Almost ready??? w/ pics

Hi,
As you can see in my pics, my plants have been flowering. They are lowriders (autoflowering) which had to be forced to flower (12/12) because they got to tall (over 24" for the biggest 2) a little over 4 wks ago. Some of the buds are kinda dense but also have alot of small ones. The plants had lots of problems and due to the assistance of RIU folks they survived. I am using 16 - 26 watt CFLs. The trichs are milk white and starting to show a little amber. The pistals are just starting to turn brown a bit. The bud s and bud leaves look kinda frosty. QUESTION...is it time to start flushing? I have been feeding 19-31-17 once or twice a week for about a month now. I know they don't look too hot but they are lowriders supposed to mature at 9 weeks and they are already 13 weeks. They have been getting yellower and dropping alot of leaves. How much longer before shes done???!
Thanks for your assistance.

bump...anyone?????

bump again..any opinions?

you have a while to wait imo.

you are getting there

Do you think I should stop feeding nutes and flush or continue? I don't want to stop the nutes but if they are going to be ready to harvest within a week or two I have to water only for a while before harvest., right???

tommypd said:

Do you think I should stop feeding nutes and flush or continue? I don't want to stop the nutes but if they are going to be ready to harvest within a week or two I have to water only for a while before harvest., right???

Click to expand...

I also have some LR2....mine are 7 weeks and budding like hell....I love looking at the buds under magnification but a macro shot with a digital camera is my fav. 3 out of 5 of my fems are 28-30 inches and under hps 24/0 now. I kept one fem lr2 to finish it under floros where they started and it too is getting very full with cluster of buds. Damn if I don't think the floro one is actually thicker with buds than the ones under hps....
LR2 are fun to grow and I'm psyched at growing my own smoke for a change rather than waiting on someone to hook me up...we all know how that goes....

I have some short stuff Onyx seedlings waiting in the wings for the next grow.

bump again...any opinions??

those pics would suggest to me that you still have a reasonable amount of time left .... your patience will be well rewarded ..... I would also be inclined to continue to feed them adequately at this stage .... possibly even upping the p-k for blooming? Good luck. looking fine for sure!

In my honest opinion, those plants are nowhere near being done. You still have several weeks to go.

The plant still has fully white calyx hairs. When the buds are done and ready to be harvested, nearly all of those hairs will have turned a darker color and will have shriveled back into the swollen calyx. The calyxs will look like big swollen balloons at this point.

As far as nutes go, you're plant still needs them, it it looks like it may have a few deficiencies judging by your yellowed leaves. Keep feeding her. She does not need to be flushed yet.

I ran into a similar issue with my first few grows where I over anticipated the flushing part. Don't worry about flushing. Your plants are not going to be covered in white hairs one day and BOOM 24 hrs later be covered in red hairs and swollen calyxes just dying to be harvested. The buds ripen rather slowly. You may see red or brown hairs 3 or 4 weeks before the plant is truly ripe.

This should be your rule of thumb...until you decide you want to use the trich watching method.

1.keep feeding your plants nutes on a regular basis

2.when you see some red hairs and the buds are all yummy and covered in trichomes, keep feeding it nutes.

3. when 55% of the hairs are COMPLETELY red and COMPLETELY shriveled back into the calyx (the hair wont be long and straight at this point) stop adding nutes to the water.

4.Wait at least a week, then pull.

BTW, I'm epxerimenting with molasses in my water. It's supposed to increase yield by a decent percentage. I can't give you a definite "yes it helps" or "no it doesn't", but I can tell you that molasses is $3 from wal-mart and it sure as hell doesn't seem to hurt my plants any

Good luck with the grow man! I hope your patience pays off!

i used molasses (black strap), think i ph'd it at 5! Caused me untold problems.... wont ever use it again.

not sayin it cant be used correctly but its much more acidic than the nutes i bought after i had the molasses.

1-2tblsp of molassses per gallon of ph'd water has worked well for me in my grows. I have also used up to 3tblsp per gallon.

yeh, im sure its suitable for many people, possibly more experianced than i am, i just dont think its that forgiving when you get it wrong.

interesting perspective, I had not experienced those challenges but understand what you mean .... growing as a whole is full of naasty variables that we try to manage and sometimes .... it works, and other times it doesn't. A dynamic and learning place all the time! Walking on!!~~~~~~

stoner1984 said:

yeh, im sure its suitable for many people, possibly more experianced than i am, i just dont think its that forgiving when you get it wrong.

Click to expand...

i think u might want to look into more lights, if ur plant is alrerady 13 weeks old its probobly not getting enough. How many lights do u have and how close are they to the plants bud sites

definately have at least 3 weeks of flowering left man.....keep doing what your doing and bfam is right .....start feeding her mollasses.....1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons every time you water them....that will help fatten those buds up....

Thanks for all the help...I am going to "let her ride" for a while. Only prob may be that I am negotiating on a new job and if it works out I may have to relocate in the next few weeks. When that happens I'm going to have to harvest...even if it's not ready. If I harvest early will my buds be sweet, will the potency suffer, etc ( of course the yield will be smaller)???
Thanks..!

BTW..Three plants are under 16 -27Watt 2700 CFLs. They are all withing 2-3 inches and spread over colas all around the plants. In a box 18" X 2ft X 4ft high. Temps average around 80 degrees.

tommypd said:

BTW..Three plants are under 16 -27Watt 2700 CFLs. They are all withing 2-3 inches and spread over colas all around the plants. In a box 18" X 2ft X 4ft high. Temps average around 80 degrees.

Click to expand...

Yeah, your potency, yield, etc will all suffer from harvesting early, but it all depends on just how early. If your trichs haven't had a chance to start turning milky and or amber, you will generally get a very clear head high that does not last very long at all. For a couchlock stone you I wouldn't plan on harvesting early.

Thanks bfam +reps