If you’re unfamiliar with the world of marijuana production, you may be eager to taste the fruits of your efforts once harvest time arrives. In this tutorial on harvesting cannabis, you’ll learn when cannabis plants are ready to pick and what indications indicate that they’re ripe. Looking to try something new? Check out this.
What is The Average Time from Planting to Harvesting Cannabis?
Marijuana plants go through many stages during their development, ranging from seedling to maturity. The length of the cultivation process is determined by a variety of factors, including the type of germination medium used, the desired yield, and the marijuana strain. Most cannabis plants will require between nine and 12 weeks to mature; on average, you can anticipate approximately nine weeks elapsed time.
How Can You Tell if it’s Too Early to Harvest Cannabis?
Trichomes will indicate whether or not your crop is ready for harvesting, just as they will tell you when it’s time to begin picking. If the majority of trichomes are transparent, the cannabis plants are not yet ready to be harvested. Trichomes that are clear suggest that resin production has not peaked and
How Can You Tell if It’s Too Late to Harvest Cannabis?
Check the trichomes for color and note it. If you see mostly amber trichomes, your cannabis flowers are probably overripe. When buds reach this point in development, the bud will have an unpleasant flavor. Furthermore, as amber trichomes begin to takeover the milky white ones, THC begins to break down. Trichomes occasionally can even become black if growers haven’t harvested their marijuana plants. In extremely rare circumstances, if buds are overripe, trichomes can even turn brittle. Overripe buds’ trichomes may fall apart in your hands as a result of dryness or aging.
Harvesting cannabis after it has gone bad is not advised, but it may be preferable to doing so early. The terpenes, which are thought to have therapeutic effects, can become more powerful during a late harvest, but at the cost of fragrance and flavor.
Stigma and Trichomes
The best way to tell if your marijuana plants are ready to harvest, both indoors and outdoors, is to look at:
- Stigma: These hair-like strands that cover buds will turn from white to orange and will start to curl.
- Trichomes: The resinous glands all over the plant will turn from clear to opaque and then amber.
Keep in mind that top colas may reach maturity faster than bottom buds, as they are exposed to more light. You may need to harvest a plant at various stages of ripeness, including when some buds aren’t quite ripe and others are.
Also, since cannabis plants are not ready to be cut and trimmed until they are several weeks old, information from the breeder or grower may assist you in determining when to harvest a certain strain.
To view trichomes, you’ll need a microscope. A handheld microscope with a magnification range of 30x to 100x will suffice.
The maximum THC content in trichomes occurs during their transition from clear to opaque to amber. They then begin to degrade as a result of oxygen and UV radiation exposure.
Tips for Determining When to Harvest Outdoor Weed
Sativas require a lengthy, seemingly endless summer to fully mature, while indicas need a shorter season. However, some indicas take longer to complete and others finish sooner.
Follow the Weather
When cannabis buds get heavier, and the season shifts from summer to fall, there will be variations in the weather. There may be cold snaps or rainstorms depending on your climate.
These aren’t meltdowns, but you do need to keep an eye on the weather and perhaps make a game-time decision as to when to prune plants, balancing peak ripeness with conditions that may negatively impact your harvest.
Cold Temperatures
A light freeze (28-32°F for up to three hours) will do no harm to most cannabis plants. However, a hard freeze, any temperatures lower or for a longer period of time, can be deadly.
Frost can cause ice crystals to form in plant tissue, damaging their cells. Leaves will appear wilted before turning dark and crispy. The deeper the frost, the more of the plant that will get damaged.
Because potted plants are more sensitive to temperature changes than plants in the ground, they are more prone to frost damage.
Rain
Rainfall, like a cold snap, is not itself a significant problem, but the length and intensity of the storm are. If the weather is going to warm up soon and dry out completely, leave almost ripe cannabis outside to weather the storm. Mold awaits if the rain will be there for an extended period; cut your losses and harvest before things get soggy.
Covering your plants will help, but there will still be moisture in the air. A few tall stakes and a tarp can be used to cover plants; however, make sure to take the cover off when the weather warms up or rains pass so that plants may warm up as well as get sunlight and oxygen.
How Often Do You Harvest Weed?
Indoor Marijuana
You may harvest as much or as little cannabis as you like while growing it indoors. There’s no end to the sky—rather, to your grow room—when it comes to weed. It takes anything from three to eight months for weed seeds to mature into plants, therefore you can grow as many as four smaller plants or one big plant each year.
More harvests will result in more fresh, home-grown marijuana to smoke more often, but it will also entail extra clean-up between harvests, trimming, and so on. If you start with clones or autoflower seeds, which cut several weeks out of the growth cycle, you can fit in more than four harvests each year.
Outdoor Marijuana
Cannabis that is cultivated outside is generally harvested once a year. Seeds or clones will usually begin in the spring and be finished in the fall in most regions. Because of the weather, you may harvest twice a year in some tropical locations.
