Perplexing Buds.. Harvest Time? Old Timer Needs Advice

OK... First time poster here.. Used to grow eons ago.. Just got back into it after a 25 year hiatus, but "the times they are a changin.."

The situation: Growing my first auto fem plant (Fast Eddie) strain out of Canada..

In the past and in virtually all the on-line info I can find.,. there are two ways to determine when a bud is ready.. 1. The white hairs turn brown.. (which is the ONLY method I've ever known.. old school easy-peasy) and B.. Some sort of globes turn dark after being clear... Still not sure how to determine that. I've looked the buds over and I can't discern these globules or what color they are with my aging eyes.. which leads me to my questions...

This auto/fem Fast Eddie plant budded weeks ago... It had virtually no hairs at all. The smell was super intense...heaven... I kept waiting for any sign of hairs to appear.. NONE... after a couple of weeks the smell was less powerful... another week even less.. Even though there are ZERO brown hairs, I'm thinking I should take it now and hopefully learn something from this (my first) auto fem...

I'll assume these man-bred plants show anomalies now and then and no hairs must be common? I ask because I also have a Bubble Kush plant exhibiting similar characteristics.. almost no hairs..a few. Buds are full.. aroma seems to be on the decline...

Can someone enlighten an old timer getting back into the groove?

...hey bro, welcome to the site and welcome back to the hobby.

...now, i'd have to urge you in the future to post pictures when you have an issue, it makes it much more likely you'll get useful advice.

...anyway, what you're describing are trichomes which often look like frost on the buds, here is a shot where you can see this without magnification.



...now here is a shot with magnification where you can see the trichomes clearly along with some color, note the amber colored triches.



...anyway, heres a link to my favorite magnifier of all the magnifiers i've bought in the last decade.

DREAME 30X 60X LED Lighted Illuminated Jewelers Eye Loupe Jewelry Magnifier for Gems…


peace, bozo

Thanks for the reply.. Guess I should buy one of these for the gardening arsenal although I need to make a decision on this plant within the next 24 hours or so..

http://pirateslair.net/FastEddie_6.JPG
http://pirateslair.net/FastEddie_1.JPG

as for pics.. ask and ye shall receive... While being hairless in some instances is a good thing... women's crotches, Starship captains heads, etc., it's causing as little stress with this plant.. Here are some links to 2 hi-rez shots I just took.. You may see 1-2 hairs (which are brown)... otherwise.. opinions welcome..

...she looks like she still needs another week or 2 to me bro, plus, she looks preggers, i can't be certain but i'm thinking i see seed pods.

...anyway, no matter what you do in the short term i'd still recommend you get that loupe, at under $12.00 bucks you can't go wrong and it is a NECESSARY tool in the garden, especially when you need to identify pests.

peace, bozo

Hmm... it's a auto/fem plant and not a male around... Pretty sure they aren't seed pods although that was my first thought. I actually wouldn't mind a few seeds from this strain.

2 weeks? Ordinarily I'd agree with you, but with the aroma decreasing day by day... I'm not so sure. As these are the first buds of the season, I'm not freaking out.. Just perplexed with my first experience with an "engineered" plant. Interesting, indeed.

I took your advice and ordered the loupe you recommended.. Thanks, bozo

So.. have you seen many plants with no hair on them? This is my first ever and I've been around farms for 40 years..

...yeah, everything i've ever grown in the last ten years have all had obvious pistils, and i run perpetual so i've run a LOT of plants in that timeframe.

...i would also add that i'm deeply prejudiced against autoflowers, i just can't like the idea that i no longer have control or that i might grow something awesome and not to be able to reproduce it.

...working with photo-periodic plants is a bit more time consuming but when you find something nice you can clone it and keep it for years, i have a few i've been running for better than 5 years.

...anyway, i think you should wait at least a week before the chop and dig out a magnifying glass, even this will show you the trichomes in enough detail so you can see colors, the more amber trichomes you see the more couchlock the buzz will be, it's not an exact science but learning to read those trichs will help you find the optimum buzz, as you see it.

...keep in mind also that i'm barely scratching the ass of the info thats available here on these topics so don't just take my or anyones word for a thing, trust but always verify because anyone can be convincingly wrong, lol.



...anyway, good luck, i hope you reap yourself some kickass dank.

peace, bozo

...just for shits and giggles and assuming you won't mind, here's a few pics of some i've grown out in the past, these were from several years ago when i was running a high density micro SOG, today i grow fewer larger plants.









...and here's a shot of my current setup.



peace, bozo

Fucking impressive by anyone's standards...

Thanks again for the advice.. I now know more today than I did yesterday...That's always a good thing..

Today's weed is perplexing. The way people try to get more from less work by throwing more money at it, and convincing themselves of seed salesmen claims. Seems like today's engineered genetics, aimed at trying to get something quicker, the smell comes and goes premature. Parts of the buds are developing too fast, while others are still at natural pace, and cannot be sped up. Just a theory of mine. The smell is peaking early.. People don't fade there plants. The accepted growth cycle is wack imo.

Thats just me. I see the cure time as part of the growth cycle. Whether you have to coax it out of a plant after harvest, or do it naturally while the root is still communicating, 8 week strains are a marketing myth.

Sir Bozo... Loupe arrived.. works like a charm..Guess I'm evolved into the new age. I see the trichomes clearly.. Thanks for the advice., which brings me to a question I'll bet you haven't heard before...

While I appreciate a good buzz now and then, the #1 reason I'm getting back into growing is that I miss the taste... The buzz is waaaaaaay down on the list of importance to me...In fact, this particular strain was ordered because it has a very low THC content. I realize that in order to get the best buzz off the plant one must follow the guidelines with the trichomes and harvest when they are amber or mostly amber... Understood... but as the best buzz is NOT my priority, when will the plant offer the best taste? Will there be any difference by taking the plant while they are clear? (now) or waiting until they are amber?

I'm thinking I may have been asking all the wrong questions as my goal is probably different than most other posters here... The best aroma off this particular plant has come and gone... Did I miss the "taste" window in pursuit of the best buzz?

If you don't have a definitive answer on this, no worries.. I'll figure it out.. I actually took a bud off the plant a week or so ago and have it drying for evaluation. Any advice is appreciated.

I agree with you, buddy.. Glad it's not just me. For what it's worth... yes.. it's nice ordering genetically manipulated plants that are all female and pop buds after only a few weeks, but damn... they just seem like an aberration of nature and look so different than "la natural" plants back in the day...

Ever see that episode of Family Guy were Stewie and Bryan go to the North Pole and the elves are all fucked up due to inbreeding, etc? That reminds me of these current marketed strains.. It's just so unnatural... I do see the attraction, but so far what I see is so fucked up... Just sayin..

Drewsif said:

Today's weed is perplexing. The way people try to get more from less work by throwing more money at it, and convincing themselves of seed salesmen claims. Seems like today's engineered genetics, aimed at trying to get something quicker, the smell comes and goes premature. Parts of the buds are developing too fast, while others are still at natural pace, and cannot be sped up. Just a theory of mine. The smell is peaking early.. People don't fade there plants. The accepted growth cycle is wack imo.

Thats just me. I see the cure time as part of the growth cycle. Whether you have to coax it out of a plant after harvest, or do it naturally while the root is still communicating, 8 week strains are a marketing myth.

Click to expand...

Thats like the modern grain varieties. Bred for quantity and resistance but very likely against good tolerance by humans. There should be labor testing and breeding for healthier food instead of mass.

Pirate1 said:

Sir Bozo... Loupe arrived.. works like a charm..Guess I'm evolved into the new age. I see the trichomes clearly.. Thanks for the advice., which brings me to a question I'll bet you haven't heard before...

While I appreciate a good buzz now and then, the #1 reason I'm getting back into growing is that I miss the taste... The buzz is waaaaaaay down on the list of importance to me...In fact, this particular strain was ordered because it has a very low THC content. I realize that in order to get the best buzz off the plant one must follow the guidelines with the trichomes and harvest when they are amber or mostly amber... Understood... but as the best buzz is NOT my priority, when will the plant offer the best taste? Will there be any difference by taking the plant while they are clear? (now) or waiting until they are amber?

I'm thinking I may have been asking all the wrong questions as my goal is probably different than most other posters here... The best aroma off this particular plant has come and gone... Did I miss the "taste" window in pursuit of the best buzz?

If you don't have a definitive answer on this, no worries.. I'll figure it out.. I actually took a bud off the plant a week or so ago and have it drying for evaluation. Any advice is appreciated.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure where you got the idea the trichomes have to be mostly amber? If mine are 30% amber I feel they have gone too far. I like about 5-15% amber. As a loose sort of rule the earlier you take it (mostly clear or cloudy trichomes), normally the racier, jittery type of high; the longer you leave it(more amber trichomes) the more sedative the high. However that varies with genetics.

I grow the opposite reason to you. To me the high is everything. I couldn't care if it tastes like dog shit as long as it gets me high in the way I like. I like an uplifting potent non-paranoid high, something a long flowering sativa will give me. So I'm not sure what stage of harvest gives the best taste. Also the idea of an autoflower is the opposite to what I want in a cannabis plant so have no experience with them.

A few things I've learned and some may disagree:
-Hardly anything is ready in under 8 weeks of flower, don't believe what seed banks say.
-Some of the best advice I ever got was when you absolutely think your plant is ready, wait another week. That was, however, before I bought a 60x scope.
-On seedbanks. I first began to grow and smoke in the 70's and when seedbanks came on the scene I thought woohoo everything is going to be great now. It's not. You really have to search for something special and I sometimes think seedbanks have wrecked this plant rather than improve it. Anyway off topic rant over.
-You can learn a lot by harvesting a bud every week when they get to a certain stage. Take a record of what week you harvest, smoke it and see what you prefer. It's sometimes the only way to really learn. Then you will find out how many weeks has the best taste/high for you.
-A long cure is necessary for a sativa (narrow leaf Drug), probably not so crucial on an indica leaning variety (short fat leaf).

Good luck, I can't see your pics for some reason so can't comment on them.