how do i know when my outdoor buds r

[Guest]

hello everyone best time of year for the outdoor grower wondering how and best way to tell if your buds r ready as 1 is nearly ready others r far behind growing skunk#1 others unknow all starting to bud when to pick ?

[dkone]

You want to look at your trichomes.When about %50 of them have gone cloudy or amber,then you are good to go.Simple huh...

[pipeman]

or if you don't have a magnifying glass, when 70% of hairs are brown.

[Mr Nice Guy]

Pipeman: Thats wrong mate.... Some strains grow red hairs alot earlier then before they ready.... Trichromes only real way to find out.

[wade ounce]

Yeah mr nice guy agree fully

 

Yep get yaself a magnifying glass ,you can pick one up in those 2 dollar shops.I've had mine for about 5 years.

 

Like dkone said, look for the amber coloured trichomes(resin glands) I reckon it's the only sure way of knowing whether it is ready.

 

 

wade

[pipeman]

yeah I agree looking at trichs is best. but judging by hairs is next best option if you don't have a mag. glass. There is no absolute rule anyway, depends on strain and your personal taste. Best to experiment with harvesting at different times to see whats best for you.

 

Personally I think getting a cheap microscope is a good option. I bought a little hand held thing from a National Geographic shop for $40 which does up to 60x magnification.

 

here is a pic I took with it out of interest

[pipeman]

here is a pic of the microscope.

[coughmaster]

hey wade good to see ya back,personally ive never used a magnifying glass,and use the 70%method like pipes,seems to work 4 me,i always seem to have fully matured buds

[wade ounce]

Hey coughy, how are ya mate?

 

 

Yeah ya must have a strain that shows red hairs at maturity eh?

 

 

Personally i agree with Mr nice guy, I always seem to have a couple of plants that show heaps of red hair well before harvest

 

At present i have an almost mature plant(only a couple of days off harvest.) it has fuck all red hair.

 

 

wade

[Luke Skywalker]

Yup, some will show maturity really well by their hairs, others are barely correlating.

 

I personally prefer to harvest when about 40% are clear, about 50% are cloudy and the smallest, around 10% is amber. I prefer an "upper" high from my pot though, so I suppose I'm an earlier harvester than most here.

 

Still, I usually leave something to mature late, and these are usually 70% amber or more by the time they've been cut down. Mix the two harvests together and you've got a most interesting smoko. Don't operate heavy machinery.

 

Yeah, get yourself a minumum 30x mag glass or even better, a cheap microscope, mine was 30 bucks from cashies and it does 100x 200x and 300x mag, the 100 being ideal IMO. 300 gives individual trichomes full scope view.

 

I'll include a few shots from my microscope at varying strengths to give you an idea of what they look like eh? Great shot from pipeman there btw... Looks beautiful.

 

This is a shot of the trichs, (note about half clear, half cloudy) from the harvest before the most recent one... this is at 100x I think...