How many more weeks on this sour cream?
- Thread starter mr2shim
- Start date
racerboy71
bud bootlegger
if i remember correctly, i think i let my sour cream go about ten weeks or so...
Brick Top
New Member
If that is DNA Genetics Sour Cream it is 80% sativa. Pure sativas and highly predominant sativas reach peak THC levels when the trichomes are still clear, just before they cloud. If someone wants peak THC levels in strains of that type they will harvest when there is only a handful of cloudy/milky trichomes.
acidbox420
Active Member
looks like some hairs are receding if they are thats a sign that is close to done
mr2shim
Well-Known Member
Yea, it's DNA genetics. I didn't know that. I think it will finish soon then.
I would say a little over half of the hairs on the man stem are red. Probably 60% And they are receding. More so than the other plant.
Brick Top
New Member
That is a common sign but not one that will always happen, or happen much, by the time plants are ready to be harvested. Some strains, Mantanuska Tundra for example, will still have white pistils when plants are ready to be harvested.
Before people learned how to read trichomes to judge when is best to harvest they had to go by easily visible signs, and pistils were one. Since learning about trichome color that has changed. Trichome color is the surest way to judge if plants are ready to be harvested.
Brick Top
New Member
If they were mine they would have been flushed and harvested by now but since they are yours the decision is yours and only yours too make.
You might want to nip a small bud or piece of a somewhat larger bud and allow it too dry, without using heat because that will degrade THC and not give you an accurate sampling, and sample it and then decide.
Keep in mind though that during a slow dry followed by a long cure it will become more potent. When harvested a percentage of THC is in a non-psychoactive form and during a slow dry and long cure it will become fully psychoactive and therefore more potent.
mr2shim
Well-Known Member
Cool, thanks for the info. I was going by the dna website, you bring up some points I never knew. I'll definitely remember that. + rep
Hard decisions, as much as I want to chop it I don't want to chop it down too early. I was hoping to at least get 7 weeks of 12/12 out of it. I think I'll flush the sour cream Sunday, chop it the following Sunday or Monday.
Brick Top
New Member
Always keep in mind that breeder information is a 'your mileage may vary' sort of thing. Actual length of time to harvest will be different when grown in different growing conditions than the breeder tested theirs in.
One thing you have going for you is how slow something that is a pure sativa, or as in your case, something that is a very predominantly sativa cross, matures. There is roughly a 2-week window of opportunity to harvest a pure or highly predominant sativa at or very near peak THC potency and in pure indicas and highly predominant indica crosses the widow of opportunity can be as short as only several days.
Brick Top
New Member
Tests have been performed where plants were given a 72-hour period of darkness before being harvested and there was a THC level increase of up to 30% in some strains. The way the tests were performed the results might be somewhat questionable in that one group of plants were harvested and the others received an additional 72-hours of darkness so possibly there would have been some increase in the harvested group had it been left in a normal light cycle for an additional 72-hours. That might have meant the increase from a period of darkness could have been more like up to 25% or maybe up to 20% or maybe even only 16%. However the results might have changed it only makes sense that an extended period of darkness should increase levels of THC and it could be significant in some strains.
THC works like 'sunscreen' in trichome heads protecting the delicate inner glands from damaging light rays. In doing so some THC breaks down. What is lost is replaced every night, plus a little more, so there is a slow gradual buildup. But if plants finish in total darkness there would not be the normal daily loss and only an increase. As tests showed, the increase did vary from strain to strain but there should be some increase.
It explains why outdoor crops harvested before daybreak are more potent than crops harvested later in the day. Growers were doing that ages ago. They did not actually know why it was better, they just stumbled across it and realized it made a difference and then stuck with it.
The practice pretty much seems to have died out. It became seen as an old hippie myth or old hippie folklore and not believed. Even though testing has shown an increase is likely, in this day and age beliefs are more believed than facts and unless 'some young guy' says something worked great for him others seldom believe something works. Old school is out and all that matters to many people is what was dreamed up earlier today, or at least believed to have only been dreamed up earlier today.
The way I see it is even if some strains will only have a 2% or a 5% or a 12% increase in THC why not take advantage of the chance of gaining it? Look at what growers do. They spend a good bit of money, sometimes a lot of money, on genetics and they spend a bunch on a decent or better setup and they spend all sorts of money on 'designer fertilizers' and they spend money on other supplements and some spend money on CO2 and some spend money to supplement their lighting with UVB lighting .. all trying to squeeze the last tiny bit of THC out of their genetics .... and then they pass up doing something that is free. There cannot be a loss of THC and while it may only make a small difference in some strains, in other strains it can make what could be a substantial difference.
It doesn't make any sense too me to pass up something that does make a difference and is absolutely free when doing it could give them the icing on the cake everyone drools over.
I do it. I will not swear that it works because I do not run a test group of the very same genetics, as in all grown from clones, and I do not have high tech equipment to check THC levels with. Some people say they tried it and it does not work, but then they do not run test groups of the very same genetics and they do not have high tech equipment to test THC levels with either. Plus even though it is a 72-hour period of darkness most people say a 24-hour or 36-hour period of darkness and while there would likely still be an increase it would not be as dramatic and less likely to be noticeable enough for them to accurately be able to say how one crop differed from the last time they grew the same strain, likely from seed and not from clones from the same plants, and tried it.
They tend to believe that even though they did not do it correctly and even though they rely on sensory observations and memory to formulate their conclusions that what they 'decide' is more valid than actual test results ... so they say it does not work.
Maybe they are right and the tests were wrong ..... but I will continue to do it.
