can you guys help me determine when harvest ready?

[Ruskointhehouse]

Hello I am growing sfv og kush from Dark Hearts and Grape Ape from them as well

Today I am on day 69 and I believe the grape ape is done I just wanted some other, more experienced opinions.

Also my sfv og Kush is hitting day 70 tomorrow and also the 14th day of "flush"

she doesn't look quite ready to me - still putting off white pistils and hasn't started to fade.
It usually takes me about 20 days flush to get a fade and to bring out the smell.

I use Earth Juice and FFOF soil.
Switching to a better soil next run.

here is sfv og kush:




and here is the grape ape:

 

[VerdantGreen]

i would say you are correct about ripeness.

looks like your soil was fairly hot, or you fed as well as had a 'complete' soil. Its better if the dark green colour fades a bit more by this point.

nice looking buds though.

VG

 

[Ruskointhehouse]

i would say you are correct about ripeness.

looks like your soil was fairly hot, or you fed as well as had a 'complete' soil. Its better if the dark green colour fades a bit more by this point.

nice looking buds though.

VG

thank you, I have been having a problem with my soil getting a little hot - how would I go about avoiding that without getting hot spots? I use fabric pots.

What do you mean by "complete soil"?

 

[Ruskointhehouse]

i would say you are correct about ripeness.

looks like your soil was fairly hot, or you fed as well as had a 'complete' soil. Its better if the dark green colour fades a bit more by this point.

nice looking buds though.

VG

I agree the green should be leaving by now

 

[I wood]

When in doubt snip a small bud and in a few days you can sample for effects even though the smoke can be a bit harsh.

 

[Americangrower]

If it was me I would buy a cheap magnify glass. Keep flushing with just water and look at trichs if you see any amber at all put lady in total darkness for 2 or 3 days then chop.

 

[Ruskointhehouse]

If it was me I would buy a cheap magnify glass. Keep flushing with just water and look at trichs if you see any amber at all put lady in total darkness for 2 or 3 days then chop.

I never heard of that tech - I would try but don't have a space where I can do that...
I have a small loupe where I can see trichs - I'll go take a small cut and try to snap a pic of the trichs

 

[Ruskointhehouse]

When in doubt snip a small bud and in a few days you can sample for effects even though the smoke can be a bit harsh.

I had a small cut I took a week ago and smoked a j after it dried and it was pretty potent. I think it would be even more so now :yay:

 

[Ruskointhehouse]

I emailed myself the pictures but it didn't go through
Will attempt later tonight - thanks everyone for the replies!
I appreciate you all helping me out.

Going to be starting a grow journal
I think this community is very constructive

 

[Ruskointhehouse]

here are some pics of the trichomes

here are some pics of the trichomes

Here is the cut I took to look at:



45x zoom in:

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Amber trichs are a sign cannabinoids are breaking down (losing potency). Count 20 trichomes on the flowers themselves (not sugar leaves poking out) and see how many amber ones there are. Count a few spots to get an average.

1 amber in 20 is 5% amber, 2 is 10% and 3 is 15%. The more amber, the more THC has broken down (again... losing potency) and the percentage of CBN has risen. I harvest each new strain/phenotype at 5, 10 and 15% amber. When it's dried and tested, I keep track of which was the best. Anything after 15% amber is too narcotically sleepy for me, making it difficult for me to stay awake for life. I love life, I love cannabis, I harvest before 15% so I can still enjoy it without massive caffeine intake.

 

[VerdantGreen]

thank you, I have been having a problem with my soil getting a little hot - how would I go about avoiding that without getting hot spots? I use fabric pots.

What do you mean by "complete soil"?

sorry, when i said 'hot' i meant too many nutrients. the dark green colour and the slightly burnt leaf tips are a sign of that.

im in UK, but afaik FFOF is a 'complete' soil - as in it is supposed to contain enough nutrients for the plant to grow for a while without feeding. If you also liquid feed on top of that then the plant can take up too many nutrients and then it is hard to get it to fade

VG

 

[Ruskointhehouse]

Amber trichs are a sign cannabinoids are breaking down (losing potency). Count 20 trichomes on the flowers themselves (not sugar leaves poking out) and see how many amber ones there are. Count a few spots to get an average.

1 amber in 20 is 5% amber, 2 is 10% and 3 is 15%. The more amber, the more THC has broken down (again... losing potency) and the percentage of CBN has risen. I harvest each new strain/phenotype at 5, 10 and 15% amber. When it's dried and tested, I keep track of which was the best. Anything after 15% amber is too narcotically sleepy for me, making it difficult for me to stay awake for life. I love life, I love cannabis, I harvest before 15% so I can still enjoy it without massive caffeine intake.

I agree on that 100% man!
I'm a college student and need to be awake to study

sometimes it helps to have sleepy stuff though because I get restless.

 

[Ruskointhehouse]

sorry, when i said 'hot' i meant too many nutrients. the dark green colour and the slightly burnt leaf tips are a sign of that.

im in UK, but afaik FFOF is a 'complete' soil - as in it is supposed to contain enough nutrients for the plant to grow for a while without feeding. If you also liquid feed on top of that then the plant can take up too many nutrients and then it is hard to get it to fade

VG

oh okay - thanks for clarifying.

I don't give nutes with FFOF for like the first 3-4 weeks.
You are correct it has enough for the plant to survive - I have a seedling that is months old and a full plant now and I just transplanted everytime I needed nutes.

I use earth juice so no nute burn.
At least that's what they say...

I've noticed from the few runs I've had that in this soil with the nutes I use it takes a while for the soil to strip it's self of enough nutes to make the plant pull it from the foliage.

People say 14 day flush for soil growers but I usually don't see a fade until like day 20.

I hit sfv og hard with the nutes and the cal/mag tho
she's a heavy feeder they say - and man she has some massive colas

 

[KONY]

Are you using the original, organic liquid earth juice nutes? Bloom is 0-3-1NPK I believe and grow is 2-1-1??

I feel you like are not because of how green these ladies still are. Unless you fed them grow the whole time with bloom....If that is the case, next time drop/reduce the grow part of the liquid feed around week 7, they will start yellowing immediately.

With that said, I would be careful using amber trichomes as your guage for a mature plant. A million things can cause ambering, aside from the plant being mature. If you bump into a cola too hard you will amber the trichs, doesn't mean it's done.

I like to go by calyx swollenness. They should almost look seeded. Then again I like my cannabis a bit ripe.

 

[Ruskointhehouse]

Are you using the original, organic liquid earth juice nutes? Bloom is 0-3-1NPK I believe and grow is 2-1-1??

I feel you like are not because of how green these ladies still are. Unless you fed them grow the whole time with bloom....If that is the case, next time drop/reduce the grow part of the liquid feed around week 7, they will start yellowing immediately.

With that said, I would be careful using amber trichomes as your guage for a mature plant. A million things can cause ambering, aside from the plant being mature. If you bump into a cola too hard you will amber the trichs, doesn't mean it's done.

I like to go by calyx swollenness. They should almost look seeded. Then again I like my cannabis a bit ripe.

thank you for the reply - I didn't use any grow with these girls

just bloom, micro, catalyst, high brix, and cal/mag
I want to use grow next time because I need strong stems - I didn't know buds could get so big the plant could have a hard time holding them up!

I read sfv og likes a lot of cal/mag and it makes her leaves dark green like that - so I gave what people recommended on here - she loved it

her bottoms are yellowing right now

I've noticed it takes me longer to flush then most perhaps because I build a bacteria colony and they keep giving the plant nutes?

I have grown chernobyl, dream queen and now my grape ape and sfv og- they all took about 20 days to start showing colors (a fade)

sfv og just hit day 14 on the flush -- so I will keep looking
a concern is that she is still throwing out white pistils?
Not sure why or if she is going through a last growth spurt.
Dark Heart says she puts on weight in the last two weeks - she can barley hold herself up because that buds are so heavy -
biggest buds I've grown!

grape ape has a really nice fade going right now but she has been going for about 20 days on the flush

can you show me what you mean by swollen calyx? maybe a picture showing it?
I want to be able to determine when the calyx are swollen but not sure what to look for.
Thank you I really appreciate your help!

 

[Ruskointhehouse]

Are you using the original, organic liquid earth juice nutes? Bloom is 0-3-1NPK I believe and grow is 2-1-1??

I feel you like are not because of how green these ladies still are. Unless you fed them grow the whole time with bloom....If that is the case, next time drop/reduce the grow part of the liquid feed around week 7, they will start yellowing immediately.

With that said, I would be careful using amber trichomes as your guage for a mature plant. A million things can cause ambering, aside from the plant being mature. If you bump into a cola too hard you will amber the trichs, doesn't mean it's done.

I like to go by calyx swollenness. They should almost look seeded. Then again I like my cannabis a bit ripe.

this strain had a bit of a learning curve for me - I forgot to add I gave her meta-k as well