Reading Trichomes?

[Damien102]

Hi all
I'm a first time grower and my girls (2) are going into the home stretch. I read the best time to harvest is when about 20% of their trichomes have gone from milky to amber. I've got a USB microscope to look at their trichomes. I found that just using the microscope on a bud site is harder than it sounds (a person walking across the floor makes it shake all over). I have a hard time getting the microscope aimed and focused on the bud itself. The small leaves on the bud themselves are much easier to get a good shot of. My question is, are the trichomes on leaves turning amber at the same time the trichomes on the buds are? Like I said, the leaf trichomes I can see, the trichomes on the buds, not so much.
One more question as well..... The pictures are just taken now. Do these look 2 weeks to harvest/ready to flush and stop feeding nutes?

 

[Bill284]

Hi all
I'm a first time grower and my girls (2) are going into the home stretch. I read the best time to harvest is when about 20% of their trichomes have gone from milky to amber. I've got a USB microscope to look at their trichomes. I found that just using the microscope on a bud site is harder than it sounds (a person walking across the floor makes it shake all over). I have a hard time getting the microscope aimed and focused on the bud itself. The small leaves on the bud themselves are much easier to get a good shot of. My question is, are the trichomes on leaves turning amber at the same time the trichomes on the buds are? Like I said, the leaf trichomes I can see, the trichomes on the buds, not so much.
One more question as well..... The pictures are just taken now. Do these look 2 weeks to harvest/ready to flush and stop feeding nutes?

Good morning @Damien102 hope you are well my friend.
I don't harvest until all the white pistols are crinkled in and turned red.
That will let you know she is finished.
Some pics of the plant and buds would help.
Then check tric's.
Clear / cloudy energetic feeling.
Cloudy / amber more relaxed feeling.
Feed her right up until you turn your lights off 36hr pre harvest.
Don't flush unless you have a lockout or your nutrient line calls for a 3x pot flush.
Otherwise feed her until she says I'm done.

Always go by tric's on the buds, never the leaves.
Keep up the good work.

Stay safe
Bill

 

[Bigjake8]

I wanna get one of those USB scopes one of these days
Like Bill said go by the buds not sugar leaves

Another thing if you are running hps will make them look amber in the scope when they are not use white light when you are playing with the scope I usually take a junk bud to a table where I can spre a d it open

And yea pick of the whole plant yes we've seen a million but they arelike tittys once you se one you wanna se them all haha

 

[Bill284]

I wanna get one of those USB scopes one of these days
Like Bill said go by the buds not sugar leaves

Another thing if you are running hps will make them look amber in the scope when they are not use white light when you are playing with the scope I usually take a junk bud to a table where I can spre a d it open

And yea pick of the whole plant yes we've seen a million but they arelike tittys once you se one you wanna se them all haha

Omg
It's funny because it's true

Stay safe
Bill

 

[Damien102]

I wanna get one of those USB scopes one of these days
Like Bill said go by the buds not sugar leaves

Another thing if you are running hps will make them look amber in the scope when they are not use white light when you are playing with the scope I usually take a junk bud to a table where I can spre a d it open

And yea pick of the whole plant yes we've seen a million but they arelike tittys once you se one you wanna se them all haha

When using the scope it has to be literally a mm or so away from the object. It has white LED's (but I am running an LED Q Board and some CFL's, not hps's) that aim at the focal point and you get a great picture. The only and biggest down side is, if it moves even 1/10 of a mm, you loose the object your aiming at. When trying to look at a bud on a branch its a big pain to keep it aimed. You have to turn off all your fans and even then, it looks like there's and earth quake going on in the tent just from touching it to focus. I'm looking to get or make a mount for it that's flexible but still rock solid. Haven't come up with one yet though.
Never thought to pick a pop corn bud. I got a good number of 8 inch'ish cola's on top, but a whole bunch of pop corns under the canopy. Are those pop corn's maturing at the same rate the top cola's are?

Another thing I should have asked about in my OP is about flushing. I been getting brown spots on my leaves. After reading up I found the most common reason is low ph. I never had checked my run off ph. I put about 6.3 in, but after checking found my run off to be 5.5. Should I do a 6.4 flush? Or just up my watering, water to 6.8-7.0 till the run off comes up to 6.4ish? I'm thinking a full flush wouldn't be a bad idea to remove salts and get the ph right.... Kill two birds with one stone.

"yes we've seen a million but they are like tittys once you see one you wanna se them all haha"
And the bigger and more bloated the better LOL. Guess their not called "the girls" for nuthen LOL.

 

[Bill284]

When using the scope it has to be literally a mm or so away from the object. It has white LED's (but I am running an LED Q Board and some CFL's, not hps's) that aim at the focal point and you get a great picture. The only and biggest down side is, if it moves even 1/10 of a mm, you loose the object your aiming at. When trying to look at a bud on a branch its a big pain to keep it aimed. You have to turn off all your fans and even then, it looks like there's and earth quake going on in the tent just from touching it to focus. I'm looking to get or make a mount for it that's flexible but still rock solid. Haven't come up with one yet though.
Never thought to pick a pop corn bud. I got a good number of 8 inch'ish cola's on top, but a whole bunch of pop corns under the canopy. Are those pop corn's maturing at the same rate the top cola's are?

Another thing I should have asked about in my OP is about flushing. I been getting brown spots on my leaves. After reading up I found the most common reason is low ph. I never had checked my run off ph. I put about 6.3 in, but after checking found my run off to be 5.5. Should I do a 6.4 flush? Or just up my watering, water to 6.8-7.0 till the run off comes up to 6.4ish?

"yes we've seen a million but they are like tittys once you see one you wanna se them all haha"
And the bigger and more bloated the better LOL. Guess their not called "the girls" for nuthen LOL.

Good morning @Damien102 hope everything is going well today.
Popcorn buds or larf never fully develop like top colas.
Most growers clean out under her skirt after stretch.
Getting rid of energy sucking material that never amounts to much.
If your in soil feeding salt based nutrients they will build up occasionally causing issues.
Best thing to do is run 3x the size of the pot water through it.
No need to set ph.
Just take her to a bathtub or laundry tub.
Pour it slowly through her.
This loosens up the debris around the roots.
Allowing them to uptake properly again.
Then let her dry dry dry and feed full strength as usual.
That should help.

Stay safe
Bill

 

[Melville Hobbes]

I'm looking to get or make a mount for it that's flexible but still rock solid. Haven't come up with one yet though.

I've heard some guys are using mic stands for that.

And yea pick of the whole plant yes we've seen a million but they arelike tittys once you se one you wanna se them all haha

Do they call you Tater Salad?

 

[Bill284]

I've heard some guys are using mic stands for that.

Do they call you Tater Salad?

Tater Salad
We watch that all the time on the oldies channel. Hilarious.
Beaver bit my nipple off, hehe.

Stay safe
Bill

 

[Damien102]

Doing the flush..... I would say I hate to brag, but I got to. This is my first grow and the first time I'm seeing them out of the tent. I'm very happy with it so far!

 

[Bigjake8]

You got a long way to go I know you ask in your first post how long and by that pic I was gonna say 2 week but the full plant picks my guess is 3 or more wait until them white hairs turn orange or red then check with the scope

They look good bottom one looks like it got hot or light hungry that why so skinny at the top but over all your kicking ass hide the trimmers and let it ride for awhile

Also don't starve your plants at the end just back down nutes last week and cure it right

 

[Damien102]

They look good bottom one looks like it got hot or light hungry that why so skinny at the top but over all your kicking ass hide the trimmers and let it ride for awhile

The bottom one, is the one on the right in the top pic. It was the runt from day one. Like I said, I have a 2x2 tent. When the bigger one dominated the horizontal space in the tent, I couldn't bend the smaller one without blocking light from the bigger one so I just let it get tall.
I'm going out of town end of July/beginning of Aug. for two weeks, so after this one is out of the tent I won't be able to start another till after that. Before I started this one I read a 2x2 tent could hold 2 plants, but found although this is possible, it's definitely not optimal. Next grow I'm thinking 1plant and keep it under a 12-14 inch high trellis/SCROG.

When I started this grow I was hoping for 1 dry oz. each. I hope I'm not being overly optimistic, but looking at them now, I'm hoping 2 each.