OK, you made it! Whew! Your patience won and you are getting ready to crop out…but now you need a little bit of advice on the best way to take those fragrant ladies from plant form to smoke form, and GN is here to help! Timing:
Remember, timing is everything, so make sure your plants are ready to actually harvest. Most plants take between two to three months to ripen to completion. This is where that trusty microscope or loupe is going to be your best friend, because you have to get up close and personal with your flowers. What you are looking for are the crystals on the plant, we call these “trichomes” or “stalked capitulate glands”. What we are looking for here is color and shape. Are the trichomes mushroom shaped? What color are they? If about half to two thirds are amber and the rest still milky in color, then you are ready to harvest! If they are still milky, you are going to want to wait a little longer for those ladies to ripen.
Now that your buds are ready, let’s talk about the time of day to harvest. The best advice is to harvest with the lights off or right before the sun comes up. It’s at this point that all the nutes are in the roots. Gear
Gloves: It may sound crazy, but I have seen some pretty bad injuries related to harvesting – mostly cuts. You are running around in the dark with sharp objects; really you should consider full body medieval chain mail, but you can settle for a good set of garden gloves that help prevent you cutting off your fingers.
Pruning shears: Stalks can be thick and fibrous, I have seen many a strong pair of scissors broken by thick stalks. Invest in a good pair of shears.
Trimmers: a good pair of fine point trimmers can be very helpful A Place to Hang And Dry Your Buds
Ideally, you’re going to be hanging your plants upside down in a dark, cool (60°-70°F) place with a little bit of light air movement. Your empty grow tent makes a great place to dry your crop. Procedure
Thank you. I thought that was something totally different. I expected the little bobbles on the end of the trichomes to be amber/brown, but sure enough. So I should probably pull now right? Or do I have enough time to flush for a week?
There may be one duplicate in here. These are autos grown in AZ in a greenhouse. I have a few other plants, but they are definitely not ready. I did some LST on them, so they’re taking longer to put on fat flowers.
It’s in a greenhouse, so there hasn’t been anything hitting the leaves except the random nibble from something. Nothing a paranoid gardener can’t handle, and some azomax before flower.
looks early to me? 8-10 more days with lower temp and humidity? how long has it been in flower?. we once had a mean dust storm here at flower time and i washed them- turned out pretty good still
I always wash my buds. Indoors and outdoors. Some folks use hydrogen peroxide and water, baking soda and water, or sometimes just clean water. Or all three (baking soda and water, peroxide solution, and then rinse with clean water).
It is safe for the trichomes.
Don’t just take this guy’s word for what he does. Google his name. If he’s cool with washing his buds, I’m cool with washing mine.
Indoor grows included…the first time you see the crap that floats to the surface when you wash your buds… you’ll never not wash them again.
You’re right. It’s not any different. I mainly grow outdoors. When I wash buds, I am more careful with my plants than some of the storms they have been through.
