Is it time? We're having rainy days so I fear mold and bud rot soon. 
#asknostr #weedstr
Discussion
Getting close! Always have to keep a close eye on the final days, once bud rot start to show up better to chop than wait. But if you can eek out a few more days or another week+ IMO it will still improve greatly.
Just worried about the rain and not having time. Will give it another day.
Nice salad. 🥰
Yeah, time to cut.
Looking frosty 💚
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
If you like a heady more "sativa" smoke harvest now, if you prefer an "indica" then let those trichs get more mature till you have more amber mixed in.
Like another day or two or more?
Sativa and Indica (along with Ruteralis) are different subspecies of cannabis. Most plants, that are grown for flower, are hybrids of sativa and indica combined.
Harvesting a nearly pure indica early will not give you sativa results (and vice versa).
But there is density of the various terpenes based on maturity of the buds.
Yes, and that has nothing to do with sativa vs indica.
Theres so much to unpack here and maybe one day can do my own study on the matter to back up other research papers ive read as well as my own experience. But right now my priorities arent trying to write papers on freakin weed, as much as i wish i could.
Dangit, alright somebody tickled my tism so now you all get this brain dump wall of text:
Here goes.
I feel somewhat validated, at least annecdotally, by the fact that THCA cannabis available on the market, regardless of strain is always extremely zippy.
This would, in my opinion, be due to the fact that THCA cannabis is merely immature plants/trichomes harvested well before optimal ripeness.
And while yes, there ARE other factors as to what causes specific effect, terpenes, genetics and so on, I believe the main factor in the type of effect is the ripeness of the trichomes.
As you stated, most plants grown for flower are, in fact, hybrids since growing a true sativa would be difficult given space and daylight length availability in North America.
Let me see if i can articulate this concept well enough:
If you are growing a "true" sativa, your space and light requirements dictate how long you can grow when trying to reach optimal trichome development. At a certain point (a) you run out of space or (b) you’re growing outdoor and encounter environmental complications such as hitting 12/12 too early, the weather gets cold earlier than a subtropic sativa would like, etc etc. So, you have to chop early (for the plant), thus giving you less ripe and very heady effects.
On the other hand, if you were to grow an indica plant you are less constrained by space as they are a squatty form and they develop quicker due to where they historically come from. While not quite as rapidly developing as a ruderalis, they would certainly need to get to maturity much faster in their historical climate than a sativa where the days are long and frosts are extremely rare.
Following that logic, if some grower from before the legal cannabis boom were growing indica in the basement or out back, they would more apt to let the trichomes develop longer (either out of ignorance or by accident). Simply put, an indica would have more variability for the outcome as far as trichome maturity at harvest.
The state of the art of growing cannabis has been completely upended over the last ~20 years and I truly believe that as time goes we are going to see how wrong we all were specifically regarding sativa vs indica.
I really think those two subspecies are really more indicative of the physical form (developed over time in response to their respective ecosystems) of the plant itself and the rate at which they mature. There are certainly terpenes and other factors hitching a ride along in there (and each strain or varietal has specific effects brought forward by those factors) but overall I think sativa/indica are poor descriptors of what these plants are doing.
An old-school method of determining "ripeness" is to look at the shape of the trichromes. When they look like a ball on a stem, you're close. When most of those spheres have collapsed slightly, making a mushroom shape, harvest. If a large portion of the spheres have fallen off their stems, you're a bit late.
The current method is to watch the trichromes turn milky, then amber.
I've seen buds get rained on for a day or two, and continue to mature nicely. If you have a forecast of many rainy days, then I'd be watching them like a hawk. Several sunny days after a rain probably won't give you any issues.
Some growers do a complete harvest when they see any mold. It can take over fast. You can also just harvest the dense buds, leaving the rest to swell over the following days.
I was consdiering cutting off the densest ones and let some of the others grow but I want one and done and this harvest will be bountiful for my consuptions and friends. But I have considered it.
The best way to cure for flavor and effects is to chop the plant at the base, and hang the whole plant upside-down in a dry medium-temperature area. It'll take longer to dry, as most of the moisture is in the stem, but the results will be phenominal compared to any attempts at drying it quickly (cutting into short lengths, using dehumidifiers, etc).
The iterative harvest (taking the tops, wait a few days, take the largest buds, wait a few more days, etc) might might increase your yield, but if you know that you have more than enough already, it's easier to harvest the whole plant in one sitting (even if you're chopping it up and not hanging it whole).
All the comments are solid thus far. In my experience, once I see a few milky trichs towards the top of the plant, 3-5 more days, then chop. Use an eye loop >5x mag for best results. Modern cameras are probably good enough. Your photos suggest some milky trichs but hard to tell definitively
ooooo