red congolese questions

Hi i am growing a strain called red congolese. It is my first grow. Now the girl is 7 weeks into flowering and the budleafs are a bit yellow. Is this normal? Red congolese(also called john sinclair) is sativa dominated but i am not sure. I think i will harvest in about 3 weeks.Does that sound ok ? Anyone with any experience of this strain? This photo shows one of my buds.

Looking good.

Watch the pistils, once about 75% of them have changed colour its about at peak ripeness. Look at the trichome sphere colours for an accurate time for chopping, depending on what you're looking for.

Looking good.

Watch the pistils, once about 75% of them have changed colour its about at peak ripeness. Look at the trichome sphere colours for an accurate time for chopping, depending on what you're looking for.

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Thanks for the advice babygro. I prefer a cerebral high so i guess i better harvest more early than later. Is that correct?

I took a couple of more photos today. I think i will give her 1 more week. I know its hard to ell by watching a photo but....do u guys think that would be to early?

dude thats some good lookin stuff you got there

mrdrutt said:

Thanks for the advice babygro. I prefer a cerebral high so i guess i better harvest more early than later. Is that correct?

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Yes, if you're looking for an up high you need to chop early rather than late, but it depends a lot on how much Sativa is in your plant and how quickly the trichome spheres will change. You need to be shooting for a mix of clear and cloudy trich's which will give you a nice up high with a bit of body to go with it. You want to avoid any trich's turning amber as that's a sign the THC is starting to decompose down into CBN and will continue doing that until it's smoked.

mrdrutt said:

I took a couple of more photos today. I think i will give her 1 more week. I know its hard to ell by watching a photo but....do u guys think that would be to early?

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Only you can really know this I'm afraid. You have to watch two things - the pistil hair colours and the trichome spheres because each represent two different things. The pistil hair colours show the overall 'ripeness' of the plant, ie how many of it's flower buds or calyxs are dying and have therefore reached their peak ripeness. The problem with watching the pistil hairs is, the plant continues growing and producing new and fresh flower buds with white hairs and as long as the plant is kept alive, it will continue producing new buds as older ones die off. What that basically means is, the plant goes through a 'window' of peak ripness, ie there are optimum times when the plant overall is at peak ripness and more pistils are dying off than new ones being produced. This 'window' varies depending on strain, but generaly speaking Indicas have about a 2 week window and Sativas 2-4 with hybrids anywhere inbetween.

Against the 'peak ripeness' as indicated by the pistil hairs you have to ofset the trichome sphere colours. As more of the pistil hairs die off, the trichome spheres will also change from clear to cloudy to amber to opaque brown.

So as you can see, harvesting the plant in its entirety is a balance between 'peak ripeness' and trichome sphere colour. What you should be aiming to do is chop the plant whilst as many of the trichome spheres are 50/50 clear cloudy and before any turn amber and whilst the plant is in its 'peak ripeness' window, which is shown by the pistil hair colours. Obviously if you're chopping early, then you may have to sacfrifice some 'peak ripeness' and therefore yield, to get the 50/50 you want.