When should I harvest my plants?

Smokin Moose

Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex Moderator
The 30X and 100X lighted magnifier are tools everyone serious about harvest timing should have. They make it easy to monitor the resin development process. After seeing 400X images of resin glands, I decided to also buy the 100X magnifier. It supplies a superior view, providing an enhanced perspective of resin gland condition and development.

I recommend buying the 30X model first and if you would like to expand your analytical capabilities, buy the 100X model. They both allow for a much closer inspection of the clarity, color and condition of the resin glands, which should be swollen and unbroken while remaining transparent and slightly amber, if at all, at the peak of ripeness. Some prefer harvesting earlier, as THC degrades to more sedative cannabinoids as the glands ripen.

Harvest timing is a matter of personal preference. When the glandular trichomes are clear with very little, if any coloration, THC levels are at their peak with CBD and CBN both at levels that will not overly influence the THC with their sedative effects. Some prefer more overwhelming narcotic type effects, allowing the resin glands to cloud and begin to amber or darken to increase overall cannabinoid content. The resin glands appear and therefore will mature at different times. A compromise is made when determining the desired overall maturity level to harvest. It depends on the growers preference in effect and palate.
 
It's called revegging a plant.

Here's what you need to do:

First of all re-veg means to re-vegetate in grower slang.

Re-vegetating is when you take a plant that's in flower and force it back into vegetative state.

Vegetative state is the state or mode a plant is in when it is NOT flowering.

The main reason to re-vegetate is to make a mother plant. It's nice to keep a mother plant in veg state, that way when you want to make new plants you just take cuttings from her and root them.

Sometimes a good plant sneaks up on you and you may decide you want to preserve her and re-vegging is one option.

There is a trick to re-vegging a marijuana plant though. You need to keep a enough shade/sucker leaves on the plant to allow it to draw water up and transpire.




If you don't keep enough shade leaves on your marijuana plant it can drown easily. Keep the lower "popcorn" buds on so you have some sites for re-vegetation to take place.

When you water be extremely careful not to give your plant much more water than the plant is going to use in a day. Don't soak the pot. Feed your plant light doses of grow nutrients. I also like to use a product called Greenfuse Grow, it helps accelerate plant growth. I don't use as much as the manufacturer suggests most of the time. Definitely don't give the plant a heavy dose of this in the beginning stages of re-vegging.

You also need to keep enough bud sites going because that's where you are going to see the plant begin to re-veg. Without any bud sites, the plant can't produce new vegetative growth.
So cut your plant back similar to the picture above. This way you can harvest over 95% of the medicine and have plenty bud sites to get some good re-veg action.


Make sure to leave as many of those sucker leaves on as possible.

Put your plant into your veg room and give it 18 -20 hours of light. There is no need to give the plant straight 24 hours of light unless you are using florescent lighting. I don't recommend using florescent lights to re-veg with but it has been done.

It will take about 1-2 weeks before you begin to see new growth shooting from the buds If you use a simple 400 watt metal halide HID light. Keep on watering LIGHTLY until the plant becomes bushy again and starts using more water.

Once the plant begins to re-veg start giving it more grow nutrients.

After 4 or 5 weeks you should have a plant that has fully transformed from a mature flowering plant to a mature plant in vegetative mode. In a couple more weeks you should be ready to start taking cuttings.

Remember to keep your mother plant in 18-20 hours of light and to give it at least 4 hours rest every night.

Some growers believe that a marijuana plant becomes more potent as it ages. After it reaches about 1 year it maxes out in potency.

(Found this at How To Reveg A Marijuana Plant).

Good luck!!
 
Good stuff... I just recently picked up a jewelers loupe, it is a LED 40x, it works like a charm. I am a lil intimidated by this determining things by the color of the trichomes, I have always looked to the pistils to judge harvest time.
Using the trichomes seems like a much more definitive way to judge. Although, I am finding that it takes a lil time to learn how to look at things under a mag glass... LOL

It would be great if some smart young person would post some super magnified pics of exactly what we are supposed to see the trichs and calyxes under the glass in various stages of ripeness. That way, visual learners like me have an easier time trusting what we think we are supposed to be seeing!

If those pics are already here/available, I would like to see them... gotta link?

Anyways, great thread, definitely stimulated some thinking on my part!
 
Well, like I said above, I am really wanting to determine harvest using the trichs/calyxes instead of just looking at the pistils, it's not working out quite like I had anticipated!

Using my jewelers loupe, I am able to see that on a few of my girls, the pistils are 50 to 80% spent (brown or beige) but, the trichomes and calyxes are all white/clear; also, the trich production is completely off the charts. In fact, they are so sticky, bugs are landing on the buds and getting stuck there... no lie.
I expected to see the trichs/calyxes turning at about the same time as the bulk of the pistils signifying the upcoming harvest... apparently, this is not always so!

I do believe however that the plants in question are ready to pop... in the last week, the girls have taken on whole different personalities. They are also starting to use up lots of their fan/shade leaves which is something they have never done, soooo...

I am going to be purging/flushing them this week and probably start bringing them in next weekend. That will give me a full 10 days of nothing but H20 and BlackStrap, I think that is sufficient time to clean out all nutes and such.

If you would like to see, use the Capt. K' OD Dirt link in my siggy... cheers!
 
Hey All. How important is the purging/flushing at the end of a grow? I'm about ready to harvest my second crop(yeah, I'm still a newbie) and for the last two weeks I've been using nothing but water. Not a big flush, just watering on their regular schedule. Is the process absolutely necessary, and for what reason? How do I purge and what happens if I don't? Also, where do I get Blackstrap molasses and when do I add it? For how long? What will the end result be? My second grow includes some Flo,' Kush, Snow Ryder and Cole Train.So far things have been going great. Everything is beautiful. One more thing. When the trichs start becoming cloudy, how long do I wait? Most of the plants have just made the clear to cloudy change. Thanks to everyone,J.H.W.
 
Hey All. How important is the purging/flushing at the end of a grow? I'm about ready to harvest my second crop(yeah, I'm still a newbie) and for the last two weeks I've been using nothing but water. Not a big flush, just watering on their regular schedule. Is the process absolutely necessary, and for what reason? How do I purge and what happens if I don't? Also, where do I get Blackstrap molasses and when do I add it? For how long? What will the end result be? My second grow includes some Flo,' Kush, Snow Ryder and Cole Train.So far things have been going great. Everything is beautiful. One more thing. When the trichs start becoming cloudy, how long do I wait? Most of the plants have just made the clear to cloudy change. Thanks to everyone,J.H.W.

I would definitely recommend you read more on the site, so many threads in this section its ridiculous how much info you can gather for free.

As a matter a fact I can almost answer your questions by giving you links, I'm stoned so on a forum binge lol, but only constructive posts here ;)

How to Grow Marijuana Everything You Need to Know

A critical look at preharvest flushing

Wait for amber if you want more weigh and a slightly heavier stone. I prefer mostly cloudy, the answer is really your personal preference, just experiment and test to determine what you prefer. :goodluck:
 
I agree with JJ - I'm about ready to harvest and I've been using this site for information purposes the whole time. I've just this month decided to register because I wanted to be able to post too. Go to the "How to grow marijuana" tab @ the top of any page, there is sooo much info. Nearly every single question I've had along the way has already been asked and answered here somewhere. It just takes some time to sit and read it all. Thanks to all who have made this site what it is. I'm loving my first grow in no small part to all of you.
 
I use a BeLOMO Triplet 10x loupe for wide field scanning of an entire cola, and if I need to confirm the right ratio of clear, cloudy and amber, I use my Lab Grade Celestron microscope set to 80x.

A 10x loupe is a must in my opinion. Having a higher powered second opinion is always a good idea if you can afford to own both, but a Triplet alone can get the job done! :thumb:

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I'm new...but I've read that the best time to harvest is when the buds start to turn brown or reddish. Sort of like this picture...
Marijuana_big.jpg
 
I'm new...but I've read that the best time to harvest is when the buds start to turn brown or reddish. Sort of like this picture...

Marijuana_big.jpg

You can't base optimum harvest just off that cause those can trun color from other outside influences such as being sprayed with something, or even if you touch them.

Trichome status is really the most reliable method.
 
iminadaze said:
Do you have a digital camera with macro capabilities. That will also work.

Good idea!

If you don't have a camera with Macro, you can pick up a cheap Chinese made loupe magnifier for under 5 bucks. Not anything I would ever use or recommend but they are out there and would be better than nothing.

Unfortunately, the trichomes are just small enough that the naked eye can not detect their state or color.

If you want a high quality loupe, I own and highly recommend the BeLOMO Triplet 10x. Costs about $35.00 on the web delivered.

Sent from my iPod touch using Forum Runner
 
Hey all you fine people!
where i have been appreciating all the AWESOME advice here...i still have to ask...'cause i cant find a post or thread...
i flowered one of my mothers...lo and behold, there are large top colas everywhere...cool...and as i know WHEN to harvest the bigguns...can i or should i just harvest the large colas and give for time to the smaller buds?
it seems that the smaller buds are not as mature as bigger ones...or am i nuts and should just hack the branches and dry/cure as usual?
hopin NIBEC answers as he is my gro-guru
thanks yall
 
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