Harvest Time! Or is it?

I have used this post at rollitup.org's forums every time I think my cannabis plants are ready for harvest. This is SpruceZeus's take on harvesting. It explains that marijuana plants should be given maximum time to ripen before harvest for the fullest effect. Take a look:

Is it ready yet?: SpruceZeus's take on marijuana ripeness.

This is by no means meant to be the definitive guide to knowing when to chop your plant, only my views on the subject.

I'm personally of the opinion that 90% of the growers on this site (And probably in general) harvest too early. By letting the plants go a little longer you're ensuring that they've plumped as much as they're going to.

Despite popular opinion to the contrary(and don't fool yourself, the jury is still out on this one) Recent studies have shown;contrary to what was previously believed, that THC itself (And its predecessor THC-A) are quite guilty of causing the confusion and drowsiness associated with burnout and other cannabinoids (our friend CBN, and a handful of others) to be the catalyst (along with THC) to being 'high' rather than 'baked'

Regardless, whether or not there is any substance to the aforementioned study, it's easy to get the high you want.

If you want a soaring 'cerebral' high: Get yourself a tropical Sativa that contains a high level of THC-V and grow it until it is ripe. If you want the narcotic couch-lock stone, grow a rugged Indica until it's ripe. Notice a pattern of growing it until it's ripe? It's a really good rule to live by. OF course we have to remember that there is more to a good high than just THC. At last count there are at least 66 cannabinoids, and we don't know what most of them do.

Now a lot of people will tell you that you should harvest based on the color of your trichomes. But (again, in my opinion) that is far too simplistic and there are too many variables to make that an effective strategy. I've made that point a million times before and I'm not going to re-hash it here, (maybe just a bit) but rest assured there is more to the picture than just trichome color.

A ripe marijuana plant will be filled in, will have an amber tinge to the buds. The pistils should have browned (or orange-d) off and receded into the buds. The seed bracts should be swollen and the trichomes should be sticking straight out with bulbous ends. Also, because you're coming close to the end of plant's life cycle, the leaves should have yellowed off and started to die.

(One of my plants, 3 days before chop-chop.)

Another very important reason to let your plants mature is Terpenoid production. Terpenes are responsible for a lot of the complex (and enjoyable) flavors that cannabis produces. Some of the most intense flavors are produced on the "down-slope" of cannabis's life cycle. My personal experience with this first came when i was growing GH Cheese (Greenhouse Seeds Cheese). One of the plants I harvested at 8 weeks and it tasted pretty nice and had pretty dense buds. The other I grew until about 9 1/2 weeks and it had most amazing, sour, skunky, delicious taste with rock hard buds.

Here is my interpretation (and maybe exaggeration) of a scenario i see all too often...

Quote:noob mcboob:

(I'm a new grower and I've been reading all this great information about when it's time to harvest. There's pictures and everything!!!

Look at my trichomes, they look nice and milky with a touch of amber just like the ones in the picture that says its harvest time now!!!)

So i just have one question....

Does this look ready to you?

That plant is 4 weeks into 12/12 (flowering). Granted not all of the trichomes are that far along. And most people aren't going to harvest weed that looks like this. But my point with this is that you have to look at the big picture. Stop being so scientific and start being practical. I'm not anti knowledge, I just cant stand these "rules" that more often than not lead people down the wrong path.

Lets cut through the bull**** and spread good information in a way that is not so absolute. Or at very least explain the growth stages of cannabis making sure to mention that the pistils should have receded back into the bud before you chop. Regardless of trichome color.

If I could offer one piece of advice on picking the right time to harvest, it's all about watching the pistils. Not so much the color, but the movement. They should have receded into the bud and the seed bracts should be swollen.

It should look less like this...

 And more like this.

Trust me when I say, it is worth the excruciating wait. 

(Submitted from SpruceZeus on rollitup.org. I take no credit in the contrivance of this post rather show it to others.)

Perpetual harvests of cannabis in more detail.

This article is how to have a constant harvest of medical marijuana for a steady supply of medicine for patients with ailments. Keep in mind this is the absolutely bare minimum number of plants being used and assuming the plant flowers in 8 weeks respectively. This method makes it work for 1 plant every week making 9 plants the minimum for a perpetual 1 plant a week harvest.

MATERIALS:

• A Vegetative stage grow room.

• A Flowering stage grow room.

• Sufficient lighting (florescent lights, CFL's, High Pressure Sodium, Metal Halide, L.E.D., Sulphur Plasma, any of these lighting sources will work.

• Proper ventilation.

(A young Super Skunk clone in vegetative growth. You can grow one out like this and clone it 8 times to be on your way to a harvest a week!)
1. Start a batch of at least 9 seeds, or preferably a batch of 9 clones in the vegetative grow room. Growers prefer florescent or metal halide lighting in the vegetative room because the spectrum of lighting these types of lights produces mimics the spring and summer spectrum of the sun outdoors. This promotes healthy growth, with minimal stretching (as long as the light is as close to the plants as possible without burning the actual plant). Whatever your medium you grow in, make sure the environment is like the outdoors, with the plants having a constant supply of co2 when the lights are on. Vegetative stages of marijuana plants mean they have a constant supply of light either 24 hours on, or 18 hours on 6 hours of darkness.
2. When the plants have passed the germination stage and are growing in the vegetative stage, the grower has the option to put them in the flowering stage whenever they deem the plants are big enough to produce enough medicine. Grow the plant to desired size, and when it's ready to flower put the desired plant (singular) into the flowering chamber.


(I could flower this plant, but I want to clone it first.)
3. In the flowering chamber, the light schedule dictates that the plants will have less light during the 24 hour day to build their reproductive parts. Growers prefer High Pressure Sodium bulbs or florescent with more of a orange spectrum. The orange spectrum mimics the sun during the fall and late summer. The sun sets faster and faster towards fall which makes outdoors darker for longer over time. The flowering chamber usually has the lights on for 12 hours, and then 12 hours of lights off. This is when the plants produce their flowers.


(Early flowering (about 4 weeks to be exact)).
4. If you have one plant in the flowering chamber and 8 plants in the vegetative chamber, then you can always have one "mother plant" in the vegetative room to make clones off of. With the other 7 plants, however, you will put one plant in the flowering room every week, and also taking a clone every week to replace the clone you just sent to flower. One plant in, one plant out. As long as you have a mother that you can take clones off of, then you can have a perpetual harvest. Just make sure the mother plant has more room for her roots, so she can produce hearty, big clones. Whether you do hydro, or soil make sure she has a lot of room to grow.


(A plant minutes before it was harvested.)

TIPS:

• Make SURE that all of your plants are female. Male plants produce pollen and impregnate females to make seeds. Females produce pistils which are found where the branches original growing location is. They are little white hairs that tell you the plant is female. If you see pollen sacks (balls) developing, then you need to take them away from the females. If you are choosing to breed, do it in a separate room away from the sensi flowers.

• Be secure, be safe.

• Have proper ventilation.

• Make sure the plants have an adequate amount of co2 to breathe through their stomata (pores under the leaves).

• Make sure both rooms are on a strict, unchanging lighting schedule, and that no light gets in when it is the dark period for the plants.

(All photos in this article are from TehBosh)

Clone marijuana for constant harvests!

MATERIALS REQUIRED:
* Scissors or a razor blade or both.
* Rooting hormone (Gel or powder).
* Small growing medium container. Either soil, or whatever you use.
* Something to poke hole in medium for clone to go in. A small thin paintbrush will do, or a small pen or pencil.

1. Get all your supplies ready and sanitized. You don't want the plant to get infected where you make the cut because it might not root and die.

2. Find a good spot on the plant to make a clone. Don't clone just a fan leaf. You need to clone growth where it is new and young, with at least two sets of fan leaves. The lower on the plant the clone is taken, the better chance to have it root faster. You can take clones off of near tops of plants, but they will take a little longer to root. Take your razor blade and make a 45 degree angled cut so you can give the base of the clone more room to have its roots grow.

3. Make sure the cutting is big enough and make sure there is enough surface area at the bottom of the stem to grow enough root mass.

4. To give the clone more chance to root, take your razor blade and make a small incision down the middle of the bottom of the stem going up towards the top. Only go about one inch, but this will give more area for the clone to root. This is also optional, you don't need to do this to have a successfully rooted clone.

5. Put it in a glass of water as soon as the cut is made to make sure no air gets to the rooting area.

6. When ready to dip into rooting powder or gel, make sure you are careful and dip the bottom of the plant into the rooting hormone. Make sure to cover the area with enough hormone so it can root. Once dipped, flick the plant or blow off the excess powder or gel.

7. Poke a hole in the soil or whatever medium you're using down the middle of the container. Make sure to make the hole at least 2 inches in depth, but no more than 6 (or however tall your cutting is). Place the bottom of the plant with the hormone on into the hole in the medium. Make sure to pack the stem in the medium nice and firm, and then water to saturate the medium. Also, pack more after to make sure it's firmly in place. MAKE SURE there are no air pockets in the soil where your clone is trying to root. Pack it down and all around.

TIPS:

• Practice cloning and you will be able to make cutting after cutting to give yourself a constant supply of medicine.
• Clones don't need a lot of light to root. In fact they prefer less light than a standard vegetative room gives. One 23 watt CFL could root many clones.
• You don't have to put a humidity dome over the clones, but it helps retain humidity and helps root them. As long as the root area and the medium is at a constant good level of moisture, then they will root.
• Always make sure you're working in a clean environment and you're working with clean equipment at all times.
• Be careful with sharp razor blades because they will cut you easily.
• Don't over water to make the medium soggy, because bacterial growth that is not good for your plants will occur.

GOOD LUCK!
(Photo credits to Cranky of gardenscure.com)