First Harvest... How Soon Should I Harvest????

mayrequiempass said:

Hey Pelt, thanks for writing up that info, its always nice to be able to learn from people who have already experienced it. Im interested in your northern lights hermied grows as my NL hermied this time and I would love to be able to use those seeds. How were your grows with the hermied seeds? I have read that some seeds from a hermied plant will be a hermied because of the stress that the mother endured. But I have also found articles relating to specific strains and hermaphrodite plants passing on the trait to the kids. How did the number of seeds in your hermie grow compare to the plant your first got the seed from?

I have opened up to seeds from my NL and they look fully mature and dark in color. I would love to be able to use these seeds and have all the same strain from the same parent as well.

I wish I had a way to look at the trichs, i want to get a microscope but the radioshack by my place is just a cell phone store. As of right now im basing my opinion off of the color of the pistils and the color of the buds, which doesnt tell me much haha But even though im gonna harvest early I love that either way im gonna be getting high from my own buds, and it'll keep some more sativa characteristics.

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About the seeds. In that "Group A" listed, I think I had 2 plants..... and one of them hermied right at the very end on me. During harvest, I think I found about 10-15 seeds. I kept all of them. What I did was let them dry out for a few days in the dark, and then I stored them in the fridge. Months later, I didn't really feel like going through the hassle of ordering seeds, so I decided to see if they would grow?!?!

And suprisingly they all did, at least the 5 or so plants I've tried so far(some groups have more than one plant in them). And they all grew well, just like the originals did, and so far, they've all been females thus far. They seemed to all have the same traits as the originals, at least as best as I can remember. I haven't had any of them hermie on me so far either. I currently have a Jock Horror Herm seed growing that happens to be my most mature plant and she is doing great.

So I figure if you do collect some seeds, it's worth saving them for a time when you may not have any stock of seeds to grow.

As far as the scope, I don't have a great one myself. The two I ordered, I purchased off of ebay from some place in China for less than $10.00 USD including shipping. The first one I ordered, had a 10x and a 20x scope. This is sufficient, but it's a PITA. The next one I wound up ordering was also less than $10, and has a 30x and 60x. This one is a bit easier to use, and has a light on it, which surprisingly is helpful. I posted some pics of my magnifyer somewhere, my avatar is actually a closeup I took with the 10x/ scope a while back with the first one I had.

Your plants do look good though. They look better than my first grow did at least.

Thanks for the encouragement, Im looking forward to planting these northern lights seeds now. My timer fucked up and would sometimes turn on in the middle of their dark cycle. I figure this is why they had hermied. Hopefully the females I grow next wont hermie.

So I have decided to pull my northern lights tonight, so it can dry over the easter weekend. I know it may be early to pull her but almost every single hair on her has turned orange and i believe this will continue over the next few days of drying. She is getting a beautiful color, cant wait to see how she looks all trimmed up and dried.

Here's a few pics of her this morning (their nighttime) before the lights went off:




and here is a couple shots of the pakistani ryder I cut down two nights ago, it was pretty much just one little cola, I already picked off 3 healthy seeds from it which will probably be given a way to a couple friends.




Im hoping to just get around an 8th from this little guy, he was very small and wasn't given very much light through his life, I cut him down just to give an estimate of how fast they will be drying and whatnot.

The nl looks nice you'll be fine cutting it now. You could let it go a bit longer and it may fill out a bit more but personally I prefer to cut with mostly cloudy. I find the high is better at that time. I only cut the large fan leaves before drying. This leaves the smaller sugar leaves to dry with the bud which makes the dry more slow and the smaller leaves also protect the trichomes on the buds. Ideal.drying conditions are 65-75° 45-55% and dark. There should be good air movement but not directly blowing on the buds. The dry should take 5-10 days. When the buds are crispy on the outside and snap off the branch without stringing to the branch. At that point I remove all buds from branches and manicure the buds, or trim the smaller leaves all off and then jar.

Well I actually decided to harvest tonight, Just got done trimming up the Northern Lights, The other plants still have quite a few weeks ahead of them. Microscope came in the mail today and thats what let me confirm the ripeness of the NL. They were mostly cloudy with some amber maybe 5-10 %. I took a couple pics of the drying box i made, just a cardboard box with some fishing string in there to hang the buds from.

I cant dry in a place thats completely dark because of where im living right now, but they are shaded from most light and its very very faint, i think they will be ok for drying. a fan is faced away from them on the lowest setting, they barely move back and forth but it looks as if there is a very gentle air stream around them:



Anyone wanna guess what this plant will yield? (for my hopes lol)

bump........

pelt1 said:

Nothing wrong with harvesting when you wish, and I can't see the trichs, but those babies look like they have a LOT of time left before they are ready. When buds are ready, I've found that they seriously fatten up, and become dense. Those look quite a bit fluffy and ways away from being ready. If you are on day 55, I've never really seen bud at day 55 that didn't need another 30 days of flower.

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... u never grown PK? at day 40 of flower they usually look done, usually give it til 50-60 depending on trichs.

what was the yield??

They havent all finished yet but I did chop the AK and NL, from the both of those I got roughly 32 grams dried. i still have a few weeks to go with the other two strains. heres some pics of them dried.


An the NL.