Trichs turning purple so when to harvest

shawnery

shawnery

Well-Known Member
I'm growing Blackberry fire starin and in the 6th week of 8-9 weeks of bloom. My trichomes are starting to turn purple exponentially so am bit confused.

How am I supposed to know when to harvest if most of my trichomes are purple and my pistils turned amber between week 3 and week 4?

It's hard to see but if you really look you can start to see the purple coming in. It looks so beautiful on the plant because all the buds are starting to get a purple hue to them ever so slightly.
 

Attachments

shawnery

shawnery

Well-Known Member
SPLFreak808 said:
Are you going by the sugar leaves? Try judging only the calyxs.
Click to expand...
I get that. My concern is more about being able to read my trichs if they've all turned purple in a couple weeks?

Then I was wondering is the purpling of my trichs related to maturing or completely independent of maturity of my plant?

I've just not seen them so am confused by their meaning, if any, and ability to judge when to harvest is all.
 
SPLFreak808

SPLFreak808

Well-Known Member
shawnery said:
I get that. My concern is more about being able to read my trichs if they've all turned purple in a couple weeks?

Then I was wondering is the purpling of my trichs related to maturing or completely independent of maturity of my plant?

I've just not seen them so am confused by their meaning, if any, and ability to judge when to harvest is all.
Click to expand...
Honestly, ive never had a plant that stopped making new triches unless i hit lockout or hit the end of flowering.

If your triches keep coming out clear/cloudy and straight to purple all in two weeks you might just have a harsh environment, too much air movement/low humidity or just purely genetics.

If it stoped completely in early/mid flower, and only whats left behind is degrading (almost no clear/cloudy) you could have other issues.
 
shawnery

shawnery

Well-Known Member
Beachwalker said:
Just going by that pic if it were my bud I'd be looking at 2-3 weeks
Click to expand...
I agree! That's exactly where I am or better yet should be. I just like a very heavy high so tend to harvest with a high number of amber trichs. I guess in the end if they turn purple and I can't see the change I'll have to guess.

I've been doing some reading and purple trichs seem to be very uncommon.
 
shawnery

shawnery

Well-Known Member
SPLFreak808 said:
Honestly, ive never had a plant that stopped making new triches unless i hit lockout or hit the end of flowering.

If your triches keep coming out clear/cloudy and straight to purple all in two weeks you might just have a harsh environment, too much air movement/low humidity or just purely genetics.

If it stoped completely in early/mid flower, and only whats left behind is degrading (almost no clear/cloudy) you could have other issues.
Click to expand...
Trichs haven't stopped but pistils have atleast on the top of the buds they have.
 
S

SSHZ

Well-Known Member
Some strains trichome's, especially sativa's, never really turn color more than a bit cloudy- and never turn amber. I like to have 98% of my pistils dried up and withered before chopping. You definitely have a way to go......
 
shawnery

shawnery

Well-Known Member
There's a bit of confusion which is most likely my fault!

I'm aware that at the very least I have 3 weeks just to be at the quick end of the nurseries harvest window. I was just wondering if the pirple trichs had anything to do with the maturity of the plant and how to read the trichs if they are purple.

I thought my pistils were already as done as done can be compared to my other grows. I've resd this, maybe that was you as well, about sativas and trichs not maturing but I couldn't find one source that backed up this belief, not that that means you are not correct though.

Some reliable data backing up this assertion would be helpful. There's so much hearsay on the net I tend to shy away from words of conviction without it.
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
trichs change color because the strain produces an unusually large amount of anthocyanin,(blue) anthoxanthin,(white) carotenoids,(orange) or lycopene(red).
they don't really have much to do with ripeness, and can actually make it harder to tell, but it sounds like you have the concept under control, just watch your other indicators, and you should be fine.
 
SPLFreak808

SPLFreak808

Well-Known Member
shawnery said:
There's a bit of confusion which is most likely my fault!

I'm aware that at the very least I have 3 weeks just to be at the quick end of the nurseries harvest window. I was just wondering if the pirple trichs had anything to do with the maturity of the plant and how to read the trichs if they are purple.

I thought my pistils were already as done as done can be compared to my other grows. I've resd this, maybe that was you as well, about sativas and trichs not maturing but I couldn't find one source that backed up this belief, not that that means you are not correct though.

Some reliable data backing up this assertion would be helpful. There's so much hearsay on the net I tend to shy away from words of conviction without it.
Click to expand...
If it helps any, triches always change color (if genetics allow) before completely degrading.

Try to keep an eye on the shape of your triches every week or so and you'll notice that usually the last step of degradation is when they start to go "out of round" or look "melted/falling over".

Just a few examples of what I've seen,

Clear/cloudy/milky/melted <strains with no color

Clear/cloudy/milky/orange/amber/red/melted

Clear/cloudy/milky/pink/purple/melted

Clear/cloudy/milky/yellow/neon/melted

Heres a random pic from google, because its a fan/sugar leaf you can see all the different maturity levels of trichomes.

The small deep red triches is pretty much the end, hopefully this helps to read trichomes by shape.


user333310_pic942290_1348343526.jpg
 
shawnery

shawnery

Well-Known Member
Good points about swelling and falling over. I'm just new still and wanted to harvest a little earlier then usual for a little less heavy this time.

Hopefully my understanding and experience will gather just in time to get it right.
 
vtmaster

vtmaster

Well-Known Member
Has there been any light leak or some sort like that..it happend with me in 6-7th week f flowering frm my 10-11week strain..the bud stoppd producing and looked almost like yours...mayb u disturbd the hormones cuz f light cycle or nutes or etc ..
 
SPLFreak808

SPLFreak808

Well-Known Member
shawnery said:
Good points about swelling and falling over. I'm just new still and wanted to harvest a little earlier then usual for a little less heavy this time.

Hopefully my understanding and experience will gather just in time to get it right.
Click to expand...
It just takes a bit of experience i guess, i would honestly say pick your genetics for the type of high you look for, that way you can let them finish and have the full effect.

For example, A durban clone fully ripe to amber isn't going to knock you down to bed like a fully cloudy afghan kush clone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top