Ready to harvest?

[flooffittys]

Hi,
this is my first grow and at the moment I am unsure whether I should harvest my first plant yet. It is a Northern Light Automatic, and it's ~9 weeks old now.
I am aware that I have fertilized it too much (brown tips) but it's my first grow, and I am still learning a lot to this day.
Unfortunately, though, in two days I will have to leave my place for about a week. Since I don't know if I should harvest it today, in two days or maybe once I come back.
If more pictures are necessary, let me know.
Greetings, new user flooffittys

[MagicMike66]

Hard to tell from the pics but I’d say she has a long way to go

[flooffittys]

Alright, thanks, I will pay close attention to changes in the next 1–2 weeks!

[SoOrbudgal]

Yes she's got weeks so enjoy your time away but i'd place a drip pan under her and let her sit an sip (wick up ) just for a short period won't hurt for less than 7 days if you don't have someone to water for you? I've done it without issues and it won't hurt to get abit dry i would'nt feed it though just water.

[flooffittys]

I can get someone to water it, not an issue. But the person isn't interested in harvesting it in case it's ripe (the person has no experience and doesn't want to ruin it for me) so that's my only problem. But great to know that it still has some time to go, makes me worry much less!

[Gingerbeard]

Hold on a second. Second picture. Just left and right of smack-dab center. The larger sugar leaves look 90% amber. Still some white hairs but I see... well... lots of amber trichomes.
When you say your plant is at [squiggly line] 9 weeks, is that from planting or from when the seedling popped the surface of your soil?

[Gingerbeard]

Yeah, man. Those leaves look like Cheetos.

[flooffittys]

It was a little less than 9 weeks from planting the seed

[Bluey]

This bud is a bit like mine sometimes..I do get ambers on lower sugars long before the tops even show signs of slowing down. I can get them at 6 to 7 weeks of flower but would only ever harvest if my grow was in serious strife...still good effects but most will not be stellar by any means but definitely smokeable.

[flooffittys]

I will get my friend to send me a picture of the buds tomorrow, so I shall see if the top trichomes are still all white. Hope they are

[SoOrbudgal]

We all know what your going thru that have plants sooo close to harvest, it's not a crime to pinch and dry quick a bud. But it's amazing how good the taste is from fresh homegrown to 2yr old dispensary bud. Not saying it's bad but the flavors of good genectics well you'll know soon enough

[Rootsruler]

I will get my friend to send me a picture of the buds tomorrow, so I shall see if the top trichomes are still all white. Hope they are

Do you have a loupe to get a close up of your trichomes to see if they have ripened? I'd say at least 2 more weeks but hard to tell without seeing the trichrome development.

[flooffittys]

Unfortunately not, but what I've observed is that if you take a close-up picture and make it out-of-focus on purpose, you will see if some trichomes are amber. I believe you can see it in the second picture

[Bluey]

But the amber you are seeing is on the larger sugars but not a lot of trichomes...this is not representative of what's going on in/on the flower so much.

I get early ambers in my lower sugars 4 to 6 weeks prior to its prime and yield more than doubles in that time.

Of course it is strain dependent but I think a good number do it.

[Rootsruler]

Loupes are cheap on amazon. I got a 30/60 loupe for $6. If you want great optics then I would go with a 20x jewelers loupe from Bellomo but they're pricey.

[flooffittys]

So today I'm going away for a week. The pictures were taken by myself today. My friend agreed to at least cut off the branches and hang them to dry (without trimming), as soon as I ask him to. Again, ignore the overfertilized leaf-tips, I will be more careful next grow.

[Bluey]

Your extremely minor nute burn is nothing to be concerned about. A plant can get nute burn yet still be deficient with other nutes it needs. Looks to me you have done a great job on the nute side of the equation.

[golfnrl]

Before you go could you put up a picture of the whole plant? The trichs look like they have some amber on them but I'm wondering about that because of the pistils...too many white ones and not enough turned back into the bud...and the sugar leaves look like they have a lot of energy left in them. Is the plant giving up the fan leaves that it had stored energy in? It will as it directs all of its energy into the flowers.

[flooffittys]

Here's a full pic. I don't have a grow box yet lol, but it works just fine. The plant I am talking about in this thread is the middle one (Northern Lights Auto). Left and right is Blueberry Skittlez Auto. Right plant is ~1 week behind the middle. Left is even 2-3 weeks behind. The Northern Light Auto has already lost a few lower leaves and some are turning yellow, so the buds get the nutrients from the leaves. Please note, once the flowering stage started, I trimmed the plant on the bottom quite a bit as leaves didn't receive enough light and I really wanted to avoid risking mould etc. (Plus, the lower buds would receive no light thus waste energy)

[golfnrl]

I think you can be away with some peace of mind...looks to me like they have a ways to go yet...even the NL. I see it doesn't have a lot of fans left but what leaves are left are still plenty green. You're set up looks OK. I can't comment as I have a couple of tents but I do appreciate mechanical skills and making things work with what you have.

[Indelacio]

As someone who also uses LEDs I strongly recommend upgrading your lights. The strobeing in your pictures is a result of the LEDs turning on to full power then shutting off repeatedly. This is something you want to avoid in grow lights. I used an ac infinity Ionboard s44 and it is beautiful. 👍

[flooffittys]

Indelacio I shall look into it: I didn't think that PWM Lights could be an issue. Also, either way I am aware that my light is kind of too weak and for the next grow I plan on upgrading!

[Indelacio]

I'm starting out week 7 of flowering right now but I was curious if these looked ready to anyone else. It seems super early.

[Bluey]

You're obviously in the harvest window. Most would give it another week or two.

They look quite healthy so I don't see any down side to going a bit longer.

Or you could commence harvesting now and space it out over a couple of weeks or even longer.

Good job.

[Indelacio]

Bluey Thank you!

[Rootsruler]

2 weeks at least unless you want a more uplifting experience.