When to Harvest? Tricombs are not Amber Yet!

[Kingzako]

I have several AK47 plants getting ready to start Week 10 and the Tricombs are still Clear to Milky White. I have not seen any turn Amber yet. Lighting; I have them under a total of 700 watts HPS lights along with a total of 800 watts Flourescent Lights.

I have been told to cut before they get overdone, being that it's starting week 10 and AK47 should take 9 weeks max.

QUESTIONS:

Should I wait until I see Amber Tricombs or harvest now?

Is there a way to speed up or make the Tricombs turn Amber?

I have heard that there is a 2 week window for harvasting, so when does this window start?

PLEASE HELP!
Thank You!

 

[Loosey]

Ripen should speed up your harvest but also makes your end product taste little harsh. You should consider you have different type of pheno going on there. I think if you harvest now you will have great smoke and if you harvest when your trichs get a bit amber you would have amazing smoke. Either way you can't go too much wrong but i would wait a bit, don't always get fooled about the flowering times your seedbank tells you. In my opinion it just gives you little bit of direction.

 

[indifferent]

9 weeks is a bit early for AK47, it is more like 11 weeks if grown from seed.

Seedbanks outright lie about flowering times BTW, let the trichomes be your guide.

 

[PetFlora]

Get a microscope and observe the trics up close (very cool, BTW). I have read some conflicting information about amber trics being the indicator. Mine did not turn amber, even after 3+ months. So I pulled them. Curing now, but I did sample pop corn and low branches along the way. MMMMMMMMM Good

 

[IamNug]

i say judging harvest on hydro is different, because it's faster and can want to continue growing. Still the trichomes are a good indication along with pistil color and how long you have been flushing...

 

[Haps]

How do they smell? I learned to tell harvest time in the fields last century, it is not by time or appearance, but by smell, they are flowers. Start smelling each week, each crop, and a year from now, you will have learned this, it is a pleasure.

 

[junior_grower]

The trick I use with a first run is to clip a bud and ( it works as an indicator only) speed dry it with a fan in the drying chamber and some decadent to help speed up the process. Smoke and go from there, repeat as necessary. I have found with some strains I don't like them to reach the amber trichs some I like amber.

 

[KUSHEATER1]

How do they smell? I learned to tell harvest time in the fields last century, it is not by time or appearance, but by smell, they are flowers. Start smelling each week, each crop, and a year from now, you will have learned this, it is a pleasure.

A true pleasure

 

[HempAlchemist]

Some strains just wont or take too long to start seeing amber glands. But most will go all/mostly cloudy. Also the developent of the flowers themselves helps a lot. example: flowers start to form, form bud shape, pack on weight, start to die back(orange hairs), dead flowers = new growth, dead flowers > new growth, new growth stops, entire bud dead (no new growth, all hairs orange, bud looks like its drying out). I start thinking about harvest when dead flowers > new growth

 

[!!!]

Sativas take awhile but they'll turn amber. Usually you'll notice 1-2 amber trichs one day, and by the next 2-3 days a lot of them will begin turning amber.

 

[ehonda187]

from seed I just took my ak's 12 weeks before I chopped em and still could only get about 40 percent amber...they were stinky monsters...

Seed packs cannot tell you when your plants are done...The plant will... grab a pocket scope from radio shack and make your determinations from using that. It works for me.

​

 

[Kingzako]

Thank you all so much!!

Imanug; Been reducing Nutrients to 50% for the last week and this week (start of week 11 for the AK47) I have changed to plain clear water w/ PH @ 5.8.
Will flushing cause them to Amber-up?

 

[BigGreen]

I would drop all the nutes all together. Give them a good flush they will ripen up for you. Surely wait until you have at least a few amber trichs. Patience is everything in this game if you can wait you will be rewarded greatly.

 

[kumplocke]

Thanks guys, good info. anybody have any ak47 pics? mine seems awful indica dominate, very short an squatty wide leaves. Thanks again

 

[petemoss]

I've heard that some strains take longer to show amber trichs and by the time you see amber heads, the plant has already passed its peak ripeness. Usually I look for mostly cloudy trichs with a few of the broken headless trichs showing amber stems.

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

I ran AK47 a few years ago and found a great pheno that had a massive yield with matching potency, I still get the odd comment on that AK. The pheno I got was mature at 9 weeks and had a high that went straight to the head and then a numbing body stone took over. Top grade gear. I ended up losing that pheno , I have been offered the cherry pheno but I never had the room for her.

 

[KUSHEATER1]

cherry ak is a great stinky heavy yielder but take her 70+ days and she will blow people away