What harm is there in an early harvest?

Normally I go like 8-10 weeks, but this time I suspect I can harvest as early as 6 weeks. I just upgraded from 400W to 600W HPS and the plants are about to collapse under their own weight.
What could be the harm in an early harvest like this?

Won't be as potent or as heavy..other then that nothing

Loss of potency if too early. It's like harvesting any crop before its time, whether its apples or grapes or wheat or weed.

weed taken early imo can lack flavour and does not have the right expansion to the smoke it is not so satisfying
the smoke is too thin/ not oily enough for my liking
but the high is often initially better when plants are taken early if you like the racy speedy type of effect

although i find that pretty quickly tolerance builds up to this racy effect and weed taken too early lacks the longer lasting stone
i would end up smoking more frequently if the weed was taken too early

i agree with the other posters about lack of potency..
i made the mistake of chopping a grow early, once, and the high wasn't nearly what it should have been, and was very short lasting ime..

OP how bout you harvest a branch with a good top now and do the rest in 2 weeks and see what you get, for do most now and leave a couple branches for another couple weeks either way do both

Just went through an early harvest… had a fucking light fall from my ceiling (WTF) and had a few girls under it so I chopped them. Kept 2 to smoke and the other was a Chem 91 at day 50… far too early so it'll go to butter or something…

The ATF I had in there is narcotic as shit, if you've smoked ATF you know what I'm saying. I was just 2 weeks early on ATF, buds were more wispy than usual but but smell was there. The smoke like @skunkd0c said was thinner (no expansion in the lungs) but for people with asthma or other breathing problems this is not a bad thing. As expected the high is not as narcotic, it still hits you but its more of a mellow creeper high that comes on 20 minutes later but way less narcotic, I can get up and do things on it.

I guess I need to take a month off from smoking ....I barely get a buzz anymore no matter what I smoke ...first bowl or two of the day ..a nice buzz from than on it's not so much !! Bummer !

racerboy71 said:

i agree with the other posters about lack of potency..
i made the mistake of chopping a grow early, once, and the high wasn't nearly what it should have been, and was very short lasting ime..

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I think we can all relate to this. Taste wont be there, high will def lack yield will be a big disappointment

Why not tie and prop her up? Some strains practically require this as they break under their own weight, i.e. trainwreck.

I always have to tie my girls up with string at week 5 . Don't cheat yourself.

Just get some bamboo sticks and tie them bishes up. You'll most likely be disappointed if harvesting early, you'll get less and it won't be as strong as mentioned above, therefore you'll smoke more of it, and since the yield can add 35% the last 2 or 3 weeks, you'll be missing out big time. All of the above info is good and you should just steak them up and ride the wave to they are ready and dripping with resin goodness

Chopping it too early is bad for me personally, because it's less potent, not as heavy, and DEFINITELY has an effect on the smell/taste. It's kinda nasty to me when its harvested early. Just my 2 cents though!

ol hippy said:

I guess I need to take a month off from smoking ....I barely get a buzz anymore no matter what I smoke ...first bowl or two of the day ..a nice buzz from than on it's not so much !! Bummer !

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on day two of a break and it isn't fun! have to be ready to do the annual "test" soon... was just about there with ya' though on not getting a buzz from a lot of stuff. (except SSDD, that rocks all day long for me)

OP, a week or so wouldn't make a big deal but two to four weeks definitely would--any way you could post some pictures to look at?

im having trouble not cutting early at this very moment! trying to get to day 60 im at 49. im gonna just take a branch. or 2 by the time i finish smoking those it could be past 60...

greenghost420 said:

im having trouble not cutting early at this very moment! trying to get to day 60 im at 49. im gonna just take a branch. or 2 by the time i finish smoking those it could be past 60...

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that's what i did to a recently harvested SSDD - she was looking and smelling so good, i couldn't wait! ...she made it to day 61 and i had to chop her!

Dearly noted. I'll go full-term after all.
Sorry but for privacy reasons I no longer upload pictures of my plants.
How about having a net in the tent? Some grow shops actually sell nets like that specifically for indoor growing. They are intended for green screens, but do they work supporting plants as well?

Tie up those buds and wait until they're done.
The weed will be soo much better and longer lasting.

I chopped mine down a bit ago ..almost 10 wks of flowering ...still not as dense as I'd like ..I believe it's the lights ..I'm using a 400 watt cmh and think a 600 watter would be an improvement ..just need to get a bigger grow area !! Got some fem'd sativa seeds coming any day now for the next grow !!