Question on when to cut it down!!! Pics & +rep

BCBuddy420 said:

well I'm personally not a fan of giving them a long dark period at the end, too much contraversial evidence says it's futile. A scientific study was actually performed and supposedly it makes no difference. I just let the pots dry out and cut. As for reverting... you are going to be waiting a very, very long time for them to revert and most likely will face magnesium deficiency issues due to age of plant. I recently got a bunch of neglected clones and had to revert all of them, it took 8 weeks to stabilize and I had single blade growth for an additional 2 weeks. But if you have the time and the patience give it a try, why not? It's always fun to learn hands on.

They look ripe and ready, 70 days is 10 weeks so unless that strain calls for more time than I'd say it's time. They look more staiva than anything though. What you don't want is more than 30% or so of amber colored trichs, it'll be too heavy of smoke, might as well grow a dank kush then. If your having trouble seeing the trichs get a 30x magnifier (if that's not what you have already) and spend some time dialing it in. When I first used mine it took some practice to get good at focusing, now I'm a pro. Hope this helps you out.

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GreenBuddha619 said:

Got a question...My Blue Dreams have been in the dark for around 63 hours. I planned on taking all day today to cut them down but as usual my well layed out week changed. I was checking on the plants and I'm still seeing a lot of new growth. Do think it is ok to turn the lights back on them? Tomorrow will be 70 days and I smoked a bowl of couple little nugs I cut off yesterday to check the trichs and man it is stoney baloney so I know it's ready. It is hard to tell with the trichs how cloudy to clear they are. What do you guys think...cut tomorrow night and friday possibly or let it go for anther week or so and pack on some more weight since I'm still seeing new growth? I also would like to reveg one them to take clones.

Thanks

Pics were taken 3 days ago

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GreenBuddha619 said:

Does anyone have any thoughts on turning the lights back for few days after being in darkness for over 60 hours? Will stress or hurt the plants at all?

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GreenBuddha619 said:

Thanks BC + rep. Yeah man I was told by my friend let it go 10 weeks so that is today. I think it ready but it could use some more amber trichs. I use a 60x-100x pocket microscope but the LED light on the end I think it fools my eyes when I am looking at the trchs. If I had to guess I would say like 80/20 cloudy to clear with some really red/brown trichs close to the leaf. I have seen a few trichs with their mushroom tops with some red/brown to them but not many.
I don't mid waiting for it to reveg for 8 weeks and most of the leaves are still pretty green so I'm going to leave some of the popcorn on the bottom with as much shade/sugar leaves as possible.

What do think about turning the lights back? Do think it stress or harm the plants in any way since they have been in more than 60 hours of darkness? I usually do 24 but my schedule got f'd up this week so why the 60+ hours.

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FootClan said:

I would turn them back on.......although i have no science to back up what im saying....but i dont think it will hurt you say there still growing??

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BCBuddy420 said:

I really just don't know about going for more 12/12 action after letting them chill in the dark for that long... they may go back to ripening and bulking. I would imagine they would keep ripening. But something wierd could happen possibly, like you said. If you do try to go back let me know what the outcome is on this thread, I'm curious to anything to do with growing that I don't know.

I picked my last crop of OGkush when they were under half cloudy with the odd amber coloration and it was PRIMO smoke man. I say they look done and anymore time won't do a heck of alot besides create more of a couchlock stone. Good grow btw, looks frosty and tasty. It's sticky fingers time soon, quit dickin' around and reap that shit lol

~ BCbuddy

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BCBuddy420 said:

well I'm personally not a fan of giving them a long dark period at the end, too much contraversial evidence says it's futile. A scientific study was actually performed and supposedly it makes no difference. I just let the pots dry out and cut. As for reverting... you are going to be waiting a very, very long time for them to revert and most likely will face magnesium deficiency issues due to age of plant. I recently got a bunch of neglected clones and had to revert all of them, it took 8 weeks to stabilize and I had single blade growth for an additional 2 weeks. But if you have the time and the patience give it a try, why not? It's always fun to learn hands on.

They look ripe and ready, 70 days is 10 weeks so unless that strain calls for more time than I'd say it's time. They look more staiva than anything though. What you don't want is more than 30% or so of amber colored trichs, it'll be too heavy of smoke, might as well grow a dank kush then. If your having trouble seeing the trichs get a 30x magnifier (if that's not what you have already) and spend some time dialing it in. When I first used mine it took some practice to get good at focusing, now I'm a pro. Hope this helps you out.

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GreenBuddha619 said:

Ehhh well I might take your suggestion and just harvest it tomorrow. Like I said I smoked some earlier tonight and I'm still stoned so it's ready.

Here some pics

On the left side of the bud can you see the light green areas where there are white pistils. Do think this new growth? I have read about the calyx's swelling and separating is this what people are talking about? I just thought the calyx's where where the node starts??

On this pic you can see a lot of white pistils all over

you don't want all of the pistils to be orange, some white is fine man. Those buds look juicy and done, I probably woulda harvested some days ago lol. The calyx, I believe, is the false seed pod, since it's sensimilla, and ya those calyxs are bursting is all. It's a signal that it has reached full maturity. They say once reached, potency degrades after that. The trick is to hit max potency. IMO it's when they are just under half cloudy and a few amber and the calyxs start bursting. I don't think you'll get any more growth or weight now. Congrats on the first successful indy crop, I had mine last year and same as you, lotsa problems within the first couple months, but that makes it even sweeter when you succeed. Check out my first crop, I don't expect you to read alot of this shit just notice all the issues at the beginning like powdery mildew and thrips and then notice my final pics onto harvest, here's the link... https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/317378-first-grow-soiless-mix-og.htm

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gobbly said:

Curious, could you post about your source for this study? The last study I read was not rigorous, but was published by Mel Frank and found up to 10% THC increase after 8 hours of dark. Till now this has really been the only study I have read about this topic, but if you know of one that is more rigorous I'd love to read it

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BCBuddy420 said:

I will look but it was quite awhile ago I saw it, no bs. they harvested one immediately, one 24 hours, one 48 and one 72 and found no noticeable difference in quality or potency in any way at all, I doubt it was scientific though, probably a bunch of seasoned pot-head connoisseurs. I really don't think the dark time thing works. I am FORSURE going to be doing my own study, however amatuer it is, on my next batch and I bet the smoke is identical from first pick to 3 days of dark. Ask most veteran growers and they will say it doesn't do anything. In fact I think GreenBuddha should try this out considering he's about to harvest, if not already too late HA

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gobbly said:

Curious, could you post about your source for this study? The last study I read was not rigorous, but was published by Mel Frank and found up to 10% THC increase after 8 hours of dark. Till now this has really been the only study I have read about this topic, but if you know of one that is more rigorous I'd love to read it

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BCBuddy420 said:

GreenBuddha619 said:

Ehhh well I might take your suggestion and just harvest it tomorrow. Like I said I smoked some earlier tonight and I'm still stoned so it's ready.

Here some pics

On the left side of the bud can you see the light green areas where there are white pistils. Do think this new growth? I have read about the calyx's swelling and separating is this what people are talking about? I just thought the calyx's where where the node starts??

On this pic you can see a lot of white pistils all over

you don't want all of the pistils to be orange, some white is fine man. Those buds look juicy and done, I probably woulda harvested some days ago lol. The calyx, I believe, is the false seed pod, since it's sensimilla, and ya those calyxs are bursting is all. It's a signal that it has reached full maturity. They say once reached, potency degrades after that. The trick is to hit max potency. IMO it's when they are just under half cloudy and a few amber and the calyxs start bursting. I don't think you'll get any more growth or weight now. Congrats on the first successful indy crop, I had mine last year and same as you, lotsa problems within the first couple months, but that makes it even sweeter when you succeed. Check out my first crop, I don't expect you to read alot of this shit just notice all the issues at the beginning like powdery mildew and thrips and then notice my final pics onto harvest, here's the link... https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/317378-first-grow-soiless-mix-og.htm

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BCBuddy420 said:

I will look but it was quite awhile ago I saw it, no bs. they harvested one immediately, one 24 hours, one 48 and one 72 and found no noticeable difference in quality or potency in any way at all, I doubt it was scientific though, probably a bunch of seasoned pot-head connoisseurs. I really don't think the dark time thing works. I am FORSURE going to be doing my own study, however amatuer it is, on my next batch and I bet the smoke is identical from first pick to 3 days of dark. Ask most veteran growers and they will say it doesn't do anything. In fact I think GreenBuddha should try this out considering he's about to harvest, if not already too late HA

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buddha22 said:

That's what mine are doing.
about 70 days flower.
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gobbly said:

Take a look at http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Growers-Insiders-Guide-Frank/dp/0929349008. In the harvesting and potency section he talks about taking samples throughout flowering and sending them to a lab. He graphs it, and a few weeks before it's ready to harvest the tested THC measured 10% higher after 8 hours of dark. Other dark samples showed consistently higher levels, but from 1% up to the 10%. Closer to harvest it tapered off again, but still was higher in testing the samples taken in dark.

The only real fault in his data was that he was showing the difference between THC production through flowering, not dark periods specifically, so it wasn't rigorous. He wasn't actually testing that hypothesis, and therefor lacked the control and a statistically significant sample size. Anyway, something to consider

edit: Whether 1-10% is going to be noticable probably depends a lot on the smoker, tolerance, and whether they are already stoned (if I don't wake and bake I can't give a good opinion because mornings are the only time I'm not high already, hehe)

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Insurance Agent said:

Looks tasty bro!! I always harvest my bitches when the trichs begin to lay down, just as the heads start to relax I chop. Never had a problem with this method. If you just go off the amber hairs you could loose a week or two of growth. I have had some sativa strains look done and then BAM grow another inch or more. Keep notes and go off the trichs. When they are no longer clear and start to relax is always a good time to harvest. ENJOY!!

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Thanks guys They are coming down tonight!

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