Should I Harvest Early?

I'm approaching the 7th week of flowering for strains that take 8-9 weeks to finish flowering (mimosa and royal highness). They had 4 months to veg from small clones and each produced around 40-60 colas (6 plants) that are very fat and heavy now. I used a combination of HST and LST, including lollipoping and limited super cropping. It's my first grow and I didn't expect so much. I'm in Northern California, where it's very dry and rains infrequently, growing outdoors in 10 gal pots. I estimate 2-3 lbs if they are mostly healthy.

A few days ago, the first rain of the season, along with wind and the recent bud fattening, caused my biggest plants to crack and fall over at the main stem. I supported connected branches with yoyo tension supports and harvested the totally broken branches, which should amount to 2-3 oz of smaller buds after drying.

My concern is with trapped water in the buds causing rot or mold growth at the breaks that could shrivel the buds or weaken them against mold infection before I can check on them (every 2-3 days). The leaves are not wilting, so I think nutrient delivery is OK, and I shook them and tried to dry them with a hair dryer (no heat). Only about 5-10 buds of around 200+ colas with lots of buds each have shown bud rot previous to the rain. I had removed those before it could spread. They all seem to have developed a healthy insect ecosystem ith a fair amount of spiders and ladybugs and all the top leaves and buds look very healthy.

1. Is it possible with just one decent rainfall to get pervasive bud rot?
2. Are the large branch breaks at the main stem an issue for infection?
3. Should I harvest early at a cost of~10-20% yeild to reduce the chance of rot?

Honestly check the tri-cones and see how they look. Grow looks nice Just let the natural sun and air dry them or put a decent fan out there for a bit. But they should make it another week or so.

Thanks for your response. 60 yoyos later and they are well-supported and back on track for the originally projected harvest.

I attached some pictures. Sorry they aren't so clear. Are these trichomes white or clear? Should I wait a little longer?

If your past 6 weeks and you feel like your crop is likely to be destroyed then you should harvest. I've learned my lesson.

I think they survived the incident. I've been harvesting any buds that have wilting leaves or any evidence of brown mold on the bud or stem. After trimming the bad parts, I clean them in water and baking soda, then water and lemon juice, then rinse in plain water and dry. Loss is pretty low if I catch it early. 95%+ of the buds can go as long as I want to take them now without molding.

Do the trichomes look white enough, or should I wait another week until they start to brown a little?

Butlerj9 said:

I think they survived the incident. I've been harvesting any buds that have wilting leaves or any evidence of brown mold on the bud or stem. After trimming the bad parts, I clean them in water and baking soda, then water and lemon juice, then rinse in plain water and dry. Loss is pretty low if I catch it early. 95%+ of the buds can go as long as I want to take them now without molding.

Do the trichomes look white enough, or should I wait another week until they start to brown a little?

Click to expand...

Honestly your pics you posted I looked deeper and they are certainly milky to my standards. I like harvesting before the trichomes start to degrade and turn orange. The orange trichomes are going to make your weed more "stoney" and give you that kinda lazy foggy stone where if you harvest right when they turn milky you get a cleaner cerebral high and not that couchy I ate too much pizza feeling. Preference but I dont like weed that makes me couch locked unless I'm wanting to go to sleep.

calvin.m16 said:

Honestly your pics you posted I looked deeper and they are certainly milky to my standards. I like harvesting before the trichomes start to degrade and turn orange. The orange trichomes are going to make your weed more "stoney" and give you that kinda lazy foggy stone where if you harvest right when they turn milky you get a cleaner cerebral high and not that couchy I ate too much pizza feeling. Preference but I dont like weed that makes me couch locked unless I'm wanting to go to sleep.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll give them another couple days then and keep an eye on them with spot checks. I don't have a chance to do a full harvest until Thursday.

Do you know how long I have from this point before they start to degrade? Can they turn in a matter of a few days? Or does it take a week or more of overshoot to ruin a harvest?

Butlerj9 said:

Thanks. I'll give them another couple days then and keep an eye on them with spot checks. I don't have a chance to do a full harvest until Thursday.

Do you know how long I have from this point before they start to degrade? Can they turn in a matter of a few days? Or does it take a week or more of overshoot to ruin a harvest?

Click to expand...

I've noticed that all strains are a little different in how they ripen when it comes to trichomes. Normally in my garden I'm seeing trichomes mature within a 72 hour period. I check them daily after week 7 and pull once they all turn milky and there are a few amber. Usually by week 8 the plants I'm growing right now with co2 supplementation and 1150 watt HPS lights are ready to chop in 8 weeks flat.

calvin.m16 said:

I've noticed that all strains are a little different in how they ripen when it comes to trichomes. Normally in my garden I'm seeing trichomes mature within a 72 hour period. I check them daily after week 7 and pull once they all turn milky and there are a few amber. Usually by week 8 the plants I'm growing right now with co2 supplementation and 1150 watt HPS lights are ready to chop in 8 weeks flat.

Click to expand...

I tried to supplement the shorter days with some outdoor grow lights because I got a late start in June. but they may have started to flower earlier than I noticed them around Oct 1. Sept 21ish is when they would have started naturally. Maybe I didn't buy them as much time as I thought, or maybe few cold nights in the lower 40s sped the ripening process at the end.

At any rate, I'll plan to harvest as soon as possible rather than risking over ripening. Thanks for the input. I probably would have waited another 7-10 days otherwise.

Butlerj9 said:

I tried to supplement the shorter days with some outdoor grow lights because I got a late start in June. but they may have started to flower earlier than I noticed them around Oct 1. Sept 21ish is when they would have started naturally. Maybe I didn't buy them as much time as I thought, or maybe few cold nights in the lower 40s sped the ripening process at the end.

At any rate, I'll plan to harvest as soon as possible rather than risking over ripening. Thanks for the input. I probably would have waited another 7-10 days otherwise.

Click to expand...

No problem I'm sure it will be some quality smoke once you harvest. Just make sure to pluck off all the fan leaves before you hang your branches. I know some buddies that didn't do that this year in Michigan and ended up with moldy bud in their dry room... Extremely devastating when you lose 10 pounds of weed due to negligence and laziness. Not saying you're either of those, they were..

Keep a couple oscillating fans in the room blowing below the buds and never directly on them, this will ensure the air is circulating. That or you can hang them in a room with a ceiling fan that is directed upwards.

calvin.m16 said:

No problem I'm sure it will be some quality smoke once you harvest. Just make sure to pluck off all the fan leaves before you hang your branches. I know some buddies that didn't do that this year in Michigan and ended up with moldy bud in their dry room... Extremely devastating when you lose 10 pounds of weed due to negligence and laziness. Not saying you're either of those, they were..

Keep a couple oscillating fans in the room blowing below the buds and never directly on them, this will ensure the air is circulating. That or you can hang them in a room with a ceiling fan that is directed upwards.

Click to expand...

Yes. I do a full trim before washing and drying. Some people like to wait until after and pull dry fan leaves off as they cut off the buds, but it leaves alot of extra places for mold and water to hide while drying and the leaves block the air in weird ways, so I just get it out of the way upfront so I'm not washing waste material that just interferes with drying. It's more efficient on space, too.

I'll use a floor fan on low, blowing air away from them, around the walls, to hit them from the other direction. They will hang about 6 inches from the wall, so it should keep the air moving slowly across them.