White hairs turning amber!

The little white hairs are turning amber. I’m guessing about 40% amber at this point.
How much longer should I wait to harvest? The girls are WW and SSH. I am so impatient!
MT

Oh hell … I forgot to post the pics.

Keep an eye on those trichomes. What a lot of white hairs mean, or could mean, is new calyx/bud/pistol development. In other words the buds could still be growing and swelling. This is why some people wait for nearly 100%, or actually the full 100%, of the “hairs” to have turned the orange/brown before they actually harvest. But this might be a bit too long for some strains and too many of the trichomes may have degraded to amber and this might mean couch lock or a too sedative like of a buzz. So the only way to be sure is to watch those trichomes.

~MacG

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Thanks for the reply. The plants are SSH and WW. Really hoping to stay away from a couch-lock high. I’ll keep a watch on them for the trichomes and about 75% amber…what do you think?
MT

75% of the hairs to be browning might still be a little early, but around 75% or more of the pistils to have turned is where most people start paying especially close attention to the trichomes.

Okay … thanks a lot MacGyver. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Start closely checking trich’s when about 75% amber. About how many more weeks would you guess … or is that question too variable?
You’re the best!
MT

The hairs, which are pistils are not indicative of time to harvest. The hairs are not trichomes. I would wait until all hairs (pistils) have colored. However; Monitoring the trichomes is the only way to truly judge when to harvest.

1/3 to 1/2 amber trichomes should do you. Any more amber % would be getting near “couchlock” type high. Less will give a more up high. Be careful though. Harvesting a Sativa dominant plant to early can cause an anxious high. Have a great finish! :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the advice Latewood. I’ll closely monitor the amber hairs and the trichomes … god knows I don’t want to end up with some kind of nervous/anxious high! I think I’ve been able to identify the SSH and the WW of my plants. I think the really tall, thinner ones must be the SSH. I wish I hadn’t messed up the seeds when I planted them. Oh well … live and learn.
MT

latewood got this one right on

Yup 2/3rd to 75% of the hairs (pistils) browning/amber is a reasonable indicator of when to more closely monitor the resin glands/crystals (trichomes).

Also a point of note, the “hairs”, the pistils can actually be different colors depending on the strain, normally white to off white when fresh, but many can be yellow, red or purple and much if this color may be retained when they shrivel and dry, but no matter the strain, these hairs will turn much more brownish when they shrivel and dry.This is why you may have heard about orange haired, gold haired or blond haired back in the day, and might see some strains with bright red or purple hairs in photos nowadays. Some colors can show in the resin crystals as well.

So normally amber is not a word applied to the hair color, lol. Amber is generally used to describe the trichomes, even the type that do show some other colors.

However the percentage of the resin glands/crystals (trichomes) to have turned amber should be much less to avoid couch lock.

Ideally you want 100% of the resin glands/trichomes/crystals to have turned from clear to cloudy/milky white.

Depending on the strain, you may want some of the resin glands/crystals (trichomes) to have turned amber, as especially with some sativas, if not enough of the trichomes have turned amber, some people say they get a little anxious or maybe even a paranoid kind of high. And so with these you might need at least 1/4 amber or as Latewood said, 1/3 to 1/2 amber trichomes.

Hope this clarifies some things.

~MacG

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