This is my first harvest and i need general person to person tips/advice

Hi and thanks for reading. My girl is at 7 weeks into flowering putting her at a day or 2 more than 10 weeks old. I used cfl's for lighting at about 7,000 lumens used 15-30-15 for food and for the last 2 weeks have used 1tbl spoon of molasses/gallon water and a uvb light. 1 week ago i pruned all the fan leaves covering the buds and trimmed off a small bud to test. It wasnt very potent at all, it was potent enough to feel that "something" in the back of your head but not potent enough to get me high so i figured maybe she isnt ready yet, its been a week since then as i said and the buds dont appear to be getting more dense but she is coming to the end of her cycle as about 65% of the hairs have changed color, trichs are still mostly clear/partly cloudy. The cola is only about 4-5 inches and about 1 1/2 inch thick all the other buds are maybe a bowls worth? BTW the UVB light made a big difference within a week i had glistening sugary looking trichs all over and i was happy about that.

My questions are this,
1. how much longer should i wait to harvest based on what you've read?
2.will my buds get any more dense if i wait longer?
3. will the buds get any more potent?
4. what is the absolute latest you should wait to harvest without losing thc?

thanks

I would give it 2 more weeks then check the trichs.Depending on the strain you can harvest up to 10 weeks more if its sativa dominant.The buds will get bigger towards the last weeks so good luck.

1. how much longer should i wait to harvest based on what you've read? id wait 2+ weeks
2.will my buds get any more dense if i wait longer? yes
3. will the buds get any more potent? yes much
4. what is the absolute latest you should wait to harvest without losing thc? i dont know but the leafs of the plant will also tell you when the plant is ripening too, so keep an eye on those trichs and leafs and surf this site and find pics of finished ladys to compare

My only thing is i have heard of waiting too long and im worried about that because the thc breaks down etc. could 2 weeks be too much time? Like over doing it, or would 2 weeks still be acceptable keep in mind the hairs "stigmas" are 65% brown? Shes in her 7th week..i think she could go 1 more week but im kinda worried about letting her go past that, she is indica btw, thanks for the info and believe me, i have been searching pics for a few days now, according to pics she looks ready but the potency isnt there and the buds are tiny thats why im confused ^^ would like to hear from a variety of people on how long a plant can go before the chemicals start to break down and change, i know its differeent for different strains but say an indica bag seed whats the maximum weeks it should flower?

it could be for a plant that has been flowering past its due time.But most of the time letting a 8-9 week plant go 9-10 weeks will increase resin and bud production.

remember your name said:

My only thing is i have heard of waiting too long and im worried about that because the thc breaks down etc. could 2 weeks be too much time? Like over doing it, or would 2 weeks still be acceptable keep in mind the hairs "stigmas" are 65% brown? Shes in her 7th week..i think she could go 1 more week but im kinda worried about letting her go past that, she is indica btw, thanks for the info and believe me, i have been searching pics for a few days now, according to pics she looks ready but the potency isnt there and the buds are tiny thats why im confused ^^ would like to hear from a variety of people on how long a plant can go before the chemicals start to break down and change, i know its differeent for different strains but say an indica bag seed whats the maximum weeks it should flower?

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Indica is typically 8-week flowering cycle.
If you are in hydro it could be a bit closer. Mine usually go 56-62 days.

Don't worry about losing any crystals yet. You could go a week past prime w/ out noticeable potency loss. I like mine in the middle of prime. Trichs at 30% amber, 30% clear 40% cloudy.

My prime may be different than yours though. It's not an exact science this is where you develop your own taste for what is complete.

It sounds like you are sampling so keep that up and you'll figure it out. I wish I could be more help. Good Luck,

DH

thanks for the advice guys, i took a sample today from the main stem and dried it under a light bulb for a few mins, the potency still wasnt quite "there" for me but i did have a nice ass clear minded head high for sadly only about 1/2 hour but i also only packed the 1 hitter 2 times so its no 1 hitter quitter but it does seem to be getting there. So i could go 2 weeks no problem? Thats awesome news, i would have been sad to know this was as good as it would get for her. There are also some new hairs and tiny leafs growing on the lower branches below the buds, i wonder if they will have a chance to turn into a bud or not. I havent flushed since i started flowering i wonder if i should or not? Like i said i just been using the molasses that on a side note seems to be attrackting fruit flies but they arent harming anything luckily.

remember your name said:

thanks for the advice guys, i took a sample today from the main stem and dried it under a light bulb for a few mins, the potency still wasnt quite "there" for me but i did have a nice ass clear minded head high for sadly only about 1/2 hour but i also only packed the 1 hitter 2 times so its no 1 hitter quitter but it does seem to be getting there. So i could go 2 weeks no problem? Thats awesome news, i would have been sad to know this was as good as it would get for her. There are also some new hairs and tiny leafs growing on the lower branches below the buds, i wonder if they will have a chance to turn into a bud or not. I havent flushed since i started flowering i wonder if i should or not? Like i said i just been using the molasses that on a side note seems to be attrackting fruit flies but they arent harming anything luckily.

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The tops will probably finish before the lower branches. If you feel this is the case do a "double harvest". All you do is harvest the completed portions of plant and leave smaller / lower "popcorn" buds to finish out.

I personally remove the popcorn a couple weeks into flower. This forces all energy to top cola's.

I flush for min. 3 days and as many as 10 with r/o ph'd at 5.8. Good Luck,
DH

throw a bunch more lights around the bottom part of the plant so that these smaller buds get more light and not just the tops.

another 2 weeks can only help

and smoking weed that was just removed from the plant is not ripe yet so its going to be less potent. you need to hang dry for a few days and cure in jars. the longer its cured the better

Yes i know how to cure, it was just a quick sample i dried that way. Youre right though so maybe its more potent than i think it is, that would be cool. Im not interested so much in the cola as the rest of the buds granted it will be the most potent, more interested in quantity without losing much quality so pulling the top cola might be a really good idea and then the lower buds would have more time and energy put into them? I do have lights surrounding her top and bottom and i rotate her every other day. Even the bottom branches where the buds are teeny tiny and more leaf than anything else have crystals all over them so that keeps me hopeful.

On a side note, im making honey oil with the cuttings and was going to use a stainless steel turkey baster however i cant find a stainless steel one just a plastic type one. Wondering if any really harmful chemicals would be released for using the hard plastic one? Or if it would be ok? Would it affect taste?

also is it possible to grow buds as big and awesome as the 1 in your pic wyteberrywidow using cfl's? For this being my very first grow i think i learned enough to start growing regularly and would like bigger buds the next go around.

MIne was done with a 400 watt hps.The amount of cfls needed to get a cola like that will be way over 400 watts so imo get a 400 hps for good buds.

wyteberrywidow said:

MIne was done with a 400 watt hps.The amount of cfls needed to get a cola like that will be way over 400 watts so imo get a 400 hps for good buds.

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I must agree. Only good size buds I've seen come out of HPS flowering rooms.

DH

daaaang, well thats an awesome bud. ill get hps and mh eventually when im a bit more experienced have more money and more space to grow and ventilate, for now though the cfls in my small closet are working pretty good, not as big of buds as i hopeeed for but meh bud is bud...especially when its freeeee

remember your name said:

daaaang, well thats an awesome bud. ill get hps and mh eventually when im a bit more experienced have more money and more space to grow and ventilate, for now though the cfls in my small closet are working pretty good, not as big of buds as i hopeeed for but meh bud is bud...especially when its freeeee

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Thanx.No need to rush do your expriments with cfls when you save up 200-300 dollars get you a hps system with fans.You can use your cfls to veg but when you want to flower The hps will pack on nuggets.

remember your name said:

daaaang, well thats an awesome bud. ill get hps and mh eventually when im a bit more experienced have more money and more space to grow and ventilate, for now though the cfls in my small closet are working pretty good, not as big of buds as i hopeeed for but meh bud is bud...especially when its freeeee

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They got some pretty big cfls now. Home Depot has some 68 watt ones that I have and love. I think three or four of these would definetly increase your yield next go around. They are only about 15 bucks a piece too!

Cap K said:

They got some pretty big cfls now. Home Depot has some 68 watt ones that I have and love. I think three or four of these would definetly increase your yield next go around. They are only about 15 bucks a piece too!

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ive been there recently and didnt see any, i did find a bigger than normal sized one that i do have got at lowes but ive seen some massive ones on peoples pics but cant seem to find at a local store, anyway how would the bigger cfl help more? It would still have to be right up next to the plant right? So it would take up more space? Or could i trade in my 4 reg size cfl for 2 large ones? Same or better light equivelant?

remember your name said:

ive been there recently and didnt see any, i did find a bigger than normal sized one that i do have got at lowes but ive seen some massive ones on peoples pics but cant seem to find at a local store, anyway how would the bigger cfl help more? It would still have to be right up next to the plant right? So it would take up more space? Or could i trade in my 4 reg size cfl for 2 large ones? Same or better light equivelant?

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I don't know about trading yours in, but the 68 watt ones put out something like 4,300 lumens and I find them to be more efficient than smaller ones because two or three of the 68s can do the job of three or four times as many of the smaller wattage ones. Just makes for a more efficient setup, particularly for those of us using cfls only. Maybe call around to some of your area Home Depots and ask if they carry these lights. The one by me's got tons of em.

this is a 300watt cfl i have 3 of these on 8 plants 1 dual spectrum 1 blue 1 red but these r from uk dont know if u can get these over there but all together in my grow room 900 watts

MR M3RKLEZz said:

this is a 300watt cfl i have 3 of these on 8 plants 1 dual spectrum 1 blue 1 red but these r from uk dont know if u can get these over there but all together in my grow room 900 watts

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Wow 3x 300 watt cfls=900 watts.Just curious how is the heat with it?1 600 wat hps wouldve been way better imo.But you do have people that live by the cfls.