Originally Posted by SpruceZeus

I'd say it looks pretty close. Hard to say for sure.
At the end of the day it's your weed and your call.

But if you don't mind i'm gonna copy+paste a post i made in another thread....

I'm personally of the opinion that 90% of the growers on this site (And probably in general) harvest too early. By letting the plants go a little longer you're ensuring that the've plumped as much as they're going to.
Despite popular opinion to the contrary(and don't fool yourself, the jury is still out on this one) Recent studies have shown ;contrary to what was previously believed, that THC itself (And its predecessor THC-A) are quite guilty of causing the confusion and drowsyness associated with burnout and other cannabinoids (our friend CBN, and a handful of others) to be the catylist (along with THC) to being 'high' rather than 'baked'
Regardless, whether or not theres any substance to the aforementioned study, its easy to get the high you want.
If you want a soaring 'cerebral' high: Get yourself a tropical sativa that contains a high level of THC-V and grow it until it is ripe.
If you want the narcotic couchlock stone, grow a rugged indica until its ripe.
Notice a pattern of growing it until its ripe? Its a really good rule to live by.
OF course we have to remember that there is more to a good high than just THC. At last count there are at least 66 cannabinoids, and we don't know what most of them do.


Now alot of people will tell you that you should harvest based on the colour of your trichomes. But (again, in my opinion) that is far too simplistic and there are too many variables to make that an effective strategy. I've made that point a million times before and i'm not going to re-hash it here, but rest assured there is more to the picture than just trich colour.


A ripe marijuana plant will be filled in, will have an amber tinge to the buds. The pistils should have browned (or orange-d) off and receded into the buds. The seed bracts should be swollen and the trichomes should be sticking straight out with bulbous ends. Also, because you're coming close to the end of plant's life cycle, the leaves should have yellowed off and started to die.


one of my plants, 3 days before chop-chop.


Another very important (imho) reason to let your plants mature is Terpenoid production. Terpenes are responsible for alot of the complex (And enjoyable) flavours that cannabis produces. Some of the most intense flavours are produced on the "downslope" of cannabis's life cycle. My personal experience with this came when i was growing GH cheese. One of the plants i harvested at 8 weeks and it tasted pretty nice and had pretty dense buds. The other i grew until about 9 1/2 weeks and it had most amazing, sour, skunky, delicious taste with rock hard buds.


Here is my interpretation (and maybe exaggeration) of a scenario i see all too often...
Quote:

That plant is 4 weeks into 12/12. Granted not all of the trichomes are that far along. And most people arent going to harvest weed that looks like this. But my point with this is that you have to look at the big picture. Stop being so scientific and start being practical.
I'm not anti knowledge, i just cant stand these "rules" that more often than not lead people down the wrong path.
Lets cut through the bullshit and spread good information in a way that is not so absoloute. Or at very least explain the growth stages of cannabis making sure to mention that the pistils should have receded back into the bud before you chop. Regardless of trichome colour.

Originally Posted by iloveit

Its about time someone finally summed it up with common sense.

I have only one question: What if I wait for the plant to ripen & then from this point begin to flush for 2 weeks, will the THC or other factors decrease thus reducing potency come harvest?

Originally Posted by SpruceZeus

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a plant that is legitimately "over-ripe" to the point where the THC has degraded.
Its pretty widely accepted that THC is the precursor to CBN, ie: THC will, over time, break down into CBN (among other cannabinoids)

Now CBN is accepted by the majority to be the cannabinoid that "burns you out" and leaves you with a more narcotic, "couch lock" high.
But I maintain that CBN, in conjunction with THC (and im sure dozens of other cannabinoids) contribute to a more complete high.

Don't get me wrong, if you grow your cannabis for months and months past ripeness, it will eventually lose the ability to get you high. But trust ne when i say its hard to go that far.

Personally, i've flowered a 9 week strain for 16 or so weeks in an attempt to get it to spit out some pollen sacs.

here it is at 9 weeks, about harvest time.
Well it kept pushing out shoots of calyxs and pistils the whole time.

here it is at about 13 weeks.
Unfortunately i never got any staminate growth. What a did get was a plant that was an orange tint, covered in trichomes, and as hard as a rock. Not to mention some of the tastiest smoke i've ever had Aaaaaaaaand, some extremely potent bud that would kick even the most experienced toker's ass.
In a case of severe wrongness, i neglected to take a photo of the bud past 13 weeks, but rest assured it was a thing of beauty

Long story short. it takes a LONG TIME before bud is "ruined" from growing too long. For my trouble, its always better to err on the side of "over-ripe" then underripe.