Harvesting

I am new to growing. I have only started with one female plant, outdoors. My thing is that I'm not exactly sure when it's ready to harvest. I don't have a jewelers microscope, or whatever it's called, so just going on a whim. From everything I've read I think it's almost ready to harvest. The pictures I have attached were just taken today. I watched a youtube video yesterday saying that if you're not 100% sure that you can take a small bud, trim it and nuke it in the microwave until dry and smoke it to check......has anyone else done this? Or does anyone know if you can do that? Any help would be greatly appreciated!! I've never been able to grow anything, and in fact have even killed a cactus, so I'm very excited that I have been able to grow this and look forward to reaping the rewards

post a full plant pic., I'm thinking 4 weeks from present pics, yes you could microwave a small bud, won't taste great but could get an idea of the buzz it gives

It looks a while off yet.

Do yourself a favour and buy a scope or 'loupe'. I bought my scope for $40 from my local head shop, and my loupe (which I much prefer) for $4 on eBay.

-spek

Here is the full plant. It's about 3' tall. My problem with letting it go another month is that I live in Canada and I'm pretty sure we'll have frost within the next few weeks.

Thanks spek9. I'll check ebay out.

CaddyCatCat said:

Here is the full plant. It's about 3' tall. My problem with letting it go another month is that I live in Canada and I'm pretty sure we'll have frost within the next few weeks.

Click to expand...

I live in Canada. When I was growing outdoors, I was in the Toronto area, and harvested between end of Sept and end of Oct.

If it starts getting too cold where you are (it snowed 12" here in AB last week), put a burlap sack over the plant at night, or make a makeshift cover with tarp and some wood/sticks to cover it.

-spek

It needs by the looks of it at least 3 weeks. Don't get too anxious to chop it down man, that bitch is gonna double the size of those buds in these next few weeks before its finished. If you want a jewelers loupe go to your local jeweler or pawn shop. I got mine at a pawn shop for 10 bucks, easy peasy good luck.

Thanks. I've just gone on ebay and ordered myself a loupe. Should have it within the next couple of weeks so will check with that. I'll have to google it when I'm ready to try it out.

It's pretty simple with a loupe. Lots of info on this site and others about how to check the trichomes to find optimum harvest day. Essentially, you want to have mostly cloudy with ~10% still clear and ~10% turned amber.

-spek

Thanks everyone for the info!! Glad I posted this question or I would've harvested way too early!

You don't need a 'scope to see the frost that will cover your buds. They show up anytime after 3 weeks flowering. We use a 'scope to look at the frost, trichomes, to gauge their color. Darker the tri's the more mature the THC.

Here's what us OGs used to do back before microscopes were invented. When the top buds get frosty I start to give one of them a gentle squeeze using my whole palm. Every other day or so I squeeze the same bud. Soon you will be able to feel the increase in size, but more importantly, you get a "feel" for how solid or dense the bud is. After 4-5 weeks I also sniff the squeezing hand and look closely at it. At 5+ weeks I can gauge the size, density, maturity (relatively), as well as feel, smell and taste the sticky paw. Realize that this method is a large factor of experience. At first you will be just storing knowledge for future grows. After the first grow you will start to get a hang for bud maturity using your tactile senses rather than a 'scope. NOTE -- I've been doing this for years and still use a hand-held 30X 'scope while flowering strains I'm not familiar with. Example -- I run a perpetual grow and harvest 2 plants a week. The last 6 months or so I've been running Blueberry Gum for 60-70% of my plants. Reason is that the BG is easy and fast to clone. I've grown the strain so much I don't even bother squeezing buds anymore. Having finished dozens of the strain I know what stage of maturity I'm looking at by looks alone. Again, experience = better product with less time.

Good luck, BigSteve.

Thanks BigSteve. Like I said, this is the first time for me growing a plant so I really have zero idea of what I'm looking for. I've done quite a bit of reading online about it so I have a little bit of an idea. All I know is that it's very sticky and smells amazing I can't wait to harvest the fruits of my labor. I will definitely be growing another plant next year. I will let my plant continue to grow for another few weeks and then take more pics. I may have to post my pics on here and ask a few more questions so that those of you with knowledge can give me your opinions. Thanks again.