Trichomes & Harvesting

Brandawg92 said:

I have a microscope that zooms between 60 and 100x. I used to go by this but now im relying one the best method... pick smoke, decide if you got blasted or not. The reason is my chemdawg #4 is 31 days and covered in cloudy trichs. Didn't get me high. And seriously for every 30 cloud's there's about one amber and 2 clears. So I suggest sampling to know if its stoney yet or not

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Did you read the entire first post?
It clearly states that there are other factors important when determining 'peak harvest'.
Such as;

Calyx development, pistils and the general look of the plant.

You aren't seriously asking why a 31 day plant is not ready to be harvested based on the info you gave, are you?

Brandawg92 said:

This is why. It was hard but I got a pic through my microscope. Bottom line View attachment 2292095is you cannabinoid receptors are the only way to know for sure if yo shits dank.

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There are a lot of clear trichomes in that image, I assume it's of the same underdeveloped 31 day plant you spoke of before?

I think you are misunderstanding the chemistry and the biology.
Cannabinoid receptors are in the brain, they are the ones which are activated when they come in contact with ligands, plant cannabinoids, endocannabinoids or synthetic cannabinoids.
The group called plant cannabinoids is the one which contains the well known cannabinoids such as; THC, CBD etc.

Brandawg92 said:

The thread says look at trichs under a microscope and pick if theyre cloudy. Id be misinformed by his "scientific facts" if I didn't know better than to take this as fact

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I clearly state in the first post what factors contribute to determining peak harvest.
If you have not read through the entire post or not understood the entire post you are welcome to ask questions in a polite manner.
This is a sticky, it's meant to help people out it's not a discussion thread.

This has already been stated by roc, but I will reiterate.
If you want to have a discussion on the subject you can open up your own thread.

Brandawg92 said:

Thank you. I was actually hoping to talk to someone who knows what they're talking about. I disagree with this thread and I have provided photos of why. (Apparently unbelievable ones!) An unfinished bud that is ready by your standards. Why defend someone else's opinion so fiercely when all I've done is poke a hole in this theory. Calm your tits.

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I'm sorry that you don't understand the chemistry and the biology that goes into Cannabis but this is not the thread in which to discuss how and why you are mistaken, repeatedly.
People have given you straight forward answers and you have failed to grasp the science, reason and logic behind their arguments.
If someone does not believe in logic, rationale or reason then what logical, rational and/or reasonable argument can one use to convince him otherwise?
Do you see what I mean? This is a futile exercise.
This whole discussion should have been over after the first time roc and hole, rather politely I might add, explained why you are mistaken.

You have poked no hole in any theory, period.
You have poked as much a hole in the science behind trichomes, the rationale, reasoning or logic used in the scientific arguments in this thread, as religious people have poked holes in evolution; which is to say none.

thehole said:

Most accurate trichome post on all of the internet.

Chopping when you have about 5-10% clear, 5-10% amber and the rest cloudy is the best overall time to chop.

Use your flowering times(start from first white pistils showing, not 12/12 switch) and this trichome formula to chop at the best time. It's not rocket science people.

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Very much appreciated

And on the note of strains which never amber, I have experienced that just once, and I think it might have been down to genes acting up or disease/mutation, but who knows really.
I have also experienced pistils not turning any other colour than white, yet still receding.

I have even heard stories of purple and green trichomes, never seen it for myself.
We certainly don't lack myths and legends regarding Cannabis growing, the oddities just makes it all the more fun though.

Someone needs to click "First"

*eyeroll*

Firstly, cheers very much to Koijn for providing such helpful information & secondly, i just wanted to advise anybody who needs to buy a cheap mini-loupe/magnifier that i got a 60x one with 3 LED's on it for £2.86 (about $4.20) off some Chinese seller on Ebay. For such little cost, it is a very worthwhile investment as it saves alot of guesswork & means u don't have to keep fooling yourself into believing your naked eye can see that magnification as equally well! As Koijn rightly said, being able to naked eye view flowering plants & telling if they're done or not is a good ability to have, but i've found it always helps as well to have a microscope/loupe to check trichs as extra confirmation.


Oh, and also, how much are the clones of these 31 day flowering plants being sold for, cause i've got my credit card ready now if that's true!! lol! He brings the revolution & we put his head on a stake outside the city gates!! hehe!

In fact, as a slight side issue (and i promise i'm not a Chinese ebay power seller doing self advertising!) these cheap mini-loupes are also a great present for any kids aged 5+ as they're a brilliant fun & educational toy - my mates kids had a go on mine when they came round once & spent all night looking at every different piece of fabric & surface in my house! They loved it & is a good way of teaching them abit of science & showing them a few different perspectives on the world.

Plus mine has a blue LED so i can check fake banknotes too - useful for when i start money-laundering for my Chinese power seller mates! Oops, gave the game away then! lol!

I haven't harvested yet. Most trichs are now cloudy with a few tinges of amber showing up (in one plant anyway). I can't remember when I started counting the flowering weeks - it seems that I saw buds before the plants fully showed their sex. I forget what info I knew at the time and used to determine when to start counting. I started counting the flowering on June 5, I remember that much. They were slow to get going, and have heard that time frames listed on many sites are 'best case' and more often than not, another week or two is needed. So I thought I might need to wait a bit longer. I'll try to get some better photos posted later today.
Thanks all!

Ok, fought with my camera for a good long while and this is as good as it's going to get haha. Trichs seem mostly cloudy, some clear - didn't see any obvious ambers (hard to tell sometimes if it's amber or just how the light hits it). It's been 13 days since I posted my question. I'm at 10 weeks, 4 days of flowering (I remember that my plants had shown sex before I started counting the flowering days. Is there a percentage of the plant that needs to have pistils before you start your count? Or just as soon as it shows sex?).
According to the site I purchased the seeds from, the flowering period is 7 - 9 weeks. I've read that it's not uncommon to need to wait another 2 weeks beyond the range listed. I'm 3 days shy of 11 weeks of flowering. How much longer should I give them?
Thanks again everyone!

LizRoll - as u say the pics aint the best but from what i can see i'd say u've got quite a high percentage of cloudy/milky trichs & i can only see about 20% clear ones still. Normally i'd say wait another few days but then u do say they been flowering near 11 weeks already - so i'd ask what are the seeds called & also what light are u growing under? I've heard of old-school sativas taking between 11 & 14 weeks and also if ur using CFL's that can sometimes add a week onto normal flowering periods compared to HPS. (ur probably gonna tell me its an auto-flowering indica cross under a 1000W HPS now & i'll be stumped! lol)

I know what u mean about it being hard to tell colour of trichs & sadly only increased magnification will really improve identification. But if ur camera is having trouble distinguishing clear from amber, then i'd say just base ur harvest time on milky alone - if it looks like 85% are milky/cloudy, then u'll just have to ignore the unidentified 15% - and as an uneducated guess, i'd say at 11 weeks ur more likely to find those identified trichs to be more on the amber side than the clear. I could well be wrong but i'd say a chop in a few days would be ok. But i would advise to try posting elsewhere in forum quickly first tho to see what others think - start a new thread maybe as at 12 pages long, a few people might not see this one.

Best of luck tho & i hope at the least its a good learning experience!

Thanks RedWhiteBlueGreen (what a name, haha!)
It's a AutoFem Northern Lights. I started growing under regular incandescent & fluorescent bulbs, swapped the incandescent to CFL about 4 weeks into flowering. I haven't been able to get more light in the closet and stay at an acceptable temp. Lumens have been around 20k (and from what I've read that's half of what it should be). Even with that low amount of lumens, I'm sitting at 80 degrees most of the time.

Given the amount of clear trics, I'm going to wait another week and see how things look. I check trics everyday, since they may change quickly. I can see the trics better with my loupe; and my camera can zoom a little more than what these pics show, but I can't hold it steady enough to not have a blurry pic. Hopefully a week will be enough to get another 5-10% of the clear to at least turn milky, not too concerned with getting amber since that's THC degrading. My mom has informed me she's coming for a visit "soon" and I need to get the harvest done and start curing before she comes.

This is my first grow and I've learned a lot. I've grown a lot of different plants & veggies in my life and never had something so finicky! Haha! But, there is so much misinformation out there, it's easy to follow the wrong advice.
Next grow I'll need to have: more light, better ventilation/cooler temps, & better nutes.

Thanks again to all who've provided feedback - much appreciated!

im growing outdoors my girls are starting to bud i have pollen to make some seeds going to X lambsbread with chocolope for next summer ii have some outrageous plants growing 6 to 8 feet tall 21 plants in the garden i love growing my meds i have not hade to by weed for 17 years thats how long i been growing






Edit: I edited your post because you had quoted the entire first post without quote marks, so essentially you had copied the entire post into yours.

If your trichs are mostly cloudy with some amber I'd harvest now.

OK...so since you said the trichomes with still develop after harvested should you pay more attention to see how they react daily so you can harvest it so by the time they stop developing its at its peak?

At the bottom of one of the psost the guy said TWO DAYS OF DARKNESS? is this true, I am ready to chop tonight or tomorrow which is best? i hope you get this in time for me to do it right.
Tnx,

-B

i personally do not think extra darkness is nessesary. the best time to harvest any type of plants are in the morning. or begining of the lights on cycle.

jokerindustries187 said:

OK...so since you said the trichomes with still develop after harvested should you pay more attention to see how they react daily so you can harvest it so by the time they stop developing its at its peak?

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The final stage in a trichomes development is turning amber.
Therefore you cannot just wait for every trichome to stop developing.
Since you will end up with a majority of amber trichomes and a product which is much less potent than what it potentially could have been.

You won't have to check daily but it would be unwise to not check the trichomes several times during a week.
Perhaps every other day (during final bloom) if you have time for it.

Reelfish2 said:

At the bottom of one of the psost the guy said TWO DAYS OF DARKNESS? is this true, I am ready to chop tonight or tomorrow which is best? i hope you get this in time for me to do it right.
Tnx,

-B

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Who said two days of darkness?
The thing about darkness before harvesting is the same discussion as pre-harvest flushing.

Those who speak for doing so, have no scientific evidence or research proving it works.
People claim all sorts of miracles will happen, like the plant pushing out more trichomes, calyxes growing rapidly etc.
It's all hearsay and it has no value to any rational person who can see the value of reason and scientific evidence.

I'd prefer if we could leave out all the myths, miracles and hearsay from this thread.

I've worked hard to provide scientifically proven evidence of my arguments, research and theses regarding the processes of the Cannabis plant.
Let's not stain it with superstitious nonsense.

Coco and coco specific nutes..no flush as well?

Great post, thank you !

Was wondering when i had to cut my arjans haze3. Its a 70 day sativa and im at day 72 with 30-70 clear/milky trichomes.

But what is the best for a sativa? 0-5% amber and mostly cloudy?

boedhaspeaks said:

Great post, thank you !

Was wondering when i had to cut my arjans haze3. Its a 70 day sativa and im at day 72 with 30-70 clear/milky trichomes.

But what is the best for a sativa? 0-5% amber and mostly cloudy?

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As high a percentage of cloudy as possible is the best for any strain, of any phenotype (Indica, Sativa).
Since clear trichomes contain nothing but precursor cannabinoids it's preferable to have amber over clear since amber trichomes do contain some psychoactive cannabinoids.
But trichomes are constantly produced and it is near impossible to end up with 0% clear or 0% amber.
Just try to get as close to a max cloudy percentage as possible.

Pure Sativas and 'mainly' Sativas take quite a lot longer to fully bloom than hybrids and Indicas.
I don't know the particular strain but if it's a full Sativa or a majority Sativa then it could quite a while longer to finish than 72 days.

Thank you, gonna check the trichomes twice a day from now on to pick the best harvest moment.