HELP! Is it Just Me or is Reading Your Trichomes Really Hard (Pre-Harvest Help Needed)

[Minoo96]

8 hours might be a bit short for week 13-17. 4 weeks with minimum lights, that might not turn the best results... I prefer the second solution. Its my preferences though!

 

[alltatup]

I'm going to follow what my buddy from another forum did, which was not to change the light schedule until the end of the flush. Plants spent the last 4 days of flush in darkness with 65 degree water.

 

[NebulaHaze]

I'd go with option two, and in fact you may not even need to shorten it past 10/14 unless the plant still stubbornly is flowering slowly. You still want to give it as much light per day as possible to maximize your yields, so it's a balancing act between trying to give your plant as many light hours as possible while getting the plant to be ready to harvest in a reasonable time

 

[GreenArmadillo]

Excellent!! Will take it all in to consideration my dear friends and family (we are family, aren't we). :smile:

One thing I noticed. After adding in 400 extra watts of HPS and switching to 11/13, I walked in the next day, and my most leafy plant (Brittania) is just totally yellowing the rest of her fan leaves. Like almost all of them. And she's discarding them one after the other. Now i've read that yellowing leaves is a sign that harvest is near. Should I hasten my harvest based on this development?

i'm just worried cause alltatup mentioned something about trichomes getting ruined after a while. Now that I DO NOT want.

 

[alltatup]

Armadillo, I don't know about that; we all know that leaves yellow as it gets close to harvest, and it sure doesn't sound like light burn; got some pictures???

And yes: we are FAM.

 

[GreenArmadillo]

I'll snap some pics tomorrow when giving them their water+molasses.

 

[NebulaHaze]

We'll definitely take a look at the pictures, and hopefully we'll have more insight

 

[GreenArmadillo]

Let's do this!

So this is the newest addition. 400 Watts of HPS goodness from the other (used to be naked) side.

And these are the yellowing leafys (from Brittania). Still no flushing done as of yet btw:

Oh yeah, and this is the amount of leaf loss i'm witnessing on an almost daily basis when I walk in to check on the girls in the morning:

 

[NebulaHaze]

Yes, that's a concerning amount of yellowing as it looks the buds still have several weeks to go, maybe a month or more.

Is there a T5 at the top? If so, you want to get the HPS on top if possible, and use the fluorescents for side lighting. The buds at the top get the biggest so you want to make sure they get the best light.

What's the temperature in there? Have you been checking the pH of the water going in and out? What are you using for nutrients? What are your watering habits? Is it possible to get a picture of the whole plant in the setup from a few feet away, just so we can get a better idea of the whole grow space?

That's a huge plant with a lot of bud and I think you have the potential to yield a lot out of it! Those buds look like they want to get a LOT bigger, and they need some time to develop, so it's important to keep the plant as healthy as possible until harvest

 

[GreenArmadillo]

And here are some bud pics from my little sweetheart, Esmerelda. She's the one i've decided to flush and harvest first, because she has the most orange pistils by far.

And the gro room jungle progress as a partial whole :wink:

Also, NebulaHaze , remember how you asked me a while back about if I was noticing that the buds closest to my supplemental HPS floodlight were any bigger than the other buds. Well when you asked me a month or two ago, it was still much too soon to see any impact. But now I can say certainly and for sure, the bud on the stalk closest to the HPS floodlight is DEFINITELY and significantly chunkier and bigger than the rest of my buds. For sure. I'm definitely gonna snap a picture of it for you soon, but it's at the back of my gro room, so access is kinda limited 'cept when I bring all the girls out for a thorough feeding and draining. That should be soon, and i'll keep you posted big sis. =) <3

 

[NebulaHaze]

Those buds are getting huge! I do think it's early to start flushing as those buds will get a LOT bigger if you let them continue fattening for a few more weeks. Harvesting them early will really be cutting yourself short!

I noticed we posted at the same time, and I just wanted to make sure you saw my post from a few minutes ago

 

[GreenArmadillo]

The T5's are at the top, yes. I would put the HPS on top except it's a floodlight, so the ballast is attached to the light itself, making it quite heavy. I wouldn't risk hanging it on my makeshift PVC light frame. I don't want a fire hazard, haha. >.<

The temperature has been ranging between 20 degrees and 26 for the past month or so. But since adding the 2nd HPS floodlight, the temperatures are ranging between 21 degrees and 29. We're also firmly into summer heat where i'm at, so that doesn't help, since some heat leaks in from outside, as is to be expected.

I always check pH in and pH out. I'm consistently giving pH between 6.0 and 7.0 when I water and/or feed. The pH outs vary, and i've compiled them week by week in my other thread: What is My EC Pen Trying to Tell Me.

I'm feeding GO BioThrive Bloom, BioBud, CalMag+ & molasses all together and pHed once a week. And watering another time every week with just water and molasses, pHed. The yellowing might be due to the molasses, as i've only been adding it for the past month. Started at 1 tspn/gal, and incrementally increasing. Two days ago I gave them at 1 tbspn/gal for the first time.
I also give some supplemental 500ml of water in between feeds and waterings, just in case the girls are thirsty.

I'm doing the very best I can. I'm learning stuff every week from everyone here on the forums and the main site, and implementing it as I go along. Can't wait to see final results. A big thank you to everyone here. I love you all. Especially you NebulaHaze and alltatup, my growing mentors. <3

 

[GreenArmadillo]

Yeah, I totally feel you. That's why i'm gonna split my harvest, to see the differences between the harvest times.
First one girl, two weeks from now at what will be week 12. The next girl will be harvested at week 13, the next at week 14 and the last babe either week 15 or 16 or 17, depending on feels. <3

 

[NebulaHaze]

That's great! I would also be interested in your thoughts on that I can't remember if we discussed this, but if you give your plants more hours of darkness each day it will cause them to mature faster. So for example you could give 13-14 hour nights, or a 11/14 or 10/14 light schedule. It'll help "hurry them along."

 

[NebulaHaze]

It sounds like you're on top of it! Your plants are coming along very well

 

[GreenArmadillo]

Thank you greatly my dear. <3
Me and my beautiful babies are very happy to hear you say that.

 

[GreenArmadillo]

Will definitely log my progress and results and post them up on the forums. And maybe that'll earn me my 1st graduation on these here forums, haha.

Yes you pointed me in the right direction about light hours before, and it was greatly appreciated.
I switched my light schedule to 11/13 since last week, and that actually might be part of the reason why i got so much yellowing leaves. The rapid yellowing only started happening after the switch to 11/13, so I think it was a beautiful step in the right direction.

I'm gonna wait for another week or so, and then pull the light hours down to 10/14 for the rest of the grow. Maybe, maaaaybe 9/15 at the very end as an experiment with my final two girls after the first two have been harvested.

 

[alltatup]

Aw shucks, Armadillo, thanks for the shout out!!!

 

[alltatup]

Your girls are BEASTS!!!!!

 

[NebulaHaze]

I've never heard of a plant turn yellow in reaction to losing an hour of light a day, but I've heard of weirder things Sounds like a good plan, keep us posted!