Thanks Concord, guess I'll have to look into getting a pocket-microscope in the next few days.heres the info i have, this has been everywhere.
WHEN TO HARVEST
Trichomes are small appendages that look like hairs. They are produced by marijuana, and other plants. Female marijuana plants produce certain trichomes that are a rich source of THC. These trichomes can be found in their largest concentration on the buds. They start out clear, turn a milky color, then turn amber (light brown).
The trichomes in picture 1 are clear. After the plant has flowered for a few weeks, the trichomes start to turn a milky color (picture 2). After a few more weeks, they will be totally milky in color. In the later stages of flowering, trichomes will turn to a light brown color (picture 3). The amount of time required to get to this point depends on the marijuana strain and the growing conditions.
In picture 2 you can see the stems have started to turn from a clear color to a milky translucent color. For maximum THC content and a more cerebral and energetic high, harvest your plants when a majority of the trichomes on the plants in your garden are a fully milky translucent color.
You can wait until most of the trichomes have started to turn amber, but the resulting marijuana will produce more of a sleepy body stone than it would if plants were harvested earlier. The trichome in picture 3 is about 90% amber, with just a trace of the milky translucent color it previously possessed.
After the trichome is fully amber in color, the THC starts to degrade. This makes it very important to harvest marijuana at the time before a majority of the trichomes have attained a total amber color. If not, the marijuana will not be as potent as it could have been.
Based on that information once trichomes have turned milky white maximum THC levels have been reached and remain at that level until fully amber. So any time between fully milky white and fully amber is the peak THC level and when each person needs to decide when to harvest in that period of time is solely based on each individuals personal preference in high or stone of combination of each.
In short the prime time to harvest is variable based on personal preference as long as it is between when the trichomes have turned fully milky white and when they are fully amber.
Pure sativas and highly predominant sativas reach maximum THC potency when the trichomes are still clear. It will max out just before clouding occurs so it is best to harvest them at the first signs of clouding. But many people call any cross that is over 50% sativa a sativa and unless a strain is upwards of 80% sativa or higher you would want to wait until you see mostly cloudy trichomes with some amber trichomes and possibly with a few clear trichomes left.
Thanks again for sharing that link. The ratio of pistils browning was basically what I was going to go by but that helped a bit more as well.Hey Sevren, you could also check the harvest section in my ref. guide http://www.govannom.org/mj/#harvesting. I've got some good info about it and two different opinions about when is the best time to harvest, you could have a look and decide
Hah, I didn't think my grow would actually help anyone, but I'm glad it got you excited. Thanks.Nice grow man.
I am having 4 autos growing right now (2 Diesel Ryder & 2 Jock Horror As), they are only 5 days since sprout but your thread got me excited.
Good luck !
That's why I told you to check it out, because there is also some info about when to harvest looking at the pistils. That's how everybody did it few years ago and it works But of course it will be more accurate if you can check the trichomes.Thanks again for sharing that link. The ratio of pistils browning was basically what I was going to go by but that helped a bit more as well.
Thanks King. After digging around, I discovered it's the onset of nute burn. One of the leaves is a bit past repair, the other with the bright spots can probably come back just fine after I flush her. Just to be on the safe side I'll flush her tomorrow during her normally scheduled watering.Sevren that kinda looks like Mg deficientcy bro. My Blue Mystics got it right now and I treated it today with some Epson salt. Hope it works. You should look at the help section though becuase it might not be, so check and make sure before you treat. Respect and peace my man.
Today she is 49 days old, so might as well be 50.Well, as I see it...
1.- the plant should be ready at day +-70 so if you are at day 50 there should still be +-20 days to go.
2.- if 40% of the pistils are amber you should harvest as soon as possible.
3.- FlatTop is right and if you don't flush before harvest it will affect your buds.
So... when was the last time you used nutes ? did you flush ? is she 50 days old ? are you sure about the 40% amber trichomes ?
An option could be to harvest some branches now and some other later but it depends on the previous questions.
Oh my apologies. From what I could tell there was no amber on the trichomes. A good portion of them were cloudy but no amber. I may have to look on more then 5 leaves though, but on the 5 I did check there were none.Damn! in the second point I wanted to say trichomes and not pistils as I said in the question hehe
So which one is it ? 40% amber trichomes or brown pistils ? I thought you were talking about trichomes because you got the microscope... If it's only the pistils don't worry about them, let the plant go longer for sure
And if so, what about the trichomes ? any amber ?