Harvest - Trichomes not ready but big time fade.

[Bootsy]

Hi. Asking opinions on whether to chop one plant now or wait a bit. I am sorry for the shitty photos. I have my spring grow getting near finished. Six plants in two tent, all fairly much sativas. 10 weeks from 12 12 . All except one have done great and two are soo close with fully cloudy trichomes awaiting more amber. However, one "Congolese sativa" (the most sativa looking) started showing issues a month ago despite being treated the same as the others. Seemed to be showing maybe some nutrient lockout, over feeding and/or light damage. She is apparently a lot more sensitive than the others. I did some remedial attempts but only half heatertedly . she is really fading every day now, while still producing new pistils. Today she is really faded a lot, and trichomes are maybe 80% cloudy. I am not sure how to get best out of her now - either chop or wait. If I chop she wont get any flush, but has been on reduced nuts for the last week anyway. there are still lots of tiny green leaves, but most of any size are yellowing more each day. Would you suggest chopping her, or wait more? I am leaning towards harvesting before too much more yellowing occurs. Cheers all. Happy late 420!

 

[Sixwinds]

In my non-professional opinion you should wait a few more days. I'm basing that on the fact that some of the pistils are still straight. Don't worry about flushing it makes no difference at all.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Hello Bootsy I'm running into the same with mine. They are only 35days into flower should go at least to 60days but looking early harvest except my trichs like yours don't show any amber yet so i'm waiting. The back left is not close it's still getting bloom food but the other larger 3 are only getting unsulferated molasses now cause they are ripening fast for some reason. So yes just wait it out keep giving them what they want just my 2cents

 

[Rwise]

Have you been feeding her some calmag? And yes wait!

 

[Rwise]

Or maybe we can just say Luvely fall colours!

 

[Bootsy]

yup. they all got cal mag untill 6 weeks into 12 12. i thought same thing but didnt bother treating her different from the others which are looking awesome and typical. i have heard pure staivas can be finicky with feeding. the only thing i did with her was to water the nutrients given to half concentration (she had leaf tip burn as well as premature fading). too late for anything much now. they will all start flush in a week. grown in coco.

 

[Bootsy]

Ahhh. I guess the curse of growing many strains together. Thanks for the photo. I will wait. only the Full Tilt bud booster for the remaining time - I think it is Flora Flex's version of carbohydrates. even smells a little like molasses. but gonna flush starting in a week latest. all girls have mostly cloudy trichomes - Except this one - she is slowest.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

And i had a outdoor big gal mostly sativa yellow up very early last summer and could not correct it was a huge producer too

 

[Bootsy]

Thanks SoOrbrugal. was the product decent on your yellow sativa? Mine's pretty big, and with new pistils i assume she's still fattening ,so I'm a little sad that she may not be great - now hopeful? Glad i posted . i've been swayed to let her go further for sure. Looking like Black Death will keep me busy for a few hours in a day or so. Definitely all snowy trichomes and starting amber. She's pretty much ready, but tomorrow I have outdoor stuff (fishin n golf).

 

[Bluey]

I would wait if conditions are good and you can keep mold away.
I have the opposite to you, I slowed the growth of mine right down by accident, harvested a few buds on the earliest plant which was the least developed with ambers. I'm just giving water now but she is still going. Leaves in the most advanced buds are the weirdest black but she is still maturing very slowly...RH is 45% & temps a solid 24⁰C with great airflow so I'm confident I won't get mold.

 

[o0644]

I harvested my auto hybrid when it was yellow without curled in pistils like yours, wish I had waited longer. I think flushing might've made it yellow faster?

 

[Bluey]

Probably. I'm flushing mine only because of the dark green N overdose. Normally I wouldn't bother.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

I'm waiting for mine too. The fade is nice, the buds are nice but the trichomes are still clear. She's finally starting to get that white first in the trichomes on the top most cola so it's only like 3 to 5 days more. She's going to be 3 weeks overdue 🤷‍♂️. What can you do? Unless you want to smoke unripened trichomes for a crappy high. Best recommendation is just to wait a little longer. It's not like they'll ask turn amber over night if you're over day late.

 

[Bluey]

I think stress may bring on the trichomes early at the risk of lower yields, but that's just what I've observed here. Too much stress and she may not fully develop which I've seen and possibly abort the flowers but I haven't seen that first hand.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

I agree with you Bluey about the plants being stressed. I'm guilty of lower yields do to my lack of proper enviromental conditions. My growing conditions indoors are fully my lack of wanting to buy better controls for the tent. I just simply use the light and fan to " under replicate " the outdoor growing style which is easy. At least i make it easy, but i could do so much better if i did use humidifiers or more precise DLI or PH , PPD all the proper ways that were used by larger commercial growers and are now being picked up by homegrowers or hobby growers. I know my weed is just as good as mid level dispensary weed but could be top shelf if i really cared more. I'm not as interested anymore in doing it differently going deeper into perfecting my grows. I admire all who find all these new terms and ways to create better controls over indoor growing great for your new growers who've grown up in a more tech savy world.

 

[Bluey]

I use my lights heat to set the environment during veg, save on power. It can work well hey.

In flower I have everything dialed in now but I still stress them with out of wack nutes. Last auto run wasn't too bad but they won't fully develop so yields are down from a bit too much N.

Will be interesting how these three sativas will veg out. It's flower that I'm struggling with either deficiencies or too much but I'm getting there. Veg no issues.

I'm cloning now and it's working great so can afford to work on getting it right.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

That's definitely what happened with the Tangie that I ran last. She finished up quick because grow conditions weren't ideal.... This tangie is just taking her sweet time but she's looking better and better everyday. That was my issue in the past too. Improper environment control. Now I have it set to within a 2° or 2% margin of error but that's acceptable. No crazy swings no weird humidity. I spent a good chunk of change to make sure the environment was more controlled and I got CO2 meters to keep my CO2 up. The only thing I didn't account for was adding more fertilizer because they're going to be bigger they're going to need more food. 🤪.
Just another goober move by yours truly. I used to have so much issues with the environment and with soil acidity that when I resolve those two things and they started growing explosively, I'll admit, I wasn't prepared. They needed way more nutrients than I had put in the soil. I think this grow is mainly just under fed than anything else. The MAC seems to be happy though. And no problems with the Tangie. Just long ripening stage. Maybe having the lights around 480 and 650PPFD is too low for ripening?

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

I'll be honest. I haven't checked pH for the last 3 grows. I just make sure the water going in is around 7.0 pH. Peat is acidic. It's going acidify the water. The calcium with keep it from going too low. Hopefully balance. I haven't really had much issues except for the underfeeding part. There's no way these big ass plants were going to make it from seed to harvest in 5 gallons of soil without some sort of major top dressing. Which I did too late. I wanted to figure out the maximum minimum of my soil. And now I know. So it's not like I didn't learn anything. 1Tbsp of amendment per gallon of the lowest I can go for photos. I already knew that but it's different when you see it because the MAC is thriving while the others are hungry

 

[Allenpro]

I have grown Sativa strains that the trichomes never seemed to turn amber but those look like they need more time. from the pistils.
"Oh know ,I ruined my weed by letting it go to long before harvest" is almost never heard

 

[Rootsruler]

The molasses you're giving them is only feeding the microbial life you have in the soil. Granted, increasing microbial life will increase available nutrient in the soil but I doubt it's able to keep up hence why you're getting the early fade. That's my guess.