Hoping someone can give me some advice on harvesting my White Widow. I have a mixture of clear, milky white and some amber Trichomes. Check out my photos. Should these plants all be harvested at the same time? Are they ripe for harvest now? This is my first grow and I would appreciate some feedback. My plants are currently in week 12 of flowering. I've read that if you harvest them when the Trichomes are a milky white, the effects will be more of an energetic high and if they are allowed to go amber, you'll have your ass on the couch the rest of the day. Any comments are appreciated! Thanks!
Harvest Time?
- Thread starter JBVT
- Start date
Milky trichomes are at the peak of potency. The effect is from the cannabinoid profile. One can change this effect by waiting - just like one can change the taste of fruit by waiting until it is overripe.
Do you like overripe fruit, lol? Me... not so much.
As you observe, trichomes to not attain their peak potency all at the same time; this is logical, because they were not all created at the same time. Ergo, it is natural to harvest when some are still clear and some have already degraded to amber. I suppose a (poor) analogy is, when cooking meat over an open campfire, "harvest" your meal when the maximum amount possible is done "just right," knowing that you will probably have some "degraded" (burnt) meat and some "immature" (still bleeding
). Poor because, personally, I'd rather eat a charred lump than one that is still mooing. But you can probably understand what I am getting at.
IF one is forced by circumstances to grow plants that have a cannabinoid profile that one is incompatible with instead of growing the right strain/phenotype for that person, then it might make sense (albeit be a sad second place to simply growing the correct ones and harvesting them at peak potency) to wait until the buds are past their prime (or, I suppose, before their prime if the person is stuck with indicas and wants to soar with the eagles instead of being a puddle on a couch) in order to get a muddier, heavier, sleepier buzz - but, again, potency suffers for this.
In other words, lol, it's up to the individual grower to decide when to harvest. Me, I want peak potency... Even if I (for example) want a good sativa buzz and ordered indicas by mistake. I could probably end up ahead by trading really potent indica buds for sativa buds. Or by trading really potent sativa buds for indica ones. <SHRUGS> But if I was shipwrecked on a desert island, with only my own poorly-chosen plants to make do with, then I'd be juggling the harvest date.
I'm just rambling. Feels better to "think" I'm not sleeping because I'm busily typing on the forum than because I'm laying in bed... not sleeping.
Do you like overripe fruit, lol? Me... not so much.
As you observe, trichomes to not attain their peak potency all at the same time; this is logical, because they were not all created at the same time. Ergo, it is natural to harvest when some are still clear and some have already degraded to amber. I suppose a (poor) analogy is, when cooking meat over an open campfire, "harvest" your meal when the maximum amount possible is done "just right," knowing that you will probably have some "degraded" (burnt) meat and some "immature" (still bleeding
). Poor because, personally, I'd rather eat a charred lump than one that is still mooing. But you can probably understand what I am getting at.IF one is forced by circumstances to grow plants that have a cannabinoid profile that one is incompatible with instead of growing the right strain/phenotype for that person, then it might make sense (albeit be a sad second place to simply growing the correct ones and harvesting them at peak potency) to wait until the buds are past their prime (or, I suppose, before their prime if the person is stuck with indicas and wants to soar with the eagles instead of being a puddle on a couch) in order to get a muddier, heavier, sleepier buzz - but, again, potency suffers for this.
In other words, lol, it's up to the individual grower to decide when to harvest. Me, I want peak potency... Even if I (for example) want a good sativa buzz and ordered indicas by mistake. I could probably end up ahead by trading really potent indica buds for sativa buds. Or by trading really potent sativa buds for indica ones. <SHRUGS> But if I was shipwrecked on a desert island, with only my own poorly-chosen plants to make do with, then I'd be juggling the harvest date.
I'm just rambling. Feels better to "think" I'm not sleeping because I'm busily typing on the forum than because I'm laying in bed... not sleeping.
- Thread starter
- #3
Milky trichomes are at the peak of potency. The effect is from the cannabinoid profile. One can change this effect by waiting - just like one can change the taste of fruit by waiting until it is overripe.
Do you like overripe fruit, lol? Me... not so much.
As you observe, trichomes to not attain their peak potency all at the same time; this is logical, because they were not all created at the same time. Ergo, it is natural to harvest when some are still clear and some have already degraded to amber. I suppose a (poor) analogy is, when cooking meat over an open campfire, "harvest" your meal when the maximum amount possible is done "just right," knowing that you will probably have some "degraded" (burnt) meat and some "immature" (still bleeding
IF one is forced by circumstances to grow plants that have a cannabinoid profile that one is incompatible with instead of growing the right strain/phenotype for that person, then it might make sense (albeit be a sad second place to simply growing the correct ones and harvesting them at peak potency) to wait until the buds are past their prime (or, I suppose, before their prime if the person is stuck with indicas and wants to soar with the eagles instead of being a puddle on a couch) in order to get a muddier, heavier, sleepier buzz - but, again, potency suffers for this.
In other words, lol, it's up to the individual grower to decide when to harvest. Me, I want peak potency... Even if I (for example) want a good sativa buzz and ordered indicas by mistake. I could probably end up ahead by trading really potent indica buds for sativa buds. Or by trading really potent sativa buds for indica ones. <SHRUGS> But if I was shipwrecked on a desert island, with only my own poorly-chosen plants to make do with, then I'd be juggling the harvest date.
I'm just rambling. Feels better to "think" I'm not sleeping because I'm busily typing on the forum than because I'm laying in bed... not sleeping.
- Thread starter
- #4
No reason you can't take their tops and give the lower portions a few more days, too, if you feel that they're not quite mature yet.
- Thread starter
- #6
I know this is old af but hopefully you still see it lol....I was just debating doing that with my auto, chopping the top branches because the lower definitely need more time...glad to see that is a possibility for me..I appreciate your thoroughness wholeheartedly. So many helpful people here
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