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[generalgravys]

Hey all, first time grower here. I’ve studied hard and keep it fairly simple, leading me to this beautiful girl here (Purple Kush).

She’s currently ending a bulking phase, and put on a lot of weight in the last week after kicking back my lights from 90% to 75%. Starting to go through senescence and getting some beautiful colors coming through finally.

I’ve been putting some ice on the coco every other day or so before the lights turn off, to help a little bit. She’s got about a week and a half to two weeks before the chop.

I want her to have no green leaves at the top half, and still a bit of clear trichomes with almost no amber (none that I’ve seen through a jeweller’s loupe yet).

When do you all like to harvest? Do you just go for it once the buds are a size you like? Do you go by the state of the trichomes? Do you let the plant eat up some of it’s own nutrients?

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Discussion

[OldManGrows]

Make sure all your pistal hairs have died back to an orange color. Next make sure your buds have fattened up as big as they are going to get. Now make sure the trichomes (resin glands on the buds) are cloudy and have a milky appearance. By the time all this has occurred the leaves should be starting to fade out to yellow or possible a red color. Some strains are more colorful in their fade than others. Some strains just lose their chlorophyll and turn yellow. I have been growing indoors now for 3 years now and have come to the conclusion that if you wait to all this happens you will have a sweeter/smoother smoke/vape. By the way, dam nice plant for a first time grow and your “set up” looks good too.

• This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by  OldManGrows.

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[generalgravys]

Wise words, old man. That’s pretty much exactly what I have pictured in my mind. She threw out a heavy amount of pistils, and seemingly more than doubled in bud size, so I’m slowly waiting as they turn orange. Every day feels longer than the last at this point, that’s for sure haha. Coming into week 9 since pistils first appeared, so I’m figuring only about 2 weeks to go.

Also, thank you! I’ll chalk it up as beginners luck lol, mixed with weeks of watching some of the best growers on YouTube before even popping seeds.

Coco, perlite, and the heavy rate of Scotty’s Grow Dots. I did do a bit of additional feeding in veg and flower on top, enough to where I accidentally burned the leaf tips at first. However, that then let me know the threshold, so I was able to sit just below maximum uptake before further burning.

I also decided to start with one of the easiest indica hybrids there is, just for safe measure, and have had zero issues as far as pests or mold/mildew.

There was a jumping spider that found it’s way into the tent, but soon left when it realized it was a barren wasteland as far as food was concerned lol.

Thanks for the advice! Happy growing ✌️

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[greenhorngreenthumb]

You could also get a jewelers lens or a macro lens for your phone, I use a jewelers lens I got off Amazon for like 10$ I have had her for a couple years

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[generalgravys]

Yeah I bought a loupe because after all the research I did, I either completely forgot about, or just never saw anything about the bulking phase 😅

So I got ready to check the trichomes and figured the yield was just going to be somewhat disappointing. Then a few days later there were more white pistils than I could believe lol. Back to waiting to check for a couple weeks.

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[jmystro]

Calyx and trichomes should mature together. Calyx should look seeded as they become swollen false seed pods with opaque milky white trichomes. Immature clear trichomes sparkle in the light.

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[generalgravys]

I appreciate the input! I’d say she’s sitting at around 60/40 milky/clear currently. Still lots of white pistils mixed into the bottom half.

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[FrostedGardenMN]

Nice looking plants, mate. I’m a trichome farmer… mostly milky with a hint of amber and potency is max…. for a more flavorful experience lean towards mostly milky with a few clear. Only my experience here talking. Happy growing.

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[generalgravys]

Thank you! I’m still shocked that I’m the caretaker of this pretty lady lol.

What you described is exactly what I’m looking for. Purple Kush is already a HEAVY indica, so I don’t want a bunch of amber trichomes knocking me out after one hit LMAO.

The aroma of spice, berries, and skunk, is absolutely heavenly and like nothing I’ve smelled before.

Better pictures will come before the chop and after the dry, with some details about the grow and harvest. As thick as the middle canopy is, and by how dense the buds are, I believe the 1g dry/Watt mark has already been hit.

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[northernlightkind-nlk]

If you need her to shift coulors faster dont put ice eny where neer plants or medium, your only slowing everything down when you lower the lights, let them go 100% power but you can shave 2-3houers of your 12/12 the last 7-12 days or do a RastaJeff and go bak to veg time (18 on 6 off the last 7-10days( bumping your yield up). Dont put ice on your medium or stalk, no coold water ether. You want as fast cell division as possible to make her finish, coold roots & leaf surfice temp will slow everything up, you want the opposite. Coold air temp at night often brings out coulors & terps. A trick- all the leafs are nute storage areas especally nitrogen. So if you pick most green leafs of the plant whont have a choise then to start eating it self/seness. Bless-up

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[generalgravys]

She’s an autoflower that’s been on 19/5. We’re trying to mimic nature. It gets cold and possibly snows by the time cannabis is at the end of it’s life, depending on the strain.

Periodic cold stress tells the plant that winter is coming, so it’s time to swell up to try to catch any pollen in order to reproduce. The buds swell up and make more sticky resin.

The days are also shorter as winter approaches, so light intensity was reduced and they got lowered a bit so I could focus them into the middle canopy.

I definitely noticed a difference the day after the first cold watering.

You don’t want to keep your light intensity the same. At this point you’re just trying to let everything mature and ripen, which you don’t need as much light for.

Lots of growers end up with tons of extra leaves within the buds by the end because the intense light is telling the plant to keep going, while it’s wanting to die. All that extra leaf material blocks light from the buds, which makes them mature slower because they’re receiving less light as well as the plant is diverting too much energy toward new growth.

So while that may be true for some strains, I’ve only seen explosions of activity with these stressors, not reduced.

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[Thickems]

This, ripening the buds. I agree with this but have never dove into the ice. Outdoor the grounds frost layer will be way different than a small indoor pot. Although snow can happen, ground can still be warm in those roots. Im not sure what way is right or wrong. But the natural stresses to ripen, i agree with that.

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[generalgravys]

The ice is something that I wanted to try. Coco is pretty good insulation thanks to all the air it can trap, so only the top couple millimeters actually gets cold. It’s more so just providing a slow steady stream of cold water as it melts, which drops the ambient temperature more than anything. More so acting like those cold autumn rains before winter, instead of getting the usual 70°F watering.

Most people that do anything with ice either water their plants with straight ice water, or place the ice on the media and pour water to melt it in. That seemed too aggressive for me, and this mild version pretty much just keeps it slightly cooler in the tent and the coco stays moist but not sopping wet.

My next plant should be ready to flower by the time this one finishes, and besides topping, I’m just having her grow as you normally would. No bro science, just straight plant.

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[backwoods_mountain_grower]

Typically b4 this happens

The snow was only on them 6 hrs I chopped em soon as I got home from work they were fine

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[hollywoodmike]

Forget the ice my friend. The plant will try to go dormant and slow way down when the roots get below 65F. I watch for trichomes. Mostly cloudy and a bit of amber. Some strains I’ve run the pistils didn’t turn all the way but the trichs told a different story. I put mine through 2 days of dark before the chop. I know the plant isn’t synthesizing without light but plants terpenes are always highest in the morning just before lights come on. And every time I have ever harvested this way my results are much better. Great job on your first ever. Keep it up!

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[generalgravys]

Thanks for the advice and kind words! With it being my first time, I’m just dabbling a bit into different stressors. To see what does and doesn’t increase either growth or trichomes, and what thresholds the plants can take. This is the first one the get to this point, but I did end up killing about a dozen before her between weeks 2-10 of seedling/veg in sets of 4.

As far as the ice, it’s not as intense as it looks. Coco is a pretty good insulator, and the ice melts and soaks in quite slowly, so only the top few millimeters gets cold. I have a probe that can reach the bottom of the pot, and during this it stays between 65-70 starting from the first inch, down to 10 inches.

I am aware that the top roots just below the soil get way too cold for a couple of hours. Nothing I read or watched suggested that something like this would actually kill her though, so I just wanted to play around a bit.

It’s hard to tell with no control subject in this experiment, but it does seem like resin production spiked, and the buds have more than doubled in size in just one week. They still have a lot of white pistils too.

So, I can’t say for sure right now what this actually does, if anything. I also have the 2 month old still in veg that you can see in the pictures, and 6 numbered seedlings about to throw their first true leaves. I plan on having a control that ONLY gets topped and regular feeding, and will play around more with this kind of stuff with the others and take notes.

It seems like everyone has their own unique experiences. Even if clones are run in the EXACT same conditions but by different people in different environmentally identical setups, the results can be drastically different.

Just have to play around with stuff and find out what works for you. Growing is supposed to be fun and therapeutic, it shouldn’t be perfectly calculated, boring, and stressful lol.

Happy growing!

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