Pistils vs. Trichomes

heaze2010

Well-Known Member
Took some 45-90x pics today after I lost a branch to wind and a split. I'm in week ~5 of flowering but I don't think the weather will hold much longer. This first pic you can see some ambering of the trichomes. This was a smaller weaker lower branch. I'm ok with any time now but I was expecting to hit at least week 6 of 8. They are still filling in, swelling and frosting up. View attachment 4397895 View attachment 4397897 View attachment 4397898 View attachment 4397899 View attachment 4397901

My setup for these pics. It does video too. $14.99 machinists magnetic base, the camera was on ebay for $90 supposedly 14MP 1080p, you can't trust the listings specs on these things. This will take these stills above and record 720p .MOV to sd card. The only 1080P is HDMI out so you'd need a separate capture to get full HD video from it. The lens I paid about $40 for separately, the more you spend for a quality lens, the better your results will be. I cheaped out.
View attachment 4397907
Should of been on Amazon on Amazon day, people were paying $99 for cameras and lenses worth thousands because of a glitch. Amazon honored the price which was cool though.
 

valjack

Well-Known Member
I've never had more than a couple of amber trichs until after they swell. At least on the calyxes. If you're checking the trichs on the leaves you'll definitely cut early.
As to clear trichs and potency, I read about a researcher who found that there were actually higher levels of THC in clear trichs than in cloudy, but I can't remember the name. I was looking because I had a light fall on one of my plants at the 5 to 6 week mark, it snapped the stem clean off. All the trichs were clear, but I trimmed, dried, and cured it anyway. It got me high, but it came on fast, then faded fast. There's more to the high than THC.
This is very interesting. I was forced to hang some due to a very high wind event September 18th snapped them clear in half 2/3rds down. My fault, should've done a stealth support system. Was wondering what would be best use of this early calamity? Wonder if worth making oil.
 

ganga gurl420

Well-Known Member
Read a few threads just yesterday where someone had a beautiful sticky plant growing then harvested weeks early because the " trichomes are mostly cloudy". Its sad sometimes following a grow and the it gets hacked too soon...I'm over here like hey, I've been following for months now I'm invested!
Oh well.... someday maybe they will learn.
 

Deadhead13

Well-Known Member
It is hard to resist I guess but I’m willing to wait it out. I’m sweating some rough weather at the moment but no rot as of this morning so back in my hole to wait.
 

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
I know you’ve all seen my posts around trying to explain this to new growers. The ones that listen regularly thank me, because “this crop was soooo much better then the last one”, that was chopped early...

I’ve grown quite a few strains, and got a wide variety of phenotypes over the years. And after watching 1000+ plants develop and mature from that variety I learned a few things.

Most cannabis plants follow a very simple growth pattern. The pistils are going to be the first sign the plants are in the ripening stage. They are not a sign that it’s ready to be cut, just that it is finally getting to the end of active bud growth.

Once the pistils change and shrink back towards the buds, then I have found that it is usually 3ish weeks that the plant spends “swelling” internally. This is when everyone freaks out and think their plant isn’t growing and they need to cut it. But it’s stacking weight and increasing density still.

After a few weeks the calyxs will start looking fat and the buds will have a notable plumpness. It’s at this final point that it becomes acceptable to check trichomes. It might even still take a week or 2 depending on the environmental variables as well as strain variables.

I try to encourage people to ignore breeder times. Let their plants actually grow and finish.

It’s Very easy to harvest plants early, but VERY HARD to over ripen plants. I think new growers are afraid to “degrade” the buds, but they don’t realize that isn’t something that happens over night. It takes weeks of ignoring your plant to accidentally over ripen it.
 

Deadhead13

Well-Known Member
Thank you @Thundercat, my Sative has been flowering for what seems like years and you are correct about Pistils. Mine turned a while back and I snipped a little bit to try but it wasn’t any good. I still don’t have an amber tric so I’m just going to keep waiting.
 

ganga gurl420

Well-Known Member
Mother nature put an end to growing real quick in Wisconsin today. I was able to stretch 2 weeks of budding before I harvested last week.

One really rolls the dice here with sativa doms, but it's worth it when it works out.
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Very very true. And what a diff it makes from north to south.... I would have been stressing big time this yr for sure. I'm happy that you got them all down and had a good season. See you next yr for sure :)
 

PioneerValleyOG

Well-Known Member
I stopped looking at trichomes years ago. I don't need some damn magnification to look at the trichomes to tell me when the damn plant is done. I can tell with a naked eye. It's not hard.
i used one this year and it messed me all up, led to premature partial harvest, going back to the old eyeball method, which never failed me for years. it seems to of, humble opinion, let them go as long as possible outside, then give them another week, lol. :weed:
 
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