Funny, if you go back in my grow thread you will see how I said the same thing about my recent DNA harvest. DNA said 8-9 weeks and my plants went 10-11 weeks.
Yes I remember you posted that, I think you mentioned it in this thread too. DNA should perhaps put some more weight on the flowering time trait during their selection.
To be fair it's the same with other breeders too. I always assume 1-2 additional weeks to the high end of the breeder's info - OR - start counting when they are really flowering and not when switching to 12/12 and especially not when switching relatively early (which many of us do indoors growing from seed do).
Just let the trichs do the talking and you wont go wrong.
Yeah I'm not worried about me harvesting too soon
Didn't expect them to be ready in 8-9 weeks, just to be fatter after 7 weeks 12/12. Took 17 days or so for preflowers last round. This round I had pre-flowers after 6-7 days, so basically after 7 weeks 12/12 the current plants have actually flowered about a week longer.
Trics are useful for determining the 'day' to harvest, not so much the week. As long as new pistils and calyxes are created/swelling new trichs will be added as well. And that's the thing, I'm growing from one rez, and all roots from plants in one tube are a single mass of roots, so it's important to keep a close eye on their individual progress before trics start to really matter. Plants use less nutes 'before' they start using less water, so I need to adjust the nutes solution (reduce ppm) more often during the last week.
For example, I ran 100PPM
lower last night, and still burned the tips of 'all' plants. Not dramatically (they're all like the Kolossus now
), but it shows how fast it goes especially in a small setup. The SK2 uses less nutes but not that much less water leaving more nutes in the rez, which increases exponentially.
See pics of two similar buds:
SK2:
SK1:
As you can see, the SK2 is ahead of SK1 that is still fully white 'pistilled'. Trics are mostly milky (few transparent), but the SK2 clearly won't need as long as the rest. It probably will be done in the 8-9 weeks (2 weeks from now). I don't expect that one to fatten up that much and pull its weight in the total. If it's ready a week or more before the rest, I will have to harvest it partially first, to keep the plant alive and more importantly, the roots healthy (else everything starts to rot). The upside of that is that it will get me a few grams extra from letting the lower/fluffier part bulk up a bit.
Seems like I may have crossed a long flowering SK with a short flowering... still a small chance I'll be growing from my own seeds next cycle.