How To Make Concentrated Cannabis Oil

Hiker;2271016 said:

Cannafan;2270944 said:

Okay, questions for the growers on this thread. I am going to be concentrating on making nighttime oil next grow. I also have some plants currently coming into maturity that I would like to get nighttime oil from.

Do you growers that make oil wait for a specific color or percentage of color on the trichomes when choosing harvest time? If so, can you tell me what the percentage of clear to cloudy to amber that you personally look for?

I know that the longer the plant is left to flower, the more the THC breaks down. I'm looking for more of an answer on when the best time is to harvest for nighttime oil.

Thanks so much if you can help with that!

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I think I follow about the same guideline as Bill. I shoot for about 20-25% amber. Almost all the other heads will be cloudy by this point. The only clear heads will be new ones. With your Indica, you're already working with a strong 'couch lock' type of strain, but as you already said, the longer you let them go, the more 'couch lock' you will get.

I do have a jeweler's loupe now, but I'm not sure it's really changed when I harvest. In the 90's we used the color of the hairs. We judged via the ratio of maturing orange hairs to the new white hairs. Obviously the trichomes were maturing too, we just never looked at them. Fast forward to today, and I still go by my "gut feeling" more than anything. One of the things that comes with experience is knowing when to harvest. If you're only growing a couple plants, I recommend a multi-phase harvest, ie take the mature tops then let the popcorn 'ripen' up a bit more.

The last thing I want to say is... knowing that when you harvest can affect the effects of the medicine is useful, but here is mostly how I use this knowledge. If I have an Indica dominant strain and I want more of a 'daytime high', I'll chop earlier. The opposite for Sativa. Since they tend to be a 'head high', I will let them run long to get more 'couch lock' out of them. Basically, to balance them out a bit, I'll chop Indicas a little early and Sativas a little late. This can be tough since, in general, Indicas tend to flower shorter anyway, and Sativas take foreverrrrrrr.

beemerbill;2270993 said:

Good morning everyone. Cannafan though I haven't done it, my understanding is that you take it to at least 20 to 30% amber. More of the couch lock area and it needs to be a good indica. My night time is an all indica hybrid that was chopped at all cloudy with a few amber and it lets me sleep almost all the way through the night without waking. I have one of those Fit bracelets that tracks your activity and sleep and it shows on the nights I use it, which is almost all the time, that I may wake up once or twice. It's only for a minute or so but when I don't use it I wake up 4 to 6 times. for a minute or so. Plus I sleep at least an hour and half longer. I hope this helps a little

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That's a great idea Bill!
It never occurred to me that one of those fitness bracelets could be used to track sleep patterns. Great idea! thanks. I wonder if I can find those used. I definitely don't need all the latest fancy features. I sleep very poorly most of the time, so this could be useful information in the same way you're using it, ie if I eat a "special" cupcake before bed, will I sleep all the way through.

I get so many good ideas here. I love

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