Stem off of a cut off bud purple/black?

[Hoverbeast]

So, I'm at day 103 of 12/12, total days from germination 161, with Super Silver Haze. My leaves started turning purple/yellow about a week ago, around the same time the buds sprouted new white pistils and started reducing the pH from 5.5 to 4.5 every day or two days, and I constantly had to rebalance it. I've been cutting buds off every two-three days to observe under my USB microscope to see the ratio of cloudy to amber trichomes, which is still something like 98/2, and I cut off a top that had three buds two days ago. Two were normal with green stem internals showing, but one had purple-ish-faded spots on the sugar leaves and inside of the stem. The purple/black stem photo is immediately a few minutes after cutting it off.



I'm hoping it's just a weird nutrient imbalance effect, I replaced the nutrient solution, two days ago after taking the photos, in my deep water reservoir, so I'm hoping it doesn't get worse.

[Daskahn]

Generally I see a lot of plants do this as a healing process but I’ve seen it look like bamboo too I would say check your roots.. if they look ok just give it a few days and keep an eye out for droopy leaves

[Hoverbeast]

Hmm, so I checked my roots this morning, and they look healthy and great. However, I am a bit concerned as there are plenty of droopy leaves. I'd say maybe 1/4 of the fan leaves are droopy.

[alltatup]

Hoverbeast As I learned when I grew a Malawi, some Sativa strains never get amber triches.

[Hoverbeast]

Wait, so in that case, if the trichomes never go amber, how do I know when it's ideal to harvest? The smoke is awesome, but how long until it's no longer building yield and I need to cut it before it goes gray?

[alltatup]

This may help you: https://www.growweedeasy.com/guide-t...trains-indoors

If the smoke is awesome, I'd take that as a solid indication that it's ready...