Outdoor Grow in Virginia and it just got cold (brrrrrrr)

[SproutBus]

Hey all,

First time grower and new to the forum, thanks for allowing me this opportunity to ask a question.

I have a single 12 week old plant that has been growing outdoors the whole time. The question is should I take it indoors and put it under a light or continue to take it in and out of the house daily until harvest?

It's about to get cold (high of 50 low of 20-30's) from here on out. I've been taking the plant indoors on the occasional cold snaps that we've had so far but the cold weather is here for good now.

Also is there a good rule of thumb to tell when it's go-time for the plant? The trichromes are milky but not amber yet

Thanks in advance!

 

[armedoldhippy]

not knowing what strain you have going, whether sativa or indica etc, it's harder to say. myself, i'd drag it inside and finish under lights if you have good ones. i hate the thought of killing weed by freezing. some strains tolerate cold much better than others, but below freezing? i wouldn't risk it, esp if that was my smoke for the winter. had a hard frost on the cars here early this morning.

 

[Creeperpark]

I have some plants in pots outdoors and I just put them under the light on a cloudy or cold day and put them back out on sunny days. They have both worlds indoor and outdoor at the same time. I set the timer for indoors the same hrs outdoor hours. You have to be careful if you have any indoor plants already inside because when you bring outdoor plants indoors you can bring in bugs.

 

[Klompen]

If you have other plants indoors this will bring in pests. Generally plants brought in from outside tend to struggle, but its survivable if you can control the bugs and the plant doesn't get too mad about the change of spectrum

 

[HempKat]

When you say 12 weeks is that 12 weeks total or 12 weeks in flower? If it's 12 weeks on flower and the triches are mostly or all cloudy you can probably just go ahead and harvest but if you feel it needs more time you should probably just bring it inside for the duration if that's a workable option for you. Some will say there are ways you can leave a plant outdoors and help it survive at night but even those measures won't help if it's dipping into the 20's and really would only make sense for a plant completely in the ground even if it could cope with temps in the 20's. Since you've already been moving it in and out, obviously it's not a big problem to bring it in for good.

As far as when to harvest it's hard to say not knowing the strain and how much of the 12 weeks is flower. Now that I've thought about it some 12 weeks puts that plant outdoors for the first time some time roughly in July so I guess your flowering began in September and 12 weeks is the total time? Which would mean your plant is roughly at around 8 weeks of flower, which is roughly the normal harvest time for Indicas and non Sativa dominant hybrids this would fit with your trichomes being mostly cloudy although it could still need to go another week or two. If you still have a lot of clear trichomes like more then 10-15% then you probably have a Sativa dominant hybrid or a straight up Sativa in which case you have a few more weeks to go how many depends on the strain some straight up Sativas have been know to take as much as 20 weeks to finish flowering but the average is more like 16 weeks.

As for the presence of amber Trichomes, first off understand that Amber is a sign that the active ingredient inside is degrading, cloudy Trichomes is when they're at the peak of ripeness. Now you may have seen online things saying you should shoot for 50/50 cloudy/amber if you want a good stoney high. My personal experience tells me not to believe this though. I've grown plenty of strains where I went two or three weeks past the suggested harvest date trying to get to 50/50 amber/cloudy and the closest I ever got was maybe 10% amber yet everything I've grown whether it had any amber or no amber were plenty stoney as long as it was 90% or above cloudy. Of course my personal experience is what is called anecdotal evidence and can not be counted as absolute fact. Also keep in mind, trichomes can still degrade and turn amber as the plant goes thru the drying and curing process. So maybe is there where people get this 50/50 cloudy/amber from

If you could post a good pic of the plant and maybe a close up or two of some of the buds, people could tell you more surely if it's ready for harvest or not and it would also help to know the specific strain.