Is it time to Harvest? Help Appreciated

Hello. We are new to Rollitup and to growing. Our first batch started with 3 seedlings which all turned out to be female! Two of the seeds came from a buddy of dutch dynamite that had turned hermaphrodite and the other just came out of a bag of good smoke.(I know realize we shouldn't have used the hermie seed but we lucked out as there is no sign of male flowers) One of our girls turns out only grew into a half of a plant. One of the two first leaves that grew was mutantly small and that's how she has matured. We have a 400 watt halide/hps system setup in a 4X4 square by 7ft. We are currently at 6 weeks 2 days of the 12X12 cycle. Our dilemma is we are not sure if it is time to harvest. We have bought the microscope and are looking at the trichomes daily, however, I'm not exactly sure of what I am seeing. It is easy to identify the opaque trichomes but I am having difficulty in telling wether the others are clear or amber. Some look clear but they also have gold/amber dots on the heads. I'm not sure if this is just a reflection of the light on the microscope or if they are truly amber. I've attached pics. Any help/advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Damn, mad props for some nice buds!!! Looking frosty too. I feel you on that microscope. I have one too and it's hard to decide exactly what colors you're looking at, especially under super yellow HPS light. I go more by the pistils(hairs). When they're 50/50 reddish brown/white, I have about three weeks to go. For the last week I only feed plain water. I harvest when all pistils have turned brown. I have cut off leaves before and examined them closely under the microscope and generally when all pistils are brown, the trichs are nearly all amber.

Thanks for the response! Yea, I think the hairs are about 50/50. We've started watering with plain water for 4 days now. We had to cut off some of the small leaves to inspect under the microscope b/c I couldn't keep the damn thing still enough. So, I guess maybe we have a week or so to go? Happy smoking! L&C

holy suga coated buds! loooks amazzzzzzzzzzing almost got high from looking at em

lidlily01 said:

Thanks for the response! Yea, I think the hairs are about 50/50. We've started watering with plain water for 4 days now. We had to cut off some of the small leaves to inspect under the microscope b/c I couldn't keep the damn thing still enough. So, I guess maybe we have a week or so to go? Happy smoking! L&C

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If you want my honest opinion I would say you need at least 2 more weeks, 3 would be better. What's your grow medium? I know you're supposed to flush soil for two or three weeks but if you're in hydro or coco or something then you might have started too early. For 6 weeks to have buds that far along I am going to guess some sort of soilless medium. So unless you have a lot of green leaves for the buds to suck nitrogen from, I would consider giving them one last dose of nutes. You could harvest in a week but buds seem to go through an initial swell, then sit dormant until the last weeks of flower when they swell again. Your strain of course could be different but I would say there's no way all those hairs will be brown in a week. You'll be missing out on quite a bit of yield.

We're using soil. I think in the past 4 days I'm seeing this swell you mention. On some of the buds(3 so far) they are definitely expanding in places. Yes, there are still plently of green leaves but I think you might be right about giving them some more of the guano. The only thing that really confuses me is the trichomes. It seems they are turning amber(unless this is just refelction). What do you think about harvesting when 80% of the hairs are brown? I've heard some folks say that is when you should harvest. See my dilemma. One reply says harvest and the other says wait a couple weeks. I appreciate both of your responses! Thanks. L&C

Ya have to take a small clipping of the bud bring it in another room and put it on a white piece of paper to see them clear as a mother fer.

Dah sorry it did it too

B/c Ican't stay still enough holding the microscope we have cut off little leaves and looked at them on a white sheet of paper. I feel stupid now that you say you can see them b/c I still can't tell if the amber dots are considered clear ones or if they are clear getting ready to turn opaque. So, what is the consesus on hairs. Mared Juan says when the hairs shpuld be 100% brown. Do other folks agree? Thanks a bunch!

man that plant looks great keep up the good work

lidlily01 said:

We're using soil. I think in the past 4 days I'm seeing this swell you mention. On some of the buds(3 so far) they are definitely expanding in places. Yes, there are still plently of green leaves but I think you might be right about giving them some more of the guano. The only thing that really confuses me is the trichomes. It seems they are turning amber(unless this is just refelction). What do you think about harvesting when 80% of the hairs are brown? I've heard some folks say that is when you should harvest. See my dilemma. One reply says harvest and the other says wait a couple weeks. I appreciate both of your responses! Thanks. L&C

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Best advice I can give is to check my grow journal - link in my sig. I harvested just recently and I have PLENTY of pics for you to see exactly how the buds grow toward the end. I'm basing my advice to you on my personal experience with my plants which look pretty similar to yours. Buds grow agonizingly slow but that's the name of the game. You may look at my pics and decide it's not worth it to wait. And when I say 100% of the hairs brown, it's kind of a loose statement. If you have tall plants, the bottom buds will never have all the pistils turn brown. So I guess a better guideline is if the top half of the plant has 100% hairs brown, that's when I harvest.