When to Harvest Cannabis for Top Yielding Buds!

When Should Harvest Your Marijuana Crop? (Biggest Buds) from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

Harvesting Cannabis is an art on its own. It’s something on the mind of any serious grower. It is just as important as growing the plant. When to Harvest Cannabis should never be treated lightly because it can be the difference of fantastic bud, and “meh” bud.

Timing is Critical

If you harvest too soon, you can lose potency, and when you harvest too late, it could make the cannabis be a serious downer. This is why it’s important to know how to read your plants when you’re thinking about harvesting. Growing weed takes a few long months. The entire process, from “Seed to Smoke” takes roughly 6 months!

It is, therefore, crucial to know when to harvest cannabis. You don´t want the disappointment of losing your hard work by making some fatal mistakes. It is important to keep some key points in mind.

When to Harvest Cannabis – Key Points to keep in mind

Knowing when to Harvest

Probably the most important factor is knowing when to harvest.Top yielding requires precision timing. You must know when the pinnacle of resin production is reached. Be careful not to cut the plant too late. When the resin glands start degrading, the THC levels will start falling.

Identifying ripe buds

The easiest way is to keep an eye on the pistils that cover the buds. When the plant starts to flower, the pistils are white and stringy. When the flowering stage comes to an end, the color first turns to orange. Then it turns again from orange to dark red or brown. The color changes indicate the maturation of the bud. Just remember that the time frame and color may vary very much between different varieties of weed.

Trichome examination might be more complicated, but it is more accurate to determine when to harvest cannabis. Trichomes are actually the resin glands where all the THC is located. They are super delicate and rupture easily. To the naked eye, they look like small sugar-like crystals on the outside of the bud and leaves. Just like the pistils, they also start to change color. The key lies in harvesting before they reach a too dark color. The best time is to harvest when the color changes from white to a milky white color or even an Amber color. It really depends on how you like your bud. The best way to spot ripeness is by using a magnifier glass between 50x and a 100x.

What to look out for

It is a good idea to start looking for ripeness already a few weeks before expected harvest time. To stay on top of harvesting you would like to identify any clues that signal maturity. When it looks like harvesting is not too far off, it gives the grower sufficient time to prepare and not to be caught off guard.

If a grower is on top of the game and keeps a record of the photoperiod time, then he would know when to start flushing out the growth medium to prepare for harvest.

Flushing – when to start?

During the last two weeks of flowering, flushing should begin to get rid of any built-up nutrients. When access to nutrients is blocked, the plant begins to use the stored food reserves. These reserves are all the stuff we don’t want in the end product. It is eminent to get rid of the reserves, as it would cause a terrible burn.

So two weeks before harvesting, all nutrients must be stopped and only water should be given to the plants. I usually do it about a week before the time and then start flushing heavily three days before the harvest period.

Essentially, to those who don’t know what flushing is…it’s simply pouring a shit-ton of water on it. Do this about 2-3 times per day. Just make sure you’re not over-flushing because you could drown your plant right as it’s about to get harvested. And everybody would be sad if that happens.

The day of Harvesting

The best time to harvest is early in the day before the light period begins. Start by cutting the entire plant away from the root ball. Large fan leaves can already be taken off a week before.

Now, as a rule of thumb for all of your novice growers out there, “When you think it’s time to harvest…wait a week more!”

Since I started applying that rule to my own grows, I have seen the difference. The potency of my weed has increased tenfold and the smoke is highly pleasant. I do the same with curing and drying my cannabis. If I think it’s “ready”, I wait a day or two more. Remember, it’s always better to harvest a bit late than a bit too early.

When harvesting, you can decide to do a Wet Trim or a Dry Trim. The difference between these two are that you’ll either trim the weed before it dries or after it dries. Personally, I like to do the initial trimmings wet…that way I get live resin built up on my scissors and have a wonderfully awesome time getting baked.

I then, after the drying period, go for another mini-trim to make sure I got all the leafy substances off my precious buds.

And that my friends…is how it’s done!

When Should Harvest Your Marijuana Crop? (Biggest Buds) from CannabisNet on Vimeo.