GroErr
Well-Known Member
As I mentioned I go for the quality over quantity so I just pull them when they're ready, not concerned about wringing out every last gram. I don't really check trichs other than if they show up in my pics, I look at the buds but also the overall ripeness of the plant. There's a point at which a plant is ready to harvest, that's when I harvest, regardless of how long it took to get there. if you go back a few months I had a run at 12.5/11.5 with low wattage that took forever to finish, one went close to 100 days to finish, the thought process goes both ways, short or long running. I leave them until they're done so If a shorter run means losing a few grams here & there I'm good with that, as long as the quality is there Leaving them beyond their ideal ripeness screws with potency (THC degrading), effects and possibly flavours imo.Far Red end of day could certainly speed things up, at least in theory. What would happen if you just kept them going for longer though? Have you tried it? Maybe they'll keep piling up calyxes. You invested all that time, why rush to chop? Also, if the far red works like it's reputed to, you should be able to run 14/10 and it would be like 12/12 without FR. Those plants are ripening way too fast to get enough bulk to make all the invested time up to that point worth it, at least that's what I suspect is happening. Fast ripening is only an advantage outdoors, or if you need weed as soon as humanly possible, which is unlikely.
Essentially the only thing that changes leaving them longer or taking longer for them to finish is some potential gains in weight. I used to grow like that outdoor/guerilla so I know that thought process, it just doesn't fit into my current hobby/meds/quality focus.
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You could also argue that if you find an environment, tech, or process, that finishes the plants properly in a shorter period of time, you can get more runs in over the course of a year. So the argument of leaving them longer doesn't really gain much other than over-ripened and likely worse quality end product, lots of it