I'm sure you've all heard about it, but I haven't seen it documented, until now.

This plant was heavily LSTed so the lower buds got more shade than the tops. This caused uneven ripening, so I harvested the tops first - about 3 weeks ago - and left the lower buds to fatten up and ripen. They look equally dank and delicious now. It was definitely worth the wait.

It's actually very simple. The only other advice I can think to give is to cut the top (stem), just above the bud you intend to leave, so you don't have a bare stem sticking up afterwards.

The plant - not quite ripe in this pic


Here: All the tops were taken, leaving the immature lower buds to ripen further


3 weeks later the lower buds have ripened.


And ready for harvest


Any questions fire away

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"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so." - Thomas Jefferson my grow

Yep indeed an good show for some Newbies.
+ to you my friend.
~~Joe~~

edit:
Damn sorry man cant rep you. I have to pass it around before I can hit you up again.
I tip my hat to you sir/

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Under $100

I'm surprised we don't see more staggered harvests. After all that hard work, and months of growing, it's a shame to harvest any popcorn.

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"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so." - Thomas Jefferson my grow

i dont think that i have ever had this issue.
i always make sure that they all grow at the same rate by using a screen..

do things right to begin with and no compensation is needed later.

Impatience my friend it gets to all of us.
But yeah i used to harvest like this.

Now i have a phenomenal method.

I use Home depot Security lights for side lighting.
They are 70w HPS i keep them on the bottoms and they nugg up just as fast as the tops. I just rotate the plants around so they all get the juicy delicious light.

I cant find a pic but it looks like this, with a 70w hps bulb in it.
I just wired it with a plug and added it to the timers.

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Under $100

I can figure out how to toss some rep pts around.. Anyone wanna explain how?

Alright look at the top of my post. See those scales on the top right corner. Next to the #7
Click them, then type:
Joe your awesome + rep
Then rep everyone else on this thread
and you get money sent to you and rep.
Everything is true cept the money part.
~~Joe~~

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Under $100

Thanks for doing this. So basically you wait till the buds at the top are 50/50 you then either top the plant (stress?) or you cut the buds off. The purpose is to allow the lights to penetrate the bottom buds to turn from pop corn into larger buds correct?

good info GreenCross, I too have my plants in LST and have done a staggered harvest. My lower buds are still going right now. How bad were your plants shocked / stressed? (meaning, how long til you noticed change in the lower buds?)

+rep to you

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Exactly! Light can now penetrate the canopy so the lower buds can ripen up.

No amount of side lighting could have penetrated that LSTed plant by the way

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"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so." - Thomas Jefferson my grow