Trichome inspection post cure?

Jimmy Luffnan

Jimmy Luffnan

Well-Known Member
I see many great threads and sticky's on here about when to harvest your plants and trichome colours depending on the high you want and the strain.

We all know that after a plant is cut it still continues to grow (metabolize) for at least 7 - 10 days after depending on strain and conditions.

Trial and testing at different stages is the best way to find the best kind of high you want that suits your plant, but does anybody else project a week forward in their cutting?

Ive tried this, cutting at just when the trichomes are starting to cloud, which resulted in a cured (4 weeks later) trichome becoming very bright white under a microscope, resulting in a very hard cerebral 'smack to the chops' *_*

I have also tried the 'just a few starting to turn amber' cut resulting in a much darker 80% amber trichomes after the 4 week period giving a much stronger couch lock effect @_@

Both cuts were tested on Super Lemon Haze & Sensi Star with very comparable results.

Just wondering if anybody has tried a more scientific approach as opposed to the 'proof is in the pudding' method?

Cheers Jimmy.
 
ganjaluvr

ganjaluvr

Well-Known Member
I love doing experiments... well I like being able to prove things.. and disprove things as well.

I've never thought about either one of your experiments. But, I guess I've just learned something new.

I've always made sure that at least 50% of the trichs are either cloudy or amber before harvesting.

But yeah, I enjoy science. Always have always will... I graduated High School 10 years ago (yep, I was a Millineum Graduate) and my best grades

were all in my science classes.


I've just always enjoyed the study of plants (Botany) as well.. not just science in general. Call me a nerd.. I don't care. ;)

anyhow.. thanks for the info.
 
woodsmaneh!

woodsmaneh!

Well-Known Member
Your finding are what you would expect. Clear and cloudy is more of an up high as you said, amber brings on couch lock. You can go to far and all amber is turning to crap.

I have checked after drying and noticed a small increase in darkening but not enough for me to change my harvesting date. I go with 25% amber and wind up with about 40 to 50% when dry. Smoke a few puffs and ready to go, smoke the whole thing and what was I going to do?

Peace
 
Brick Top

Brick Top

New Member
The standard accepted trichome color chart of clear, cloudy and amber trichomes is only so accurate and not something that should be considered to be followed to a 'T' for all strains.

A pure or very predominant sativa strain will reach its maximum THC levels when most trichomes are still clear and a pure indica or very predominantly indica will reach maximum THC levels when most trichomes are cloudy.

Now "clear" does not always mean colorless. While not the most common of occurrences some strains can have slightly yellow or slightly amber trichomes right from the start rather than being clear and colorless and then changing color. In cases like that color is meaningless and only a clouding in the trichome heads matters, the rest is the same as if you were looking at color.

Once peak THC levels have been reached THC breaks down, it degrades and is lost as it transforms into CBN. CBN causes a person to feel messed up and confused rather than to feel high or stoned. Many people have confused those sensations as the result of increased THC levels when it is just the opposite. The more clouding and the more darkening someone allows their trichomes to change to the more THC is lost.

If that is what someone likes the most it is totally cool and the gang for someone to do it. I just wish they would stop perpetuating the myth that doing so results in increased levels of THC rather than decreased levels of THC. People keep spreading the myth and more and more new growers fall for it and then when the next crop of noobs come aboard they last crop of noobs passes on the myth to them and the result is they end up with less potent herb and wrongly believe they have achieved maximum levels of THC.
 
Jimmy Luffnan

Jimmy Luffnan

Well-Known Member
Thank you for that piece of information Brick Top =)
What you wrote is generally my way of understanding, which is why I always harvest before amber trichomes start to appear. BUT, this is just how I do it personally and is not a rule of thumb for any other growers, just my preference =)

I personally do not like to see any amber in my trichomes, just cloudy as I dislike feeling lethargic, but again that is just me.

Im not 100% sure what you may have meant by 'generations of myths' and that I may be perpetuating another Brick Top =), but I just wanted to clarify that my thread was simply based on my findings, if anybody else had had similar findings or if anybody wanted to perhaps try this for themselves and tell us all their findings =)

Geez that word 'findings' seems to keep perpetuating in my head a bit! haha XD

Cheers Jimmy.

P.S. And yes Tuxedotoker, that is my version of 'Psychotic Squirtle' that I love for being amusing and equally disturbing! =P
 
H

Hogg

Active Member
I agree with Bricktop totally..I beleive alot of people on here that wait for 25% amber before chop are confusing the high THC gives you with the messed up feeling of CBN which I hate..I personally harvest when trichs are mostly cloudy and very few are amber, like less than 2%..I beleive this is a much better high than the groggy messed up buzz...but to each his own I guess.
 
rowlman

rowlman

Well-Known Member
Thanks for that everyone. I just learned alot, that answered pretty much everthing I needed to know on trics at harvest time.I was sorta waiting for at least 50% of mine to go amber,...but I think now 10-25% is what I want. thanx again peace
 
I

icantseemyface

Active Member
Jimmy Luffnan said:
Thank you for that piece of information Brick Top =)
What you wrote is generally my way of understanding, which is why I always harvest before amber trichomes start to appear. BUT, this is just how I do it personally and is not a rule of thumb for any other growers, just my preference =)

I personally do not like to see any amber in my trichomes, just cloudy as I dislike feeling lethargic, but again that is just me.

Im not 100% sure what you may have meant by 'generations of myths' and that I may be perpetuating another Brick Top =), but I just wanted to clarify that my thread was simply based on my findings, if anybody else had had similar findings or if anybody wanted to perhaps try this for themselves and tell us all their findings =)

Geez that word 'findings' seems to keep perpetuating in my head a bit! haha XD

Cheers Jimmy.

P.S. And yes Tuxedotoker, that is my version of 'Psychotic Squirtle' that I love for being amusing and equally disturbing! =P
Click to expand...
your cool! i like you! squirtle was my fav pokemon... id often punch squirtle in the face if it disobeyed!
 
Jimmy Luffnan

Jimmy Luffnan

Well-Known Member
rowlman said:
Thanks for that everyone. I just learned alot, that answered pretty much everything I needed to know on trics at harvest time.I was sorta waiting for at least 50% of mine to go amber,...but I think now 10-25% is what I want. thanx again peace
Click to expand...
Im glad it helped, but if you are just about at harvest time and would like to experiment a little as another independent tester, please do =)

I was hopping that some others may try this at harvest time (even just a branch) to see if it does help them and post up their results.

This thread is pretty much about compensating that extra week into the equation for drying & curing.

Like I said earlier, I used to cut just when the clouded ones were getting a few ambers here and there, but now I have started harvesting when they are on their way to clouding up. In the past I would have NEVER done this as if they were still a bit clear I would assume that the THC level has not reached it's peak and is not ready.

But that being said, it all depends on how long you trichome window is open (the time it takes to go from clear to cloudy to amber) and the strain you use.

If your strain had a 2 week window, and you cut it at say 80% cloudy 20% amber on day 12 of 14.... then when it dried and cured it would be closer to 60% cloudy 40% amber for the finished product if you get what I mean =)

But if anybody else would like to give this concept a whirl, please feel free! Otherwise I'm just a guy that 'reckons' and is all theoretical =P

Cheers Jimmy.
 
ElectricPineapple

ElectricPineapple

Well-Known Member
well im harvesting in about 2 weeks. ill test it. ill do a day by day trichome pics to see the gradual change from cloudy to amber as it continues to metabolize. then we can see when it stables out and get a pretty accurate timeline. ill do a couple different strains to get comparison, and two branches of one strain.
 
Jimmy Luffnan

Jimmy Luffnan

Well-Known Member
ElectricPineapple said:
well im harvesting in about 2 weeks. ill test it. ill do a day by day trichome pics to see the gradual change from cloudy to amber as it continues to metabolize. then we can see when it stables out and get a pretty accurate timeline. ill do a couple different strains to get comparison, and two branches of one strain.
Click to expand...
That would be great ElectricPineapple =)
I did my cuts every 3 days and took a piece from the lower branches and piece from the upper branches.
I then took some little tags and tagged the buds according to when they were picked.
When they were dried and cured 2 weeks after, myself and 2 others (self proclaimed connoisseurs =P) tested the difference in the highs.

The cuts from the first 6 days were very buzzy and trippy, but we noticed on the 9th day cut it lost a bit of the buzz and started to make you feel really bombed out and couchy after 2 hours and the 4th cut even more so.

This was taken from the Super Lemon Haze with the first cut being about 60% cloudy 40% clear and the 4th cut being about a 50/50 cloudy/amber mix.

So i don't think a daily cut would be making a difference, or really noticeable one, but probably a cut every 4 days would be a good testing platform =)

Cheers Jimmy.
 
ElectricPineapple

ElectricPineapple

Well-Known Member
lol no, all one cut, just a daily trichome inspection with pics, to see the progress of the trichomes change day to day, then we can see how much it changes in the cure process. that way we can better choose when to harvest according to the high we want and where we want the trichome color variation to be when cured. like lets say, you harvest at 50/50 cloudy/clear, and it ends up stabling out at like 80/10/10 cloudy/clear/amber.

that way we know how much the trichomes mature post cure.
 
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