Trichome Color is a Waste of Time

Sunbiz1

Well-Known Member
After 6 years of looking at them, some strains do NOT develop opaque or amber.

This is NOT a viable determination of harvest time.
 

bigbillyrocka

Well-Known Member
After 6 years of looking at them, some strains do NOT develop opaque or amber.

This is NOT a viable determination of harvest time.
then, in your opinion, what is? ive read many books myself and they all say the same thing... :) not pickin a fight BTW...
 

ghb

Well-Known Member
you should be looking at the overall plant, red hairs should be receding into the calyx and the buds should be rock solid. when the plant stops drinking as much and yellows off and some of the trichomes are going brown it is time.
 

Sunbiz1

Well-Known Member
you should be looking at the overall plant, red hairs should be receding into the calyx and the buds should be rock solid. when the plant stops drinking as much and yellows off and some of the trichomes are going brown it is time.
I've already posted this here in other threads. My point is trichs do not determine harvest times.
 

Sunbiz1

Well-Known Member
then, in your opinion, what is? ive read many books myself and they all say the same thing... :) not pickin a fight BTW...
The same as below, red to rust colored pistils receding back, all white pistils no longer producing oils. I cannot go by the old-school amber method...could wait 100 flowering days and not see amber.
 

panhead

Well-Known Member
I 100% agree that trichome color is meaningless as when to harvest,many strains will never turn amber,some strains will only show an extremely low number of golden color trichs & those have to be searched high n low for.

I have never used trichomes as an indicator to harvest,i look at new pistil & calyx development as well as bud growth,buds will exibit a 2nd growth spurt at the end of their cycle,once i see new calyx & fresh pistils forming on buds that are at the end of their cycle i then inspect the plants.

Using the plants 2nd growth spurt as an indicator i then look at the pistils,once i see approx 70% of the pistils have turned red i check calyxs,i look for tight calyxs on the bud that have lost their ability to recieve pollen,once i see those things i chop.

The only thing i use a microscope for is to check for mold & mildew,i have hand scopes as well as a powered table top microscope that magnifys from 10x to 10,000x & magnification dont matter,trichome color is the worst indicator to harvest that could be used.

High times has published several articles on this subject,the classic strains of indica & sativa have been altered so much over the last 10 years that some strains will never have golden trichomes,its a genetic issue not a skill issue,some strains wont have golden trichs if you wait 300 days.
 

Sunbiz1

Well-Known Member
I 100% agree that trichome color is meaningless as when to harvest,many strains will never turn amber,some strains will only show an extremely low number of golden color trichs & those have to be searched high n low for.

I have never used trichomes as an indicator to harvest,i look at new pistil & calyx development as well as bud growth,buds will exibit a 2nd growth spurt at the end of their cycle,once i see new calyx & fresh pistils forming on buds that are at the end of their cycle i then inspect the plants.

Using the plants 2nd growth spurt as an indicator i then look at the pistils,once i see approx 70% of the pistils have turned red i check calyxs,i look for tight calyxs on the bud that have lost their ability to recieve pollen,once i see those things i chop.

The only thing i use a microscope for is to check for mold & mildew,i have hand scopes as well as a powered table top microscope that magnifys from 10x to 10,000x & magnification dont matter,trichome color is the worst indicator to harvest that could be used.

High times has published several articles on this subject,the classic strains of indica & sativa have been altered so much over the last 10 years that some strains will never have golden trichomes,its a genetic issue not a skill issue,some strains wont have golden trichs if you wait 300 days.
Thank you, this is what I should have taken the time to post upon starting this thread.
 

MJstudent

Well-Known Member
if you use it right you dont go by 10% amber type shit. you figure out what % of what color trics you like, and then next time your growing your strain, to make sure your not harvesting to early you check to see if they are at the samwe stages as they were preivous harvvest. using 10% amber or 15 or whatever is like saying when your hairs change theyre done. its not science its guesstimating.
 

billy4479

Moderator
i have a couple plants that wont turn amber on the plant but after i cut them hang them in the dark for two weeks and check again once there dry there like 10 /20 percent amber .....
 

dirtysnowball

Well-Known Member
I always use the pistol growth as the ripeness indicator. once the pistols are about 85% orange/red i harvest. people tend to pick early far too often
 

growone

Well-Known Member
i had a plant that had golden yellow trics, but no amber
the trics refused to amber, or even cloud, just turn a golden honey color
drove me a bit crazy, my 1st inside grow, it was a nl#5
 

k0ijn

Scientia Cannabis
After 6 years of looking at them, some strains do NOT develop opaque or amber.

This is NOT a viable determination of harvest time.

Which strains are these?
By the way that doesn't really prove anything.

Anyway, you want to look for 100% milky, you shouldn't look for amber (unless you assume you can only see the maturity by if amber trichs are present).
2 other factors that are widely accepted as a viable maturity check methods are:

Receding pistils (not colours of the pistils)
Swollen calyxes

When you put all those three together you can determine maturity of any strain and know when to harvest.
 

massah

Well-Known Member
TY for passing this information along man...ive been telling people way too much to look for amber trichs...but I usually do tell people all plants/strains/etc are different...just because a plant does it for one person doesn't mean its going to do it for another since of all the variables in genetics and environment, but yet alot of people think that growing marijuana is an exact science(i.e. they always use X amount of water/nutes, they always grow at X speed, are always X size at Y time, etc)...I dunno about you but my tomato plants all look different :D
 
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