Mr Nice SSH - barely any amber trichomes after 17 weeks???

hi i have been growing this plant since February, most trichs are cloudy but i like to harvest with some amber at least, however this does not seem to be happening!
Plus the plant is putting out new pistils still at the top - some buds down lower do actually look to be almost ready as pistils are receding and have gone orange

So does anyone know if this is normal for SSH and maybe i should just chop now at cloudy trichs as amber may not happen? I have read elsewhere that not all Sativas will actually end up with amber trichs at all......thanks

Recently I have turned the light as you can see some foxtailing there, the temps have never gone over 28C though - also stopped feeding nutes about a week or so ago as it looked at that time i would be harvesting soon, was that a bad idea?

Hi Yosim - it looks like you have a ripper crop on the go there.
I don't have an answer to you question, but I have been growing a few New York Diesel Haze, which I believe are a first cross with Mr Nice's SSH . Mine is a perpetual grow in soil, and the NYDH have followed some fast-finishing Critical Skunk, so I've had a significant delay between harvesting events.
My first pair of plants looked exactly like yours when I cut them and, like yours, there were no amber trics. After the 12th week, the foxtailing was the only thing that seemed to change from week to week and I still had some white pistils around the place. There was no way I could leave them any longer, because the veg tent is backing-up, and I've had problems in the past with over-vegging and having to trim in ways that I haven't been happy with.
My first 2 plants are drying now, so I'll let you know how they go.
As a matter of interest, and on the subject of feeding, I watched them suffer from what I believe was nitrogen deficiency which started at around 4-5 weeks into flowering - nearly all the fan leaves were yellow by week 6. In the plants that are following these 2, I was able to get a hit of slow-release fertiliser in before the yellowing became too much of a problem, it will be very interesting to see if this helps them to finish better. They certainly look much healthier than the ones that are drying now looked at the same stage.
Heavy, heavy crop on them though - I'm a fairly new grower and I'm feeling quite happy with this choice of later-finishing plants.
Good luck finding out what to do next.

@Mullumbimby thanks for your thoughts, i have never had a plant go as long as this so im in uncharted waters

Don't read too much into all the "your trichs must be amber" bullshit.

Some plants under certain conditions will never, ever turn amber. Generally speaking, when they start going cloudy, you've got from 10 days to two weeks before they're done. If they're going to start turning amber, they'll at least start turning by then. If they don't, go ahead and harvest anyway because it's never going to happen.

Believe it or not, it happens (trichs NOT turning amber) a great deal of the time.

TacoMac said:

Don't read too much into all the "your trichs must be amber" bullshit.

Some plants under certain conditions will never, ever turn amber. Generally speaking, when they start going cloudy, you've got from 10 days to two weeks before they're done. If they're going to start turning amber, they'll at least start turning by then. If they don't, go ahead and harvest anyway because it's never going to happen.

Believe it or not, it happens (trichs NOT turning amber) a great deal of the time.

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ok that's good to know! thanks! well I guess I will think about harvesting very soon in that case

finally harvested after 139 days flowering, which is just shy of 20 weeks - got some more trichomes that had a kind of yellow translucent appearance, also much more pistils had receded - hopefully it smokes good!

well the smoke is a bit disappointing - feels like too much body and not really very interesting in the head - i probably let it go too long, don't think I would bother growing this again

yosim said:

well the smoke is a bit disappointing - feels like too much body and not really very interesting in the head - i probably let it go too long, don't think I would bother growing this again

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damn too bad man, I had a similar issue with my gorilla glue. Barely any amber I went to about 13 weeks flower on what I saw everyone else was doing in 9 weeks.

I am whipping all my SSH crosses out at about 12 weeks. It's a seriously good-quality smoke and everyone who has had a go at it loves it.
Here's the thing though - it's not really that much better than the Critical Skunk and doesn't yield more, so I'm finding it hard to justify the 50% extra flowering time.
I have had good success with the extra nitrogen (slow-release osmocote-like granules) at around 4 weeks flowering - this has put a stop to the early yellowing of the lower leaves, so I'm tinkering with feeding my soil a bit more now.
It seems to me that growing in a good, well-fed soil mix drives up quality to such an extent that - in my situation anyway - the quest for the better weed through strain selection is overwhelmed. It's all just great.
I'm going back to Critical Skunk now, and leaving the longer-flowering strains to those who are able to benefit from the extra time, 'cos I simply can't.
@yosim , do you think you have benefited from trying the Mr Nice SSH?

looking killer! dry some, see where you like it as is plant looks to be using up its resources, could be a few weeks more. had a choc thai hit flower around July didn't have a staggered harvest till late Jan to mid February, 17 foot of cannabis space rocket though. even then it was mainly cloudy and it could of gone more i bet. You've got a strong sativa pheno i guess, sometimes they just stack new growth over the old like that. looks first rate though

Mullumbimby said:

I am whipping all my SSH crosses out at about 12 weeks. It's a seriously good-quality smoke and everyone who has had a go at it loves it.
Here's the thing though - it's not really that much better than the Critical Skunk and doesn't yield more, so I'm finding it hard to justify the 50% extra flowering time.
I have had good success with the extra nitrogen (slow-release osmocote-like granules) at around 4 weeks flowering - this has put a stop to the early yellowing of the lower leaves, so I'm tinkering with feeding my soil a bit more now.
It seems to me that growing in a good, well-fed soil mix drives up quality to such an extent that - in my situation anyway - the quest for the better weed through strain selection is overwhelmed. It's all just great.
I'm going back to Critical Skunk now, and leaving the longer-flowering strains to those who are able to benefit from the extra time, 'cos I simply can't.
@yosim , do you think you have benefited from trying the Mr Nice SSH?

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i wouldn't bother trying it again, the flowering time was just too long, I have already put down some Sannie's Jack for my next run as I much preferred it to SSH - i think you would need to grow a good few SSH to get a nice pheno, I'm sure there are better ones than the pheno I got

yosim said:

well the smoke is a bit disappointing - feels like too much body and not really very interesting in the head - i probably let it go too long, don't think I would bother growing this again

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yosim said:

i wouldn't bother trying it again, the flowering time was just too long, I have already put down some Sannie's Jack for my next run as I much preferred it to SSH - i think you would need to grow a good few SSH to get a nice pheno, I'm sure there are better ones than the pheno I got

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I tried to grow it a few years ago. Ran it 14 weeks before giving up. It's just not for me. I'd much rather devote 10 weeks to some Ghost Train Haze.