When to chop em

Hello, I'm a noob to growing indoors and need some help from the experts. I am growing photoperiod plants and have a 2000 watt LED light and two 1000 watt LED lights with 12 plants. I am about 50 days into flower and some of my plants (growing Cement Shoes, Alien OG, Grandaddy Bruce, MAC 1, and Black Domina) has tons of amber on the sugar leaves in the buds. The bud is still cloudy. I know that I need to monitor the trichomes (been watching like a hawk with a jeweler's loupe lol) and I've been watching the pistols. Most of the pistols on all my plants are nice and curled in and orangey. Some of them still have a couple white pistols standing straight up on them. Leaves have tons of amber, but the buds do not yet. Do I go by the little sugar leaves in the buds? The buds look nice and chunky and they feel very dense. Most of the plants I have say about 63 days to harvest. I feel like my Cement Shoes plant is about done, but not sure. My question is when should I actually harvest? I don't want them to be too early and I don't want them to be too late or exploding. I've heard some people say they are at peak THC when clear (crazy!) and then I've heard milky and whatever percentage of amber (10-50). When is the actual peak and good chop time?

looking good... helps to have pics of the whole plant if you can

Here are some pics. Some are big plants, some are small. I have too many different strains going lol. Gonna just do two next time.

erjohansen said:

Most of the pistols on all my plants are nice and curled in and orangey. Some of them still have a couple white pistols standing straight up on them.

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Wrong. Not even half are orange let alone curled in. You have at least a month.

Nice! they're looking good. You're still a few weeks away. You'll notice those buds will fatten up even more. They're usually ready when there are no more new white pistils and the orange pistils have shrunken against the flowers. The calyxes will be fattest. Some people use loupes some don't. Most on this forum just go by pistils and not really by trichomes as much. One exception is foxtailing, when white pistils keep getting spit out almost forever.

Still a lot of white pistils.. 3-4 weeks.. Can't just go by trichomes!

Thank you everyone! I was just worrying after I read a bunch of stuff (grower's opinions). It was widely varied from clear to super amber when chopped. I will be patient and wait a few weeks then. So, as long as the pistols are all shrunken in and the buds are extra fat, they are done? Should they have a certain amount of amber on the buds?

erjohansen said:

Thank you everyone! I was just worrying after I read a bunch of stuff (grower's opinions). It was widely varied from clear to super amber when chopped. I will be patient and wait a few weeks then. So, as long as the pistols are all shrunken in and the buds are extra fat, they are done? Should they have a certain amount of amber on the buds?

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For 12 plants that size you need more light. They have about 4 to 6 weeks to go. When all the pistils curl in and have turned wait 2 weeks after that then chop.

How much light should I have for 12 plants? That sounds like a long flowering time, is it because of not enough light? Seems like that would be several weeks past the package timeframe. I know it's give or take on time, but you're telling me basically an extra month beyond.

erjohansen said:

How much light should I have for 12 plants? That sounds like a long flowering time, is it because of not enough light? Seems like that would be several weeks past the package timeframe. I know it's give or take on time, but you're telling me basically an extra month beyond.

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The package time frame means NOTHING. It is only a loose guideline, and your grow environment and plant health can have major impact on how long flowering actually takes. An extra month beyond the breeder date is common because breeders want to sell seeds. They usually either put the shortest possible phenotype or flat out lie about flower times. Instead of worrying about specific "flower times" you should be looking at the plant and watching the signs it gives to show what stages of growth its in.

Here is the ripening guide I offer new growers. Before even thinking about harvesting take a look at this and see if your plant is actually showing you all these signs.


The signs of ripeness are pretty standard for cannabis plants. Occasionally you'll see exceptions to this guide, but not very often with healthy plants.

First a few of the pistils begin turning color and start receding. Your plant is just starting to ripen. Depending on the strain you could still have two months to go. We're just starting this journey.

Two to four weeks later you'll notice that most of the pistils(>80%) have now changed color and curled back into the bud. It's frosty, way bigger than it was a few weeks ago, and smells dank! It's time, right? Not a chance killer. Patience is a virtue

Over the next 2-3 weeks it doesn't look much different, maybe a little more swelling in the calyxes and the rest of the pistils change over, but the stems are starting to bend under the weight of the buds. These ladies are putting on weight internally by getting denser and now the buds are doing their final ripening.

Now you begin looking at trichomes, on the calyx, not leaves, and harvest according to your preference. When looking at trichomes it’s essential to look at them from the side. The bulbous heads can magnify the opaque stalk under it. Looking from the side allows you to more accurately see the condition of the resin in the trichome head.

There is still no rush to harvest, the window just opened, and you have several weeks before you MIGHT start having to think about it possibly beginning to get too ripe. It takes WEEKS for plants to mature not days.

It is very easy to harvest a plant to early. It is very hard to harvest a plant to late. I’ve never seen someone accidentally wait too long.

erjohansen said:

How much light should I have for 12 plants? That sounds like a long flowering time, is it because of not enough light? Seems like that would be several weeks past the package timeframe. I know it's give or take on time, but you're telling me basically an extra month beyond.

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40-50 watts per square foot. The breeder times are based on their cut under their conditions. Those lights you have are 180 watts a piece or something close to it.

The total actual wattage for all three lights is 440. The room is about 7x7. Thank you Thundercat for all of that good info. I appreciate everyone's help. I guess I will have to get more lights. I thought I had enough since the two small ones said 3x3ft and the larger one said 4x4ft.