amount of time to get that result.

I would say you are in the harvest window, but I also agree with hillbill it looks like even the leaves still have lots of clear trichomes, so another week or so definitely won't hurt. You may still get more yield and potency, the plants put on density the last few weeks internally.

Kush Inc. said:

WW normally is what, 10 -11 weeks flowering time? 15 and a half is too long. If you want to amber up a strain you shouldn't pick a sativa dominant hybrid like WW.

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One this isn't a normal WW its a AUTO.

Two each plant takes however long it takes, and if the environment and care aren't correct they can take longer!

Of course some plants take longer to finish, depending on grower skill and how much the breeder lied on the package.

Their general condition is the reason I recommend chopping these plants. They clearly suffer from all kinds of problems.

In some of the pictures the leaves sticking out the buds are completely yellow already and that's inviting all kind of problems. Of course you can let them go a little longer. You might get a little extra weight. You also might get budrot or a crappy smoke.

If the yellowing of the sugarleaves starts touching the bud that means chopping time. The buds are just going to shit from that point on.

Thundercat said:

Overripe is almost a myth. You have to intentionally let plants go an absurd amount of time to get that result.

I would say you are in the harvest window, but I also agree with hillbill it looks like even the leaves still have lots of clear trichomes, so another week or so definitely won't hurt. You may still get more yield and potency, the plants put on density the last few weeks internally.



One this isn't a normal WW its a AUTO.

Two each plant takes however long it takes, and if the environment and care aren't correct they can take longer!

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I ran some Reserva Privada Kosher Kush to 16 weeks, what can I say I'm lazy. She was just like she was when I chopped her at 10/11 but I slept better on her. So there was that LOL I still have dabs left of that run, yummy.

Ive let 10 week old plants suggested time go 15-17 weeks to see the difference. Much better yield obviously. Specially if healthy. I was running some sativas that were long growers so want to see the amber color thing. I'll tell you from expereince now I always go 10-13 weeks on plants that are supposed to be 10 week plants like most. My experience now is dialed in. I got it down. Haven;t touched a ph crap fake nuthin in 10 yrs. I don't even check em. Just by the eye. Its an annual for petes sake. LIke a tomato when its done it looks ripe tired. As far as trick color amber bullshit subject. Haven't checked that in 10 yrs and after 10-15 weeks if healthy its yield goes up longer grown. The smoke on a room of plants same strain grown 10, 12,13, 14,15 weeks test end result cured smoked all the dam same to me. the end. Now I have other things to do in life besides check dam plants every moment. lol grow and smoke. no BS ph, trich nuthin but repeat awesome bud.

curious2garden said:

I ran some Reserva Privada Kosher Kush to 16 weeks, what can I say I'm lazy. She was just like she was when I chopped her at 10/11 but I slept better on her. So there was that LOL I still have dabs left of that run, yummy.

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mmm I bet that is delicious!

Thundercat said:

mmm I bet that is delicious!

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The Kosher Kush had this wonderful molasses taste. I need to germ some and do another run. She's very consistent too.

Kush Inc. said:

WW normally is what, 10 -11 weeks flowering time? 15 and a half is too long. If you want to amber up a strain you shouldn't pick a sativa dominant hybrid like WW.

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So do you think I should harvest both right now or just the sickly looking one? Yeah they have taken longer I think because it's my first indoor and first auto grow & first Coco grow, had to learn alot and thanks to you guys on here I have but i messed up a few times early on and they have had all kinds of pests over the course of the grow which are gone now plus my first tent was too short so I had to quickly get the funds to buy a taller one which is expensive here so in the meantime I had to do all sorts of weird shit like tying them over to get them to stop burning under the led light so think that's why they are quite crispy. I also made the mistake of growing two that I germinated at seperate times so now they are at slightly different stages so do you think let the younger one go till it's got at least more cloudy trichs then just harvest both & hope for the best? Thankyou very much for your reply

Thundercat said:

Overripe is almost a myth. You have to intentionally let plants go an absurd amount of time to get that result.

I would say you are in the harvest window, but I also agree with hillbill it looks like even the leaves still have lots of clear trichomes, so another week or so definitely won't hurt. You may still get more yield and potency, the plants put on density the last few weeks internally.



One this isn't a normal WW its a AUTO.

Two each plant takes however long it takes, and if the environment and care aren't correct they can take longer!

Click to expand...

So the reason why she is smelling a bit like plastic and are looking all dry is because it's a problem and not because it's over ripe, that would make more sense. They did get very burnt when they first went into flower because my tent was way too short and I didn't know about LST till it was too late so I just had to get a new tent but they did get burnt as, could that be why this has happened? It's been at least 3 weeks since that happened though. They had heaps of problems at the start so the fact they have come this far is a miracle really so should I wait till the younger one gets cloudy trichomes then harvest both or do it now?

Kush Inc. said:

Of course some plants take longer to finish, depending on grower skill and how much the breeder lied on the package.

Their general condition is the reason I recommend chopping these plants. They clearly suffer from all kinds of problems.

In some of the pictures the leaves sticking out the buds are completely yellow already and that's inviting all kind of problems. Of course you can let them go a little longer. You might get a little extra weight. You also might get budrot or a crappy smoke.

If the yellowing of the sugarleaves starts touching the bud that means chopping time. The buds are just going to shit from that point on.

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Thankyou for your reply. Do you think I should chop the older one and leave the younger to get cloudy trichomes? The younger one doesn't look quite as sickly and doesn't have that weird dry sticky bud look. They have had so many problems from the start but the older ones flowers have just started to not look right and smell weird too, sort of like a plastic smell. I'm going to use them to make CBD oil so that's why I thought I had to wait for amber trichs but now I'm thinking they are a CBD strain anyway with low thc so taking that into account do I still have to wait for the amber or is that just for non CBD strains? Thanks again much appreciated

Relaxed said:

Ive let 10 week old plants suggested time go 15-17 weeks to see the difference. Much better yield obviously. Specially if healthy. I was running some sativas that were long growers so want to see the amber color thing. I'll tell you from expereince now I always go 10-13 weeks on plants that are supposed to be 10 week plants like most. My experience now is dialed in. I got it down. Haven;t touched a ph crap fake nuthin in 10 yrs. I don't even check em. Just by the eye. Its an annual for petes sake. LIke a tomato when its done it looks ripe tired. As far as trick color amber bullshit subject. Haven't checked that in 10 yrs and after 10-15 weeks if healthy its yield goes up longer grown. The smoke on a room of plants same strain grown 10, 12,13, 14,15 weeks test end result cured smoked all the dam same to me. the end. Now I have other things to do in life besides check dam plants every moment. lol grow and smoke. no BS ph, trich nuthin but repeat awesome bud.

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That's exactly how I used to grow my outdoor Kush years ago, get seeds from bottom of bag, plant on grand final day, feed when soil is a bit dry, no pH checks no nuthin then harvested when they looked done, I even used to tape the branches up in my kitchen to dry them and it was fine but I tried that this time and failed miserably so i swapped to indoor because the weather in Melbourne just isn't like it used to be so they went to flower while still baby size. Even indoors still was way harder than it used to be so I got all the ph testers and EC meter and stuff then they came good so it must depend alot on strain and genetics. Plus they are auto which I'm not going to try again. I'm just not good with autos. I'm doing Kandy Kush CBD photo strain next so hopefully knowing what I know now I can grow that more successfully. Also hoping to LST but need to learn more about it. Do you LST? Thanks alot for your reply, interesting to know that you still grow the way I used to but just didn't work for me this time around.

BibbyMcBuds said:

Thankyou for your reply. Do you think I should chop the older one and leave the younger to get cloudy trichomes? The younger one doesn't look quite as sickly and doesn't have that weird dry sticky bud look. They have had so many problems from the start but the older ones flowers have just started to not look right and smell weird too, sort of like a plastic smell. I'm going to use them to make CBD oil so that's why I thought I had to wait for amber trichs but now I'm thinking they are a CBD strain anyway with low thc so taking that into account do I still have to wait for the amber or is that just for non CBD strains? Thanks again much appreciated

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I never let anything amber up more than 10-15%. I smoke weed to get high and I harvest at peak THC. I've let plants go for 16 weeks too but those were nice looking monsters who just took longer to mature, not sickly looking plants. CBD strain or not, I wouldn't let it go over 25%. Other growers might have different opinons. You'll find a few people on every weedforum who swear by harvesting at 70% amber. To each his own... The only strains I would really let amber up are high THC pure indicas.

If the smell of your plants change into something nasty you should open up a few buds and check for mould and check if the bud is turning white on the inside. That means you got budrot or the onset of it. Definitely chop your oldest plant. Check the younger plant too. If there are no problems you can let the younger one go for a week or even a little longer.

BibbyMcBuds said:

So the reason why she is smelling a bit like plastic and are looking all dry is because it's a problem and not because it's over ripe, that would make more sense. They did get very burnt when they first went into flower because my tent was way too short and I didn't know about LST till it was too late so I just had to get a new tent but they did get burnt as, could that be why this has happened? It's been at least 3 weeks since that happened though. They had heaps of problems at the start so the fact they have come this far is a miracle really so should I wait till the younger one gets cloudy trichomes then harvest both or do it now?

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You could definitely harvest the rough-looking one now. Like kush said being damaged its never going to be ideal, and it would be better to get something from it rather than take a chance on mold. If the younger plant is healthier I would try to keep it that way and keep it growing to get the most out of it.

Yes harvest the rough one now so not to invite mold to the others.

Nothing good is gained by flowering too long. Everything (terps, potency, etc) degrades, whether you realize it or not. Sure it's a weed and it will grow as long as you let it. Buds will get bigger. Effects will suffer.

Harvest during the prime window for best results and that takes practice, getting to know your strain.

For example my C99 cut is ripe at 50 days from flip. It doesn't look it. Same with my blueberry. Does the flower say ripe no, but that's when the effect and flavor is perfect for my liking. Just have to start sampling early and figure out where you like the effect thus determining the harvest window for said strain.

If you haven't grown the strain before start sampling when you see the trichomes start to turn cloudy.

I top dress 1 time at about 24 days, EWC, fish meal, alfalfa, high P Guano and kelp meal or similar mix.

Kush Inc. said:

I never let anything amber up more than 10-15%. I smoke weed to get high and I harvest at peak THC. I've let plants go for 16 weeks too but those were nice looking monsters who just took longer to mature, not sickly looking plants. CBD strain or not, I wouldn't let it go over 25%. Other growers might have different opinons. You'll find a few people on every weedforum who swear by harvesting at 70% amber. To each his own... The only strains I would really let amber up are high THC pure indicas.

If the smell of your plants change into something nasty you should open up a few buds and check for mould and check if the bud is turning white on the inside. That means you got budrot or the onset of it. Definitely chop your oldest plant. Check the younger plant too. If there are no problems you can let the younger one go for a week or even a little longer.

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Oh no It didn't occur to me that it could be bud rot I will harvest the older one today as soon as their light comes on & check inside the worst looking & smelling bud which is the main cola unfortunately. If my younger plant is still good to go for a little longer do you have any ideas on where to dry the one I'm harvesting tonight? Because I only have one tent which I'll still have to have the light on for the other one so can't dry it in there until she's ready to harvest too so not sure where to do it. My next grow I'm going to get a proper drain tray so I can feed them more often & I'm going to learn how to LST so hopefully this doesn't happen again. Thanks again for your help much appreciated