Is this girl ready for harvest?
- Thread starter groxidant
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I would wait but really gotta try to get a clearer/closer pic of the trich heads to tell.
DW420
Well-Known Member
They look good and cloudy now. If it was me i'd wait another week and check. I try to shoot for 30% Amber trics. They look really good though, good job!
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Thanks, it was not an easy, but definitely a nice experience
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DW420
Well-Known Member
Definitely harder than it looks for sureThanks, it was not an easy, but definitely a nice experience
im new to growing and still learning new stuff. been growing for about a year now.But i'd wait another week or so to get some Amber, i read it helps alot when you goto cure, helps with flavor and terps. what kind of grow are you doing, soil,soil less, hydro?
what kind of nutes have you been feeding? are you still feeding?
DW420
Well-Known Member
Here is a photo of trichomes when clear,cloudy,amber.
When you still have white pisitls it is still too early. I don't even start checking trichomes until they all darken and crinkle in. Then I start checking and it is grower's choice of when to harvest based on what effect you want. Mostly cloudy = up, energetic high, more amber = more couchlock.
What Azi said 
I take mine down earlier than most, some clear/cloudy - no amber
I'd be thinking a week of plain water now, though I do use a finishing agent too
I'd be thinking a week of plain water now, though I do use a finishing agent too
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- #11
I use soil and nutrients from RQS (vegetative and flowering). I’m not feeding them anymore. I heard that in the last 2 weeks, you shouldn’t add anymore nutrients.Definitely harder than it looks for sure
But i'd wait another week or so to get some Amber, i read it helps alot when you goto cure, helps with flavor and terps. what kind of grow are you doing, soil,soil less, hydro?
what kind of nutes have you been feeding? are you still feeding?
Why not? The last two weeks is where they bulk up and finish off. Why not give them everything they want so they can finish strong for you?
Most likely what you heard was something that goes back more than 20 years ago. It is now outdated. Back then and now it had next to nothing to do with soil growing anyway.
You are growing in soil. The new recommendation is for soil growers to pour a lot of water through the soil and then to return to normal watering and fertilizing routine for the last two weeks. As @Azimuth mentions the last two weeks involves a major change in the plants growth and the buds do get larger and even the trichomes get larger. By deciding not to add any nutrients at this point is the same as starving the plant for about 25% of its flowering time.
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There’s a lot of myth and misunderstanding that flies around the growing space. We’ve been relegated to the shadows and back alleys for so long that a lot of knowledge has been gained in uncontrolled environments leading to a variety of incorrect conclusions.
Cannabis isn’t a mystery plant though. The more we learn about it the more it seems to behave like you’d expect others to, maybe a little more heterogenous than the next but not in some hard to grasp ways.
The best piece of advice I can give is to try to think about the plant from its natural perspective. If this plant was growing naturally, there’s not some valve that turns off nutrient supply in the last 2 weeks. It will still have access to the nutrients it had before since it’s soil food web would still be working. Always try to think about where the plant naturally sprang from. Sativas and Indicas come out of 2 different environments and autos evolved because of Siberian sun schedules. Everything about the plant can be traced to nature, it’s a plant lol.
RQS is good for scratching the surface of the ideas of growing but I’d dig into some basic gardening books. Stuff like the teaming with microbes, nutrients, and fungi book series will really help you to understand the plants so much better than reading directions on how to grow. If you’re growing in anything other than soil then teaming with nutrients and microbes will still be helpful because it breaks down how the plant builds itself.
Cannabis isn’t a mystery plant though. The more we learn about it the more it seems to behave like you’d expect others to, maybe a little more heterogenous than the next but not in some hard to grasp ways.
The best piece of advice I can give is to try to think about the plant from its natural perspective. If this plant was growing naturally, there’s not some valve that turns off nutrient supply in the last 2 weeks. It will still have access to the nutrients it had before since it’s soil food web would still be working. Always try to think about where the plant naturally sprang from. Sativas and Indicas come out of 2 different environments and autos evolved because of Siberian sun schedules. Everything about the plant can be traced to nature, it’s a plant lol.
RQS is good for scratching the surface of the ideas of growing but I’d dig into some basic gardening books. Stuff like the teaming with microbes, nutrients, and fungi book series will really help you to understand the plants so much better than reading directions on how to grow. If you’re growing in anything other than soil then teaming with nutrients and microbes will still be helpful because it breaks down how the plant builds itself.
Just to balance the conversation, I don't feed for the last 7-10 days either
To my mind, in the final stages of ripening, plant growth slows to near zero - the growth stage is finished so I don't see the point of adding more feed
Most fruits and flowers are harvested a little early because they will continue to ripen even after being cut, so ripening has nothing to do with roots ie nutrients at that stage
The plant can only use the starches it has stored in it's foliage which is why 'You can't flush nutrients from your plants', it just needs water to transport what it has stored around the plant
That's how I see it but tbh, almost anything works fine with cannabis plants so just enjoy
To my mind, in the final stages of ripening, plant growth slows to near zero - the growth stage is finished so I don't see the point of adding more feed
Most fruits and flowers are harvested a little early because they will continue to ripen even after being cut, so ripening has nothing to do with roots ie nutrients at that stage
The plant can only use the starches it has stored in it's foliage which is why 'You can't flush nutrients from your plants', it just needs water to transport what it has stored around the plant
That's how I see it but tbh, almost anything works fine with cannabis plants so just enjoy
I think there are two separate ideas that come into play with the "starve the plant for the last two weeks" strategy. The first, and probably most prevalent, is the idea that you can magically flush the chemical taste out of the buds by making the plant cannibalize itself which is actually not a scientific "thing" Here
And the second, which I actually do think makes sense is that, if you are growing organically, whatever topdressing you might do takes a couple of weeks for the microbes to break down to make available to the plant, so anything you add during the last two weeks won't matter in terms of feeding that particular plant and is essentially wasted money on that plant. But, if you reuse your soil (and you should with an organic grow) those nutrients will be available for the next round.
Good points.
It is a not a special plant that is unlike any other on the planet.
It is not magical no matter what some from the 60s and 70s think. Like any other plant it needs water, some place for its roots to call home, light, air and the right temperatures. The more of the basics that the grower becomes familiar with the easier it is to grow this plant.
I made a few assumptions as well as generalizations which I’ll clear up in responses.
So I know there’s also going to be differences in this outlook when you’re growing in coco, hydro, soil, and whether you’re using chelated nutrients or not. There’s so many factors that can go in to determining this. Personally if I were running chelated nutrients I’d probably feel compelled to flush the last week or so just so it’s not salting in my medium.
As far as my water source goes, that is pure in the final 2 weeks. I won’t add any sugars, starches, or bennies since it’s pointless anyway. However like I said, the resources are there in the pot anyway because it’s almost impossible to put stuff in so that it runs out at a specific time. My water isn’t really a source of nutrients throughout the grow to begin with. When I’m adding anything to my water it’s typically something to feed the soil microbes or fungus, which I don’t need to do for the last 2 weeks in a container.
The second outlook is more along the way I look at it.. I put enough material in my pots so they’ll go all the way to the end of their phase. I’m not concerned with having “leftovers” as much as I am with making sure there’s enough to make it to the finish line so there’s inevitably going to be leftovers. I do though prefer to keep it as consistent as possible just so when it’s time to recycle I have an idea of what’s needed.
This is container specific.. if I were growing outdoors or in a garden this wouldn’t be the case. I’d keep my CEC, nutrients, and organic matter high all the time just to keep my food web balanced. That’s far more critical in my mind than wasting an extra top dressing or two. I’d much rather waste a few resources to keep the balance versus having to perform emergency rescues.
This is not the advice I wanted to hear when I started either lol! I just wanted to get it going and figure it out.. Some of us need to burn our hands to learn the stove is hot
In all seriousness though this. This. This. Learning gardening basics and how plants work is so beneficial. Cannabis evolved right along side everything else. Even if people don’t plan on going the soil route it’s still extremely useful to understand how the plant eats, grows, drinks, and fruits.
Just to balance the conversation, I don't feed for the last 7-10 days either
To my mind, in the final stages of ripening, plant growth slows to near zero - the growth stage is finished so I don't see the point of adding more feed
Most fruits and flowers are harvested a little early because they will continue to ripen even after being cut, so ripening has nothing to do with roots ie nutrients at that stage
The plant can only use the starches it has stored in it's foliage which is why 'You can't flush nutrients from your plants', it just needs water to transport what it has stored around the plant
That's how I see it but tbh, almost anything works fine with cannabis plants so just enjoy
So I know there’s also going to be differences in this outlook when you’re growing in coco, hydro, soil, and whether you’re using chelated nutrients or not. There’s so many factors that can go in to determining this. Personally if I were running chelated nutrients I’d probably feel compelled to flush the last week or so just so it’s not salting in my medium.
As far as my water source goes, that is pure in the final 2 weeks. I won’t add any sugars, starches, or bennies since it’s pointless anyway. However like I said, the resources are there in the pot anyway because it’s almost impossible to put stuff in so that it runs out at a specific time. My water isn’t really a source of nutrients throughout the grow to begin with. When I’m adding anything to my water it’s typically something to feed the soil microbes or fungus, which I don’t need to do for the last 2 weeks in a container.
The second outlook is more along the way I look at it.. I put enough material in my pots so they’ll go all the way to the end of their phase. I’m not concerned with having “leftovers” as much as I am with making sure there’s enough to make it to the finish line so there’s inevitably going to be leftovers. I do though prefer to keep it as consistent as possible just so when it’s time to recycle I have an idea of what’s needed.
This is container specific.. if I were growing outdoors or in a garden this wouldn’t be the case. I’d keep my CEC, nutrients, and organic matter high all the time just to keep my food web balanced. That’s far more critical in my mind than wasting an extra top dressing or two. I’d much rather waste a few resources to keep the balance versus having to perform emergency rescues.
This is not the advice I wanted to hear when I started either lol! I just wanted to get it going and figure it out.. Some of us need to burn our hands to learn the stove is hot
In all seriousness though this. This. This. Learning gardening basics and how plants work is so beneficial. Cannabis evolved right along side everything else. Even if people don’t plan on going the soil route it’s still extremely useful to understand how the plant eats, grows, drinks, and fruits.
If there’s anything we’ve learned about this plant it’s that it wants to grow lol. It wants to exist, and there’s as many ways to grow it as there are strains.
On topic, Idk if autos are the same, I assume they are but, when a photo plant is ready for harvest it will stop consuming large volumes of water. I use the pistils and water consumption as a sign of whether or not my plant is ready for harvest. The trichomes are a fall back or confirmation method but even then I’m not really concerned with what they look like if my plant has stopped drinking and my pistils are no longer white. There’s tons of ways to cultivate our plant, and what works for me may not work for you, find what makes you confident.
On topic, Idk if autos are the same, I assume they are but, when a photo plant is ready for harvest it will stop consuming large volumes of water. I use the pistils and water consumption as a sign of whether or not my plant is ready for harvest. The trichomes are a fall back or confirmation method but even then I’m not really concerned with what they look like if my plant has stopped drinking and my pistils are no longer white. There’s tons of ways to cultivate our plant, and what works for me may not work for you, find what makes you confident.