12/12 , when do you start your count down?

[merl1n]

Hi All,

Interesting thread.

I count the weeks from the day I flip. But by no means to a calculate my girl's maturity by the number of days. The number of days gives me general dates but for maturity I use the trichs colour and a microscope. Some say 8weeks, in the years Ive been growing I've not once had an 8 week plant. Even the AK48, matures in 48 days they say. It looked good but it wasn't ready at 48. At 48 days the trichs weren't fully coloured with the AK's I had.

Now, I leave mine for the brown hairs to drop off, reappear, then drop off again and once again reappear. I like to get 3 cycles of the hairs browning (Last grow was only 2 but that was a fault timer and a plant that just went 'bunta'), this can take up to 12 weeks but with each browning the bud swells and the increasing maturity in the taste is exquisite. But for me even using 12 weeks as a measure is not good enough for identifying maturity. I want to see the trichs colour.

 

The plant will tell you when its ready, if you read the signs.

 

Merl1n

Edited June 14, 2012 by merl1n

[Badseed77]

Thanks for the input everyone , very informative.

 

I understand that the plant will be ready when it is ready , just trying to find away to calculate feed timing .

With H&G nutes its say to start bud xl at week 4 of flower , top booster week 5 and shooting powder the last 3 weeks .

Trying to get my head around the timing of nutes . I guess you can only go by the development of the flowers them self to time when to start using bud xl etc and go from that .

 

Cheers

 

Badseed

[zeuss]

Now, I leave mine for the brown hairs to drop off, reappear, then drop off again and once again reappear. I like to get 3 cycles of the hairs browning (Last grow was only 2 but that was a fault timer and a plant that just went 'bunta'), this can take up to 12 weeks but with each browning the bud swells and the increasing maturity in the taste is exquisite.

 

Howdy Mate, This is extremely interesting, i thought i had read everything there was about the ripening process but this has blown me away!! i think i would panic if all the trics went brown and fell off? yet you are saying that they grow again? and again?? Bizzare.. i will really have to try this. Can you give us any more info about this? i have untill recently only ever grown outdoors and even though i have done this for probably 25 years i have allways tried to pull them out when the hairs start to go brown yet here you say that they will regrow several times... i am stunned and will definatly be trying this.. If you can tell us any more it would be very much apreciated..

Cheers

Z

[Naycha]

Now, I leave mine for the brown hairs to drop off, reappear, then drop off again and once again reappear. I like to get 3 cycles of the hairs browning (Last grow was only 2 but that was a fault timer and a plant that just went 'bunta'), this can take up to 12 weeks but with each browning the bud swells and the increasing maturity in the taste is exquisite.

 

Howdy Mate, This is extremely interesting, i thought i had read everything there was about the ripening process but this has blown me away!! i think i would panic if all the trics went brown and fell off? yet you are saying that they grow again? and again?? Bizzare.. i will really have to try this. Can you give us any more info about this? i have untill recently only ever grown outdoors and even though i have done this for probably 25 years i have allways tried to pull them out when the hairs start to go brown yet here you say that they will regrow several times... i am stunned and will definatly be trying this.. If you can tell us any more it would be very much apreciated..

Cheers

Z

 

He is saying that the pistils browned and dropped off, not the trichomes.

 

Naycha

[The Hash Nibbler]

Thanks for the input everyone , very informative.

 

I understand that the plant will be ready when it is ready , just trying to find away to calculate feed timing .

With H&G nutes its say to start bud xl at week 4 of flower , top booster week 5 and shooting powder the last 3 weeks .

Trying to get my head around the timing of nutes . I guess you can only go by the development of the flowers them self to time when to start using bud xl etc and go from that .

 

Cheers

 

Badseed

heya badseed =) , yeah mate, can be confusing if ya got a strain that goes longer than 8 weeks......what do you start and when? with the additives......

 

heres a rough guide to how to do it...........Bud XL is a flower stimulator...........start as soon as you see flowers forming, proper flowers, not pre-flowers.

If you notice that you are on a decent amount of Nutes but the plant is feeding from the shade leaves BEFORE week 5, hit them with the Top Booster for 3-4 days. (PK 13-14)

If after the Top booster, the buds are still not formed enough, I go back to 3ml/L nutes and Bud XL, I don't go to shooting powder with them.

I like to see decently formed colas before hitting with Pk 39-25 (SP) , you can go an extra week on the powder no worries, but ya plants wanna be healthy.

If it needs more after the powder, just feed water and let it eat its own shade leaves (sugars)......they will be fine. Hope that helps.

I always get my flowering times for my strains and try and have a rough plan of attack before flower, and then adapt to what the plants are needing.

Feeding Chart is just a rough guide....All strains are different....Peace. Nibbler

[Badseed77]

Thanks for clearing that up Nibbler , much appreciated .

 

I think i have been a bit late with the bud xl as i went with the timing in the H&G site, but shit happens i will learn from it !

 

Cheers

Badseed

[The Hash Nibbler]

Thats fine Badseed, I have done most of my grows here straight off the feeding schedule. .I just started playing around with them the last few grows to see what suits the strains and find out what works best. keep pluggin away mate, you'll be fine =) . I know maybe for longer flowerers i should still have more PK before shooting powder, if I extend at that stage, but if they look a lil sad, I'll give em a light dose of PK13-14 (T/booster) again.

Remember to always mix A+B, THEN test PH, adjust, then add all additives....don't bother testing after additives, be all over the shop, like a butchers dog..... .

Peace. Nibbler.

[merl1n]

Now, I leave mine for the brown hairs to drop off, reappear, then drop off again and once again reappear. I like to get 3 cycles of the hairs browning (Last grow was only 2 but that was a fault timer and a plant that just went 'bunta'), this can take up to 12 weeks but with each browning the bud swells and the increasing maturity in the taste is exquisite.

 

Howdy Mate, This is extremely interesting, i thought i had read everything there was about the ripening process but this has blown me away!! i think i would panic if all the trics went brown and fell off? yet you are saying that they grow again? and again?? Bizzare.. i will really have to try this. Can you give us any more info about this? i have untill recently only ever grown outdoors and even though i have done this for probably 25 years i have allways tried to pull them out when the hairs start to go brown yet here you say that they will regrow several times... i am stunned and will definatly be trying this.. If you can tell us any more it would be very much apreciated..

Cheers

Z

He is saying that the pistils browned and dropped off, not the trichomes.

 

Naycha

 

Hi there Zuess,

Naycha is correct, it is not the trichomes that drop off but the pistils, the little white hairs that turn brown and then drop off. To actually see the trichome colour clearly you need a microscope. The old school method of telling maturity by the colour of the hairs is not precise enough anymore (seemingly, worked pretty well I thought) Its the colour of the trichs people use now and I must admit it is more exact. Attached to this post is a document about trichomes and their colours. What are Trichomes- Very Good Info.doc. They change colour like the hairs do. They start as clear, then go milky, then go brown. Have a read.

 

When the hairs drop off the bud swells as the new pistils develope inside the new calyx and the process is repeated. Each time the bud swells from inside. Now an old member (who I haven't seen here for a long time) told me that the maturing taste is the change in ratio of CBD to THC. Im not sure if this is fact or not but the taste and stone of the resulting smoke is exquisite. I did a crop with only one browning and a couple of mates were really disappointed. It seems I had spoilled them by giving them a 3 browning smoke and the change to a 1 browning did not meet their previous expectations. They have told me I MUST return to the 3 browning, cheeky bastards, they get a nice smoke and still complain.

 

Now you talk about outdoors and I'm not sure if this would work outdoors due to the natural light cycle, but indoors I control the light and maintain it at 12/12 for the full 3 brownings however long it takes basically, which as I said can take up to 12 wks. I have however left one grow for 16wks, but I didn't notice much improvement from the 12week.

 

If you want any further info just ask

 

Merl1n

[zeuss]

Hi there Zuess,

Naycha is correct, it is not the trichomes that drop off but the pistils, the little white hairs that turn brown and then drop off. To actually see the trichome colour clearly you need a microscope. The old school method of telling maturity by the colour of the hairs is not precise enough anymore (seemingly, worked pretty well I thought) Its the colour of the trichs people use now and I must admit it is more exact. Attached to this post is a document about trichomes and their colours. What are Trichomes- Very Good Info.doc. They change colour like the hairs do. They start as clear, then go milky, then go brown. Have a read.

 

When the hairs drop off the bud swells as the new pistils develope inside the new calyx and the process is repeated. Each time the bud swells from inside. Now an old member (who I haven't seen here for a long time) told me that the maturing taste is the change in ratio of CBD to THC. Im not sure if this is fact or not but the taste and stone of the resulting smoke is exquisite. I did a crop with only one browning and a couple of mates were really disappointed. It seems I had spoilled them by giving them a 3 browning smoke and the change to a 1 browning did not meet their previous expectations. They have told me I MUST return to the 3 browning, cheeky bastards, they get a nice smoke and still complain.

 

Now you talk about outdoors and I'm not sure if this would work outdoors due to the natural light cycle, but indoors I control the light and maintain it at 12/12 for the full 3 brownings however long it takes basically, which as I said can take up to 12 wks. I have however left one grow for 16wks, but I didn't notice much improvement from the 12week.

 

If you want any further info just ask

 

Hey mate, thanks heaps for the info here, the doc you added is very interesting, shows me how little i know about a subject that i have been interested for many years..

Do you think you could have a look at the pic i am about to add and tell me if the white hairy things covering the bud are pistils or trichomes? excuse my ignorance, i tend to think that they are the hairs that you let drop off and regrow? i have looked at this bud with a tiny microscope thingy and i can't differentiate between pistils and trichomes? have the trics not appeared as yet? or am i on the wrong track alltogether?

Thanks again and apologies to the OP for crabbing out your thread..

Cheers

Z

[Budzzz]

Yeah those white hairs things are the pistils. Here's a close up of one.

 

http://promptcmds.com/pistil2.jpg

 

And trichomes are like this:

 

http://cannabisclinicians.org/wp-content/gallery/trichomes/trichomes101.jpg

 

And looking at the above pic I'd say that it is ready to pick because half the trichs have turned amber or cloudy, and the others that are clear are fully swollen.

But looking at the first pic you can see the trichs on the Calyx are not yet ripe.

 

Here's another pic that helps

 

http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/6720/73478083fe3.jpg

 

Note Stigmas = Pistils, same thing.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Budzzz