When to harvest

[Booja]

Yeah, another one of those posts in October

Pistils turned brown and curled under?
It's all about the trichomes? Ie: cloudy white or amber?
Harvest individual buds as they mature?

The reason I ask is my plants all have white/cloudy trichomes and many have pistols that are turning or have turned brown and curled. Some buds also have a few, less than 5%, of the trichomes turning amber.

I get it that white/cloudy is thc and amber is cbd. What throws me is most of my buds still have white, non curled pistils. My thinking is wait for the pistils to turn, then worry about trichomes. Do pistils typically turn color and curl before trichomes darken?

I'm probably just getting antsy. It's my first grow and one of my plants was started while there was still snow on the ground.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Based on pic #2, like a month

 

[SmokeLake]

Not ready yet by my eye. I believe in reading the Trichomes but I also believe there is a look that the buds get as they peak. Swelled to the max frosty and solid. Your buds look great but definitely few weeks from ripe.

 

[labexperiment]

My memory is telling me that amber trichomes contain high %'s of cbn, not cbd. Or is my memory betraying me(like sasquatch did last year, WE HAD A DEAL SQUATCHY!).

 

[10gal]

730 hours give or take

 

[Dwight Monk]

My memory is telling me that amber trichomes contain high %'s of cbn, not cbd. Or is my memory betraying me(like sasquatch did last year, WE HAD A DEAL SQUATCHY!).

Correct when THC breaks down it turns to CBN not CBD.........otherwise it would be rather simple to make higher CBD to THC ratios

 

[SteveJasmine]

Definitely a long way off. Have a good look at the plant as a whole being. You are basically waiting for her to die. Her leaves will yellow/purple etc and she will look like she's giving up. Take a look at her trichs then.

 

[Booja]

Definitely a long way off. Have a good look at the plant as a whole being. You are basically waiting for her to die. Her leaves will yellow/purple etc and she will look like she's giving up. Take a look at her trichs then.

Of all the stuff I've read and seen online, THAT has to be the simplest and easy to understand description yet. Makes perfect sense.

 

[Booja]

Does cold temps in flower lengthen the time until the buds are ready to harvest? I'm currently in day 73 of flower and the buds look no different than last week. Night time temps are below freezing though the shed with the grow is a little better. Outside temps this morning is 30, in the shed is 47.

 

[bluter]

they will continue to ripen so long as the root zone remains warm.

outdoor a lot of people wrap pots or spread ground cover to lengthen harvest.
cooler temps toward harvest will often hasten some plants. below a certain point tho everything stops.

 

[Dwight Monk]

Does cold temps in flower lengthen the time until the buds are ready to harvest? I'm currently in day 73 of flower and the buds look no different than last week. Night time temps are below freezing though the shed with the grow is a little better. Outside temps this morning is 30, in the shed is 47.

I have a heater out in my shed, as the root zone not protected the same as an outdoor grow from the temps I would think (be they low or high). We have had an odd year here as it got cooler at night faster than normal, which to me seemed to slightly speed up the length of Flower as they think "well crap Winter is coming one last ditch effort in trying to breed" for my two outside ladies this year and ones in the shed did their usual thing as I had clone of one Strain going both inside and out. Same as less light on time seems to slightly speed up the process but it's in a few days not like it shortens it in weeks. My limited experience of 3 years I found that under 50 for a low at night in my shed they don't care for so it seems to stunt them a bit (albeit like all of it varies on the Strain a lot, I tend to lean more Sativa side or a heavy Sativa with most of the Strains I grow). The cooler temps do tend to make them throw out the colors harder if the Strain/Pheno is prone to that though in my experience.

 

[SteveJasmine]

I put polystyrene foam under my pots to insulate them from the cold. I water/feed with warm solution too.

 

[Booja]

I've been using slightly warmer water when I feed them in the evening. I'm using air pots set inside a kiddie swimming pool to protect the shed wood floor. I'm not sure how to heat/insulate the pots?

 

[bluter]

I've been using slightly warmer water when I feed them in the evening. I'm using air pots set inside a kiddie swimming pool to protect the shed wood floor. I'm not sure how to heat/insulate the pots?

put the kiddie pool up on a couple slabs of foam board insulation.
wrap the outside of the pots with reflectix bubble wrap mylar. or even bubble wrap.

if in a shed add a heater. don't have to make it tropical. just take a bit of chill out of the ambient air.

oops forgot : you can poke holes for the air pots.

 

[SmokingWings]

I've been using slightly warmer water when I feed them in the evening. I'm using air pots set inside a kiddie swimming pool to protect the shed wood floor. I'm not sure how to heat/insulate the pots?

Been sitting here thinking on your question while watching the winds pick up and the rains starting to fall. Then it occured to me that using some of the stuff that is called heat cable or heat ribbon or wire might do. The wiring stuff that is tacked or stapled to roofs right near the edge by the gutters. It is supposed to melt snow or ice and cut down on the possibility of ice dams. It is the season so the local hardware stores or big box home improvement stores should have it on the shelves. It should work for your shed grow since it does not melt the shingles.

Maybe a trip to the store is in order to see what is involved in using it. You would have to check on pricing but looking at some Amazon prices I think you can get a kit with about 30 feet for under $50. I am thinking that wrapping it once or twice around each air pot might just do it. Not sure if it can be cut to length or if the unused portion can just lay there. Do not know if it can be run off of a timer. Did read that the stuff is an energy hog which is why I am wondering about the timer. May be able to use one of the timers that comes on for an hour and goes off for an hour. Lot of questions but a trip to the store should give some answers.

 

[Booja]

That's too funny. I work at a hardware store and my project last night after work was installing the heat cable on my roof in anticipation of this winter. I'll have to wait until Tuesday to pick up any material to mitigate the cold. We have snow in the forecast starting Wednesday.

I had a little tiny heater in the shed but upgraded to a small oil filled radiator a couple of days ago. The little heater just couldn't keep up. I'd go larger but everything is on a single 20 amp circuit.

I'll see if I can partition off part of the shed to capture a little bit more heat before it vents

 

[Booja]

It was 44 in the shed this morning with cooler weather forecasted for this week. I doubled down on the heaters for the evening. With both heaters and lights it should be pulling about 12 amps.

The bag seed plant seems wilted and out of water. It's been on a diet of 1 gallon every three days for months. The stems are soft but stoopid sticky. Trichomes are still white