... hey
Witchy luv, putting me to work again are yeh?! :smoking:
>>
Thc'-- as mentioned above, sugar leaves are not a good gauge for this,.. I find that they turn much sooner than the bud does overall,.. usually because they are older, and more exposed,... To get a good overall idea, pick several places on the plant to scope out the trich's,.. keep in mind, any new bracts (calyxes) will have clear immature trich's, white hairs, and there will always be some around by harvest, it's a big picture evaluation you want,.. look at groups of bracts and access them for clear/cloudy/amber (if any yet).... Ambering, as mentioned by Witchy, is caused by THC breaking down into CBN, a degradation product; this is in part, what gives that heavy-body-sleepy narco' effect (other specific terpenes play a big role as well),...
.... cloudy-milky, it varies with plants just how opaque they become, seems to me at least; light can play tricks too, no doubt! This is peak ripeness in any case... I've heard about some odd mixes of stages, my guess is some sort of stress/exposure causing such an out of wack ratio of them,... the amount of pistils gone dry/colored (on their own, not my damage) is a another maker used to help gauge ripeness,...
... And the leaves! Not
so much for ripeness of bud, but a good indication of other things as well,... namely, how much your plant is tapping into the fan leaves' reserves, a clue to how much internal stores she's holding; some nute elements are taken in whether the plant needs them or not, it's automatic; they get used, excess stored, and a fair amount is "in transit", moving through the plants vascular system (mostly in xylem tissue),... fans yellowing, turning colors, dying back, all of which is normal, up to a point, and shows she's not holding onto reserves, excess N and P in particular, which will foul the smoke quality if in excess by harvest,...If the plant is looking rather green still at harvest, and maybe there's been issues with nute burn, bad pH issues, then the plant may still be loaded with more nutes than is good,... Hence the "flush" or as many here call a cleanse. The industry says "flush", but in any case, it's about a short period of time where no more nutes are given at all prior to harvest;.... I think of flushing in terms of clearing out a soil/soilless medium with copious amounts of water,... I know what pop22 thinks about flushing in general! I agree only up to a point... the flush period is also employed in other horticultural applications, hydro-veggies especially; same deal, the unrelenting uptake of nutes even from weak solutions will chock the plant full of nutes, and when not overdone, makes the plant build like crazy!....But that flush/cleanse gives a chance for the "pipes" to clear out, and excess stored forms to get broken down and used enough to make for good clean flavors,... What doesn't happen, and what some folks believe, is that the plant itself is somehow getting 'rinsed out" by force, expelling the excess nutes away-
- and that's not at all how it works physiologically, that ion transport system does have a reverse gear, so to speak! ..... Also, over starving the plant at the end is not favor at all either,...fact is, translocating nutrients (what ones can be, that is) is energetically costly, and some can't be remove to new growth this way,.. severe shortages/deficiencies at this time can make quality suffer as well! .... So, the leaves, pistils, and mainly, trich's, are what's best used to gauge ripeness,... watching the pace of change is important too, if you plan to have a cleanse period,... organics can skip this,.. and as you'll hear, some folks don't flush at all using synthetics,.. likely, they have plants that aren't, at that stage, loaded up with nutes anyway,.. the fans tell that tale best!
sorry for the typo's!
...I fixed them now,...
