Please help tell if I should harvest...

jamminman

New Member
I'm at 7 weeks and need help to determine if I'm ready to harvest, no specific strain. The hairs are 75% or more amber but I've read to wait until the triclomes are turning amber, which hasn't happened yet, they're clear to cloudy. The fan leaves are starting to yellow from the low nitrogen nutes. From what I've read I would assume it should be a week or so but in the last couple days there are some definite flowers forming from the calyxes and the buds are looking different than a lot of the photos I see on the site. Have I waited to long?

DSC_4146a.jpg
 
I've seen these photos and as I mentioned was waiting for the trichomes to turn amber but I'm concerned by the appearance of the bud. As you can see about half way down the bud that the calyxes look like they are opening up and looking more like flowers. I know that the calyxes are also supposed to "swell" at some point, haven't seen this yet, just more flower looking. I don't notice this on the photos on the site nor do I recognize the look of this from the bud I've smoked in the past. I'm most concerned about letting it ripen too long rather than too short.
 
I'm also finding other information out there regarding this "flowering"...

...when the male flowers appear. If they appear at the end of flowering, as the buds are ripening and about to be harvested, they pose no danger and can be taken as indicators of ripening. Many Indica varieties produce these flowers. If they produce pollen, the upside is that it can be used to pollinate younger, fertile female flowers. The resulting seeds will all be female....
 
Here is a closer look at the flowers.

DSC_4149b.jpg


From what I've been reading, it seems at this point just to let them go and harvest as normal. Not the best but at 7 weeks you can't turn back.

What do you all think?
 
Chop it now, unless you want femenized seeds and can pollinate another plant. I don't think MJ can self Pollinate, or maybe its just on rare occasions.
 
It can self pollinate, and will if you don't get it cut down. Not to mention passing the hermi genes around the grow room. Spray them with water to kill the pollen. The problem lies with the timing too...the seeds on the self pollinated stuff will have a hard time reaching maturity before you absolutely have to cut down so you'll end up with a bunch of hollow shells in your weed...not to mention all the other girls in the room getting knocked up.
 
Well the next question is... Is it worth drying/curing?

There are some nice buds and trichome development so I would assume that although it may not be optimal that it should still be worth the time to harvest it as is.

Anyone had experience with it?
 
Thanks for the self pollination info Akorn, I didn't think it could self pollinate.
 
Yes, thanks Acorn, this is becoming a very informative thread.

They definately do self polinate, I noticed small seeds already forming on the lower branches. So now I know that the damage has been done and the whole room has been contaminated.

I actually have 2 of 3 plants showing this same thing so I took them down today and left the 3rd (a female with no signs of herm) to go to term. I guess I'll just be dealing with seeds this crop.

I debated a while about just letting them all go the distance but I have a few that will go to 12/12 in 2 weeks. Now I'm thinking about the long term effects of rogue pollen floating around the room. Some info I read said pollen is only "active" for about 10-14 days so I'm crossing my fingers that with a good cleaning any remaining pollen won't be a problem.

Any experience with that?
 
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