Quicker flower period with Led???

Hey I was wondering if a plant finishes earlier under Leds?? Running the gavita LED with gg #4 and it's day 47 and the tops of them are almost completley covered in brown hairs. I also heard that plants finish early under these lights Im trying to find out if this is true and how many days on average?

Don't go by the hairs. Get yourself a $20 handheld microscope and look at the trichs.

But yes, ime plants do finish about a week earlier under LED.

thanks yea was just using them as a guide but seems they are maturing quicker thanks for the help. so I got this Afghan skunk which finishes in 56 days so pretty much w my led it'll be done in 49 days? that would be awesome

Many reasons for pistils (hairs) to turn colors, as Got_Bud? mentioned they're not a reliable indicator of harvest. Most accurate results are currently through checking the % of amber trichomes.

Though this may not apply to Gavita LEDs, some of the cheaper LED lights have too much far-red, and you'll find your strains finishing faster than normal. Ambering up weeks before their regular harvest time. I'm wondering if those lights should be used longer hours in a day to reach the same harvest time as before?

My led flowers seem to finish a little earlier than my hps, but not by much

Personally I think yes they do finish faster, I'm a little concerned to see some outdated mythical advice here though:
If you see any more than the usual one or two amber trichomes you always get just from physical damage you've let them go *way* too far and lost a majority of the THC to degradation into a mediocre bleary CBN high in my opinion but yes the trichomes are what to go by for new strains that you haven't run before.

Personally I follow the latest science and smoke testing and look for them to plump up and get fat and harvest just before they start to overripen and sag but are still just barely showing any frostiness and most definitely way before they turn amber, that's old fashioned "stoner" advice based on no actual science just how messed up people feel after smoking it.

What actual modern testing has shown is that the THC is highest when they are still crystal clear and just shading towards frost and growers should select the correct strain for the effect they want, not let it go far too long and lose most of it's potency.
If you want a boring mediocre bleary high that is identical in every strain you grow no matter what the effect is *supposed* to be then by all means go amber but I strongly advise testing it by smoking samples throughout the grow even weeks before your normal harvest date and you will quickly discover the difference for yourself, it's very noticeable. I suspect there are growers out there who have *never* in their lives experienced the actual full range of cannabis effects due to this bad advice about amber trichomes.

No idea what the labs are testing, but I personally get a MUCH, I mean MUCH shorter and significantly less complex effect when I cut without amber. After 15+ years, I've moved my harvest date on all strains to at **least** 10% amber.

I have zero interest in a 30 minute effect time on my cannabis.

Young bud, young bud, I can’t get you out of my mind.

I find it more uppity, less couch lock without the usual indicators of being stoned. Enjoyable in its own space.

Do what you like.
You can always get what you want.

h.h. said:

Young bud, young bud, I can’t get you out of my mind.

I find it more uppity, less couch lock without the usual indicators of being stoned. Enjoyable in its own space.

Do what you like.
You can always get what you want.

Click to expand...

I suggest finding strains which give you the same effect at 10% amber. (Yes, they do exist) You'll appreciate the 4-5 hour medication time vs. 30-45 minutes.

Douglas.Curtis said:

I suggest finding strains which give you the same effect at 10% amber. (Yes, they do exist) You'll appreciate the 4-5 hour medication time vs. 30-45 minutes.

Click to expand...

Everyone of course should and will do what they want but you're doing yourself, the breeder and the plant itself a disservice and wasting a lot of time and resources if you don't regularly test samples at *all* time periods before harvest in new strains that you have not run before or if you change anything with an old strain.

Again, the science says that leaving them that long results in a lot of THC being lost to the breakdown product of CBN which yes, gives you a longer effect but no, it does not give you a high it gives you a tired bleary eyed stoned feeling which is perfect for a small slice of reasons why people medicate but also completely wrong for a lot of other reasons so giving it out as blanket advice is not helpful to people, particularly those with medical conditions who are starting out and may take you at your word without testing for themselves.

Just because it lasts longer is almost the worst possible reason to do it, if you're growing you have a lot anyway, why cheap out at that point if you don't need to? Instead enjoy the full range of what cannabis has to offer like fine wines.

If you take them all to a CBN high it literally doesn't matter what strain you grow, they will all have nearly that same boring tired effect. If that's perfect for someone then by all means but it's not why most people go to this much effort, surely? We all know we can get poorly harvested bleary eyed weed anywhere, that's the commercial recipe: the biggest harvest possible with the longest effect possible even if it's not really getting anyone *high*.

I have only used LED so I can't speak to the faster flowering. But everybody smokes for different reason. The high you're chasing isn't the high I'm chasing isn't the high he's chasing. If it's a new strain, harvest some early, harvest some when you think it's ready, and leave a little bit on the plant to go past when you think it's ready. Only you know which high you are chasing, and we can give a billion answers on how to get the high we are chasing, but it might not be your high. I do highly recommend the jewlers loupe/microscope and check trichome color ratios though.