(Dark) green leaves at harvest time?! Come on guys, stop overfeeding & flush fully

(Dark) green leaves at harvest time?! Come on guys, stop overfeeding & flush fully

This is aimed at most of the growers on this site, so that probably includes you!

Why is it that I'm continually seeing (dark) green leaves at harvest time in your flower pics?

I'm also seeing burnt leaf tips very often too.


These are both signs of overfeeding during the grow and/or improper flushing at the end.

The leaves should be YELLOW at harvest time, or at least very pale green if you've not got the strain dialled in yet.

This means that the plants have used all the food up, and the buds will be clean, therefore better smoking, less chemmy, and less carcinogenic.

I'm sure all of you who don't know the difference will say "yeah but my buds taste good, etc", but you're comparing to other badly fed/flushed plants, not to clean ones, which taste and smoke so much better. Try the difference, and see what I mean!

With a new strain, we all play it by ear to some extent, but with all the information available on strains nowadays, you should be able to find out what its feeding requirements are.

However, as a rule of thumb, you should err on the side of caution, and only use enough nutes as is necessary, and NOT just give plants manufactuer's "Full Strength" nutes.

Each strain, and in fact, every individual plant has different food requirements, but by shooting low rather than high, you can see what they want.

You don't even need an expensive cF/EC meter to do this: if the leaves go yellowy, they need more food, if the leaf tips go brown it means you've overfed and burnt them. Simple really, and the 2nd time you should feed correctly, as you have either written or mental notes on each plant.

I recommend most people on here flushing their mid-grow plants now, for at least 2-3 days, as you're overfeeding, and it will do the plants good.

By harvest time, if you've fed and flushed correctly, the leaves will be yellow all over the plant, starting from bottom to top, and then in the last week of flower, a lot of old fan leaves down below will have browned off and died.

I hope people take this on board, and I start seeing better grown plants around here.


Thanks for reading,


Peace

I agree Bulldog. Impatience more than anything else is the reason for an early "chop", and a lesser but equally important factor is lack of knowledge.

The plants in the above photo (March 2008) were about a week away from the beginning of harvest with Autumn like appearance, gold, purple, yellow and deep blue hues beginning to develop.


The plants here (May 2008) are about 7-10 days away from initial harvest of the matured colas.

Respects,

TyStik

Flushing, hey British I grow in coco and flush for 2 weeks and sometimes they still seem a bit green and on average I only use my Canna nutes at half strength most of the time. When dried and cured I get all grey ash and a nice clean burn and taste, but heres a series of the same plant through flush maybe it will help with a visual of what I think is a proper flush. Please feel free to give me your thoughts

Ty-Stik said:

I agree Bulldog. Impatience more than anything else is the reason for an early "chop", and a lesser but equally important factor is lack of knowledge.

The plants in the above photo (March 2008) were about a week away from the beginning of harvest with Autumn like appearance, gold, purple, yellow and deep blue hues beginning to develop.

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Ok cool Ty-Stik - this is exactly how it's done, Thank You for the pic, as it illustrates precisely what I'm talking about - to everyone with green leaves at harvest, look at this pic and that is what you should be achieving.

How many times do we see autumn leaves like this here? Maybe 1% of harvest pics? Come on guys, you can all do this if you want.

You've got a nice garden there Ty-Stik, and keep up the excellent work man

zoolander said:

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Zoolander - I'm afraid your plants aren't looking so good - can you see there's a huge difference between the pics above - with your plants, you burnt them at one stage, due to the brown tips and now they look underfed, maybe just lacking nitrogen, but if you're using 2-part nutrients, you need to increase the feed.

You want autumn leaves, not yellow due to underfed. Monitor your nutrient regime next time more closely, and watch the plants carefully for them telling you what they want.


Peace

You know whats strange is that everything was in check and then I flushed some others a bit later and still had the same results so I have no clue how to change it and my burnt tips started in flush. I dont know but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Thanx bro

Ok zoolander, start them off on 1/4 strength veg nutes from clone, then increase to 1/3, then to a half when they need it, probably as they are entering the flowering period, depending on how long you veg.

Then continue to feed that through the stretch, and monitor the leaf colour.

This is a general guide line, but if the leaf tips show burning, back off the nutes and flush with straight water. If the leaves show yellowing, starting down the middle of the leaves, increase the feed.

Once you have a plant 'dialled-in', you will know exactly how to get the most out of it, at the fastest possible grow time, as it will have exactly what it wants, then flush it out and force it to use the food it's got in its leaves to get the best smoke.

Examine Ty-Stik's pic and bear in mind that's your ultimate goal.

Peace

In fact, the more I look at Ty-Stik's pic the more I like it, nice one Ty, you've done those girls proud man and I bet they smoked well...Would you care to give us a smoke report on them please?

jiggywhompus,

Ok, let's get a few things straight here man.

Firstly, I stand by everything I said, as it's all correct.

You are way off base about me hanging around the Toker's Den, in fact, I've got a big smile on my face even thinking that someone could think that about me - if you had properly researched my posts, you would see I spend most of my time in the Security forum helping people avoid getting arrested.

The very rare occasion that I dip my toe in the Toker's Den, it's just for a bit of light hearted relief while I'll in-between Security posts.

Out of my 700 or so posts, only a tiny fraction are in the 'Den, a hand full, if that.

I also started a thread in the Grower's Forum called "So you wanna be a commercial grower", which has received 25,000+ hits in the last month.

Or perhaps in the hash forum, sharing hash pics or drooling over other tasty hashes.

Maybe you should have researched me much better.


I don't actually agree that ICMAG is packed out with "amazing growers" as you put it - OG was, but I'm not seeing that here.

How many pics give me the WOW factor like on OG? Very few indeed, and Ty-Stik's 'autumn' pic was one to do that.

jiggywhompus said:

Statements like this could not display your lack of plant nutrition much more clearly...

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Secondly, about plant nutrition, well that's exactly what I was talking about, plant nutrition, not bugs, not rootbound, not other deficiencies - they're other things. You need to carefully monitor plants, for EVERYTHING, but the very simplistic modal I presented is the basic rule for plant nutrition.

If you thought my post was "condescending", that's not how it was intended, it was intended as a wake up call for a large number of growers here.

I am prepared to take the flak in order to educate, so if anyone else wants to have a go, bring it on, because until I see all harvest pics like Ty-Stik's, my work here is not done.


Over and out

jiggy, you were way off the mark with your Toker's Den comments, and I don't even know where you got that idea from - certainly not from my post history, and I can only assume you searched under the wrong name.


Your plants look better fed and flushed than most I see pics of, but they don't look like Ty-Stik's do they?

You need to end up with autumn leaves for the final finale.

when i first started growing, i thought i was fucking up when my girls yellowed late in flower.
then i realized it was a natural thing.
and yes, my plants fans do yellow and die of w/in the last month of flower.

Well you realised correctly frank, and it sounds like you've got it down.

To anyone else who decides to do a jiggywhompus, verify your plants look like Ty-Stik's first pic before claiming you're the best thing since sliced bread in the garden.

I say it how it is, and life's too short for going around the houses - let's just get to the point and say a hell of a lot of people need to pull up their socks.

jiggy - just saw your edit about me not posting pics.

Well, the fact is that I used to be a commercial grower in the UK, I now live in Italy and can't grow, but I don't need to post any pics, as Ty-Stik has posted a perfect pic for us - particularly his first pic - that's exactly how they should look.

i will say this about jiggsaw (jiggywhompus)
he is one of the better, more detail oriented growers here.
i am jealous of his grows. definetaly a very knowledgable grower.

p.s. nobodies bubba looks better than his, FACT

cocktail frank said:

i will say this about jiggsaw (jiggywhompus)
he is one of the better, more detail oriented growers here.
i am jealous of his grows. definetaly a very knowledgable grower.

p.s. nobodies bubba looks better than his, FACT

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That may well be, and despite his harvest pics looking good, I know I'd rather be looking at properly fed and flushed plants like Ty-Stik's any day of the week.

If Ty-Stik could please post up a smoke report, and maybe compare it to 'green-leaf-at-harvest- bud, then it'd be much appreciated, to reinforce that this is the way.

Also, if anyone else has any nice 'autumn' pics, it'd be a pleasure to see them, thanks.

OHTAM HYOUS

OHTAM HYOUS

HEAR AER MIY OHTAM HYOUS I FULSH FOUR FIEV HAURS FEADING TOW THAUSAND PARTS PAR MALLAON

Well...

Well...

I feel like broken record saying this again but it bares repeating here. In order ta get a good flush you need ta catch the end of the transpiration period. You know, when a plant goes through water so fast in flower and then all of a sudden it stops ? Well ya need ta have em flushed before they do stop. Those green leaves are mostly from havin N still left in them. N is very mobile, so if ya catch the end of the transpiration it's easily flushed. Having a strain dialed in ta know jus when it stops is a big advantage..... Leaf tip burn isn't a bad thing, it's just an indcator that yuv brought the nutes up to max levels. By doing this yer jus doin yer part ta help the plant reach it's full potential, flush right, and it's no big deal. If yer ashes aren't white yer doin somethin wrong. I think most folks know all this already but fer those that don't, there it is... Take care, BC

I see like this, I think my plants look good, they smoke great and have a proper flush every time. I've had strains that flush out like British says with the colors and all and I have ones that look like they are just drained of nitrogen. I know what my skill level is and I take no offence to his judgement. As long as I'm happy with what I do and can get others involved in the hobby I love so much by postin my grows I'll be a happy man and if he smoked my finished product I promise he would also be happy with my grow's. so fuck it lets just grow

Why is it that I'm continually seeing (dark) green leaves at harvest time in your flower pics?

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My experience in running 100% organic in soil is I've plucked some very green plants at harvest while I'm on the learning curve. It has always burned smooth and clean. I ran hydro for a year and a half and there's no comparison. While I'll eventually get my nute additions timed right until then I don't get tweaked if I have to cut something that's green.

I have to say I agree for the most part, but on the other hand some strains just don't get that 'autumn color' that your talking about. I would say a lot do, but some just don't - it's not in thier genetics. I have seen a lot just get the 'lack of nitrogen' look. I have a strain that no matter how long you flush it for it never changes color. Even if I starve it for nutrients half way through veg it still stays a dark shade of green. So for the most part it depends on genetics, but I do agree a lot of growers I have seen here don't flush properly. Just my 2 cents.

TGT

There is something that the little "grasshopers" don't have: That would be a command of their grow and an understanding of the cultivation of an Herb. Have fun with your Rosy Palm Newbs.