Ready for harvest a month early?

[roaster2]

Hello, I am writing to ask your expert opinion on whether these ladies are ripe for harvest.

A friend who is growing has these two nice White Widows, Charlene (front-left) and Darlene (back-right). After only two months of flowering, and the buds not having had time to properly fatten up, they seem ready for harvest.

Adverse conditions may have shortened the harvest window before they could fatten properly: Two main stresses hit the plants: slight underwatering and aphids roughly 2 months ago, the week after they were put switched to 12/12 (he wasn't there for 2 weeks), then leafhoppers + minor aphids infestation two weeks ago.

As he was caring after the aphids, he noticed some leaf tips burned on Darlene. He also lowered the lights from 90cm (36") to 75cm (30"). Viparspectra states that during flowering the height should be 60-70cm (24"-28") so light burn shouldn't be the issue here.

After two weeks, the leaf burn has increased steadily, and it now at the point where it could get into the buds. He removed them from grow room altogether while waiting for your help.

Charlene showed no leaf burn two weeks ago, but now is showing it too.

Grown in soil, in a well-ventilated room with air filter, npk during growth, pk during flowering but very light quantities once a week, possibly a nutrient deficiency too?

Growth:
LED from gbGreenSun, a nice product with several orange, infrared etc. but mostly red-blu, 600W advertised, 200W real power draw, at 65cm from top (26")

Flowering:
viparspectra 600W, 276W real power draw, at 90cm (36") from top (lowered to 75cm (30") in the last 7 days)

Last minute update: 24h have passed and I just saw darlene's leaves and decided to take her down, a mere 100g once cleaned, expect a yield of about 25g. (1oz)

 

[alltatup]

Hey roaster, Is that light burn or nute burn? White Widow has around an 8 week flowering period; have you looked at the trichomes up close? With all the problems that occurred, their growth may be somewhat stunted...

 

[starramus]

From the looks of the trichomes' photo you posted there should be some THC in them thar buds. Let us know what you glean from first smoke.

 

[roaster2]

Nute burn: I'd like to exclude it, I've been wary of using too much nutrients, PH is fine, but I can't be 100% sure; light burn: that's a possibility, but I'm 50% farther than advertised on the viparspectra, and the Kush with exactly the same exposure doesn't have burns of sorts. Looking at some pics on the troubleshooting guide maybe it could be potassium deficiency, but I was feeding it at least some...

 

[roaster2]

Are you curious to see how it all ended up?

Well two days later, and 9 weeks into flowering, I took down Darlene, as flushing, leaving with even lower lights, and re-treating with the tobacco water for the very few aphids, still didn't stop the burn. And it was beyond the advertised 8 weeks.

After removing the leaves I was left with 100g, which dried for 4 days went down to roughly 20g, I started curing but the next day it was still too wet: I left it open for an hour and it didn't help, so I thought I'd put it on the house heater for 5 minutes... but, with the luck this poor plant has, I fell asleep. 10 hours later, it was definitely, completely, dry. A very nice smoke, but it lost a lot of its smell.

And Charlene, you may wonder? What evil did you perpetrate at the expenses of that wonderfully unlucky being?
Well, Charlene thrived. It used to share the vase with Darlene, now with the extra space it kept growing for another month, and into the 12th week - surprisingly with no other accidents - weighted defoliated 135g, now I just started curing with 32g and the samples are just awesome.

Definitely not a good yield for two plants that were 5 and 6 months old; but they did prove a great deal of strength, they grew bushy and strong, and they deserve to live on. Their first clones are now already in the flowering stage, and looking fantastic!

 

[Potted]

I luv a happy 😃 ending, or beginning? chow for now