Sour D Trichomes / Harvest

We are in week 12 (I believe, because I have counted two weeks from germination) of an ILGM Sour-D Auto. She looks great and is even still sprouting popcorn buds on low interior branches. Pistils are largely yellow / yellow brown and she is not really getting any bigger, though she does drink about 2 liters of water a day.

I snipped a few random tiny flakes of bud today and got a good look under the microscope. They look a little like this (stock photo):

Mine do not look as cloudy, but I definitely notice more of the brown at the base. I’ve seen few that are cloudy or amber.

As a point of reference, this is a single plant grown in a 12 gallon bubbleponics tub indoors. Fox farm nutes.

We want the resulting weed to be a little more mellow than energetic, but also want to harvest at / near the peak.

Thoughts?

2 Likes

As a runner I would harvest soon due to enjoying a more energetic high. My wife on the other hand would let it go another week or so as she likes to be locked into the couch :wink:
Happy growing…

2 Likes

Thanks @anon86641082

Here are a couple of snaps from today.

I’m a little worried about the yellowing and light burn on the upper leaves. The lights are where they have been for weeks, roughly 2 feet / 60cm from plant. I’m going to assume that is bas for the trichomes. I just backed off the lights another couple of inches.

8 Likes

I think the yellowing leaves are just from them getting ready. They will drink considerable less water as it gets closer. I just grew a Sour D and she got ready before the Blue Dream ,which was supposed to have a 3-4 week earlier harvest than the Sour D… I had to move my light up as well, IMO I wouldn’t give any nutes to correct the yellowing a this stage in the game. I’m certainly not and expert though. Just from what I’ve learned on this forum.

2 Likes

So here we are 17 days later:

She is continuing to yellow, but very few trichomes have even gone cloudy, let alone amber. In fact, I have seen very little change in the trichomes under a microscope. I have not given any nutes in the past month, I just keep topping up pHd water at the rate of about a gallon a day.

I assume at this point the yellowing is just aging of the plant. They are, after all, annuals. If that is the case, should I continue to wait for cloudy / amber trichomes, or cut while she is still largely green?

2 Likes

Oh, and almost all of her pistils are brown.

1 Like

Looking at sugar leaves, the trics are mostly cloudy with a smattering of amber (<10%). The buds are heavy. Feeling like I should chop soon.

1 Like

Don’t look at the sugar leaves as they will always turn amber first. They sure look ready from a distance… both of my grows literally went from clear to amber and pretty much skipped the cloudy part.

It looks to me like it’s beginning to foxtail so I would bring her down sooner than later. Once you get too many foxtails you won’t be able to get a good look at the original bud sites since they just keep building new ones right over the old ones. The new foxtails will be clear.

2 Likes

Yep, she’s foxtailing a lot. I didn’t think about how sampling from those buds might give an inaccurate picture.

1 Like

So did you decide to chop chop chop?

Harvest complete!

5 Likes

Congratulations!!!