First grow winding down. To chop or not to chop

I’m in week nine of a 10 week auto. The plant is still putting on new bud sites

However, trichome development looks to be done. (I think)



Do these new bud sites ever stop developing or will they continue to pop up until the plant is over-done and dies? Can these be used to gauge when the plant is ready to be cut down? This is my first grow so I’m not completely sure if these girls are ready to come down. Should I chop these or give ‘em another week or so?

Those are just calyxes
I personally wait extra long on autos but only you can decide
Good luck

Herb & Suds said:

Those are just calyxes
I personally wait extra long on autos but only you can decide
Good luck

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What’s your reason for waiting longer with autos if you don’t mind explaining?

Disregard breeder estimates like the plague…… plant will take as long as necessary.
Plants do not follow breeder timelines - your setup / skill and environment for it will dictate the final result.
Plants don’t follow days on a calendar. You have plenty of immature pistils still waiting to mature and recede.

Budzbuddha said:

Disregard breeder estimates like the plague…… plant will take as long as necessary.
Plants do not follow breeder timelines - your setup / skill and environment for it will dictate the final result.
Plants don’t follow days on a calendar. You have plenty of immature pistils still waiting to mature and recede.

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In your opinion is pistol development more important than trichome development? Or should they both be monitored equally?

As you grow more and more - you will find that “ scoping triches “ is just one piece of the harvest puzzle.
It is an antiquated way of harvesting. Looking for some arbitrary ratio of Cloudy vs. Amber trichomes is not absolute.

Trichome maturity varies all over the plant. Trichomes also mature / die and new ones form.
Most growers will judge a harvest ready plant by sight alone - pistil recede ( high average on flower ) , hardening off , bulk , etc.

There‘s more to it than trichomes.

Just know this - it is literally impossible to harvest too late / but easy to pull to early.
You should always keep it healthy from start to finish - No flush or other BROSCIENCE.

I suggest looking on line at pics of harvest ready flowers of your strain - then you can see roughly where you are at b

What auto strain is that ?

Budzbuddha said:

As you grow more and more - you will find that “ scoping triches “ is just one piece of the harvest puzzle.
It is an antiquated way of harvesting. Looking for some arbitrary ratio of Cloudy vs. Amber trichomes is not absolute.

Trichome maturity varies all over the plant. Trichomes also mature / die and new ones form.
Most growers will judge a harvest ready plant by sight alone - pistil recede ( high average on flower ) , hardening off , bulk , etc.

There‘s more to it than trichomes.

Just know this - it is literally impossible to harvest too late / but easy to pull to early.
You should always keep it healthy from start to finish - No flush or other BROSCIENCE.

I suggest looking on line at pics of harvest ready flowers of your strain - then you can see roughly where you are at b

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Thanks bro. Lots of good feedback here. I appreciate it. I’m doing some reading on trichome and pistil (stigma) development now.

Budzbuddha said:

What auto strain is that ?

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This is Strawberry Gorilla from 420 Fast Buds. I’m running Creme de la Chem from Mephisto next.

Good Breeder - might have to grab that one myself.

some strains do put out late growth, but that doesnt always mean to keep growing it especially with an auto. I wonder if you message the breeder they might have some other people with the same experience and that is why they judged it as that many week strain

with my experience on photo plants later is usually better, earlier is usually not; like as buddz said! with auto's im not quite sure, the other part of the plant ruderalis is hard to understand for me

all in all, if i had to decide id wait a few weeks then decide again

Bout 2/3 weeks.

First grow-Nice job
I can see some amber trichomes so you just need to wait until the pistols recede -
They will recede on the buds closer to the lights first- the entire plant will not be ready at the same time. You have to find a happy medium or harvest in stages.
Those little larf buds are good for the trim bucket - pay no attention to those- just go by the large colas they are most important