Are my buds ready??

[248900_1469958220]

I have two different budding plants.....you will probably be able to tell by the photos. One has been budding longer than the other. I am new to this. The plant that has been budding longer is certainly turning a little more brown...I have read I need to wait till the leaves on the buds start 'turning in ' on themselves??? They look more dense BUT I am not sure. The other plants buds are looking pretty green. On the older plant some of the small leaves that grow out of the buds are dying...but the 'mass' of the bud looks ok.

 

Any advice? This is the first time I have ever really grown it.....go easy on me.

[bamnutsak]

How old are the plants, from germination? in days or weeks.

 

How long have they been flowering? in days or weeks.

 

What strains? Did you get seeds or cuttings from someone? Maybe you could ask them about the flowering period for this varietal?

 

It looks like a pure sativa.

 

Challenging to make any determination based on those photos. A video or two might be better?

 

Looks like a thrip issue though.

 

What do the trichomes look like under magnification?

 

Calyxes look quite young, my best guess is that you could let these go quite a few, 3 or 4, more weeks.

 

 

 

 

[248900_1469958220]

7 minutes ago, bamnutsak said:

How old are the plants, from germination? in days or weeks.

 

How long have they been flowering? in days or weeks.

 

What strains? Did you get seeds or cuttings from someone? Maybe you could ask them about the flowering period for this varietal?

 

It looks like a pure sativa.

 

Challenging to make any determination based on those photos.

 

Looks like a thrip issue though.

 

What do the trichomes look like under magnification?

 

Calyxes look quite young, my best guess is that you could let these go quite a few, 3 or 4, more weeks.

 

 

The first plant i got has been budding a few months...say up to 3 or 4? The second I would say...2 months? I bought both in pots when they were maybe....a foot high.

 

I think you are right though, my gut feeling ( based on what?? ha) tells me to let the first go and most certainly the second which is greener. I think they could become more dense...though again I am basing that merely on buds that I have been given in the past. I know that some leaves turning yellow and dropping off is possibly part of the process. Again though I am not 100%

 

Thanks for the advice.

[rellim]

As a rule of thumb when 80 percent the trichomes, small white hairs on the end of the buds have turned a brown/orange color the plant is ready to harvest. Going by the pictures you posted yours are not quite ready to harvest. 

[248900_1469958220]

30 minutes ago, rellim said:

As a rule of thumb when 80 percent the trichomes, small white hairs on the end of the buds have turned a brown/orange color the plant is ready to harvest. Going by the pictures you posted yours are not quite ready to harvest. 

Cheers....Seems like thats the case. 

[DontDoubtMe]

On 11/12/2022 at 1:33 PM, rellim said:

As a rule of thumb when 80 percent the trichomes, small white hairs on the end of the buds have turned a brown/orange color the plant is ready to harvest. Going by the pictures you posted yours are not quite ready to harvest. 

This is not true. 

This is the old school method. But now it's best to look at the trichomes  under a magnifying glass of some sort. 

 

I have had many plants that are not ready with 80% of the hairs are brown. 

 

Most important is if the trichomes are mostly cloudy. All cloudy is the best. Some let it go a bit over and some change to amber color which is alright too. 

 

But just going based off the hair color is not the way to do it. 

 

Can get a 60x magnifying glass that clips on your phone for 70 baht on shopee.

[DontDoubtMe]

either way still have some time before its finished. 

 

in the second picture i see spider webs, do you have spider mites?

 

what kind of nutes have you been giving them?

[fuehrio]

15 hours ago, DontDoubtMe said:

either way still have some time before its finished. 

 

in the second picture i see spider webs, do you have spider mites?

 

what kind of nutes have you been giving them?

Don't want to drift away from OP's topic, but you made a good catch. I just discovered spider mites at my plants last weekend in the 3rd week of flowering, very devastating. Gave a little hope but trying to fight them hard and so far seems to work: Spray with alcohol/water (1:10) and also spray the tent, repeat 2 days later and spray with Neem oil/water (1:10). Next will spray with bleach and then I hope these suckers are gone forever.

[248900_1469958220]

16 hours ago, DontDoubtMe said:

either way still have some time before its finished. 

 

in the second picture i see spider webs, do you have spider mites?

 

what kind of nutes have you been giving them?

Damn....well spotted!! Thanks!

 

 

[DontDoubtMe]

4 hours ago, 248900_1469958220 said:

Damn....well spotted!! Thanks!

 

 

check under the leaves and if you see tons of them i would personally cut off that branch before they spread (if they havent already). you can try to fight them, but during flowering its not good to spray the buds with anything for many reasons.

[marcusb]

On 11/14/2022 at 5:10 PM, DontDoubtMe said:

Some let it go a bit over and some change to amber color

Agree with what you say, just adding 100% cloudy will give a more 'awake, alert' high, the more amber you wait for the more it turns into couch lock.  I like 20% amber but it takes a lot of patience.  
 Phone attachment as you said is great, I also used an illuminated jewellers loupe, 5$. Amazon. 
Google trichome ripeness, you'll get lots of good images. 

[248900_1469958220]

Good news is I had a close up look at the buds that may have had spider mites....seems not. I will however check again....I did check with my lady who has much more green thumbs than I and we agreed...no spider mites (pleeease) 

 

Anyway, thanks for all the input. 

[robsamui]

Hiya. My friend's in the same boat. Here's something he stumbled across by accident, growing in the corner of his garden.

 

I told him that it looks like it's really close now - lots of ginger hairs and the trikes are just starting to turn cloudy. But there's lots of little blonde Mohicans still coming up on the popcorn buds, so I'm guessing another week, or two, maybe?

 

One other test is the density of the buds (I think . . . ). They should be firm when you squeeze them gently - if they're soft n spongy and not dense (and you can see daylight through them), then either they've not had enough light or, depending on the strain and type (ie hybrid / auto / photpperiodic), the're simply not ready yet.

[marcusb]

IMHO I'd say at least two more weeks. Good shot of trichomes.   Nice healthy looking plant as well. 


If its a personal garden grow its fine to just clip the first few branches that are ready and give the remainder another week or two. 

[robsamui]

1 hour ago, marcusb said:

IMHO I'd say at least two more weeks. Good shot of trichomes.   Nice healthy looking plant as well. 


If its a personal garden grow its fine to just clip the first few branches that are ready and give the remainder another week or two. 

Two weeks? My friend ???? will be interested to know that.

The main problem has been bud rot (brown colour starting right inside the bud-mass) - just in the last 3 weeks or so. The rain and high humidity has been inescapable (even with fans running 24/7) and two colas (sigh) and half a dozen popcorns have had to be chopped.

 

It's been OK for 10 days now so touch wood that nothing more will show up. It's on zero nutes and flushing right now . . . And that takes care of our smokes for Xmas!

 

 

[ChaiyaTH]

Seems you have a disease in your plants, other than that it looks long from done. Maybe more luck on your next round.

[marcusb]

3 hours ago, robsamui said:

Two weeks?

At least, could easily stretch to a month.   Its hard to gauge, just keep checking the glass. 

[stoner]

not trying to be rude....but just harvest all that. grind it all up and bubble bag extract whatever comes out. 

 

otherwise you wont really be smoking much at all. the flowers from the pics you posted are at best a couple percent thc. 

 

also....plant in 2nd pic is totally covered in spider mites. you can clearly see webbing on multiple areas of the plant. its far too late to do anything about it. it will spread to all your plants and infest everything. you won't be able to stop it i'm afraid. 

 

 

 

 

[robsamui]

 

 

ADMIN - oops - please delete.

[robsamui]

STONER!
Please use the 'quote' option when you reply (re the 'not trying to be rude' post) - reading what you wrote, right below my post, I went and hacked off a smaller cola , put on my safari suit and went hunting for small animals. ????

As it happens I wasn't too worried as I'd just looked at it under the microscope (B4 I saw your reply) and the trikes were just turning to a mix of mostly cloudy with some amber. Not all fully cloudy (about 25% still clear) but still almost-ready-enough for me to risk a much closer look via invasive surgery . . . and no sign of bud rot either, anywhere. ????

The lower buds are still cooking, so I reckon another week to 10 days. before it's pulled . . . a big difference between these and the ones I posted 5 days back.

[bamnutsak]

5 hours ago, robsamui said:

As it happens I wasn't too worried

Confused.

 

Are these your plants, or your "friends" plant(s)?

 

 

On 11/19/2022 at 2:23 PM, robsamui said:

Hiya. My friend's in the same boat.

 

 

15 hours ago, robsamui said:

The main problem has been bud rot (brown colour starting right inside the bud-mass)

 

5 hours ago, robsamui said:

and no sign of bud rot either, anywhere.

 

OK, now I'm really confused.

 

[Phnom Penh Trader]

On 11/15/2022 at 9:55 AM, DontDoubtMe said:

either way still have some time before its finished. 

 

in the second picture i see spider webs, do you have spider mites?

 

what kind of nutes have you been giving them?

Stoner Spiders is that really a thing,or are you just smoking too much of the product?

[DontDoubtMe]

8 hours ago, Phnom Penh Trader said:

Stoner Spiders is that really a thing,or are you just smoking too much of the product?

<deleted> are you talking about. 

Who said stoner spiders?

 

Have you never grown marijuana?

 

There are such things as spider mites. They can infest marijuana plants. 

 

Next time please use Google before butting into something you know nothing about. 

[wildpuppet72]

Definitely have spider mites or some other aphids look at the leaves no doubt!!

[wildpuppet72]

On 11/16/2022 at 8:29 AM, fuehrio said:

Don't want to drift away from OP's topic, but you made a good catch. I just discovered spider mites at my plants last weekend in the 3rd week of flowering, very devastating. Gave a little hope but trying to fight them hard and so far seems to work: Spray with alcohol/water (1:10) and also spray the tent, repeat 2 days later and spray with Neem oil/water (1:10). Next will spray with bleach and then I hope these suckers are gone forever.

And the weed will be gone forever also if you spray with alcohol or bleach if have spider mites throw them out!!

[fuehrio]

17 hours ago, wildpuppet72 said:

And the weed will be gone forever also if you spray with alcohol or bleach if have spider mites throw them out!!

I sprayed them twice with alcohol and once with neem oil and all mites were gone (didn't do the bleach). Heard spider mites are hard to fight but it was quite easy, also I never brought any other cannabis plants from outside to my home. So I am not even sure what type of mites and I suspect my balcony flowers were the source.

Fully understood about not spraying on buds but the buds were still very early stage and I just cut the plant yesterday, after more than one month from spraying. I will give it a try but I am fully prepared to throw my first harvest away.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, fuehrio said:

Fully understood about not spraying on buds but the buds were still very early stage and I just cut the plant yesterday, after more than one month from spraying. I will give it a try but I am fully prepared to throw my first harvest away.

Don't understand why you'd want to throw your harvest away.

Spider mites don't do that much harm.

 

Spider mites eat living plants, when you cut and dry, the mites will leave in search of new living plants.

[fuehrio]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Don't understand why you'd want to throw your harvest away.

Spider mites don't do that much harm.

 

Spider mites eat living plants, when you cut and dry, the mites will leave in search of new living plants.

I meant if the buds will smell bad when smoking because of the spraying. Before the spraying the mites attacked the leafs, turned yellow and fell off and I did read you have to fight them quickly. So from your experience you can leave them on?

[BritManToo]

31 minutes ago, fuehrio said:

I meant if the buds will smell bad when smoking because of the spraying. Before the spraying the mites attacked the leafs, turned yellow and fell off and I did read you have to fight them quickly. So from your experience you can leave them on?

SMs will reduce the yield of any plant, but if the flowering is almost over the plant is already dying. They don't eat THC or flowers, just the juicy green plant.

 

As for smelling bad, IMHO all smoking smells bad.

I don't like the taste of beer or wine either.

But it's a process you go through to achieve the end result, altered mood/consciousness.

 

My last grow had spider mites in the final 2-3 weeks, I didn't do anything.

Still got some left and it's fine.

This year it's been too wet/humid, and spider mites like it dry, so I have none so far.

[rice555]

You can also wash your buds before drying. There are several good u-tube VDO's on this.

Lemon juice/baking soda mix. with 2 rinses  and A-med grower that does a hydrogen peroxide-water, then the lemon-baking soda-water

and the 2 water rinses. This should clean off dust, bugs and other sprays that you used during growing.

I fan dried over night the plants I washed before I put them in the drying room("I" is used in the meaning "the Wife" as she is the grower 555!

rice555