How do you like your indoor plants to finish for the best yield & smoking quality?
hi guys and girls, ive started this thread because of an interesting OT discussion sprung up in someone's grow thread.
i was wondering what 'look' you aim for when harvesting your indoor organic buds and how you feel it affects the quality of the smoke...
do you like them to stay green as long as possible and then cure them well... or do you like them to finish 'ugly' having used up much of their chlorophyll - and do you think this sacrifices yield.
here is my take fwiw.
whilst i understand curing will improve smoking pleasure, i like my plants to finish really ugly - with senescence well and truly having set in, and i find that the best way to do this in my setup (using 3-4 gallon pots, fresh soil each run with carefully measured amendments) is to have the plant run short of nutrients in late flower to trigger yellowing. i find a well yellowed plant will smoke better after a week's cure than a green one of the same strain will smoke after a year's cure.
others claim that plants will naturally senesce as they ripen whether or not the nutes run short - and i think this is only partly true and somewhat strain dependent. having run the same cuts many times over with slightly different levels of ferts in the soil, i am confident that soil fertility has a major part to play in the process of getting indoor plants to senesce - especially as many of the natural triggers- cold, day length etc - are not present indoors... and perhaps the most major trigger to senescence, seeds ripening, is also not in play.
another theory - i think triggering the plant to use up the food reserves in it's leaves can actually increase yield, especially as the roots become less efficient as flowering progresses.
i'd be interested in the hearing rest of your practices and opinions....
VG
hi guys and girls, ive started this thread because of an interesting OT discussion sprung up in someone's grow thread.
i was wondering what 'look' you aim for when harvesting your indoor organic buds and how you feel it affects the quality of the smoke...
do you like them to stay green as long as possible and then cure them well... or do you like them to finish 'ugly' having used up much of their chlorophyll - and do you think this sacrifices yield.
here is my take fwiw.
whilst i understand curing will improve smoking pleasure, i like my plants to finish really ugly - with senescence well and truly having set in, and i find that the best way to do this in my setup (using 3-4 gallon pots, fresh soil each run with carefully measured amendments) is to have the plant run short of nutrients in late flower to trigger yellowing. i find a well yellowed plant will smoke better after a week's cure than a green one of the same strain will smoke after a year's cure.
others claim that plants will naturally senesce as they ripen whether or not the nutes run short - and i think this is only partly true and somewhat strain dependent. having run the same cuts many times over with slightly different levels of ferts in the soil, i am confident that soil fertility has a major part to play in the process of getting indoor plants to senesce - especially as many of the natural triggers- cold, day length etc - are not present indoors... and perhaps the most major trigger to senescence, seeds ripening, is also not in play.
another theory - i think triggering the plant to use up the food reserves in it's leaves can actually increase yield, especially as the roots become less efficient as flowering progresses.
i'd be interested in the hearing rest of your practices and opinions....
VG