Ideally when should the leaves be turning color?

[de145]

First off before anything I want to say I'm going not for the hugest harvest I want potency, flavor and smooth smoke.

Dark green leaves at harvest is always a bad sign that a tricky cure is going to be required to get anything smokeable out of it but how early to cut the feed?

When using "chemical" ferts, what do you consider an ideal point in time before harvest that the colors should be changing on the leaves?

I want my nutes to run out at the exact right moment so the plant starts turning and using stored nutes; I'm trying to figure out when that is best to start happening as a rule.

When do you consider it the right time to see the leaves start turning in a grow that ends with the plant perfectly depleted of stored nutes at harvest time?

2 weeks prior to harvest, a month prior, a week?

 

[Piel]

I'd say 7-10 days depending on strain, some "wilt" more than others so I´d follow the trichs,

 

[be.pro]

^^ I'd say around the 10 day mark, I bring my plants to near death and almost completely wilted at chop and still get a great yield. Flavor and yield together is totally possible without fully nitrogen loaded plants. However if your going for potency and flavor have you thought about using organic base nutes with a good pk additive? I notice kind of a bland nuetral flavor from synthetic grows

 

[Proper]

Mine start to yellow at about 6 weeks flowering. Usually about 3 weeks before the plant is gonna be done Ill start to water with plain tap water. After about 1 week of watering with plain water the plants will run out of nutes in the soil and instead start feeding on their own leaves, hence, turning them yellow. If growing indica alot of times all of these leaves will fall off and youll just be left with a bud on a stick. After this happens I usually let it go like another week or so and its done. Depends on the strain tho, gotta check the trichs. Ill have some shit that looks wayyy done then I check the trichs and theyre clear so be careful.

 

[benny blanco]

I keep mine green all the way through untill i run clearex. Then the leaves turn

 

[eastbeast]

Depending on the strain, i give a last big shot of nutes two weeks before i chop. Then its ph'd water with a flushing agent from there til the chop.
Usually I find this is enough fertilization to keep the plant healthy for the first week of non-nutes and then absorbing the nitrogen in the leaves and yellowing through the rest of its cycle til chop. This keeps the plant in good health til the absolute end, thus not sacrificing yield.
It's just the method i use but i'm open to other ideas..

 

[de145]

Interesting. If I didn't keep trying new strains this would probably be much easier to dial in but it sounds like the consensus is 7-14 days so I'll say 10 days as a working place to start with and go from there.

Thanks guys

 

[Penguin59]

What I don't get is if your plants are in organic soil, and there's still enough nutrients in the soil in the last weeks of flowering for the plants to use, then they shouldn't need to yellow should they?

Or is their demand for nutrients so great that they will yellow their own leaves anyway for that last big push?

Penguin

 

[Hydro-Soil]

What I don't get is if your plants are in organic soil, and there's still enough nutrients in the soil in the last weeks of flowering for the plants to use, then they shouldn't need to yellow should they?

Or is their demand for nutrients so great that they will yellow their own leaves anyway for that last big push?

Penguin

Answered this in another thread where you posted the same question.

Basically it doesn't matter if you're organics or chem... if there are medium to high levels of nutrients left at chop time (nice green healthy plants) you're going to have issues with potency, flavor and overall dankness. (yes.. nitrogen directly affects THC production)

I prefer an easy cure... easily done with nutrient starved plants. With soil... I've noticed the best results from most folks when they run out of nutrients about 2-3 weeks before chop. Essentially you should have the yellowing almost into the buds themselves... right when you're chopping. Wonderful stuff!

No, there's no unusual demand for nutrients at the end that causes the yellowing. Most strains will eventually just die off... I believe the thai strains tend to continue growing constantly, regardless of time in 12/12.

Stay Safe!

 

[s00thsayer]

best results from most folks when they run out of nutrients about 2-3 weeks before chop. Essentially you should have the yellowing almost into the buds themselves

I'm with hydro and proper on this. If you let the leaves yellow and drop it makes harvesting a lot easier too because you won't have to trim very much.

 

[heatherlonglee]

I don't see yellowing leaves on large grows and grows from the pro's in High Times and other magazines? The photo's I see from the pro's seems to show perfect looking plants? I've seen many photo's of plants that didn't look flushed? It's all hype and it's hurting your crop!

 

[KONY]

The only thing this negatively effects is harshness of smoke. No way its gonna make buds less potent because they are green at chop...

Also if you have overfed your plants mid flower, or dont water till a bit of runoff, you will need to flush sooner. Properly fed plants can do fine with 10 days of straight water, plants that are pushed harder need longer time of straight water

 

[heatherlonglee]

In photo's you see from the pro's the color changed leaves is from low temperatures not nutrients.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

the pro's in High Times

ROTFLMAO!!!!

Sorry... couldn't hold that back. *giggle*


Stay Safe!

p.s. most of those 'show' grows have nothing to do with quality and everything to do with quantity.

 

[Penguin59]

KONY made a good point here that green leaves at the chop should have no effect on potency so I'll have to respectfully disagree with what was said above Hydro. I do concede that you would definitely get a harsher smoke as a result of the chlorophyll still present in the leaves though.

You mentioned that most folks do best when the nutrients run out 2-3 weeks prior to the chop. I meant that if my soil is still chocked full of nutrients at the end of the plant's life then no amount of flushing will make the leaves yellow. I'm still unclear on how to overcome this.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I meant that if my soil is still chocked full of nutrients at the end of the plant's life then no amount of flushing will make the leaves yellow. I'm still unclear on how to overcome this.

That's the whole point that most organic growers get stuck on...

Basically if you're green up till harvest... you put too much in your soil. Not a damn thing you can do that run but write it down for reference.

Try cutting back on your 'amendments' by 10% or so on your next run and so on...

Stay Safe!

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

flush 14-21 days i do 21 days and youll get what your looking for...

 

[Penguin59]

That's the whole point that most organic growers get stuck on...

Basically if you're green up till harvest... you put too much in your soil. Not a damn thing you can do that run but write it down for reference.

Try cutting back on your 'amendments' by 10% or so on your next run and so on...

Stay Safe!

Thanks Hydro man that was the exact answer I was looking for. Cheers for the info, it makes sense now.

 

[Penguin59]

flush 14-21 days i do 21 days and youll get what your looking for...

Thanks mate, will do that on my next run.

 

[DrFever]

its not the color of leafs your looking at its the color of trichs determining harvest
dis coloration is due to many factors most importantly DEF or burns which 90 percent of grower get to during flowering stage plants turning yellow to fast in flower yields suffer
the goal is to keep leafs green as long as possible, period.
Every one tends to think a mj plant is suppose to die that the yellowing is a natural way its ending its life bla bla bla
try to explain that to growers that revert back to veg after harvesting there plants did they DIE ????????
and to be quite honest more and more veteran growers are coming to realize that keeping it greener = better overall yields bottom line healthy plants through out veg and flower are key factors
now when getting into organically grown plants most of the ingredients are depleted by the time harvest comes flushing plants 2 weeks causes yellowing again if you add more ingredients you get into issues of over ferts specially in a plants plants young age.

So HOW can we correct this simple once plants start to yellow in organically grown mediums its time to amend your soil either by chemical nutes or teas other sources of plant food some will say now that chemical ferts are going to hurt my micro orgaism herd aall i say for what next 2 week prior to harvest who gives a shit they did there job Right ???
KEEP THEM GREEN AS LONG AS YOU CAN