How much bud to cut to check trichomes?

Lion-O

Lion-O

Active Member
I obviously don't want to lose much production, so how much bud would I cut to check for ripeness? Could anyone share an example photo, diagram or something if you have one? I'm trying to use a handheld microscope (60x w/led) but it's pretty difficult to keep everything steady.

Thanks!
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
if you have one of those hand held radio shack type microscopes, what i do to use it is use any thing you want first to get it so it's focused for you so when you look through at the magnification you want you can see through it clearly.. once you have it focused, take it and put it on the bud you want to inspect.. what i try to do is use the bud to hold the microscope still so it's not moving all over the place.. i simply put the part of the bud i'm looking at in the viewing piece on it and like i said, use that to balance it for you, let the bud do the work.. it takes a bit of messing around with for a few minutes until you get a feel for it, but once you do it's very easy to use and get a nice clear pix of what's going on with the trics.
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
you can cut off a small fan leaf and put it on a table to use to adjust the focus of the mic. before you attempt to use it on a bud on the plant.. this will allow you to focus it so you get a clear image, plus will let you get used to what you're looking for and looking at the trics..
if you do this, you still have to use it on the buds and not just go off of what the trics on the leaves look like as a lot of times the trics on the leaves will mature faster than the ones on the buds..
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
yeah, read my next post, sorry, just wanted to make sure to tell you not to cut anything first and foremost.. more info in the next posts..
 
Lion-O

Lion-O

Active Member
racerboy71 said:
you can cut off a small fan leaf and put it on a table to use to adjust the focus of the mic. before you attempt to use it on a bud on the plant.. this will allow you to focus it so you get a clear image, plus will let you get used to what you're looking for and looking at the trics..
if you do this, you still have to use it on the buds and not just go off of what the trics on the leaves look like as a lot of times the trics on the leaves will mature faster than the ones on the buds..
Click to expand...
Thanks, will give it another go. Deleted my other reply as must have posted at same time your other posts went through. I have that issue a lot on the phone too. I call someone at the same time they're calling me ---
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
one last thing i just thought of, if you have one of the mic's that is 60-100x, i always go with the 60x, as i find the 100x is way too magnified and hard to see much of anything and is much more sensitive to movement, same as trying to take a pix on a camera on high magnification..
 
Lion-O

Lion-O

Active Member
Just did the microscope against the bud method. Still find it pretty hard to stop things from moving and jittering, but a few times was able to see quickly how they look. Pretty hard though, as I seem to be trying to race to look as quickly as possible as the stupid thing keeps moving on me. My hands aren't that steady apparently. I guess I'll have to quit the brain surgery job during the day :lol:

Going to look on Amazon for a loop or something, I think.
 
MonkeyGrinder

MonkeyGrinder

Well-Known Member
Jewelers scopes are nice. 60x and you'll get a real nice look at em. I got a pretty nifty 100x scope. After I figured out the focus on it I love the thing.
If your hands are shaky I microscope is the way to go. All you need to do is look for a nice thick and dense nugget. Give it a snip and you don't have to take much. Plus you now have a tester nugget.
 
Lion-O

Lion-O

Active Member
I may have to harvest 1 of the plants soon. Saw balls today when watering. That plant has also been having bending branches from weight of buds even though I've been trying to use stuff to keep them up... Going on 11 weeks flower tomorrow. Plucked all I could see though.
 
blackforest

blackforest

Well-Known Member
When I cut a sample for trics, I cut a very small, I mean like a 2-4cm size sample. Usually something flat like a sugar leaf and small enough to fit in the plastic circle of a digital scope
 
In Shape Vet

In Shape Vet

Well-Known Member
just cut off a bud that you wanna check, preferably one near the top sides ' NOT MAIN ' if your planning to do a double harvest aka take tops and leave the bottoms to fill out. you want to test in an area that you plan to harvest, theres no point in testing that little popcorn at the base of the plant that looks like an ugly mole off someones neck if your trying to check to see if the top buds are ready. if you have a decent plant you wont be missing one freaking bud. then use a good microscope, like a usb type which i found is much much better than the dang radio shack one thats $10. the one i got was a celestron brand. the software it comes with sucks and lags like hell so i just downloaded free webcam soft and used the microscope as the cam source.
 

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Olive Drab Green

Olive Drab Green

Well-Known Member
Like, he's talking about cutting into buds to check trics. If he can't see trics on the exterior, he's too early or his bud is really weak.
 
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