So, plant #2 didn’t have room in the tent, has grown outside in direct sunlight, in mid-90 degree heat. She is roughly starting her 6th week of flowering. I moved her inside to the tent to finish her yesterday as my tent was now vacant. I looked at the buds through my loupe, and was shocked to see milky trichomes, and about 20% amber. I cannot post loupe pics, they don’t work, but have posted bud shots. Is it even possible for this plant to be finished this early? Not sure who all to tag, will start with @latewood
First pic of flowering is May 24th, rest is today. She’s an ILGM Blue Dream auto.
Normally I would agree with you just on timing alone. Same order/seed pack first plant went about 9-1/2 weeks flowering before harvest, was a huge yield too.
This plant already has all milky trichomes, with 20% of them amber. It doesn’t fit any normal timeline, and didn’t know if anyone else has had this happen before. Can environmental conditions speed up a timeline like this with auto’s?
Yeah , every plant is different specially autos. I based the few weeks on plant still pushing white pistils. I have had some Autos take as long to finish as photo plants.
One thing that looks noticeable is the way your leaves are cupped and the tips curled up. That is a sign of heat stress and or light intensity.
That can make tric’s turn quicker.
Also, looks like your plants has some dead spots on it from what I can see.
Is PH meter calibrated?
Have you checked runoff?
Tuff spot to be in…I think she’s certainly not ready to harvest. I’d say keep an eye on the trichs and if they get more and more amber. Meanwhile, hopefully she fattens up and those pistils recede and amber up.
Not sure who to tag-in here, @Covertgrower
I am seriously considering chopping her off the trichomes alone, not sure what to do. Should have another 2-4 weeks normally, but tric’s look ripe for whatever reason. Any expert help greatly appreciated.
Edit: I will add by saying she only has had 3 and 5 forked leaves her entire life, the other one I grew from same pack had all 7 and 9 forked fan leaves. Does this seed possibly have more of the ruderalis genes? If that’s the case, would that explain faster maturity?
I would wait until those fox tails turn brown. That should get some of those clears more milky.
Make sure you check the calyx not the sugar leaves. Sugar leaves always have the most amber.
After digging deeper, I have come to the conclusion that this particular plant is expressing her ruderalis genes more prominently than normal. She only has leaves of 3 and 5, is smaller in stature, and with very few side branches. It’s very possible for a faster finishing time from what I’ve read. Fear for me is a lower THC content with the higher ruderalis expression. The pics and what I have been looking at is the calyx, not the sugar leaves. Guess I will chop tomorrow unless someone from Bergman’s crew/lab tells me otherwise. Do you know who I can tag for this? I tried @latewood already, not sure who else with expertise.
I was just making a full chart of what I have done. In my first grow. My BD autos only went 6 weeks. I now know I could have went for at least another week or 2 which is still super short for a BD. But my trichomes showed all super dark amber. Looking at mine vs yours. Mine looks like it was farther along at 6 weeks. Are you seeing the amber on the leaves or buds?
On the buds. Not sure what compelled me to even look, I had it in my mind that I had a few weeks to go. Guess moving it inside yesterday from a life outdoors had me subconsciously curious. Didn’t expect to see what I saw.
The short is it’s your choice and everyone will give you a different answer but very few have dug into the deep and actually seen what research has been done on the topic so most opinions will be from word of mouth experience.
When your looking at tricombs for maturity there are two things to be aware of, first and most importantly is the shape. Your looking for tricombs to all be like mushrooms with nice caps/heads on them, if the head is not big and round yet then the tricomb is not mature yet.
As far as potency goes this is the single most important factor you can alter by harvest point.
Here is an informative paper https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tpj.14516
The second thing you have to decide is the type of high you want as well as how prone the user is to paranoia. This will help you choose the later factor which is harvest color.
You see Amber is the presence of tch that has degraded into CBN which gives you a more sedative effect, although it doesn’t mean that thc has stopped producing or is being degraded faster than it is being produced so keep this in mind.
I’ve harvested many strains very late with 30-60% Amber and enjoyed the highs, still not found them over couch lock (alot of effects do come from genetics and potency as well)
This all being said once you start to see Amber and have few clear left it’s generally a safe time to harvest if you don’t have much experience yet.
If your growing an indica don’t be afraid to let it run longer it will end up being stronger and more heavy of a stone. If you have a nice hybrid or a sativa then it’s a different story.
I would strongly suggest you buy a cheap amazon USB microscope and take some much clearer, more zoomed in photos so we can see the shape.
If you notice here the shape. Is much easier to see, we can also see just because the head turned Amber doesn’t mean the stock has turned Amber so keep. These variables in mind.
But that’s just some of what I know and I’m no professional or scientist.
