First grow outdoors.. almost done but have questions

[halofive]

So far so good for my first grow outdoors.. I started quite late, with pretty ragged starts at the end of June. The Pennywise seems to be a solid week ahead of the Mendo Purps and the Strawberry Cough.. so I'll stick with questions about the Pennywise for now.

I know probably the best idea is to get a scope and check the trichomes for cloudiness and such.. and I might go and buy one. But I'm curious, beyond that evaluation do you think the Pennywise is ready to flush for 2 weeks?

She's had probably 60% of her fan leaves yellow and I've pulled them over the past 3 weeks or so.. The buds seem to either be growing very slowly, or fattening, but I don't see significant growth over the past several days.. whereas, I still see progress on the other plants.

The pistils are probably 30% brown.. although the pics don't really show it off that well.

Here are a few pics.. Appreciate any feedback!

 

[BOMBAYCAT]

Do you see the white pistals growing straight out of the bud? That means it is not quite ready. The old hippy way is to chop the plant when the buds get 80% brown. You are exactly right to watch trichomes. I chop mine when I see the first amber trichomes. It depends on the type of high you need. Milky with a few amber is an up high, but if you need a couchlock high to kill pain a lot of amber is needed. When your leaves start showing the yellow fall colors you are close. It all depends on when your first frost date is. Chop them before the frost so they are not damaged. I have 1 plant ready and I am going nuts waiting for the first amber trichome. Just looking at your pictures I would guess several weeks yet. Don't let the waiting make you crazy.

 

[halofive]

Several weeks?! Crap.. how am I supposed to be so patient?

Is flushing a big deal, in that I really need to respect the 2 weeks I've been reading about? I feel like maybe I'm overthinking the whole question, "When do I start flushing so that the buds will be optimally ripe two weeks later?" ..

Thanks for the quick feedback!

 

[BOMBAYCAT]

I was being really conservative. I am really thinking more like 2 weeks. All the waiting will make you crazy. Flushing is really necessary to get a good smoke. Otherwise you can taste the fertilizer if you use chem nutes. I grow organic outdoors so I just stop feeding organic stuff a couple weeks before the chop. It gets worse. You need to chop the plants, trim the buds, and hang dry for 10-14 days. Then you trim some more if needed, and put the buds in the mason jar (airing it out) burping it anywhere from 1 to several times a day. Finally you get to taste the smoke. If you want to just cut off a small branch and air dry and then test it against the plant you are still growing out. You also can cut off just a bud and dry it in paper towel in the microwave. It will taste like crap but it will give you an idea how strong the plant will be. Waiting is worth it so have fun and good luck.

 

[theJointedOne]

Yea you've got about a month left on those.

Although tempting, you'll want to wait till its ripe and mature.

You've still got a lot of growth left in those buds. A month from now they will look and taste and feel much different.