13 Weeks of Flowering and still < 10% amber trichomes PLZ HELP!!

I am keeping a journal in Excel and it has been exactly 13 weeks of flowering today.

Background: My bag seend 1st grow plant had 5 weeks of 24/0 and then I set it on 12/12 to flower. After a couple weeks of flower, it showed its sex (female) and right around this point I somehow accidentally dialed it back to 24/0 on my timer (stoner moment I guess). Anywho, it was on 24/0 for probably 5-6 weeks. It kept getting nice and big. I did LST and FIM and it was beginning to form lots of bud sites but it wasn't budding. I finally figured the out my timer was screwed up and said lots of expletives for a good 24 hours, but fixed it. That was exactly 13 weeks ago TODAY. So after my screw up, it has been 13 weeks on 12/12 straight. No other light is leaking in either.

Some more background: I've been fighting heat issues. I'm in Texas and this began in my garage in a 2x1.5x3 box. I realized the heat was an issue, and also with the doors closed it was not getting enough fresh air I believe. I moved it into my closet and keep the doors open most of the time (or at least half open) with the closet lights OFF except when the grow lights are on. I'm using 6 x CFL (the right spectrum bulbs for flowering) and my thermometer says it stays between 90 and 100 all day long. 100 when the grow lights are on and 90 when they're off. My closet is also my server room (only 1 server on though) in my study which is also slightly warmer than the rest of the house (74) because of my big-ass PC and monitors.

So I'm thinking with all the screwing it up, it likely didn't start it's flowering cycle fully until 2-3 weeks into flowering. Which means I could think it is only like at 11 weeks now?? Or have I hurt it so badly it will never ripen more than this??

And with the temps like this, it is likely also affecting its ripening?

There are a lot of trichomes, most of them are milky. I would say 2% amber trichomes at this point.

There were a LOT of amber hairs like 2-3 weeks ago (they all turned from white) and then they receded. Now it is coated in white hairs again. So like 60/40 white/amber. The white are all tall and straight, most of them new I believe. Lots of bud sites (~100) and they are all plumping up big, but not thick like a big nug, more kind of spread out like. I pulled some samples. It works. The high is "OK" - nothing special - but it's free weed, right? And this is bag seed (not even KB bagseed) and I have treated this plant so poorly, it is no wonder the high is nothing too impressive.

Also just in the last week or so I noticed the plant is now reaching. I think it is cuz I raised up my CFL array (cuz I was thinking it would help the heat - it didn't). It is growing new stalks on top of each bud, and the new stalk is covered in budlets. It is basically the same as the bud below, but it is REALLY spread out. I am thinking these will bulge up but I don't see how they could get big enough to form a giant nug/cola on top.

I've used a 10-30x microscope and magnifying glass to see the trichomes. I have great visuals using the microscope (radio shack $12 one) and I can see a LOT of milky trichomes. Some budlets COATED. Lots of trichs on the leaves too.

Any thoughts??

Thanks!

" There are a lot of trichomes, most of them are milky. I would say 2% amber trichomes at this point."
Sounds like you have a Sativa plant, and it's ready to harvest. Like today.

Yeah, I would agree it's mostly sativa. The leaves were short, but they weren't "fat" like I'd expect.

It kind of looks like this one: http://www.cannabis-seeds.com/product_images/fullsize/nigafghan.jpg

But it doesn't have as much bud or I mean my bud sites haven't grown big enough to "touch" one another to show that one unibud aka cola on each stem..

Some of the buds are like 1/2 as tall as those colas. Some are much shorter, like the size of a small strawberry. The biggest most mature buds right now are about 3" tall and 1.5" or 2" in diameter measured the base. They are pretty big but it is not like this. The buds are all at the top of the stems so I think they have nowhere to grow? Like I said, I did a lot of LST'ing and I do have a lot of the buds on the lower stem portions growing now, but the buds are much smaller, like the size of a grape or small strawberry on average. They don't all feel thick and big like the above picture makes them look. My bigger buds probably are - I squeeze them and they feel very firm.

Like maybe 10% of the leaves from each bud are being absolved, I think the plant does this to get more nitro or whatever. The leaves turn yellow then brown then they fall off. Like I said, it's done this for a few weeks now and maybe each bud has 10% of the leaves wilting and dying like this. So everything is mostly green still, I just don't know when to stop.

Also I'm thinking once I agree on a stop date, I will cut a lot of the leaves off and let it be in the dark for 36 hours and THEN chop it down. Should I water it the last 48 hours too? Or let it begin drying on the vine like that?

Those temps are really high and will stunt grow. Once you get over 85 degrees, the plant basically shuts down from the heat. You can harvest with no amber trichs. Different growers harvest at different times depending on the type of high they are looking for. If you have cloudy trichs that is good if you want to avoid the couch lock feeling and get that up cereberal high. When you start trying to get the amber triches it will give you that couch lock type high.

If you can get the temps lower that will really help.

SmokeDoggy said:

Yeah, I would agree it's mostly sativa. The leaves were short, but they weren't "fat" like I'd expect.

It kind of looks like this one: http://www.cannabis-seeds.com/product_images/fullsize/nigafghan.jpg

But it doesn't have as much bud or I mean my bud sites haven't grown big enough to "touch" one another to show that one unibud aka cola on each stem..

Some of the buds are like 1/2 as tall as those colas. Some are much shorter, like the size of a small strawberry. The biggest most mature buds right now are about 3" tall and 1.5" or 2" in diameter measured the base. They are pretty big but it is not like this. The buds are all at the top of the stems so I think they have nowhere to grow? Like I said, I did a lot of LST'ing and I do have a lot of the buds on the lower stem portions growing now, but the buds are much smaller, like the size of a grape or small strawberry on average. They don't all feel thick and big like the above picture makes them look. My bigger buds probably are - I squeeze them and they feel very firm.

Like maybe 10% of the leaves from each bud are being absolved, I think the plant does this to get more nitro or whatever. The leaves turn yellow then brown then they fall off. Like I said, it's done this for a few weeks now and maybe each bud has 10% of the leaves wilting and dying like this. So everything is mostly green still, I just don't know when to stop.

Also I'm thinking once I agree on a stop date, I will cut a lot of the leaves off and let it be in the dark for 36 hours and THEN chop it down. Should I water it the last 48 hours too? Or let it begin drying on the vine like that?

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Water it if it needs it, but no nutes. No nutes for the last week or two to let all the ferts get out. You can go do the 36 - 48 hours of dark before harvest if you want. It stresses the plant to make one final push.

Ok, well yes, you guys are telling me what I already know.

Do you think the issues I'm having (delayed amber trichs and thinned-out nugs) is due to the heat?

How many CFLs should I have in there right now? It is not a SCROG but it would look like one if you saw it. It's 12x18 solid buds, like I said 100 or so. Some small some huge. Most of it is not "coated" in trichomes, but there's a lot. Many small budlets (calyxs) are coated though. I have 6 CFLs but I wonder if maybe 4 would do the trick just the same? It would cut the heat I'm sure...

Ok down to 4 x CFL now. Did some re-arranging so they all still get light. Should have thought of this sooner!!

I have flowered sativas up to 15 weeks, If It's sativa just wait till the trichs are ready.

Trichs are ready when they are Cloudy not amber. If it where indica you want amber.

I cant help but wonder how your lights could be running 24/0 for 5 or 6 weeks and you not notice. I have found it is hard to grow quality weed with your head stuck up your ass.

txhomegrown said:

I cant help but wonder how your lights could be running 24/0 for 5 or 6 weeks and you not notice. I have found it is hard to grow quality weed with your head stuck up your ass.

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You took the time to reply to this thread just to post that stupid ass message? Man go get in bed and let your mommy kiss you good night, your useless on this forum.

And to the op. Please get something with 30x magnification or more so you can go by trichs. If it were me I would harvest it at 5%-10% amber trichs. Its all personal preference.

Yes, I'm shooting for 10% amber trichs.

That is 1 in 10. Right now, like I said it's maybe 2 in 100 if that.

I think with the heat and also we had 2 multi-hour power outages recently so my schedule got all screwed up too. So it is probably just daughtling and not finishing on time like she's supposed to.

I stopped nutes like 4 weeks ago thinking it was 2 wks to go. Wish now I wouldn't have but oh well, no biggie.

I am going on vacation in 1 week so I better harvest before that anyhow. I think I will put her in the dark on Wednesday.

Thanks for all the replies!

bakeddude said:

You took the time to reply to this thread just to post that stupid ass message? Man go get in bed and let your mommy kiss you good night, your useless on this forum.

And to the op. Please get something with 30x magnification or more so you can go by trichs. If it were me I would harvest it at 5%-10% amber trichs. Its all personal preference.

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Whoa...PMS?

SmokeDoggy said:

Yes, I'm shooting for 10% amber trichs.

That is 1 in 10. Right now, like I said it's maybe 2 in 100 if that.

I think with the heat and also we had 2 multi-hour power outages recently so my schedule got all screwed up too. So it is probably just daughtling and not finishing on time like she's supposed to.

I stopped nutes like 4 weeks ago thinking it was 2 wks to go. Wish now I wouldn't have but oh well, no biggie.

I am going on vacation in 1 week so I better harvest before that anyhow. I think I will put her in the dark on Wednesday.

Thanks for all the replies!

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I think the heat is your biggest problem right now. Sativa's do have a much longer flowering time. Don't sweat it, just let her keep going.

As for your 24/0 mistake, don't worry about it. It might have screwed up the plant for a bit, but now they have recovered by now. Dpn't worry about that, just try to get the temps down.

CFLs are not that good for flowering either. Usually for flowering you want about 400W - 600W. With CFLs I would have as many as possible as long as the 4 are working for you then good, but I'd rather have a lot more than 4 in there, but with the heat issue that's hard I know. Can you put your lights on at night instead of day hours to try to keep temps down. If lights are on during the day temps sky rocket, have them on in the night only and that can help lower temps.

Actually, Defcon9, I did exactly what you said - this was a few weeks back when I had an epiphany about all this.

My new 12/12 schedule is on at 5pm, off at 5am. It's less noticeable and produces less noticeable heat and also the lights being on during the cooler time helps keep the overall temp down, but still... It is around 90F now with only 4 bulbs. It was 100 with 6 bulbs.

2 bulbs won't be enough, so I'll stick with 90F for now and when this baby is done (any day now), I'll revamp my lightning/fans to get more cooler/fresh air moving in there.

SmokeDoggy said:

Actually, Defcon9, I did exactly what you said - this was a few weeks back when I had an epiphany about all this.

My new 12/12 schedule is on at 5pm, off at 5am. It's less noticeable and produces less noticeable heat and also the lights being on during the cooler time helps keep the overall temp down, but still... It is around 90F now with only 4 bulbs. It was 100 with 6 bulbs.

2 bulbs won't be enough, so I'll stick with 90F for now and when this baby is done (any day now), I'll revamp my lightning/fans to get more cooler/fresh air moving in there.

Click to expand...

Yeah it helps a lot. I'm sure you'll be good. Once you can get the temps down you can start upping the lighting.

Good luck.

Don't mean to jack your thread but I had some issues with my heat, have found them dehydrated and had to put them under water. I have 12 lights 23w each, and I am in my 7th week and 1 day of flowering I don't have some white hairs, not may cristals the leaves, very little smell and the buds are very small here are some pictures (this pics are of the 6th week) I also had lots of yellowing. I want to know what can I do, or when should I harvest.