Ripening indicators

[astonehead]

so since I switched to led over a year ago iv been confused as my plants appear to be ripening faster than ever before, I have amber trichomes popping up and a lot of hairs turning brown but only at day 40. I have been assured this cut goes 63-70 days so surely this is way to early

 

[waterproof808]

That still has alot of swelling up to do. If you were to cut that now and dry it, it would just be an overly hairy, premature bud.
I try to wait until the hair have begun to recede back into the bud and the flowers look swollen.

 

[astonehead]

That still has alot of swelling up to do. If you were to cut that now and dry it, it would just be an overly hairy, premature bud.
I try to wait until the hair have begun to recede back into the bud and the flowers look swollen.

So you think they could actually go 63-70 days?

Not sure why I have a lack of frost either

 

[waterproof808]

probably...Shes def not ready right now.

 

[Xs121]

I say 3 more wks

when you say amber popping...buds or leaves?

 

[Ailalelo]

I'm having the same problem with COBs, everything seems to mature earlier. Also I noticed that the plants stretch less, and I finish with quite green plants, so I have to change their feeding regime too. I believe it takes a time to get used to LEDs. I've been using them for about a year too.

I wouldn't give 3 more weeks to this plant you show. Maybe one or two max.

Good luck

 

[churchhaze]

I don't pay much attention to what color trichs are. I go completely based on how the calyxes look.

Sometimes trichs just don't turn amber (my experience), and sometimes people have amber trichs before ripe (green man at the end of a rainbow whose name shall not be mentioned)

 

[Thundercat]

I'm with church haze here. Once I learned how to grow and had a few nice harvests under my belt I stopped checking trichomes. I started to notice how drastically the calyxs swell the last couple weeks, and the plant will take on a very finished glow. One of my strains turns completely purple right at the 7.5-8 week mark like clockwork and I know its got about 2.5-3 till its ready. The other one the branches all start to get overweighted, even the little buds flex down as they plump.

I see lots of trichomes on that plant, so I don't know why your saying its not frosty. I can tell from this one picture its a sativa dominant hybrid plant. Its got that typical leaf structure, and the smaller sativa trichomes. The bud structure and leaf shape remind me a good bit of a White Widow I grew for years.

I would bet money any amber trichomes your seeing were either the earliest few the plant produced, or were damaged at some point causing them to oxidize. That plant is still growing fresh calyxs, and hasn't even started to plump yet. I think that plant will definitely go for between 60-70 days to get the best results both from yield and quality stand point.