My plant is almost hairless?

[Eartha]

I have grown a number of plants outdoors over the years. This is the first time I've seen a plant look like this. Great White Shark, autofem. I guess all the calyxes are swollen, but there are no seeds inside. There had been SOME hairs earlier, but it's as if they got swallowed up. The trichomes are clear.
I did make some sort of lighting mistake when I started her indoors; I think I set the light on too long and after I put her outside she started flowering too early, although I don't care; there's enough for me there anyway. I have a different variety near her & she is appropriately hairy. They are both close to ready, about 6 weeks earlier than any plants I've raised before.
I'm gonna smoke her, but can anyone tell me what happened? I kinda thought i knew what I was doing by now!

 

[TorturedSoul]

The trichomes are clear.

They are both close to ready

The above statements are contradictory.

 

[Eartha]

The above statements are contradictory.

I thought to be ready the trichomes should have some milky, some amber, some clear, so my assumption is they are closing in on being ready since they all seem clear. But, why does my close-to-being-ready plant look like this, instead of having hairs?

 

[Greenlizard]

To me this looks like foxtailing. Some strains do it under too much light (light stress) and some strains do this as a genetic trait. I had my Bubba Kush do it last grow and it just gave me a bigger cola. No harm done from what I can tell.

 

[Eartha]

To me this looks like foxtailing. Some strains do it under too much light (light stress) and some strains do this as a genetic trait. I had my Bubba Kush do it last grow and it just gave me a bigger cola. No harm done from what I can tell.

Thank you so much, I had never heard of the term - definitely looks like that's what happened!

 

[Greenlizard]

Your welcome.
Welcome to 420 Magazine by the way.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I thought to be ready the trichomes should have some milky, some amber, some clear, so my assumption is they are closing in on being ready since they all seem clear.

Uh... Not exactly. When the heads form, they're clear - and immature. They turn cloudy when mature and at peak potency. Eventually, they degrade, lose potency... and turn amber.

As they do not, obviously, all form at the same time, they do not become mature at the same time. Therefore, you'll tend to see... At the point in time when your plant has the greatest number of cloudy trichome heads, you'll still have some clear ones - and some few will probably have degraded past peak potency.

Some people - presumably, those who have been trapped in a cave for the last 25 years and aren't aware that they can buy their choice of 2,000+ stains (in seed form) to grow, lol - try to modify the effect profile of their buzz by purposely harvesting too early, or too late. And this does work, to some extent, sort of. I suppose if you don't want your in-laws coming to visit for a week, burning your house down would work, too .

Neither of the above would, objectively speaking, be considered to be the best solution.

Harvest your bud at peak potency. Aim for the greatest number of milky trichomes. You should be able to get... IDK... 80% or better. More after a grow or two, when you've been able to observe the natural progression of things and have some chance at predicting things more accurately. In a way, it's like heating milk on the kitchen stove. You watch, wait... Stick your finger in it, lol (not hot yet)... Wait some more, check it again (hey, getting warmer - but still not hot)... And then you blink and the milk has boiled out all over your formerly clean stove.

In other words, don't try waiting for 100% cloudy trichomes. That milk will boil; you'll pick up your jeweler's loupe or 'scope and realize that you waited too long, and that a few amber trichomes... have become many.

Oh, and you should be looking at the ones on the buds (flowers), not the ones on the leaves.