Trichomes ready right? Help with flushing too

[bebecillo]

Ok, so the auto seed I bought said it would be ready in 53 days but I always guesstimated timing would be under ideal conditions, yet I came home on day 54 and the trichomes seem ready. I have two problems now:

1.- Are they ready? I was expecting another month of growth, therefore achieving more resin and fatter buds but trichomes say they're ready now. I spot VERY few amber spots, so if I leave it for another week I'll have too much amber and that's a big no no for me.

2.- Since I was expecting another month of growth I haven't flushed. This will be used mainly for cooking, so I have no problem water curing my buds (with filtered water) and losing the terpenes since they get lost in the cooking process as well.

3.- I've read past threads here where people pull each other eyes regarding flushing vs no flushing. How screwed up am I?

I'll leave some photos for you to enjoy.

 

[Scientific]

Ok, so the auto seed I bought said it would be ready in 53 days but I always guesstimated timing would be under ideal conditions, yet I came home on day 54 and the trichomes seem ready. I have two problems now:

1.- Are they ready? I was expecting another month of growth, therefore achieving more resin and fatter buds but trichomes say they're ready now. I spot VERY few amber spots, so if I leave it for another week I'll have too much amber and that's a big no no for me.

2.- Since I was expecting another month of growth I haven't flushed. This will be used mainly for cooking, so I have no problem water curing my buds (with filtered water) and losing the terpenes since they get lost in the cooking process as well.

3.- I've read past threads here where people pull each other eyes regarding flushing vs no flushing. How screwed up am I?

I find it difficult to evaluate trichomes in photos, but those do look mostly cloudy. (FWIW, I think the best place to evaluate them is outdoors in the early morning sun (that is, bright sun coming in from the side with a high magnification lens.)

The seed suppliers' guesstimates of when the plant will be ready are just that. There's lots of variability, especially when grown outside.

If you're going to be cooking with your herb, do you need to cure it at all? (That's a real question. I don't know. I guess breaking down some of the chlorophyll and losing some of the grassy components would help for flavor with cooking, too?)

I think there are still some who don't believe in flushing, but the majority view as far as I can tell is that it can make for a smoother smoke.

 

[AnimaSola]

Looks like it's covered in spider mites and web...
Or maybe just a smudge?

 

[bebecillo]

It was a smudge, flash ran out of batteries and had to do a long exposition with my phone led. Plant is healthy and pest free.

My cooking process always has two or three hot water baths to decarb and clean impurities (I'm aware of the cbd loss there), but i want to cure some to smoke in my pipe and that's where flushing is needed.

 

[HigherTheHigh]

Get yourself a jewlers loupe, theres nothing more devastating than harvesting a plant that "looks ready" for a true indication check your trichs.

For flushing, i would advise you flush, iv smoked buds that werent flushed and even had a 3 month cure and they tasted chemically disgusting, so i dont no what it would do to your cooking.

If your growing in soil i would run a 1 week flush and coco run a 10-14 day flush.

Never flushed in soil but coco i pour 2x-3x the pot volume then let her dry out, then plain water with a flush agent every watering.

Good luck they look nice.

 

[bebecillo]

Get yourself a jewlers loupe, theres nothing more devastating than harvesting a plant that "looks ready" for a true indication check your trichs.

For flushing, i would advise you flush, iv smoked buds that werent flushed and even had a 3 month cure and they tasted chemically disgusting, so i dont no what it would do to your cooking.

If your growing in soil i would run a 1 week flush and coco run a 10-14 day flush.

Never flushed in soil but coco i pour 2x-3x the pot volume then let her dry out, then plain water with a flush agent every watering.

Good luck they look nice.

I already have a dedicated macro lens that beats a jewelers loupe, but a microscope would be interesting.

Anyway, buds are cut and after cooking there's no bad taste whatsoever.


Photos here
FastBuds C4 Auto & Xiaomi Mi Flora