Need Advice About Harvest

[dkparker]

Hi everyone, first time grow and I have a question about the timing of my harvest. >> For details my grow journal is here <<

I've read that the best time to cut for drying is when the trichomes are milky and perhaps when some are turning amber. Granted this strain is a mild THC strain, but I was wanting to begin drying when they were all milky because I read when they turn amber it's more of a couch lock high, and I'm shooting for more of an energetic high.

So I pulled her out for some pics today (5/30). As fate would have it I'm going to have to go out of town next week on 6/5 and will be gone until 6/11. So this being my first grow, I guess my question is do you all think she has 2 weeks left in her before I'd need to begin cutting and drying her? This being my first grow I really have no concept of how long she'll take to mature and if things begin to progress more quickly toward the end. I bought a jeweler's loupe to check the trichomes and was planning on using that method. But either my loupe sucks or I really suck, because I can't see the trichomes well enough to make out if they're totally clear or beginning to look milky. They seem mostly clear to me but with no experience to draw from I second guess myself. That being the case I was thinking I'd use the pistil method, but again since I've never done this before and since they started out straight and are now beginning to curl a little I don't know how quickly they'd start changing color.

So again, my questions to the folks with experience, is it possible based on the pics below for me to get a recommendation on how long I've got before I need to cut? Can I make it 2 weeks comfortably? I have someone I can fully trust coming over to water here once while I'm gone, according to my tentative schedule that would only need to happen once in the middle of my absence. But I want to be the one to cut and dry her. If two weeks would be too long and if I absolutely had to I'd rather cut and let her dry this week before I go and then put her in jars with some humidity packs the day I leave for the cure. I know that's not preferred and NOT what I would do unless I absolutely had to, but not sure what my other options would be.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[AdaminCO]

You have quite a bit of time left. 3-4...+ weeks. When you stop seeing new white pistils forming, you typically have 2-3 weeks left. It doesn’t look like yours have even hit their swell yet.

Have a look at my “Harvest” thread in my signature.

 

[Clancy2]

Lots of time to go my friend. You can go another 2 weeks easy. I just harvested a White Widow Auto at 13 weeks and nothing was amber; perhaps like 2% of the trichomes. Perhaps 20% of the trichs were milky, the rest were as clear as crystal clear water. It's not unusual to have plants that really never do develop widespread amber trichs. The high form my WW plant is not different form the Indica's I usually have--all the trichs clear and the couch lock arrives just as it always does with White Widow. Not more energetic or sativa like. By the way, I believe (and studies back me on this) that it's the type of dominant terpene that deterimines effect, not the colour of the trichs.

 

[dkparker]

@AdaminCO and @Clancy2 :

Thank you both for your replies and input, it's a huge relief to hear I still have plenty of time. AdaminCO, I read the linked post, that is very helpful. I think I may need to get another loupe or come up with another way to see the trichomes clearly, I just am unable to make out the details well enough using the one I bought. But at least it seems I have time to do that.

 

[Sierra Cowboy]

Just wanted to chime in on the loupe, I have a dual 30x- 60x that I picked up online for cheap that works just fine.I don't know what magnification you are working with but the 60x is a must for trics.
I also was seeking the elevated effect without so much couch-lock, I let my girls just start turning amber 5-10% before harvest and it was perfect. I figure if you do that they get the most time to develop the good stuff / milky stuff that we like but no so much of the amber, Happy growing.

 

[multiVortex]

Plenty of time to go. The pistils haven’t even turned yet. Time to figure out watering while you’re gone.

 

[oldsmokey]

It would be a shame to chop now. I would guess 30 days.

 

[Herby Paisley]

I'd say atleast a few more weeks!

 

[dkparker]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I guess I was a little anxious and also just worried about how long she would take to mature, I knew from what I'd read she wasn't ready now but I just didn't now how long it took to reach maturity from this point. This grow has definitely been a great learning experience, and this site has been extremely helpful.

Pertaining to my loupe, the one I have is a 30/60/90, but the 30x lens is the larger one and the 60 and 90 are so tiny that I can't seem to hold it still enough to get a good focus. I think I'll look for one that has a 60x lens that's the size of my current 30x lens.

Also for watering, I do have a friend I trust coming over to water. I haven't been going by a strict schedule. One of the first thing I did was to read Emilya's excellent post on watering, and I've pretty much followed those guidelines throughout the grow and it's been great. It has worked out that I water her about every 4 days, but I'm not using that as a hard rule, that's just the way it's worked out. I've noticed she's been drinking more the past week or so and I assume the roots are getting to a point where they're just drinking up the water faster now. Either way I'll be able to water her the day I leave, and then I'm leaving a liter of ph'd water next to my tent with instructions to my friend to just come over on the 4th day and water her slowly around the edges until it's gone. I figure that should be good enough to keep things going until I get back.

 

[Ossi Ossi]

Hi just confirming that all advice here is professional and with plenty knowledge but 30 days plus is my 2 bobs worth from Aussie