Just clear and amber trichomes, is it possible???

muha

muha

Member
Hello growers,
I went to my friend to see his plant (sativa dominant strain, 59 days in flowering stage) and to find out is it ready to harvest it. We took illuminated microscope and tried to see the trichomes. We looked together and we couldn't conclude is it ready to harvest it.
What is the problem, I could't find milky trichomes. We just saw clear and amber trichomes (10-20% are amber). Hair isn't red/brown, it is white and light brown (50/50). Is it possible that there is no milky trichomes? We saw something like milky trichomes, but we could see through them, not complete "head" or trichom were milky. This is his first time to grow and he don't know can he see throught the milky trichomes or they are opaque? Does he have to wait?
BTW, he wants more energetic effect, NO stoned.
 
M

Mr.Grønn

New Member
I would cut off a little sample bud, and view the trichs far away from the HPS light - which easily can make you see amber when there is only clear. And then smoke it and decide.

If you have amber trichomes already, my guess is that you have plenty "milky" thrics too.
Milky is not completely opauqe, at least I've never seen completely 100% white opaque heads - so CLOUDY is a better description.

Or am I wrong, are cloudy trichomes supposed to get completely white and opaque? (I've never seen that in my plants, only "cloudy").
 
k0ijn

k0ijn

Scientia Cannabis
watchhowIdoit said:
chop now before before budrot sets in.......
Click to expand...

No need to confuse the newbies mate.



OP:

It's practically impossible to have amber trichomes without having any cloudy/milky trichomes.
You should take a sample and test it away from your lights as to get the real colour image.
HPS tends to add a yellow tinge to anything looked at under it.

Pistils (what you call hairs) colour do not determine maturity, what you should be looking for is:

Cloudy trichomes
Receding pistils
Swollen calyxes


Those are the main harvesting signs.
 
muha

muha

Member
We cut off small leaves from the buds and watched them away from HPS. He has illuminated microscope 160X - 200X, but when he zoom and focus he see through them (I think that microscope is to strong to see it good, and because of that I see through them and it is very sensitive in focuse). When he defocus a little bit, almost all are cloudy/milky.

Can he have all types of trichomes (clear, cloudy and amber)? I am asking about this because I would like to know, do all clear trichomes disappear, or there have to be all types of trichomes, that you have never seen all cloudy and amber without clear trichomes.
 
k0ijn

k0ijn

Scientia Cannabis
muha said:
We cut off small leaves from the buds and watched them away from HPS. He has illuminated microscope 160X - 200X, but when he zoom and focus he see through them (I think that microscope is to strong to see it good, and because of that I see through them and it is very sensitive in focuse). When he defocus a little bit, almost all are cloudy/milky.

Can he have all types of trichomes (clear, cloudy and amber)? I am asking about this because I would like to know, do all clear trichomes disappear, or there have to be all types of trichomes, that you have never seen all cloudy and amber without clear trichomes.
Click to expand...

Since some parts of the plant will be ahead of other parts you will almost always be able to to see clear, cloudy and amber trichomes on one calyx.
All clear trichomes will eventually disappear but not if you keep growing the plant, since new pistils and bud sites might appear with clear trichomes waiting to develop.

However if you just let your plant grow without any care the bud sites first developed will eventually turn all amber and be close to useless.
So you see, it's a combination of things, and since it's a living organism things will develop differently across it.

This is also a reason why most experienced growers harvest in stages, as to take the mature calyxes off and let the still underdeveloped bud sites keep growing and mature.
 
rocknratm

rocknratm

Well-Known Member
Mr.Grønn;6709758 said:
I would cut off a little sample bud, and view the trichs far away from the HPS light - which easily can make you see amber when there is only clear. And then smoke it and decide.

If you have amber trichomes already, my guess is that you have plenty "milky" thrics too.
Milky is not completely opauqe, at least I've never seen completely 100% white opaque heads - so CLOUDY is a better description.

Or am I wrong, are cloudy trichomes supposed to get completely white and opaque? (I've never seen that in my plants, only "cloudy").
Click to expand...
I have seen solid white trichs. My friend was telling me his plants were ready, they didnt have much for trichs at all, I said they werent ready. Sure enough they were solid white for most of the trichs. His bulbs were so old, like 6 months over the lifespan lol.
Anyway I have seen solid white ones. and there was little to no amber
 
k0ijn

k0ijn

Scientia Cannabis
rocknratm said:
I have seen solid white trichs. My friend was telling me his plants were ready, they didnt have much for trichs at all, I said they werent ready. Sure enough they were solid white for most of the trichs. His bulbs were so old, like 6 months over the lifespan lol.
Anyway I have seen solid white ones. and there was little to no amber
Click to expand...

"Solid white trichomes" is a description of milky / cloudy trichomes.
To some people they might look solid and pure white, they are in fact cloudy / milky.

Since THC is fully realized in milky / cloudy trichomes, your statement about the plants not being ready because they had milky / cloudy trichomes is wrong.
If a plant has an abundance of milky / cloudy trichomes (like your friends plant(s) had), it is harvest ready, fully mature and at it's peak.

Your friend was right.
 
lookatmydick

lookatmydick

Member
I have noticed amber trichs and clear new trichs on a plant near ready for harvest. I believe some plants, maybe different strains (sativa dominant?), have cycles of trichome growth and can put on a new wave before the end, depending on growing conditions. Also if trichome heads get knocked off or damaged, they begin to degrade and turn amber which may be another reason why you see some amber but mostly clear.
 
C

CannaBare

Well-Known Member
I have a new theory on trichomes. This whole grow I had brand new lights but I feel my newest part of the room was the UVB reptile lights I bought. I recently watched this video
and really bought into what the guy was saying about how they capture the energy and turn it into THC. So I researched UVB lights and found this thread that said UVB reptiles http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00101GDIG/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 were the best for our uses. I though what the hell and bought one to go with my lights. A little over 10% of total light output. This round my trichomes are white under my MagnaScope!

So I think it could be a lack of UVB and the trichomes go from little THC to degraded because the light spectrum to make the THC is missing. Just a theory :)

Canna
 
taintedDove

taintedDove

New Member
My Harlequin is driving me crazy. The trichs look pretty clear compared to my Granddaddy purple and my Unknown plant. I know all plants are different, especially ones that are like Harlequin. The first 4 pics here are of the Harlequin. There are verrrry few brown pistils, but they are finally changing fast over the past 2 days. The trichs seem clearish to me but there are a good amount of amber heads even on very very clear trichs. So it can happen. Then next 2 pics are of the GDP and unkown, much more cloudy trichs. I find it very easy to tell the difference between cloudy/milky and a clear/glassy one. S20170111_0001.jpg S20170111_0002.jpg S20170111_0003.jpg S20170111_0004.jpg S20170109_0019.jpg S20170109_0009.jpg
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
isn't Harlequin a pure CBD strain? do the trichs behave the same? i know thc degrades into cbn which leads to amber ( i think at least). does a cbd strain do the same?

i have no idea. just throwing it out there
 
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