Very slow ripening

[Delty]

Strain: Sweet Seeds Auto Gelato
90cm x 50cm tent
1 Gal coco coir
Mars TS600
Canna nutes
Week: 12 from sprout

Hi all. So I have been running this plant without problems using the full Canna suite of nutes (I bought all the extra bits in recommendation and following their ‘light’ feeding schedule.

By around week 9 the buds seemed to have put on weight and then slowed in growth. I observed the trichomes over weeks 8-10 and they continued becoming cloudier, with a small number of ambers.

Following Canna’s feed schedule I reduced the nutes to about half (0.5-0.6EC) as recommended for the final ‘ripening’.

Now they have started to show deficiencies following the nute lowering, as they use up their own nutes. Problem is the ripening seems to have completely stopped in the last 3 weeks. In fact I can’t even be sure they’ve changed in the last 2 weeks. Maybe 2% amber, 65% cloudy and the rest clear. In fact it almost seems like they’re less ripe than 2 weeks ago!!

The plant has a very uneven canopy so I was hoping to have harvested the upper buds by now and let the lowers finish, at this rate they’ll never ripen though.

why is this? Have I started cutting the nutes too early? Should I up them a little? Conditions are all fine and very consistent, there have been no shocks.

Also what may seem a silly question: if there are big fan leaves that haven’t shrunk, does that mean the plant is still needs more time? I see so many pics of ‘final day’ plants on here with almost no remaining fan leaves.

Thank you all so much for the continued help, as always

 

[fauxnacho]

Hopefully someone with more experience can chime in but to me she looks ready to chop. I don't think there's much more to come from her in terms of weight, and if trichs were starting to amber long ago then that'd be enough to convince me to harvest

 

[Delty]

Thanks for the reply. I had fully intended on having chopped her by now, but presumably with 30+% of the trichs being clear, she's going to be very down on potency

 

[Arthur]

1) some autos don't amber up.
2) if your planning to stagger a harvest, you really can't cut feed till you expect the the last buds to be done.
3) the where you look. Trichs on sugar leaves will ripen before the bud.
4) (personal) my coco runs always seem to go a week or so longer than same genetics in soil.
Given the overall look of the nugs, she's ready any time.

Sweet seeds quotes an 8wk finish, that's arguably overly optimistic. Given your week count, I'd say your in the ballpark.

 

[Delty]

Thank you! Very useful. I will chop the top colas in the next day.

I thought the cutting of the feed might be okay because the lower buds are only very small and there are some fan leaves they could have fed off too just to see them through the last bit. All your points have been noted!

 

[Arthur]

Over time you'll figure out your method. For me it is entire plant, anything that I would not consider "market quality " is run thru a press. Or dry ice shook and then run thru a press. Here electricity is way high, so staggered harvest just wasn't cost effective.