Interested in learning but still a rookie, what is this photo showing?
OP is growing cannabis! When in the final stage of flowering, the cannabis plant gets “chopped” by the grower based on their preference of how far along the trichromes are in development.
Roughly, when the plant first starts flowering these trichromes are clear which is a bit early to harvest the bud. When the trichromes are milky is when the THC molecule has fully formulated, and for those looking for the heady sativa-like high this is a popular stage to harvest (as trichromes are able to continue developing during the curing stage). However, it’s safest/most common to harvest the plant when a majority of the trichromes are a heavily milky white and just as some are beginning to turn amber/gold/brown. The golden color is when the trichrome has matured enough to begin the breakdown process of THC, which basically become CBD compounds.
This process of clear -> milky -> amber is usually about 3 to 7 days, so OP is surprised it happened so quickly for them!
So as you can see in this picture, the dead center of the image have lots of clearish/opaque trichromes with a significant number of them beginning to turn amber/gold. Looks like a perfect time to harvest and begin letting them cure!
Trichome maturity.
Depending on the effects you want will decide when you want to chop down the ladies. If you want a more creation/motivational high you should harvest when the trichomes are turning from clear to milky with barely any amber. I believe 80% milky is the target there.
If you want a more couch lock high, you wait for the trichomes to amber, this signifies that the plant is starting to break down the THC into CBN. 20% amber is the sweet spot from what I’ve seen. I believe this is past that and would be past my “preference window”. I prefer the motivational high over couch lock myself.
Obviously, being illegal in many places around the world this might be a bit difficult, but is there a book or something you learned all this from? I’m curious to learn more but don’t want my search history full of “how to grow pot”
Vast majority is just basic plant horticulture, but I started off reading Ed Rosenthals marijuana handbook. I found it great although touched on everything, even guerrilla growing.
Rest was reading other literature, white papers and grow journals, and experimenting on my own.
Ohhhhhh… It’s marijuana.
Marijuana seems to be used to throw a bad light on the plant. Cannabis is my preferred term, less negative connotations from the war on drugs and all that.
Good point. As it’s the actual name of the plant.
That too, it’s also all you see here for advertising as well, it’s all “cannabis legalization”.
That’s super interesting. So then the caption means this was earlier than expected, but you wanted to trim asap to keep them from maturing further(?). I’m gonna get a box and set up one of these days but I just keep getting nervous about the likelihood of spending like 3 months on a plant and totally fucking it up
Yes the website says 65-70 days, but personal preference, conditions, and almost everything can change the harvest window. Trim is the wrong word, I would be harvesting or reaping. Theres two things to do after. Wet trim and dry, or dry and dry trim. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages and that’s better to google quickly.
The “worst” that can happen is you stress the plant too much and it Herms, but it’s a hella resilient plant and can take a lot and still recover.
That’s great to hear and thanks a ton for the quick lesson! Will definitely be looking more actively into growing.
No worries any time!
I forgot to mention, this is day 60, so not all that early.
We all start somewhere, as long as you get something smokable I would call that a W, and grow from there.
Straight to trim jail. Do not pass go.
Wouldn’t even let me get to the weekend and day 63.
Taken from a lower that wasn’t expressing the purples as much.
She’s looking good and ripe too me!
Do you chop before lights on? I understand it makes the smoothest smoke but that sounds like hella bro science to me
If I had time this morning I probably would have, if the res was low I may have, but here I am, having a bowl getting ready to hack them down and I’m reminded the lights on still.
Kid chipped a tooth yesterday, so morning was dentist yay.
Yeah I get it, I work nights so it was easy for me 😂 sucks about your kid’s tooth, hope they’re doing alright
Oh yeah, guys a little trooper.
I do get kinda where the broscience is coming from. UV(light in general(?)) does degrade THC and cannabnaoids and terpenes. So maybe that last night saves them a little? But wouldn’t they also degrade if you don’t do everything under complete darkness than?
I’m hoping with it becoming legal we get a lot more conclusive research done with side by sides.
That’s true, but surely not enough to REALLY matter right? I also read that the plant may send nutrients to the roots at night, to make for a smoother and tastier smoke. During the day all those sugars are in the plant for photosynthesis reasons. But as you can see, I don’t understand it very well.
For storage it at least does.
And isn’t that why you dry and cure? For the enzymes to break it down? I don’t know either, these are just my assumptions from my experiences.
