Amber Trichomes?

High All,
My plants are getting close to harvest -- all the trichomes are either clear or cloudy, and I have been reading lots of different information about when to harvest. My intention was to harvest when about 1/3 of the trichomes are amber, but I'd like to hear from some of the experts here. Any of the old pros have an opinion about percentage of amber trichomes?

i like ur opinion. can i borrow it?

70 Percent amber trichomes will give you a good medicinal couchlock, which i tend to go towards as my bud lasts longer haha. but clear to cloudy with just like 10 to 15 percent will give you a heady high, you probably heard this before like but peoples preferances differ dont they. Keep up the good work and remember never tell your right hand what your left hands doin, loose lips sink ships, lol peace my friend.

10 To 15 percent amber was the original words in my head, i told you couchlock was my preferance lol.

OK, so somewhere between 10 and 70 for heady to couchlock. Anyone else have an informed opinion?
Thanx again,
Bob in Arizona

IMO make sure you see some amber before you cut.

dannyboy, i'm not sure i follow -- but if you can discover an opinion in my post, you're welcome to it.
thanx, bob in arizona

RobertInAz said:

dannyboy, i'm not sure i follow -- but if you can discover an opinion in my post, you're welcome to it.
thanx, bob in arizona

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unless i misunderstoddd...
i believe u were of the opinion that thirty percent amber was nice and so i just agreed. i like 30%
i was also making an attempt at humor. lol.

Sorry, Dboy ...a lot of what people say flies right over my head. I've been that way for so long that, to avoid misinterpreting, I think I tend to analyze everything anyone says, and half the time that makes it worse.
All the best, Bob

RobertInAz said:

Sorry, Dboy ...a lot of what people say flies right over my head. I've been that way for so long that, to avoid misinterpreting, I think I tend to analyze everything anyone says, and half the time that makes it worse.
All the best, Bob

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First off let me say this Congrats for growing in AZ! You got more balls than I do even with my AZ card I only feel "safe" growing in Cali.

Anyways like everyone else said the levels of amber trichs varies based upon the preferences of the grower. I for example like a head high with a little couch lock to help my stomach so I'm thinking about harvesting when its around 20%. What kind of high do you like? Maybe I can recommend a % based on that

RawBudzski said:

IMO make sure you see some amber before you cut.

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This is a good answer. The amber trichs are a sign of maturity, so if you were to harvest before seeing amber you'd be harvesting too early. And one or 2 amber trichs wouldn't really be a good indicator because the buds are all varying in maturity around the plant. So you want to see a little bit of amber everywhere so you can be sure.

I don't believe in fine-tuning your buzz via trichs, I think it would be impossible to have that much control over the high. However, harvesting too early (no amber) would be as foolish as harvesting too late (mostly amber) and the buzz does differ between these degrees of ripeness so to that effect there is some truth in the matter.

If you want to "dial in" on your buzz, do this via picking a strain that delivers the high you want. Use the amber as a guide as to ripeness.

Thanks for your response, Priest. I am looking for a strain that allows me to be physically active and doesn't affect my memory. To that end, I am growing strains that have high CBD and CBN content, rather than THC. The strains I am growing are Shark Attack (Dinafem), Moby Dick (Green House), Critical Jack Herer (Delicious), Jorge's Diamonds #1 (Dutch Passion), Black Jack (Sweet), Chrystal (Nirvana), and Opium (Paradise). They are all various mixtures of Sativa and Indica. Any thoughts you have would be welcome.
Thanks again, Bob

Hi WBD,
Your reply came in just after I answered Priest's, but your response about picking a strain is right on. If you would, please review the strains I mentioned in my reply to Priest and let me know if you have any thoughts. I forget which, but some of the strains I chose have CBDs in the 8% range, and I have noticed that when the high comes from CBD, I have no memory loss and/or spaciness the next day, -- or red eyes either, for that matter. I am looking for the strain that allows me to turn my work outs into a Zen experience, allows me to read books without forgetting the previous sentence, and allows me to watch a movie and be able to remember it in detail later. Secondarily, it should help me sleep and help me alleviate my back pain -- but they all pretty much do that.
All the best, Bob

If you want something that allows you to be active, you want a high THC content, not a CBD/CBN content. High CBD/CBN content will have you wanting to quail out and sleep, not be active. If you want an active, happy, up buzz you're gonna need a Sativa or Sativa Dom hybrid, not the medicinal indicas other people here are suggesting...the amount of misinformation is shocking.

It seems that I keep getting mixed messages. Here's what I know: If sativas are considered the "up", active highs, and indicas are couchlock, then I want sativas or sativa doms. However, I had a hermie infect my last crop, and I therefore made hash out of it. I noticed that my #74 strainer bag had captured pretty much all the orange-colored pistil hairs. All the smaller trichomes went through the #74 screen and were captured in the #23 screen. I smoked the pistils and found that I like that high, and it was my understanding that the pistils contain a larger amount of CBN and CBD than the rest of the bud. So, for my current crop, I chose strains that have high CBD and CBN. Any comments re: this would be welcome.
Thanx again, Bob

My experience after growing so much bag seed is that if it's mostly sativa, you should just harvest when just mostly cloudy and indica dominant should have 20%-30% amber trichs before harvesting. If it's a sativa and you wait for 50% amber trich, you'll end up waiting a long time just for knock-out, bed time bud.

Duece, that's a very interesting comment. It makes sense to me that you might treat sativas differently than indicas, and that the cannabinoids that predominate in sativas would be truer to their nature if harvested before they became more indica-like, which would happen if you waited. Your idea sounds like a viewpoint arrived at by experience, rather than by having read it somewhere. Thanks. Here's what I'm going to do: I will harvest half my crop at 15% amber for the sativas and 33% for the indicas, and the other half at 33% for the sativas and 50% for the indicas. And then I'll do a taste test and send you all the results.
Thanks again, Bob

RobertInAz said:

It seems that I keep getting mixed messages.

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Welcome to RIU!

I go to about three quarters amber.

wbd said:

This is a good answer. The amber trichs are a sign of maturity, so if you were to harvest before seeing amber you'd be harvesting too early. And one or 2 amber trichs wouldn't really be a good indicator because the buds are all varying in maturity around the plant. So you want to see a little bit of amber everywhere so you can be sure.

I don't believe in fine-tuning your buzz via trichs, I think it would be impossible to have that much control over the high. However, harvesting too early (no amber) would be as foolish as harvesting too late (mostly amber) and the buzz does differ between these degrees of ripeness so to that effect there is some truth in the matter.

If you want to "dial in" on your buzz, do this via picking a strain that delivers the high you want. Use the amber as a guide as to ripeness.

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This Altho the trichomes can affect the buzz slightly you're better off picking strains for specific effects

RobertInAz said:

Hi WBD,
Your reply came in just after I answered Priest's, but your response about picking a strain is right on. If you would, please review the strains I mentioned in my reply to Priest and let me know if you have any thoughts. I forget which, but some of the strains I chose have CBDs in the 8% range, and I have noticed that when the high comes from CBD, I have no memory loss and/or spaciness the next day, -- or red eyes either, for that matter. I am looking for the strain that allows me to turn my work outs into a Zen experience, allows me to read books without forgetting the previous sentence, and allows me to watch a movie and be able to remember it in detail later. Secondarily, it should help me sleep and help me alleviate my back pain -- but they all pretty much do that.
All the best, Bob

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CBD is actually not psychoactive so the high isnt coming from CBD at all however the memory protection/no spaciness/no red eyes most likely is. You should look into the strain called Harlequin. It tends to grow with a THC:CBD ratio pretty close to 1:1.

RobertInAz said:

It seems that I keep getting mixed messages. Here's what I know: If sativas are considered the "up", active highs, and indicas are couchlock, then I want sativas or sativa doms. However, I had a hermie infect my last crop, and I therefore made hash out of it. I noticed that my #74 strainer bag had captured pretty much all the orange-colored pistil hairs. All the smaller trichomes went through the #74 screen and were captured in the #23 screen. I smoked the pistils and found that I like that high, and it was my understanding that the pistils contain a larger amount of CBN and CBD than the rest of the bud. So, for my current crop, I chose strains that have high CBD and CBN. Any comments re: this would be welcome.
Thanx again, Bob

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The pistols actually contain only trace amounts of cannabinoids if at all. Most likely there were trichomes stuck to them otherwise there wouldnt have been a high The cannabinoids are found in the trichomes and are all mixed together. As for CBN.. THC degrades into CBN over time. CBN is much less psychoactive, and much less medicinal, but very sleepy. Basically you would always want THC instead

Just remembered another strain for you also. Cannatonic also tends to grow with a 1:1 ratio of thc:cbd, and i believe its a sativa dominant