Small buds lower on the plant ready to harvest, but tops still not frosty. What up?

I'm about 9 weeks into veggin on 2 Norther Light plants. Getting pretty close to harvest.

The lower smaller buds are all turning a nice amber color & very crystally (nice word) but the large ones at the top are still green. Not a lot of crystals at all. The lower ones are beautiful (except for size). I have included some pictures & would love some feedback.

Im using 48: floro tubes & I lst's the plants. Here are some pictures. THey were taken about a week ago or so so everythings a little more frosty now. Except the tops of the plants.

Hmmm.. Perhaps the cat's licking them at the top??

if frosty is the trich number , then its the temps around the light source , cut the buds that u thing that match ur needs , furthen the dinstance from lights ( a few cm's ) and lower the light cyrcle to 8 hours light on for a few days

I searched & found a little info on this. The post I read said to harvest the ones that are ready & leave the others to change color. That sort of goes along with your advice. I guess it can't really hurt. The buds on the bottom although smallish, are a very nice color indeed.

My plan (its what I did with the first plant) was to harvest the larger top buds & move the whole plant closer to get light to the bottom small ones. This is opposite of what I was planning. Cut the small ones & lower the plants away from the lights.

Would like a few more opinions before I hurt Princess Pea & her sister Sarah. (What... you don't name your girls??)

It appears that the plants have been over fertilized a bit from all of the burnt tips. Like yourself, I'm surprised by the bottom buds maturing faster. What are you feeding the plants at this stage? Are these standard or autos? What Kelvin color bulbs are you using? Are you using any supplements like Super Thrive or Bud density additives? How big are the pots? Is the plant root bound?

Hmmm. I'm pretty new at this.

They are NOrther Lights regular ones I bought locally at a head shop. The lights are 8 48" floro tubes. SHop lights I think someone called them. I have 4 full daylight spectrum & 4 grow lights for aquarioums. Fertilizer (dont laugh) is some mollases, some fish organic fert I bought at home depot & some bloom builder (Scotts maybe) its blue

I fert about once a week & water every 2-3 days. I used Miracle Grow potting soil & I think thats where the burns are coming from. The pots are maybe 3 gallons? I LST the plants. Dont know about the root bound thing. How could I tell & how do I fix? This close to harvest does it really matter? SHould I leave well enough alone or try to adjust now.

I Just started 2 Auto Fem Bubbalicious. They are 3 weeks old & I put them into a soil I bought at the same head shot. Its aero something. in a black & green bag compressed into a brick. 110 litres I think. No nutes in it so Im paying more attention with this one to see if I can get it grown without the brown tips.

Being very gentle with everything on the new grow.

its too late to make the lower buds get bigger or fatier or denser , cut the ones that are ready before they loose the optimum maturity window is my call , put a fan blowing directly the lights from bellow ( moving hot air up and away from buds , ive tried both , cutting the lower and leaving the upper and visa versa both worked but just a bit

i have a ww with no ww phenotype ( small leaves , great callyx to leaf ratio and no ww structure in general ) no matter what the top bud of every brunch ( even the lowest ones ) will turn ready last , on the past i did seperate harvest but got bored , i just let her go a bit more but only a bit

IMO It's your shop lights bro. Humans eyes react to a green and yellow spectrum. A plant reacts to the color red the most(3.5k), but utilizes the color blue or 7-10kelvin to turn usable light into into sugars and hormones that feed growth (kinda like growth hormones they feed young cattle.) Because a full color spectrum is considered 10,000k and it contains all colors, you can grow and bloom with a high spectrum bulb. However, because they human eye reacts to yellow and green light, and we don't use light for energy conversion (well..), shop lights are made so they can be most visible while using the least amount of electricity. The best way to do this is by designing a bulb that burns a high spectrum green that we see as "white". Thats only one of the downsides to shop lights. The other is that because of the wide tube size, your light is very uneven and sporadic. If you check out your local hydro shop id suggest looking into T5 fluorescents. They are designed by horticulturists and feature high frequency even lighting that come in the red or blue spectrum your plants are looking for. Id recommend blue because you can grow and bloom because of the high color spectrum
If you don't want to upgrade though. Id suggest getting another cheap fan in there, and water it less and give it less nutrients. It could mean your plants are'nt receiving enough carbon that it extracts from oxygen.

I see. I know the lights I have are not the best but I figured for my purposes they would be sufficient. (personal use)

I'm looking at upgrading my lights to a 400 watt system. I get a pretty decent Christmas bonus here plus a couple weeks off with pay so I might make myself a new cabinet for Christmas.. Merry Christmas too me..

I know the full spectrum bulbs are I think 6500 Kelvin & the 4 grow lights tubes are 2700? Does that make sense? They are VERY red compared to the 4 full spectrum

If I build a new cabinet (IM a carpenter.. whoo hoo!!) I might make one with just my current lights for flowering & then have the other cabinet (with the 400 watt HPS) for veging. That seems to be the way to go. I don't think Im ready for hydro yet. But Im building a house for myself next summer. I may include something in there for better space utilization & venting & what not.

Metal Halide for Veg and HPS for Bloom. And if you wanna save a little money just grow under 400w mh until you can save for a 1000w switchable ballast. I have used both spectrums accordingly and I liked the plants i harvested under my 400 Halides better than my 400 HPS's. Not the case for 1000watts though.

ive encountered same things over some species with mh + hps figuration

its not the bulds making the "shop light" = the ignorant's fluorescent , i used to install "shop lights" in meat markets having redish and blueish hues so as i said , its not the buld that makes it a shop light , also the fluo's produce uv bands which are essential when u want ur bud stoney , i know u ll run to argue about the hoax of uv's etc , from the time i combined aditional uv wavelength i get very often responses from ppl tasting my bud like " dude i got my pants dirty " or " no thx , not more " , so i have too that "placebo" feeling of my butt getting kicked and i keep using them , when my "placebo " feeling fades away i may thing to stop them ...
ALSO , fluos produce Co2 no need for more or anything , if temps dont raise with another one or two or three then for sure theyll help WITH ASCENDING LUMENS

ascending lumens = hid = temps raise

carl no matter what u hear u should not get away of ur goal , get a good magnyfying glass or photograph with good macro capabilities and go with the law of amber maturity this is not gonna bs u

all i do care about is u to have a weed wich ull enjoy and not a couchlocking , bedsender weed which NL is NOT

taste it , if its ok to u cut it down , if u feel it needs more leave it but consider that after hasrvest weed still works in favor of ur head meaning she gets a litle more mature on the course to cure

if the bonus is good go for the 600w then *

Well bonjo. Your close.. Your plants eat Co2 through photosynthesis and (a little through osmosis but dont confuse yourself). photosynthesis is a process driven by light. lights do not actually produce Co2 but lights do feed your plants Co2 by converting oxygen into carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. The rule of thumb is more light more photosynthesis. But if your growing area doesnt have enough ventilation, It wont get its needed co2 because there is no oxygen for your light to convert into Co2. Because "Shop lights" (T8 fluorescents) do not emit a usable plant spectrum your plants cannot use its light to convert oxygen to carbon (or very little of it). That is why your better off getting either a T5 fluo or just get some real grow bulbs/ballasts from your local hydro store, just "hydroponics blahblahblah"-where you live

Serapis said:

It appears that the plants have been over fertilized a bit from all of the burnt tips. Like yourself, I'm surprised by the bottom buds maturing faster. What are you feeding the plants at this stage? Are these standard or autos? What Kelvin color bulbs are you using? Are you using any supplements like Super Thrive or Bud density additives? How big are the pots? Is the plant root bound?

Click to expand...

Agreed. Too much N will hurt quality of yield, slow maturity, etc....

Harvest the buds that are ready, and continue with the rest of the plant till its ready it wont hurt anything to do that. I wouldnt cut them down yet.

If you want an inexpensive 400W here: http://www.hidhut.com/catalog/400w-mhhps-120240v-digital-smart-ballast-p-49.html

I have 3 of them and 1 of the 1000W dimmable, had 1 fail which was replaced for free because it has 1yr warranty.

OK. I harvested some of the more amber nuggets at the bottom a couple days ago. now, the plant seems to be doing nothing. I can't really see any change at all over the past week or so. No more crystals forming. no color changes.. seems to have just stalled.

Im still doing everything the same way. Feed every 5-8 days, water every 2-3 days. Its just that nothing seems to be happening.

I am going to smoke the buds I took off as soon as their dry enough (as a test). If Im happy with the smoke, will the rest of the buds be the same or do you get a different high off the same plant?

I was going to wait until the Large Buds got more crystally which I thought might be a week or 2 but like I said. It appears to be stalled. Does that happen? Should I chop?

Might skip home at lunch time & take some pictures & post them. I mean their great buds (best I;ve grown so far in my limited experience) Happy with the size & yield type thing..

I planted May 24 weekend. Started 12/12 July 24th so that's 10 weeks so far. Using Shop lights 4 Full Spectrum daylight & 4 Grow lights for aquariums.

Any suggestions?

Here are some pictures. As you can see, the smaller buds are darkening & the big ones are still just green.. not as crystaly.

^I think perhaps you have some unrealistic expectations, as to what they are going to look like, when finished. You fertburned(nitrogen, specifically) them during flowering, which slowed trich development, plus, have insufficient lighting, which further limited them.


Now, I'm not an expert, but it's been my experience that most of my trichs form, not long after the mid-point, til about 3/4, of flowering. What I am getting at, is that if they're not there by now, they're not going to be. Possibly, if you were to go to HID(MH would be best, at this point. Blue = more trich development)) for a couple weeks, that'd bring out more trichs. I'm not sure. At any rate, the calyxs look to be covered pretty well, although the leaves are not, and I'm guessing it'll still be pretty good smoke. It won't be up to it's max potential, but then again, it rarely is, and that applies to most of us. That's reserved for the guys who run 1000 watts per plant, hydro, tweaked to the max.

This is my first grow that has worked out to this point. The first couple ended up becoming honey oil or depending on your likes I guess..

Do you think it looks ready to cut? I have 2 new plants that I just put under the 12/12. I'm going to be far more careful with them & use the proper soils & what not.

I am paranoid (thats weird) that I'm chopping too soon. BUt they have been under the 12/12 for 10 weeks now. Am I done? Based on lighting I have & what not?

oh great ones, please advise this poor little noobie who wishes nothing but good for the whole world...

Id like to teach the world to toke, in perfect harmony.. Id like to buy the world a toke & keep it company..

Only the oldies hree will remember that song.. me included..

its normal man , on theyre last phase the buds stop growing and they just get a bit denser , have u checked the trichs ? ( not the pistilis/ hairs that turn from white to yellow to brown/red ) these will tell u when they are ready , pistils may be still clear but trichs may be most of them amber

what about those u cutted , are they ok to the head ?

These pics are the only ones I have, but, they should be good enough to give you an idea. Those are pretty much done, depending on preference.(longer = more couchlock, heavier stone. Earlier = more energetic and creative) Many would let them go a week longer, but they're ready. Trichs at about 10% amber, and pistils are over 90% turned.


Your's aren't ready yet. If you can't check the trichs, you can go by the pistil color, and still be pretty close. You still have at least 50% white, so I'd wait til you're at 80%+. I let that one in the pic go, for another week.


P.S. I remember that song, for sure.lol

pistils cant indicate trichome thats a rule , the only thing u can do with trichs is from previus grows to take references BUT STILL that isnt 100% accurate

for instance u may have buded a plant at 23celsius , on a grow at 33celsius the pistils may seem the same but u cant be sure about trichs , there are many factors affecting the pistil formation , adding perlite is another example where it makes pistils turn color faster but not the trichs

the rough rule about indicas indoors is this , cut them down 2-3 weeks after they stop growing , if u enter the grow room and smell isnt as strong as there was before u missed the rippeness window

what camera u use carl ?