How much longer must I wait?

[Cosmo]

Good day folks!

Could you please view these images and offer an opinion as to how much longer these buds need to ripen??

White Widow Auto - 55 days
Northern Lights Auto - 55 days

My first grow so I appreciate all comments.

Thank you in advance!

[Minoo96]

Hi, i'd say between 3 days at the earliest (more like a week) and 2 weeks. I'm not very experienced with autos, mine got stunted and took much longer than anticipated.

[9fingerleafs]

Auto or not that's a month away from harvest

[9fingerleafs]

Hey mino. The half a sphere made out of pistils is the 3 week mark like lotus said. From this moment on the plant won't stretch much but it's going to get fat and make buds. With time you'll be able to tell kinda how into flower it is or how far away from harvest.

[Minoo96]

Thanks, I will try to keep an eye out for signs like those. Try to train my eyes

[St.buds]

I agree thos buds r only half formed let alone ripend they look like my photos at 3 weeks into flower

[Lotusyde]

I agree with 9fingerleafs, at least a month. They have been flowering for how long now? About 3 & 1/2 weeks?

[Cosmo]

Exactly 3 weeks today we saw pre-flower and pistils.

[Lotusyde]

Tbh I've cut my autos early and regretted it. Let them go at least 5 more weeks so long as the trichomes aren't going amber, and you'll have a significant yield difference. I cut them at 6 weeks once and I regretted it after seeing what a few more weeks yield

[D.A.A.S.69]

9fingers might be right, but I say around day 75, depends on what kind of Buzz you want, my NLAUTO is 65 days old to day ,and I'm gonna harvest mine around day 75 or so. My seeds came from Nirvana,where did you get your seeds? Those buds are definitely gonna be fattening more an more everyday from now on. Hope this helps some.

[Cosmo]

Hi, my seeds are from Crop King in Western Canada. I really don't need to get wrecked every time. I was a teen/young adult in the 60's 70's and you could smoke a bag of pot with your buddies and still find your way home. Pot these days is pretty strong in comparison so I'm quite pleased with a mild buzz, probably 1/4 bowl or so.

[Sheesh]

I agree you have a few weeks left Cosmo. You'l see the pistils going brown and red and curling in. Start checking the trichomes in a couple of weeks. Be careful chopping when trichomes are clear unless you are looking for a racy effect. A lot of people harvest when trichomes are mostly or all cloudy with a few amber. GWE has an article about different effects from different harvest times. Plants look great!

[Cosmo]

Well here are pictures of my Northern Lights Auto at day 70. The entire stalk of the plant is one big bud about 2.5" to 3 " thick and as you can see, the trichomes are still quite clear.

Does anyone think the trichome will start to cloud over in the next 5 days? Is this something that happens suddenly or do they cloud-up over a period of days?

[Minoo96]

They are clouding up already to me. Some have started to, some are still clear. I harvested a plant like that, she wouldn't ripe and I wanted to smoke (and there was mold! Especially because of that...). It was okayish, not as good as I expected the plant to be, obviously since I didn't let her take full strength. Can take ages, can be quick. It depends on many factors, like genetic and environmental conditions.

[Cosmo]

Ok, thanks! We'll see what develops in the next five days or so. I'll check the trichomes every day.

[Sammy]

Patience. If you wait let them ripen properly they will reward you those buds will fatten up they might get as big as 2 3 even four times as big as they are now , My Lemon Haze autos are about day 109 still growing still stretching still fattening. Patience that's all part of it my friend good luck good-looking bud.

[Cosmo]

Thanks Sammy!

[D.A.A.S.69]

Like Sammy said patience , some are probably gonna get ripe before the others so keep an eye on the trichs and get some of them when they are ready for the kind of high you want. At least that's what I did to my NLAUTO she's 80 days old today and I have already harvested 5 0f her 24 heads ,hope this helps some.

[Cosmo]

That's informative. I was always curious about whether you can just cut the ripe and leave the rest or not. I was under the impression that you harvest the whole plant at once. If you cut a few heads and leave the rest until later how do you cure the 5 you cut? On a rack? Will the plant continue to ripen after cutting a few heads?

[Minoo96]

Yes the plant will continue to ripen after cutting few heads. How do you cure the 5 you cut? As in? Just like every other buds You dry it on a string, on a rack, whatever floats your boat, then put them in a jar to cure. 5 buds is good for a small jar. Even one is enough haha. (Usually leave the stem if its only one, more moisture, more maneuverability.)

[600m]

From what I gather, I will be looking for a substantial majority of amber trichomes, indicating more CBD development. Just ordered a little microscope to keep an eye on that.

[Minoo96]

Careful, there's something "complicated" to understand. The amber trichomes don't turn to CBD, they turn to CBN. Which some may consider as an ersatz of CBD. If you would like a high CBD ratio, to be sleepy for instance, then you should take a strong indica, or a medical strain maybe, and harvest when the trichomes are cloudy.
Now let's say you have a hybrid, but you want to make sure to be sleepy some, then you should wait for some amber, but the "real" high of the plant gets lost. Imagine you have two strong indica, you want to compare the high they give, you should harvest both of them when they are milky, if you harvest one milky and the other one with amber, it'll make a "false" result, if you see what I mean. You might think the one with amber is more strong to sleep, better. When actually might be the other one.

Anyway, it's a complicated mess to understand. After you get that right, there's also terpenes to take in account HAHA. Good luck