What signs are you looking for to know when the right time to harvest is?

[Keith]

<p style=”padding-left: 40px;”>Stigmas and trichs are all I know.  Overall look of the plant helps too.  But any info or advice is appreciated.</p>

[Brad104]

I look thru the jewler loup at trichomes, and I like them to be amber,(for I enjoy a good couch lock) but also I check the pistols when they’re all red and curling back into the bud.I don’t pay much attention but also I start checking out things when I see my sucker leaves starting to die.So I guess you can say I go by these 3 things but as you said it in your post, I check the tricomes and the pistols are the main things I look for and also they eat like hell why they are still growing and beefing up so look for the intake of food/water to reduce and she’s close to done.

[Keith]

Man I messed up and forgot to water this weekend.  It only went 24 hours longer than they should’ve, but it toasted a lot of leaves.  I’m petty much going to have to harvest this weekend.  They’re really close, but not there yet.  A lot of the end of the fan leaves that were left and some sugar leaves are dead.  I’ve been trying to cut some off but there’s so fucking many.  When I open the tent it smells like bud is drying.  That green smell.  There’s so much dead leaves.  I was pretty upset about it, but I’m really close so it’s not really a huge loss.  They prob should’ve went 2 more weeks.  Someone told me that they like to water a bit more frequently through flower.  Like not a compete wet to dry cycle but 90% dry.  I think the plants were already under watered bc it doesn’t feel like 24 hours late should’ve fried my plant like it did.

[Cannabliss]

I have used some pretty weird tells, that very well may not even be legit “tell tale signs” that they have finished.

1st go to: jewelers loupe on the calyx to make sure I am not showing more clear than milky.
2nd go to: any new white pistils? If there are new ones.. and they aren’t all over.. I can over look it as a possible foxtail trying to poke out.
I like to top those back early if possible by snipping the small huddle of pistils trying to form the foxtail. I’ve done it & seen it work kinda like topping a node. The focus of growth will shift. 😀

3rd… I’ve actually waited for colas to start falling over & let them go 2 weeks from the time that half the plant is leaning. By the time I chopped those 2 weeks later.. I still had some white pistils.. more than I’m comfortable with.. but they hadn’t gone thru their whole final swell yet (I believe *due to the visual of pistils)

I think on that plant I missed out on a little bit of final weight, but I’ll tell you it was damn near the best taster I’ve grown so far.
strain is Sensi star from JOTI.
She had a nice cool breeze feeling on the exhale like a had a mint in my mouth, berry & earth funk on the way in.

[Keith]

Man I just wrote out this long as reply that got deleted when I went to look at my pics.  I’ll try to sum it up.  That was very helpful advice.  I really appreciate the reply.  I messed up this weekend and forgot to water, plants got fried, I’ll post pics.  When I open the tent it smells like bud drying, I’m guessing bc there’s so much dead leaf matter.  I tried to cut off the dead of but there’s so damn much.  They’re close enough that I’m going to harvest this weekend.  But I’ve got 2 autos going that are way apart in finishing time.  One looks almost there judging by your 3 go to’s.  But the other has little to no red hairs yet.  It’s looked like this for weeks.  Here’s a pic.  I’m also post a pic of the fried plants.

[Keith]

[Keith]

Here’s the photos I messed up.

[Racky]

I go with my gut  😎  i chop when its ready!!!

[Brad104]

It’s nice to see that lots of us have a few different methods to checking when she’s ready, good stuff guys

[Brad104]

I’ve got some ready anytime now and I would love to post some pictures just as soon as my old high ass can figure it out.

[Keith]

Lol, I know right

[Keith]

Brad I figured out the pics if you want a walk through.  It’s pretty clunky but it works.

[Keith]

It seems I can only post 1 pic at a time.  Here’s another of the messed up plant.  Amnesia lemon from Barney’s Farm.

[Keith]

Last one.  This is og kush freebie from nasc.

[Cannabliss]

I think you should be ok there. Don’t make any drastic decisions just yet. I know you’ve expressed that there is a ton of foliage dying, but I would just focus on the dying leaves coming out of buds.. like up top. You don’t want anything dying in your buds, as it will soon turn to rot if left there.

Use trimmers with a sharp tip to snip at the base of the petiole (The stem that connects the fan leaf to the branch) Visual in the bottom of this picture.

Don’t be afraid to separate the nug at this spot to get to it. If you do not cut at the base, you are leaving a small piece of the petiole in there to die & possibly cause rot.  It’s better to damage it a little *Worst case scenario* than to lose the cola to botrytis.

Link for info & help with botrytis (Bud rot)

https://www.dinafem.org/en/blog/botrytis-mould-grey-prevent-identify-eradicate-plants-marijuana-cannabis/

The other leaves will die as the plant consumes all nutrition from them & fall off on their . Ridding you of the dead stuff & causing no stress from snipping them.

[Keith]

I’ve been trying, there’s just so damn much dead leaves.  It would prob take me 2-3 hours.  Also it’s such an awkward position fitting my body under the light but in between the plants to get all the leaves in the back.  I’m worried about all that dead creating rot.  With all that I think I’m going to play it safe and just chop this weekend.  If I had the time I might try to clip them all off but it’ll really be a pain.  Plus I’m out of pot. And really need to room as the next round is quickly out growing its spot

[Cannabliss]

Got any good clear pics of the tops & lower nugs? They do look really close from here.

[Cannabliss]

these 2 nugs are from the same auto. 
The one on the left I had snipped from the undercarriage.(pic taken last week)  The bottom buds look 4-5 weeks behind. Those get clipped off. No need to wait extra time for those. I’ll gladly chop that .2 off to finish her faster (without having to wait for the lowers to finish)

The plant is in week 7 now (day 51 of flower) u sure of the date she sprouted, but I can definitely find out if requested.
I’m giving her a couple more weeks to plump up & ripen.
This is she now.. same nug:

[Keith]

I didn’t make it in home for lights off.  I’m getting nervous about them making it until this weekend without that dead causing mold.  I wanna chop them tonight but I wanna be here for the first 2 days of drying, so I’m trying to wait for Friday.

[Keith]

I’ll get some better pics tonight.  I have a shit ton of close up pics but I think a lot of the amber I’m seeing is from heat damage.  I’m guessing 2 more weeks is what they’d need, but I’m too nervous about all that dead leaf matter in there rotting the buds.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Keith.

[Somatek]

I watch the relationship between how long the plant is expressing lots of new, fresh, white stigmas (usually called pistils but that properly applies to the whole flower composed of the ova and fused stigma and style) compared to how long it’s dying back showing red/orange/pink, dry stigmas.  In early flower it’s all new and there’s no die off, by mid flower you’ll notice a pattern of new growth for a couple days followed by dying back, at peak growth it’s closer to equal and then as the plant reaches the end of flowering there’s longer periods of dying back vs fresh growth.  Depending on the desired effect and the variety grown I’d usually harvest mid to late flowre, although lots of people who grow for extracts prefer an early harvest to get that pale/whitish colour.

[Keith]

I’ve said this a few times already, but that was damn helpful.  I’ll have to write more later I’m still at work

[Somatek]

It’s always a pleasure helping someone with Totoro as their pic lol, glad you find it useful and not a long winded diatribe by an overly verbose mofo.

[Keith]

Lol, I was hoping someone would notice totoro.  Bro, long winded diatribes are my favorite

[Atom]

When hairs start to change I monitor the trics by eye at first. You can tell when they start to turn color just by eye. Then watch with a scope. I like to harvest around 10-20% amber

[Keith]

She’s getting chopped tomorrow.

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[Keith]

Check out the one in the middle.  Almost no red stigmas yet.  They’re the same age.

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