Colorado High - Soil - CFL - Easy Rider - 2013

[Buckshot]

This is for personal enjoyment, not for medication. I really like a buzzy clean high, not too much couch lock, so that I can still function at a relatively normal level. Yeah, I know that I purchased the wrong strain for that, but my criteria were cost-based as well as ease of growing. So I'm trying to minimize the amber trichomes on my ladies. It will be quite difficult to properly harvest between November 23rd and December 3rd, inclusive. I'm concerned that if I wait those 10 days that I will end up with too many amber trichomes and it will become too couch lock for my tastes. This strain has an 8 week flower, the end of which falls on November 25th. So my plan is to harvest sometime during the 8th week, but as you said, I'm also concerned about harvesting too early. I'm at a conundrum at the moment.

It is like a walking tightrope too early and it tastes like hay, too late and you are couchlocked!

 

[KingJohnC]

harvesting early will severely decrease both quality and quantity.

 

[David Bowman]

Day 46 of flowering and everything is progressing well with the ladies. I'm feeding them every watering which is every 2-3 days now. The lower fan leaves are still slowly yellowing and dying. Approximately 50% of the pistils have turned orange and dried out. A quick glance of the trichomes using a magnifying glass shows some more have turned milky but I won't know exactly how much until I do an in depth inspection over the weekend. I've still not yet made a decision on the timing of the harvest. Any and all advice/comments/opinions/etc. are welcome!

Group shot of the ladies on day 46 of flowering -

Single and close-up shots of the top cola of the lady on the left -

Single and close-up shots of the top cola of the lady second from the left -

Single and close-up shots of the top cola of the lady second from the right -

Single and close-up shots of the top cola of the lady on the right -

Close-up shots of some mid-level buds on the ladies -

 

[Light Addict]

Awesome buddage, looking real nice, well done!

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks LA and congrats on the MOTM nomination!

 

[yuyo]

getting close, looks pretty you take some nice pics,i am not sure about harvest i like to leave quite a bit of cloudy trichs myself and usually around 70-80% of the pistil are shriveled
anyway keep up the good work and take care

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks yuyo! You and others before you have been telling me that I'm planning on harvesting too soon, yet I resisted. I was just looking over my last post and from a purely objective POV, like I was looking at someone else's journal, I realized that these ladies have at least 2 more weeks left. That puts me into week 10 before I can harvest but as the French say - c'est la vie. If for no other reason than this, I'm glad to have created a journal of my grow. Thanks to all who helped me to see the light!

 

[Spimp]

Good idea to weight a little more.

 

[stealthgrow]

They are looking very nice.

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks Spimp and stealthgrow!!

 

[pantyraid7036]

Oh wow!! so, so pretty!!! Your grow is looking amazing!

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks pantyraid!

 

[draxlin]

Very nice! I bet its hard to wait, but I'm sure you'll be glad you did. When I get to this point I'll need all the support I can to not harvest too early.

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks draxlin! I sure hope I've made the right decision!! Today I went out and bought an evaporative cool mist humidifier to help control the temps and RH. My ladies are certainly thirsty/hungry these days, I fed them molasses water yesterday morning and they were dry by this afternoon so I fed them some more nutes before bedtime. Maybe this is a sign that they are starting to fatten up as I understand they do in the last 2 weeks of growth.

 

[David Bowman]

Day 54 of flowering and the ladies are doing well. I'm glad I made the decision to delay harvest until December as the buds and trichomes are maturing at a slower rate than I had anticipated. I'm still getting new pistils forming, the trichomes are at best 40% milky and about 10% are amber now. That's about double what they were ~2 weeks ago and on track to reach my goal of 80-100% milky and 20-25% amber in about 2 weeks time. The temperatures are stable at around 80 degrees during the day and 60 degrees at night. The RH has doubled to ~30% with the new humidifier which goes through a half gallon of water every 12 hours. This morning I gave them the last feeding of Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom and I start the flush with molasses water on Monday. On average each lady is drinking a cup of water a day and I'm watering every 2 days now. The rate of lower leaf loss has slowed and has nicely defoliated the lower sections of the plants allowing more light to reach the lower buds. I now get to wait patiently for the ladies to fully mature before harvest, a trying but hopefully rewarding experience.

 

[yuyo]

no pics =(
i think that at this stage you want a lower humidity
its suppose to tell your girls that they need more resins
anyway it wont be much longer =)

 

[David Bowman]

Day 61 of flowering and the ladies are still chugging along well. They've been on a molasses water only diet since Monday the 25th. They appear to be filling out nicely and slowly maturing towards harvest which currently is expected to be sometime next week during week 10. The temperatures are stable between 60-80 degrees and the RH is stable at 30% during the day, approximately double the RH prior to the addition of the evaporative cool mist humidifier. I'm getting together all of the equipment I'll need for harvest so that I'll have everything when it is time to cut these ladies down. Until then I'm patiently waiting for my ladies to fully mature.

Group shot of the ladies -

Single shots of the ladies -

Close-up shots of top colas of the ladies -

Close-up shots of a couple of buds -

Extreme close-up shots of a couple of top colas -

 

[David Bowman]

Day 63 of flowering and I just performed a trichome check on a small sugar leaf taken from the top of one of my lady's colas. It appears that the changes to the trichomes are mostly occuring in the topmost portion, or what I call the head, of the trichome. Does it start in the head and work its way down the trichome or is the head of the trichome used to determine what stage it is in? Based on the head it looks like they are ~20% clear, ~60% cloudy, ~20% amber. I think it is very close to harvest but I sure would appreciate any more experienced growers out there to give me their take on the status of my ladies' trichome development.

Underside of Small Sugar Leaf @ ~200X

Underside of Small Sugar Leaf @ ~400X

Underside of Small Sugar Leaf @ ~400X

 

[stealthgrow]

Hi Colorado, your plants are looking awesome and the tricomb development looks good. IMO your ready to harvest whenever you want. As I'm sure you already know, the more amber you let the plant go the more of wheelchair/couchlock buzz your gonna have.
Good luck and congrats on your upcoming harvest. +reps for growing them out to harvest.

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks for the advice and reps stealthgrow! It is much appreciated!!