Silly question.but.

[illtimmer]

YO...HERE'S MY LATEST PIC'S OF MY GIRL. I REALLY WANT SOME ADVICE OR WHATEVER FROM ALL YOU INTELLIGENT KATS HERE. YOU ALL HAVE BEEN VERY HELPFUL TO THIS POINT.

O KAY, I KNOW YOU NEED A MICROSCOPE TO SEE THE TRICHOMES OR WHATEVER THEY ARE CALLED...SO HERE GOES THE MY QUESTION FOR YALL...HOW LONG (BY THE LOOKS OF MY GIRL) WOULD YOU THINK THAT SHE'S GOT UNTIL SHE'S READY FOR HARVEST? I SEE A VERY FEW, A VERY FEW BROWN PISTILS ON LIKE 3 OF THE FLOWERS...AND THERE'S LIKE 25-30 OTHER FLOWERS WITH ALL WHITE PISTILS...AND, I JUST SWITCHED THE LIGHTING FROM 12/12 TO 11/13off tonight...ANY SUGGESTIONS WILL BE MAD APPRECIATED...THXXX.

[BWC BayArea]

Ur not gonna get the answer ur looking for. At least I seriously doubt it. This is up to the individual. Its ur decision. We all have different opinions, grow styles, and preferences. U gotta look at those trichomes urself. Cut a sample from the lower limbs, quick dry it, and smoke to some to get an idea of where u are in relation to harvest. Search the threads. THe search feature ins in the mid upper right portion of the screen. Plenty of people have asked this question and there's some good info in the forums, u sometimes have to dig for it. Good luck with ur grow.

[illtimmer]

yeah...I just wanted to get an estimate but, you're right...I read a lot more and I'll probably wait until the pistils are half red half white...but I appreciate your input, bro...thx

[DroJo]

Well if you want to harvest the plant at its peak maturity, and you dont have a microscope to look at the tricomes, your second option for guaging maturity would be the pistils, when your pistils are about 50%amber, that would be the idea time to flush & harvest, you can certainly wait longer til even 70% or 80% if you'd like. But you know how if you let a fruit ripen longer it gets really really sweet? well an mj plant gets really couchlocky, which will inhibit normal function.

So the choice is up to you, but it seems that you have at least 3 weeks to go bare minimum

[ThatBoyDean]

Drojo is right, if you do not have a microscope wait until when your pistils are about 50%amber
then start flushing and wait till your calyxes are 90% swollen, before harvesting

[illtimmer]

thx yall...much appreciated

[cigo]

I suggest to look by trichomes when those are white is easy to see but when brown you need loop to tell correctly, and it isnt expensive so you can buy i think .
And my advise how to watch it:
When white(cloudy) trichomes are looking like some cloud inside that trichome bubble.
But when its brown mostly it looks like this:

hope this will help somehow... ^^

[illtimmer]

thanks, bro

[aero420]

If you have a camera with a macro lense/feature that will work for examining the heads too. If not wait till they are cloudy, then stick the plant in 24hr darkness for the last 3 days of flushing, and use some ice water too when flushing. They will ooze with resin from the stress.

[illtimmer]

ice water?

[aero420]

Yeah. The way it was explained to me by the guy I learned to grow from is that the plant produces resin to protect the flower once it realizes that its not going to get fertilized. At the end of the flower cycle, just before harvest, if you stress the plant you can cause the plant to increase resin production in a last ditch effort to save the flower. I don't know how scientifically accurate that is but this guy knew more about growing than anyone else I know so I tend to believe most of what he says, plus I was probably "testing his theory" at the time so it sounded even better. I used to grow hydro and would just add a bags of cubes to the reservoir during the flush. Recently, I switched over to organic soil grows, now I use a 18 gal Rubbermaid container that I installed a hose spigot on the bottom, dump a bag of ice into that, then fill with water, stir it up, attach my hose to the spigot and flush away. The ice and darkness does seem to increase resin production, I've tried it with and without and from what I could tell, it does make a difference.