.
"how muich of the plant can i harvest to make sure it can reveg and grow back"
Leave at least a foot of nodes (6 - 12 branch sets). Leave all the leaves that you can and the smaller popcorn bud. Leave some areas untouched, but take all of the good bud. Very little is left, on my plant above there wouldn't be an eight of a cup of cured bud left.
.
"if I take a cutting before the harvest, do I take top, or lower branches,"
Take the ripe buds.
Determine harvest time by trichome ripeness - go by the color seen under a hand microscope (60x-100x). With some experience with your strain and pheno you will know what color trichome gives you the high/stone that you want. Until then look for cloudy to amber.
.
A holistic approach like FDD's would look for an overall look:
- calyx swell and look like they're going to explode, they separate from each other.
- buds look sandy because of the trichome color
Got any pics? Closeup and of the whole plant? I like to clip and sample buds as the plant ripens, looking for the different type of effects stages of ripeness give. I trim and bake at 106 C (~225 F), I dry the bud and bake it for 10 minutes more. A tray in my toaster oven takes 45 minutes to an hour, a couple of buds sometimes 15-20 minutes. Clip the colas into buds for quick drying. I baked my Jack The Ripper and got the best high I've ever had, it's not the perfect cure but it's the best quick cure for flavour and potency. Spectrum of effects report linked below.
These Strawberry diesel look like balloons that have been blown up too much, ready for the scythe.
.
"does it revert grow first or pop roots first."
Normally both grow at the same time, but where the plant is in flower and no new branches are growing the roots could grow first. This is the first time I've thought about it. I'll research and check my own plants roots until it revegges, see if we get new root growth before new branch growth.
For normal growth this is the best explanation of root and plant growth I've found. From forum member
Smokey D Pot.
.
Many times Ive seen in posts that roots grow during the dark.. If this were true, the 24/0 photoperiod would result in a plant with a tiny root structure, if one at all! We know this is not the case - so how does it actually work?
To simplify things, lets use an analogy. Try to think of a plant as a building
one constantly under construction. The plant needs raw materials, (fertilizers and water), and energy (light) in order to build itself. The raw materials are the bricks and mortar of the building. The energy is the workers, vehicles and power tools used to assemble the building.
The Plant is capable of storing some raw materials and some energy for use later, but the amount is limited...think of a warehouse and a battery.
* During the day, (Lights ON) the plant is collecting and storing light energy, and is using and storing raw materials. The plant is stockpiling raw material, and is charging its batteries
it is ALSO using raw materials and using the energy it is collecting. Its building itself, literally putting itself together.
During the day however, the plant is not as efficient at building itself, as it is at night (lights OFF.) It can build itself, but not as quickly.
* While the lights are OFF, the plant is using energy and raw materials to build itself
. the plant is more efficiently using the raw materials that it stored during the day. The plant is better at transporting and assembling the raw materials.
The bad news: since there is no light energy, the plant must rely on energy it stored while the lights were ON (its stored energy). (Essentially, the plant is running on batteries, and using raw material from the warehouse.)
There is no light energy to collect. Since the plant needs energy to absorb more raw materials, it is easier for the plant to use raw materials that it stored during the day than it is to absorb raw materials through its roots.
* Although the plant IS capable of doing it all with the lights on, (Collect, store and use energy & raw materials) it does a better job of actually doing the work (using the energy and raw material) while the lights are out. During the dark however, it relies solely on its limited supply of stored energy and stored raw material.
One last thing to remember is the fact that a plant will always strive to maintain a balance between the size of its roots and the size of its canopy (Leaf mass.) The roots must be big enough to supply as much raw materials as the canopy can use, and the canopy must be big enough to provide the energy required to store those raw materials
.
* Trim the roots on a healthy plant, and canopy growth will slow to a crawl until the roots have grown big enough to again support the canopy.
* Trim the TOP of a healthy plant, and root growth will slow similarly, until the canopy has grown big enough to again support the roots.
* If the plant is already in balance, the canopy and the roots will grow at the same rate.
If you actually measured them several times daily over several days, youd notice that they actually DO get bigger at night, but roots and canopy at the same rate, unless either has been trimmed, and as long as the batteries hold out.
Author:
Smokey D Dope
.
