First Harvest Approaching...opinions on my trichromes?

[Dannyboy58]

July 1, Happy Legal Cannabis in the Old Dominion Day!! WOOT! Today is the first day of legal cannabis in Virginia where I live!

In celebration I'm contemplating the harvest of my first grow. The most mature of my 4 plants is a Northern lights that is 4 weeks and 2 days into flower. Below are some photos of the buds. TI'm still learning to use the digital scope so the photos aren't the best but I think they're good enough to begin to determine when to harvest?

They aren't the biggest buds ever but they smell fantastic. There are still some smaller less developed buds on the lower branches that have white pistils but most of the older riper buds haven't had white pistils for a while...It seems to me there's a pretty broad mix of clear and cloudy trichs with only a few showing any amber.

Opinions welcome!

[User420111]

Depends on what you like. If you like high THC and low CBD harvest them now. If you like a nice mix then harvest them when 90% have turned cloudy. If you want less THC and more CBD then wait until most of them have turned amber.

Right now I'm seeing basically 100% clear trichomes. So if it were me I'd wait until about 10% have turned amber colored and the rest are cloudy. I mean cloudy enough you can't see through them. They'll look like white cake frosting.


Not an expert but I have been growing for 30+ years. Never went in for high tech sciency-y stuff, always relied on my country farming wits to know what's what.

[User420111]

Depends on what you like. If you like high THC and low CBD harvest them now. If you like a nice mix then harvest them when 90% have turned cloudy. If you want less THC and more CBD then wait until most of them have turned amber.

Right now I'm seeing basically 100% clear trichomes. So if it were me I'd wait until about 10% have turned amber colored and the rest are cloudy. I mean cloudy enough you can't see through them. They'll look like white cake frosting.


Not an expert but I have been growing for 30+ years. Never went in for high tech sciency-y stuff, always relied on my country farming wits to know what's what.

By the way I am also in Virginia! Southwest, near VT.

[OldManGrower]

USER420111 is correct. I like to have all of my tryc's cloudy and just turning amber. You are about a week away, perhaps as much as ten days.

[Dannyboy58]

Cool!! My son almost went to Tech then he visited JMU on the way home and it was all over. haha...still bleeds purple now.

Thanks for the advice. I'm still learning to use the scope. I think my it's poor skill with the scope that made them blurry. I'm probably going to give that plant another couple weeks before I harvest. I did take a small bud off to look a more closely with the scope and that's when I realized they were mostly clear. I quick dried it in the oven to try out. Taste wasn't great which is to be expected drying that way I guess but it was a nice buzz like I recall from the northern lights I got regularly a few years ago. Cool tingly body buzz and happy energetic high. Looking forward to it maturing.

[Dannyboy58]

These are from 4-5 of the biggest buds. A few may be close to 20% amber. Some of the smaller lower buds have fewer amber. I'm going to clip a small one off later after DC United beats Philly Union and get a better look under the scope, maybe quick dry and a taste test.

I set up a new tent with fans, filter and dehumidifier today. Should easily be able to get the humidity into the 45-50% range with temperature around 70F.

[soonboomer]

The last 3-4 pics look like the ones I harvested today.

[homegrown]

Looks great Dannyboy58, since you've managed to wait this long..i'd go another week or two. Just a bit more amber for me..lol really nice!

[Dannyboy58]

Thanks for the advice but...too late! haha... I had considered letting more go amber on this one especially since it's going to be a small yield but I'm not a huge fan of couch lock. I'm growing the NLs for that mood lifting trippy buzz I remember when I got this strain more regularly. I hope it works out. I may let one of the afghans go more amber, since it might help my wife with her occasional insomnia.

[Dannyboy58]

I went ahead and harvested this one yesterday. I've been saying I'd be happy to get an ounce from the first one and that may be about what I get from this one. She looked so small after I chopper her down. Found a sock drying rack my wife never uses and put it to work. Works perfectly for this size batch. I ordered a couple more of them from amazon for the upcoming harvests of the second NL and my afghans.

The drying tent is 70F and 57% RH this morning. Trying to get the RH down a bit closer to 50% but I guess a slow dry is better right? May need one more dehumidifier...those things seem to breed like rabbits...

[Dannyboy58]

6 days since harvest at 70F and mostly 50-55% RH, 52% today. Buds feel dry and almost crispy but small stems are still pliable enough that they bend. A couple were close to breaking but not quite.

Guess I should leave it a few more days until the stems snap easily, right?

[Dannyboy58]

You are correct. I do not!