trichomes turn amber after drying, help needed!

D

DodoKing

New member

• Oct 15, 2015

• #1

hello everybody,

so I have been drying my bud for about 7 days now and I noticed a wiered color change on some of the buds, first I thought it was the mold again but no, I inspected it with my microscope and found that it's just a bunch of trichomes that turned dark brown to amber, this didnt seem normal to me after such short time and with no curing at all, I harvested at about 80/20 milky to amber,
I have a feeling it might be a problem with some light entering the room, since the room is where the washing machine is and I have to put a hose from the machine to the bathroom (something broke a few weeks back) and that is indeed sometimes letting a little daylight into the room, could that be it?!

maybe someone can help, thanks

 

amanda88

Well-known member

• Oct 15, 2015

• #2

I have never heard of this before, and suggest that you never actually noticed that the majority of the trics were amber, as its rare for a plant to be totally amber, white or clear, like them apples one picks, not all apples on the tree at once are all red.

Your harvesting method may be to do with it? as some growers pull the plant from the ground and allow it to wilt, for 3-5 days..in this case yes those ambers could well fade darker, being attached to the trunk in all, really more info on your technique would assist

 

D

DodoKing

New member

• Oct 15, 2015

• #3

thanks for the answer,

not all the trichomes are amber just small spots of multiple amber trichs, also some other branches from the same plant dont seem to be affected...I unfortunately dont have any usb-microscopes to take a picture, maybe my macro lens will work, I'll try tmrw.

so my harvesting technique is this:

I chop em at the stem, cut off all the fan leaves, then seperate branches from the trunk, I hang em up after that in a completely dark room, (like I said, every now and then it gets a little ray of light in there since it cant be fully closed with the hose is in the door for the washing machine), with about 70°f/20°c and RH at 45-55%, they're usually ready to be trimmed and jared for curing within 7-12 days depending on bud size...hope that helps

 

L

Lochinvar

Member

• Oct 15, 2015

• #4

if you harvest at 20 percent amber, by the time its dry it will be much more ambery

 

L

Lochinvar

Member

• Oct 15, 2015

• #5

...and more so with a 12 day dry

 

D

DodoKing

New member

• Oct 15, 2015

• #6

okay, thanks for the answer, so thats a absolutely normal and I dont have to worry about it since I kinda like the sedative stone of the amber trichs

I never seemed to have noticed it that much tho, well I learned something again!

 

M

mitchell

New member

• Oct 16, 2015

• #7

I have the same thing few years ago. Probably that happens when i was make harvest. It was rainy and couldy.

 

SpaceJunkOG

Member

• Oct 17, 2015

• #8

pretty sure trichs continue to mature during the drying period..

the flowers & buds don't die the second you chop the main stem, they keep metabolizing during the drying period. All strains respond differently, and the environmental factors in your drying room certainly play a huge role - what temperature is it? what is the humidity? 6 days is a relatively long drying time without high humidity, low temps and solid darkness (which you mention you don't exactly have). if all those factors aren't in place, you've possibly over-dried your bud, which deteriorates all sortsa things from the terpenes to the trichomes. Drying can be extremely hard to lock down despite how simple it sounds, especially if you're in an unfriendly climate (warm dry climates are bad for drying and usually require foggers / humidifiers and some serious temperature control to achieve a nice slow dry). Maybe you know all this already, just saying it in case you don't.

more trichomes turning amber is just a result of the metabolic processes that happen after the plant is chopped and it starts using what's left in it - it's still alive for some days after you chop it, until it's done using everything left in the leaves and stems, and then they snap, because there's nothing left in them. you can compensate for it by harvesting a little earlier than you normally would, i like to do this to avoid amber sometimes, i allot for the fact that the trichomes continue to mature during drying when choosing my harvest window.

 

D

DodoKing

New member

• Oct 18, 2015

• #9

thanks for the help everybody, very appreciated,

and mitchell, what you say is funny cause I also happened to harvest these plants on a pretty rainy and cloudy day too

 

T

tropicanna

Member

• Oct 20, 2015

• #10

spacejunk is right…its all about controlling those environmental parameters. I just went through the same thing with my first attempt at drying. With temperatures in the high 80's and RH of ~75% in my neck of the woods it is impossible to get a quality finished product. Oxygen, light and heat are the culprits. I'll be harvesting again in 3 weeks, this time i'll be armed with an a/c unit and a dry ice supply for the first 4 days.

 

T

tropicanna

Member

• Oct 20, 2015

• #11

it went from bright green to olive/brownish green by the 5th day of drying under hot and humid conditions.

 

T

tropicanna

Member

• Oct 20, 2015

• #12

here…take a look.

 

Attachments

• 
  2015-08-15 12.44.29-3.jpg

  35.5 KB · Views: 34
• 
  20150831_125522.jpg

  24.1 KB · Views: 27
• 
  20150913_163248_001.jpg

  80.2 KB · Views: 30
• 
  20150913_163632.jpg

  74.7 KB · Views: 41

SneakySneaky

Active member

Veteran

• Nov 23, 2015

• #13

DodoKing said:

thanks for the answer,

not all the trichomes are amber just small spots of multiple amber trichs, also some other branches from the same plant dont seem to be affected...I unfortunately dont have any usb-microscopes to take a picture, maybe my macro lens will work, I'll try tmrw.

so my harvesting technique is this:

I chop em at the stem, cut off all the fan leaves, then seperate branches from the trunk, I hang em up after that in a completely dark room, (like I said, every now and then it gets a little ray of light in there since it cant be fully closed with the hose is in the door for the washing machine), with about 70°f/20°c and RH at 45-55%, they're usually ready to be trimmed and jared for curing within 7-12 days depending on bud size...hope that helps

Click to expand...

If your having problems with keeping humidity controlled get some cardboard boxes and hang strings thru the middle to hang your plants in, the transpiration rates go down and you can put some of those little reptile humidity/temp combo sticks in each box to monitor the progress. Drying too fast/slow in high temp will brown out your stuff and lead to a major loss of terpenes, so it'll smell hayish grassy and taste harsh. Another thing is to realize what your feeding affects the plants as well. When it's not flushed all the way and the fan leaves are left on that stored nutrient soup inside the leaves gets dispersed thruought the whole stem when drying so that can lead to abnormal curing and flavored as well. Unless u can get a room ac it'll be difficult to do anything to combat the heat without drying in ur grow area (provided it does have ac). Best method for herb is a long low and slow cure, faster u go more problems you'll have in a faster time. Good luck and keep on growing, once u jump down the rabbit hole it's hard to go back hehe.

 

LostTribe

Well-known member

Premium user

• Dec 6, 2015

• #14

Don't look Amber to me maybe a few ha many days on what strain?

 

PoweredByLove

Most Loved

• Dec 6, 2015

• #15

doesn't look that amber to me either. just based on the sample size in your pic I would say it's less than 5% amber. could just be it looks amber to you in the lighting, only other thing I can think of is its too hot where you're drying which speeds carboxylation. but I doubt it would be enough to make everything amber.

 

J

jesbuds

Member

• Dec 6, 2015

• #16

You're worrying about the wrong things, smoke it and move on to the next strain/grow.

 

aridbud

automeister

ICMag Donor

Veteran

• Dec 6, 2015

• #17

pretty sure trichs continue to mature during the drying period..

Exactly.