WHEN TO HARVEST MARIJUANA PLANTS

If you have grown cannabis before, you know how important it is to harvest your buds right at the perfect time.

Harvesting just a week too early will cause your buds to a have very low potency of THC and minimal desirable effects. Harvest a little too late, and the THC will have degraded to THC-A, giving you a really strong couch lock feeling after consuming it.

So, the question is, how do you know when the buds are at the perfect time to be harvested?

When is the right time to harvest weed?

You have to wait until your crop is mature enough before harvesting in order to ensure that you get high THC potency and maximum bud growth. If you wait any longer than the right time to harvest, THC will breakdown and lose its potency and quality. Harvesting your weed is also a phase that you should take as much attention to, as you did through all the other stages. Though timing is the best driving force when it comes to harvesting weed, the optimum harvesting time also depends on various factors. Some of the factors are the grow space you are using. It takes different timeframes to grow and harvest marijuana grown outdoors than it does with weed that marijuana growing indoors.

The strains you have will also determine the length it takes for the plants to mature. The most popular strains are the INDICA and SATIVA strains. Indica strain matures much faster than the sativa strain averaging about six to eight weeks while the sativa strain takes an average of eight to twelve weeks. For the indica strain, you should start examining the trichomes from the 5th and 6th weeks while for the sativa strains; you can start checking for trichome maturity from the 8th week.

The grow medium also determines the length of time it takes to harvest as some have very short growth periods while others take longer. Those that grow their weed HYDROPONICALLY have much faster growths than those that use soil. Also to determine the time of harvest is how long you plan to keep the plants on the flowering stage in order to encourage body and head height of the weed. Other factors to consider are the chemical natures of the plants and the state of the plants.

Color 

Color changes are perhaps the most reliable way to tell when your plant is ready to harvest. It also seems to be the only harvest signifier that the bud community can come to a mutual conclusion on. Again, “when to harvest” is a highly debated issue, but most gardeners will tell you that color change in various parts of the plant are a reliable signifier of harvest ready cones. 

Fan Leaves

Fan leaves are the large, green, iconically shaped “pot leaves” that surround the flowers of a marijuana plant. Throughout the vegetative stage, these leaves are what the plant uses to convert sunlight into food and energy and process CO2 into oxygen. In early stages, these leaves should be a lush, dark green color. Yellowing should only occur once the plant has reached its optimum harvest time. 

As the plant starts to dedicate all of its energy into the formation of the flowers, fan leaves will begin to turn yellow and die off. This is a perfectly normal process and one that is an excellent indicator that it’s time to start prepping for your crop.

Pistils 

Pistils are the hairy protrusions that pop out from the flowering cone of the plant. They unfurl from the calyx as the plant matures. Calyx are the little fuzzy leaf like structures that emerge first when the plant begins to bud. As the pistils age, they will begin to darken. A great indicator of optimum harvest time is when the pistils turn a brownish-red color. 

What makes these little barometers of buds so useful is that they are really easily seen without any specialized tools, and in young plants, they are stark white. The color contrast between white and red/orange/brown makes it simple to see when the flower is ready to be picked. When 70-90% of the pistils have turned color, you’re looking at a late stage body high, but you can begin cutting once about 50% of them have changed if you’re looking for a lower THC content. Somewhere in between these two periods, you will find yourself with the maximum levels of THC content. 

Trichomes

Trichomes are the fuzz-like crystals that form all over the flowers and give them that sought after glittery effect. These will go from a clear and bright transparency to a thick, milky-white. Judging harvest time by trichome appearance is semi-advanced, and almost impossible to do without some sort of microscope or magnifying glass on hand. 

Size 

Standard size for plants isn’t really a signifier for harvest, but can give you a decent idea when to swap out from a vegetative state to a flowering one. Remember to note when you changed schedules, as this will give you a good idea when to start really paying close attention to your buds for harvest. 

What size your plant will get depends heavily on what strain you happen to be growing. Sativas are generally the most massive of the bunch, reaching up to 20 feet tall- which is why they’re best cultivated outdoors. Indicas are much smaller and bushier than Sativas, and will rarely grow past 5 or 6 feet. Autoflowering plants will be even smaller still. Ultimately the total size of your plant will vary based on a number of factors, but you want to be sure that the plant isn’t too tall or leggy so it can support those big ol’ buds that we all hope for. 

Trichomes 

Trichomes are a really important element when discussing harvest times of marijuana plants. So important, that we gave them their own section! In order to properly view trichomes, you’ll need some manner of magnification device. While it’s not necessary to jump out and grab a high powered microscope, a jewelers loupe is usually the preferred viewing device. These handy little magnifying glasses provide an intimate view of the trichome structure. 

Trichomes look like tiny little glass mushrooms that grow on the flowers of mature marijuana plants. They produce all the resin that will give you the necessary cannabinoids and terpenes. They also affect the taste, aroma, and high of the buds themselves. If it’s early in the flowering stage, trichomes will be clear and fragile looking. As harvest approaches, the trichomes will swell slightly and begin to show a milky-white appearance. Making them look more like plastic than glass. At that point you know your lady is ready for her final dance. 

 Tips on when to harvest marijuan 

You’ll need to start by recognizing the signals that your plant is giving you, telling you that it’s time to harvest. There are many sayings and myths out there that push novice growers to harvest their plants before they’re ready; people say to harvest early so they don’t get overdue, or that when the pistils are brown you need to harvest… I was one of those people until one day, my previous harvest lasted into the next one so I wasn’t in a rush to cut my plants down, and I realized that a good harvest is done when your plants literally can’t give any more of themselves.

I was rewarded with hard and compact buds that were absolutely full of resin with an amazing smell and wow, were they potent! I was so surprised. Usually I’d get about 50g under 250w, but when I waited a bit I got a staggering 150g. The brown pistils are indeed a sign, but they can go brown for various reasons; dew at nighttime, when you spray them with product etc.

When marijuana plants are ready to harvest those little brown hairs will practically be falling off. If you dry and cure your bud and realize it still has a lot of brown hairs, then that means you’ve harvested it too early.

I’m not sure who came up with the brown pistil thing, but it doesn’t always work. It is of course a sign but it’s more like a sign of future signs to come, you know? Usually, if you harvest a plant at that stage when you go and check on your buds you’ll see that they’ve shrunk down to almost nothing but pistils. A true sign that your plant is ready is brown pistils combined with the fact that when you water it, it hardly drinks up any of the water.

Another sign is that the plant isn’t growing any more white pistils, which means that it has no more to give.

If your plant looks like this one, it still has a ways to go regardless of how many brown pistils it has, maybe around 20 days to a month. As you can see in the picture, plants that aren’t finished look as though they’re quite young still and very few of them can reach harvest day looking so good, whereas plants that are nearing completion tend to go slightly yellow, lose some leaves etc. So the biggest signs that it’s time to harvest your plant are brown pistils that are beginning to fall off, absolutely no white pistils and a slight yellowish color to the leaves. Some sativa strains never really end up looking like this, so to be absolutely sure you’ll need to use a microscope to check the trichomes.

If you grow cannabis indoors, it is easy to control the time of cannabis harvesting.Have you alread grow marijuana indoor ? If you haven’t been growing marijuana indoors yet,We suggest you to choose a indoor grow kits, the grow kits are simple to set up and makes it easier to begin growing. The first benefit of buying a complete grow tent kit is that it’s compact. Even if you have a small apartment with little closet space, you can set up a complete grow kit there. The second benefit is that you don’t need to go shopping for extra parts. These complete grow tent kits come with everything you need to start growing. This includes all electronics such as grow lighting with hangers, a grow tent ,a circulation fan with filters, and other necessities like nutrients for the plants. Finally, grow tent kits are moveable, so you can take them with you wherever you go. This is especially useful because grow tent kits are a big initial investment. Being able to pack up them up with you saves costs of setting up a new growing operation