No orange hairs at week 8 - Flush or not yet?

Light Addict

Light Addict

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2016
Hey everyone, my girl is Blue venom in week 8 of flower. she has mass amounts of bud but hairs are all still white. She seemed to go onto second spurt of growth. I want to start flushing as supposed to be a ten week flower period. But should I wait till hairs are changimg colour? Or should I just go for it even if it means going for a three week flush?
 
Plants have two way of telling us how far they are in maturing, one is the hairs, and the other is the trichomes, so get a 60x or more magnifier and see how far the trichs are; i.e. if they're still clear then you have to wait, if they're already milky then you should a few more days but you can start flushing, if they're amber or turning amber then you should start flushing as the plant is passing its peak THC point..

It all depends on how you like your high, me for one I like to harvest when triches are milky so I get a more upbeat and mental high instead of a couchlock body stone (when trichomes are amber)

If your strain is supposed to be a 10 week flower period the you probably have at least 3-4 more weeks to go. You see, that number (10 weeks) is under ideal conditions so chances are it's gonna take longer than that. I grow AK-48 which is supposed to be ready in 7 weeks under ideal condition, but they're always closer to the 9 week mark.

White hairs means the buds are still developing and growing, so I wouldn't advice starting the flushing process until the plant tells you she's reaching the end of its life. (red/brown hairs and trichomes development)

Be patient, it's worth the wait.

Hope this helps!
 
When 50% + of the Trich's go from clear to milky and start laying down, then she is ready ;)
Your'll need a good magnifying class or jewelers loop to look at them though HH...
 
Here are some pics to go with my earlier thred. No orange hairs. Some at week 6, then at week 8
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plant looks amazing!
checking the trichs is the right thing to do at this point, in some shots she looks fat and mature in others it looks like she is still packing on weight.

you have kept your plant relativly cool and humid by all appearances, pistils will turn orange and shrivel as they dry and die.
for a single auto that looks more than ready so its just checking on the trichs, if you see any amber its time to cut already =)
 
dont just go on the orange hairs, some plants turn orange early on and others dont, also it could be a case that you have some foxtailing which isnt a bad thing as it means more bud to harvest,

just get a magnyfying glass and have a close look at the trichomes, their the mushroom shaped things on the sugar leaf and buds, have a good look all over the plant and see how they look, they will start off a clear water like colour but as the plant matures and reaches the end of its life they start to turn cloudy, this means the thc is at its highest and the trichs are starting to degrade,
now thc is at is highest at 100% cloudy or their abouts, but if you want a more stoned affect or couch lock affect then leave it in flower until you have around 10 to 20% amber trichs, they will look like their shrinking and falling over, the trichs not the plants, but the more amber the more stoned affect you get,

so get a good mag glass or jewelers loop or cheap scope, you can get these for as little as 99p or $2 on the auction site, then just check the buds at the top of the plant and further down the plant, it all depends what kind of results your looing for, more amber means more couch lock, less amber means less couch lock,

how ever some indica strains dont turn amber so 100% cloudy is about as good as it gets as its an indica and is going to be good at 100% cloudy, so it really depends on strain, what the parent plants are and what kind of high your looking for, the last 2 weeks the plant will put on the most weight so harvesting early will affect yield,

so keep an eye on the trichs and you should have no problems spotting when its ready.

i think i also read that you was concerned about humidity, well this can be a problem late in flower as it can cause bud rot and mildew problems, so if you have no way of lowering the humidity then make sure you got a fan or 2 blowing across the buds, you dont want the humid air just sitting around as the mould will grow and spread pretty quick, so make sure you got a good fan blowing on the plant and then humidity wont be to much of a problem, its only a problem if the humidity is trapped and does not have anywhere to go, so a fan will solve this problem and keep the pm in check.

your plants looks great and you are clearly doing a lot of things right to get results like that,
id be more than happy with a plant like that, so well done for producing a fine specimen like that,

you should get a grow journal up so we can follow along, im pretty sure you would have many followers
 
wow! great plant!:bravo: definitely inspect trichomes with a magnifying device, you have time to get one mailed to you,
5 bux on amazon for this one,
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here's what you'll see!!

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thats the exact scopt i use, cost me 99p of the auction site, got 2 lights on it one is a led and the other is a uv light, its used for checking bank notes according to the box it came in, its not a top end scope by any means but it does the job,

also if your growing in soil then you dont need to flush, if your using organic nutes then you can just stop feeding nutrients for the last 7 to 10 days, so their is not really a need to flush just let the plant use up everything in the soil and it will be ok at harvest,

if you want to flush id wait until the plant is ready then flush and harvest 5 or 6 days later, but im pretty sure you will be ok without a flush as long as you stop feeding nutrients a week or 2 before harvest, plus it will probably go 2 weeks on whats in the soil, just see how it looks and do what you thinks best,

its your grow, just what the trichs and not the hairs, some all the orange hairs will turn brown and others still have white hairs when their ready, but its all to do with the trichs, years ago it was done on the orange hairs but as we learned more about growing and the plants we soon found its best to harvest when the trichs are ready,
so if you wanted to go 100% cloudy when thc is at its peak then id flush or stop feeding around 80 to 90% cloudy then id let it go another 10 to 14 days before harvest,
if you wanted a couch lock affect then id go with about 5 to 10% amber and flush or stop feeding then harvest 10 to 14 days later, it should then be around 20% amber,
 
it is actually a piece of crap if you have access to this!!! my 14 megapixel macro incredulous! here's what you see thru a higher cost mechanical unit !!
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your not wrong their, if you got the cash then you can get usb scopes and take videos,
if i had the money to spare then id love to go with something like that, having some nice trich pics to add to my journal would be a huge bonus, plus then you can explain a lot easier what growers need to look for when they want to know if a plants ready to harvest or not,

its ok telling people to check for cloudy trichs but sometimes the clear trichs can look slightly cloudy under a small scope, but once you get used to looking at the trichs its pretty easy to tell when a plants ready,
 
Greetings All I'm a newbie here however I would like to communicate with the 420 community. My first question is how to post or as questions. I realize I'm in the reply mode at the moment so I need some serious help to get started. My next question is the I see a long amber line running through my northern lights and blue cheese plant. I'm assuming its now time to flush. Am I right? The tricohnes are still clear in some areas and milky in others. Please help if you can give me any info, I have beautiful buds and quite smelly. Thanks to you all in advance
 
rastaqueen said:
Greetings All I'm a newbie here however I would like to communicate with the 420 community. My first question is how to post or as questions. I realize I'm in the reply mode at the moment so I need some serious help to get started. My next question is the I see a long amber line running through my northern lights and blue cheese plant. I'm assuming its now time to flush. Am I right? The tricohnes are still clear in some areas and milky in others. Please help if you can give me any info, I have beautiful buds and quite smelly. Thanks to you all in advance
Click to expand...

welcome to 420 =)

generally speaking, if you have a need for help you post your help in this section of the forum

Frequently Asked Questions
make a new thread here.
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ideally if you can please try to use the following format. (It helps the helpers identify the needs and conditions much faster) and photo's are fantastic and virtually essential to getting swift and accurate advice =)

REQUIRED INFORMATION FOR GROW SUPPORT

What Strain is it?
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?
How Many Plants?
Is it in Vegetative or Flowering Stage?
If in Vegetative Stage... How Long?
If in Flowering Stage... How Long?
Indoor or Outdoor?
Soil or Hydro?
If Hydro, Reservoir size?
If Hydro, Reservoir Temperature?
If Hydro, what type of Medium?
If Hydro, what type of Setup?
If Soil... What is in your Mix?
If Soil... What Size Pot?
Size (Wattage) of Light? How Many?
Is it Air Cooled?
Temperature of Room/Cabinet?
RH of Room/Cabinet?
PH of Medium or Reservoir?
Any Pests?
How Often are you Watering?
Type and Strength of Fertilizers used?
Size or Square Footage of Room?

i know that you may not have all the answers, knowing what you cant answer also helps us ;)
 
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Hey all heres some more pics showing my buds. They're quite frosty as is, its just I'm greedy
 
AWESOME GROW!! It is hard to wait, be patient, I'd say you have at least another week before harvest, could go longer, depending on the strain traits, plenty of time to pic up a cheap magnifying device to see the trichomes, or just wait until 80-90% of the "white hairs" have turned red. The nice thing about judging by trichomes is you choose the kind of buzz you want by the % of amber versus cloudy, trichs you see. The more amber, the stonier the bud. Try not to harvest pre-maturely, if you see clear trichomes it's not done yet!!
 
ok here is my guide to judging.

do not go by pistil colour. the same plant at the same age can have different pistil colour configurations based on all sorts of variables like general humidity, temps wind sheer from fans.

generally speaking amber trichs are over ripe, but its acceptable to have a small % of them. if you want the best the strain has to offer you dont want it over or under ripe, if the plant isnt giving you the right 'type' of buzz then change the strain, not the trich colour.

if the plant is spouting lots of new pistils and gaining fatter buds, but does not have an over abundance of amber trichs, just let it go on.

ignore the clock, dont count the days. just sit back and gaze at your plant, when it looks fat with buds its probably ready, just zoom in to trich view every now and then to make sure you dont leave it too long.

thats my 2c worth ;)
 
spot on GiGa, i find most strains tend to go anything up to 3 weeks longer than the breeders estimate, you need to factor in the different pheno type each strain has, you could buy 10 seeds from a stable strain and end up with 3 different plants, so their are many factors that affect harvest date,
high temps could make it be ready to early, nutes could also play a roll, many factors so the breeders guide is just that a guide and nothing else,

when its ready the trichs are the things to watch, ive had plants that are ready when pistils are still all white, so its tough to call it using the pistils, a small cheap scope or magynfying glass will solve your problem,

looks very nice though but i agree it could go another week or 2 just let it go and see what happens, they fatten up most in the last couple of weeks
 
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