Leaves are turning autumn colors and falling off.. Time to harvest?

[Meintool]

Ok well i have mostly cloudy trichs lots of red hairs receeding and nearly all the fan leaves have turned autumn colors(red/purple/blue/black/yellow etc) and get crispy and fall off..Hell even the sugar leaves on them are turning purple/black.. if i dont harvest soon there will literally be no leaves left by the time i harvest but im worried that the plant has started maturing early.. or autumning early... take a look at the pics and let me know what you guys think...sorry my camera sucks its the best i can do right now...

both these plants are bagseed(could possibly be purple kush because i know i had some seeds but they all got mixed together)// right at about 7 1/2 -8 weeks of flowering 12/12 from seed(both plants had bud set by the time they were 2 week old seedlings. fed with earthjuice lineup. under a 250w dual spectrum HPS and 2 26w cfls






unfortunately these two plants were pollinated by a hermie that i caught too late... but the trichomes are telling me it will still be some good smoke


seriously though ...should i flush? should i give it dark period before chop? should i keep feeding? should i just cut them down right now? not sure i have not seen any amber trichs and if i have it was maybe 1 or 2

 

[Hugo Phurst]

No, not ready to harvest for several weeks.

It appears to me that it might be a magnesium deficiency, but I'm no expert.

 

[Meintool]

several weeks? i have to disagree though i could be wrong... they are going on 8 weeks of flowering... all the leaves are very crispy and dying off... trichs are cloudy lots of red hairs... it must be closer than "several weeks" from harvest...

 

[Meintool]

the picture that is attached as a thumbnail. i did not mean to attached that pic is of a popcorn bud from a week or so ago... so just focus on the pictures that are resized... i can get some better pictures in a little bit if needed...

 

[Meintool]

anyone else have any input? im honestly ready to chop both of them down... or maybe just one and letting the other go for a week or so just to see what happens.. but i cut a bud off one of the lower growth shoots(very small popcorn bud) let it dry for 2 days jammed it in a bowl and WOW!!! ive been baked for like an hour now and i dont feel like im coming down soon. i mean i got the fuckin munchies. i dont wanna move. i have a huge smile on my face. i feel extremely relaxed my head is wandering i cant really think all that great at the moment which to me is a good thing.... i think?? the smoke was very smooth and tastes very good for no flushing and drying for only two days.. its like the perfect high to be perfectly honest with you ummm so it makes me want to cut it down... but i keep getting these voices saying "dont touch them" "let them go for longer" i gotta work on my patience apparantly

 

[Hogg]

Not ready 2 more weeks minimum

 

[shannonball]

your plants look deficient and i don't really see fall color leaves as much as a plant needing something. they could also be root bound.

 

[Meintool]

your plants look deficient and i don't really see fall color leaves as much as a plant needing something. they could also be root bound.

well i know for a fact they are not root bound.. however when you look at these plants they absolutely 100% look like Fall colors got reds, maroons, purples, blues almost blacks, yellows etc.. if those arent fall colors i dont know what are... i do also know that the plant is deficient in probably multiple macro/micro nutes unfortunately im a noob and b efore i figured out how to use earth juice properly. i fed some beastie bloomz. i assume the synthetic nutes killed off all the beneficial microbs etc in the soil and has caused the earth juice to pretty much stop working... so i can definitely say they are deficient but there isnt shit i can do about it now except try to keep them going till they are ready i guess

 

[beanid]

I will say they are deficient of a few nutes.

I would let them go a week longer and put them in 48hrs of darkness to increase resin. (my personal opinion)

Wait until the pistils recede back into the calyx's, and you should see a swell.

PH test the soil and get it down or up to within range then feed them some nutes with even NPK ration IE 10:10:10 and give them a small amount and wait a day or 2 and see if those leaves change in color.

 

[curious2garden]

Try adding Cal/Mag. It won't hurt and it may help. Those reddish stems are what my stems looked like when I had a Magnesium deficiency. But the buds don't look ready. I just harvested my first four plants. I'm a newbie so what do I know, but my buds were much larger and the pistils completely retracted and browned.

 

[Meintool]

I will say they are deficient of a few nutes.

I would let them go a week longer and put them in 48hrs of darkness to increase resin. (my personal opinion)

Wait until the pistils recede back into the calyx's, and you should see a swell.

PH test the soil and get it down or up to within range then feed them some nutes with even NPK ration IE 10:10:10 and give them a small amount and wait a day or 2 and see if those leaves change in color.

i dont think the earthjuice will do much now that i have screwed up and used beastie blooms with it(read my last post above yours) so i think my best option is to feed with plain water for another week then chop i mean the pistils are dying and starting to receed into the swollen calyxes which are now about 5x as large as they were when they first started budding(they are much more swollen then the calyxes that have seeds in them trichs are 98%(guess) milky/cloudy the rest are clear and a tiny tiny bit of amber..so i think another week would be just about right wouldn't you say?... i dont think ill be able to do the 48 hours of darkness though cause i only have 1 closet for veg and flowering and i have another plant(sativa dom) that has a long ways to go.. so i think i have to skip that part.. does it really make a noticeable difference in trichs/crystals? i mean these two plants are completely caked in trichomes.. on some spots you cant even see the bud anymore cause its so thick with white trichs... unfortunately my phone pictures do these plants no justice what so ever..but meh

@curious

dont forget your buds may be much larger because i did 12/12 from seed they showed pre flowers before they were even 2 week old seedlings.. obviously it will be small plant/small yield.. btw what can i use to add some cal/mag? i have earth juice microblast but i do not think it contains calcium... and atm i am broke till right after i cut these two plants down(go figure). anything i can use around the house?.. but again i dont think any of the organic earth juice nutes i have with work with these two plants anymore because i used beastie bloomz and ive read alot about how using synthetic nutes with organic nutes is bad because they destroy the beneficial bacteria and microbes... which means i fucked my plants if its true..



heres a couple pics from yesterday the 22nd\

these first two pics are of some mid plant popcorn buds... they arent swellling very much yet but the pistils are starting to turn red and as you can see they are covered in trichomes





this pic is of the plant that i let naturally grow with no lst or topping or anything... the top cola was pollinated so it stopped budding vertically and is now budding outwards(it looks very fucking odd in person) and in my opinion(if the pics were better you'd see it to) those leaves look at fall/autumn as ive ever seen surely they are deficient but i doubt all the color is strictly deficiencies





and the main cola bud off the other plant that i very lightly lst'd as you can see some calyxes are swelling and the pistils are starting to turn red and receed (again if the pics were better you would see it a lot more clearly). then again i've had reddening/receeding pistils since the plants were pollinated so its hard for me to tell but again they are covered in trichs and the tiny popcorn test bud i chopped off a couple days ago tells me it will be some very good smoke

 

[curious2garden]

I completely understand about size differences and the way your running yours it will be smaller. A cheap way to add Magnesium is with Epsom Salt. Don't let the salt word worry you. It's just Magnesium sulphate. Dissolve 2 teaspoons in a gallon of water and water or spray the leaves as a foliar (quicker acting). Epsom Salt is fairly cheap and available at any Walmart or grocery or pharmacy.

 

[missnu]

They are not deficient....they are overfed...ease up a little..as plants get farther in flower they start to use less and less, so ease up a little from time to time...just back off the nutes a little..the preharvest yellow makes for soft yellow leaves that will turn a khaki color and twist before they fall off..this is nute burn for real.

 

[missnu]

If you use tap water from a city or well you don't need cal mag or Epsom Salts...there is enough in regular water, and some bottled waters...all but distilled ...so other than RO or distilled water you don't need calmag...it is the newbie diagnosis of this cycle...

 

[KI11TH3W3AK]

at any rate ya dude they need longer! give it 2 weeks and you won't regret it. I know harvesting is so dam tempting but its worth the wait! happy growing

 

[missnu]

OMG don't feed them anything at all...you can't fix this with more nutes! I promise...please don't...you'll wish you hadn't...

 

[BigBuddahCheese]

LOL I love the thread nose dive off a cliff here... It's like an Algonquin Round table up in dis house! LOL.

 

[Meintool]

ok ... well i have not fed these plants in about a week and i honestly did not plant to feed them anything... i do know epsom salt contains magnesium i was asking about calcium... but either way i doubt whatever i do now will help them so what i will do is just keep feeding plain water until they are ripe.... but missnu... i have to disagree they definitely are not over fed... they were just fed improperly but 100% positively not over fed i guarentee it if anything.. the beastie bloomz destroyed my soil and cause the roots to not be able to eat the earth juice... thats my conclusion .. i did go quite light with the earth juice which is extremely mild to begin with.... it doesnt really feed the plant... it feeds the microbes and bacteria in the soil which break it down into a form the plant can use... when those microbes and bacteria get killed off by synthetic nutes... uh oh organics dont work anymore (this is what i've read in numerous places however it could be 100% false i dont know) all i know is they arent over fed and there coloring has got to be from either deficiencies or strain or both.. sigh.. and they are fuckin seeded too which is just another kick in the balls...

i can honestly say this though... i finally know how to use earth juice and will not fuck up my next grow i also will not be doing 12/12 from seed next grow because i want some plants that produce first plant harvest 15 grams dry which but i chopped it early cause it hermied... these two plants look like they will produce about the same 15 or so grams... fuck that i want AT LEAST an ounce from each plant on my next grow

at any rate ya dude they need longer! give it 2 weeks and you won't regret it. I know harvesting is so dam tempting but its worth the wait! happy growing

btw just to let you know i will try my damndest to hold off for 2 more weeks... BUT!! my patience has been wearing REAL thin with everything lately and not having any bud to smoke makes it that much worse... i assume ill wait another week and not be able to handle it and chop at least one of them down....

LOL I love the thread nose dive off a cliff here... It's like an Algonquin Round table up in dis house! LOL.

Very productive info you've provided Thanks!

 

[ozbrad]

Chop off some lower branches and dry them while your waiting for the rest to finish if your out.

 

[Harrekin]

At this stage go by your trics, those look like they could be done already, it's the trics you need to watch tho, because usually just before/around optimum harvest time you'll get one last big rush of fresh white pistils, so anything but trics will be misleading.

Plus not all strains will be "pistils retracted and buds swollen" when they hit their peak THC window so some never look "totally" ready, while some can look ready far too early.

Hope this helps.