Trichomes and your thoughts - is it legit?

Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
Thundercat said:
The signs of ripeness are pretty standard for cannabis plants.

First a few of the pistils begin turning color and start receding. Your plant is just starting to ripen. Depending on the strain you could still have two months to go. We're just starting this journey.

Two to four weeks later you'll notice that most of the pistils(>80%) have now changed color and curled back into the bud. It's frosty, way bigger than it was a few weeks ago(aren't you glad you waited), and smells dank! It's time, right? Not a chance killer. Patience is a virtue.

Over the next 2-3 weeks it doesn't look much different, maybe a little more swelling in the calyxes, and the rest of the pistils change over, but the stems are starting to bend under the weight of the buds. These ladies are putting on weight internally by adding density and now the buds are doing their final ripening.

Now you begin looking at trichomes, on the calyx, not the leaves, and harvest according to your preference. When looking at trichomes it’s essential to look at them from the side. The bulbous heads can magnify the opaque stalk under it. Looking from the side allows you to more accurately see the condition of the resin in the trichome head.

There is still no rush to harvest, the window just opened, and you have several weeks before you MIGHT start having to think about it possibly beginning to get too ripe. It takes WEEKS for plants to mature not days.

It is very easy to harvest a plant to early. It is very hard to harvest a plant to late. I’ve never seen someone accidentally wait too long.
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Im seeing them bend over now. When you say you harvest to your preference, how does one know your preference when you’ve never harvested ripe weed?
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Bignutes said:
Im seeing them bend over now. When you say you harvest to your preference, how does one know your preference when you’ve never harvested ripe weed?
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All the other variables are the most important. If your plants are actually showing the rest of those signs, and the trichomes on the buds aren't completely clear then harvest whenever you want really. I stopped looking at trichomes years ago for the most part. Harvesting at your preference is mostly going to apply once you've grown out a specific strain/phenotype and have experience with it. The harvest window on these plants is weeks long not hours or days.

So the first goal is to reach a point of fully ripe which is something new growers are usually weeks away from when they think its harvest time. Trichomes can be very deceiving especially to new growers who don't really know what they are looking at. Some turn amber early, some will never turn amber because they were formed later in the plants life and just won't have time to fully mature.

I'm a firm believer that the genetics of the plant you grow dictate the high for the most part. If you harvest early the high will typically be shorter and less intense. If you harvest once the plant is fully ripe the high will last longer, be stronger, and usually be more distinctive to the strains effects in my experience. I found years ago that I had been missing out by not letting plants reach their full potential.
 
Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
Thundercat said:
All the other variables are the most important. If your plants are actually showing the rest of those signs, and the trichomes on the buds aren't completely clear then harvest whenever you want really. I stopped looking at trichomes years ago for the most part. Harvesting at your preference is mostly going to apply once you've grown out a specific strain/phenotype and have experience with it. The harvest window on these plants is weeks long not hours or days.

So the first goal is to reach a point of fully ripe which is something new growers are usually weeks away from when they think its harvest time. Trichomes can be very deceiving especially to new growers who don't really know what they are looking at. Some turn amber early, some will never turn amber because they were formed later in the plants life and just won't have time to fully mature.

I'm a firm believer that the genetics of the plant you grow dictate the high for the most part. If you harvest early the high will typically be shorter and less intense. If you harvest once the plant is fully ripe the high will last longer, be stronger, and usually be more distinctive to the strains effects in my experience. I found years ago that I had been missing out by not letting plants reach their full potential.
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Well said, I’ve never gone past 73 days of flower till this round, now I’m at 77 days and going the distance, either till it’s finished or it dies, lol. Im looking forward to the distinctive strain experience. Thanks for your insight, real helpful man!
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Bignutes said:
Well said, I’ve never gone past 73 days of flower till this round, now I’m at 77 days and going the distance, either till it’s finished or it dies, lol. Im looking forward to the distinctive strain experience. Thanks for your insight, real helpful man!
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glad to help any time I can.
 
C

Cynister

Well-Known Member
Thundercat said:
I'm a firm believer that the genetics of the plant you grow dictate the high for the most part. If you harvest early the high will typically be shorter and less intense. If you harvest once the plant is fully ripe the high will last longer, be stronger, and usually be more distinctive to the strains effects in my experience. I found years ago that I had been missing out by not letting plants reach their full potential.
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Amen to this!
 
C

Cynister

Well-Known Member
Seriously, let them (or some, at least) go the distance so you can compare the changes. The results are sometimes amazing.
 
Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
I’m now on day 82 with my sights set on going to day 89-90 and see from there. I consider myself a decent grower but not a good harvester, still need some learning on that.
 
Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
Bignutes said:
Yup, but it’s going to be a first, just not the way of going clones. I’ll get them tested to see if they are same phenos, a place in town does it for free
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it’s for cbd content as it’s a strain that throws a range of cbd, I know phenos are many times just visual
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
I don't bother with looking at trichomes. Most people that put so much emphasis on trichomes are harvesting early. They'll post a bunch of trichome pictures taken with their cool usb microscope showing a couple amber trichomes "Is this ready?". When someone says to post a photo of the whole plant they post a photo of a plant with nothing but white pistils.

Trichomes are not some gold standard when determining when to harvest. Those charts floating around are garbage and should not be used.

This one in particular is just pure nonsense and should not be used as a guide to determine when to harvest.

 
Dorian2

Dorian2

Well-Known Member
What do you guys think about "new grower context" when it comes to flowering times?

For instance, I'm on week 10 of flower in my journal for my 3rd Auto grow. After reading multiple threads on ripeness, and paying particular attention to @Thundercat 's and other experienced growers take on this subject, I've come to a couple of conclusions for myself.

- I'm beginning to understand that I may have misjudged WHEN flowering actually begins. I took another look at pics of my week 10 and 8 flowering plants and am now convinced they are actually closer to week 9 and 7. This is neither here nor there though in the end.

- This is the first grow that I've paid much closer attention to the calyx enveloping the pistils, pistil color, and recession.

- This will be the first grow that I haven't bothered with the magnifier looking at the trichomes until much later in flower. I started some cursory glances at about week 8 on my timeline, but I'm still paying much more attention to the actual pistils and calyxes than trichomes.

As far as the "new grower context" I mentioned, I'm now thinking about these plants more like how I've dealt with Tomatoes over the last 25 years. Even though visually tomato plants are easier to navigate at first, I'm starting to really see the parallels in finish timing as I gain experience with Cannabis. I would have chopped this puppy down a week or 2 ago my first grow. At this point I'm thinking a couple of weeks longer for sure. Don't mind the leaves, I fucked up on that end a bit ago. :)

Jan19 2022 Kings Bread.jpg
 
Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
Dorian2 said:
What do you guys think about "new grower context" when it comes to flowering times?

For instance, I'm on week 10 of flower in my journal for my 3rd Auto grow. After reading multiple threads on ripeness, and paying particular attention to @Thundercat 's and other experienced growers take on this subject, I've come to a couple of conclusions for myself.

- I'm beginning to understand that I may have misjudged WHEN flowering actually begins. I took another look at pics of my week 10 and 8 flowering plants and am now convinced they are actually closer to week 9 and 7. This is neither here nor there though in the end.

- This is the first grow that I've paid much closer attention to the calyx enveloping the pistils, pistil color, and recession.

- This will be the first grow that I haven't bothered with the magnifier looking at the trichomes until much later in flower. I started some cursory glances at about week 8 on my timeline, but I'm still paying much more attention to the actual pistils and calyxes than trichomes.

As far as the "new grower context" I mentioned, I'm now thinking about these plants more like how I've dealt with Tomatoes over the last 25 years. Even though visually tomato plants are easier to navigate at first, I'm starting to really see the parallels in finish timing as I gain experience with Cannabis. I would have chopped this puppy down a week or 2 ago my first grow. At this point I'm thinking a couple of weeks longer for sure. Don't mind the leaves, I fucked up on that end a bit ago. :)

View attachment 5070825
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This is the first grow I’ve taken flowering to approximately start 2 weeks after flip. In hindsight in all fairness it is called flowering time and not flip time. The real flowering time and where it should be started from is shrouded in mystery until you get in the know, which for me took a couple of years of off and on growing which ended in premature harvests.
 
Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
xtsho said:
I don't bother with looking at trichomes. Most people that put so much emphasis on trichomes are harvesting early. They'll post a bunch of trichome pictures taken with their cool usb microscope showing a couple amber trichomes "Is this ready?". When someone says to post a photo of the whole plant they post a photo of a plant with nothing but white pistils.

Trichomes are not some gold standard when determining when to harvest. Those charts floating around are garbage and should not be used.

This one in particular is just pure nonsense and should not be used as a guide to determine when to harvest.

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Yeah I’ve noticed a wide range in trichome “readyness”. I’ve seen red trichomes early on in flower as well as all cloudy by 6 weeks whereas others get cloudy by week 9/10 and most likely later or never for some strains. Imo albeit a newly formed one, I don’t see the merit in just trichomes
 
conor c

conor c

Well-Known Member
Id say trichomes alone arent a great guide put them together with every other sign like receded pistils etc then you got the awnser also bearing in mind not all strains amber out so yeah no one sign is enough you need to look at many to tell ripeness imo i like my stuff a touch overdone 8 out of 10 times anyway comes down to personal preference/strain depending i guess
 
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