Hello everybody! I have been growing an autoflower freebie for a while now. I am worried however that I have missed the window to harvest, but I am also a little hesitant to chop the plant too soon. I used a jewelers loupe to look at the trichomes (but forgot to take pictures through the loupe of course), and they are 85% clear with almost no amber. That said, the vast majority of the fan leaves have died at this point and the overall appearance of the plant is worrying me. Any feedback and advice would be greatly appreciated.
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if you can get a better picture of the trichomes posted , that would help…i just had the same issue with a couple plants, they look large and healthy thats for sure
and to be honest, it looks ready to crop…RIGHT NOW
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More info my brother.
What’s your medium, what’s your nutrient, how much water, how frequently, etc. ?
With absolutely no info, I think it looks like nute burn
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Also: strain, estimated seed to harvest time, and how long its been alive
I would call it senescence in an auto flower… almost done so pulling food from itself and starting to autumn to a nice magenta and purple…
Looking like there are still some newer pistils popping up and greenish instead of white and that with your trich color from afar says some clear and some cloudy but without right on it, even without a loupe, its hard to tell… it seems like ot could be growers choice when to cut but dont yet lol
More pictures please lol
Also this looks like a familiar plant situation i have with soil lol
How many times did she go dry and droopy and you have her nute water to perk up and then all the leaves kinda burned ish and fell off? I do it quite often lol but whenever droopy and dry, plain water til its perky, then some feed
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Hello! It is in a 7 gallon pot using APSU living soil. I do not know the genetic of the seed because it was a random freebie. The plant is about 12-13 weeks old. I have not given it any nutrients for about 2 weeks, the last feeding being a top dressing of worm castings. When I had originally made a post regarding this plant about two weeks ago many people had suggested that the leaves dying was from senescence in autoflowers, particularly soil in my case. I will get some more pictures ASAP but that is all I have for now. Thanks yall!
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I’d say that’s old for a auto.
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I think you should harvest now and it will be fine. The plant looks like it is finished and at this point you will either get regrowth or mold as the plant continues to lose vigor.
Great looking plant actually and I think you are going to like it.
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I’d be worried about the dead leaves in the bud.
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Not all auto’s are fast, some flower a long time. I go by smell as well as sight.
Sometimes they will smell extra sweet all of a sudden, that can also indicate they are ready to harvest. It can go for another two weeks, just make sure you keep humidity low.
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Indulge yourself & take some now, some in a week, & the rest in two 
Then you be the judge of what was best, AAAAAND you can have weed soon. 
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does partially harvesting work on an autoflower?
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Yes, I’ve done that.
EDIT: Apologies, it was a photoperiod, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work on an auto.
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She’s done. Time to harvest. Almost perfect actually with nice fade and not more new flowers.
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This may be a bit of an experience thing but in my experiences with maturation I look at the bud and try to picture it fully trimmed, while it’s nearing the end of it’s life. Some sativas will never look done; they’ll just keep growing and growing. Since it’s unknown genetics I would say that your senses (eyes, nose, fingers) are a better judge of maturation than the individual trich heads.
When the bud begins to look like something you would smoke then it’s likely done. Basically you’re trying to picture the flowers on the stem you’re looking at like how they would be in a baggy properly dried and cured. You’ll know they’re done when they look like bud. I tell new growers to not overthink it. KISS method 
Yours my friend looks like a swell auto-flower! Once you remove those sugar leaves and get that dry you’ll see how bud-like it looks. Fantastic job. Cheers
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Dude. You rock. This is the most helpful comment I’ve gotten so far.
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I feel like this causes a lot of people to harvest way early what we smoke and what we harvest look pretty different, especially when it comes to size. I donno, just another perspective.
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I don’t know about you but what I smoke are harvested buds, dried and cured. Sure when I chop the plant it looks alive and then once the flowers begin to dry it looks like bud.
First photo is the bud on the plant, second photo is the same bud just trimmed (hastily). It’s not even dry yet but it looks like smokable bud to me! FYI this is a long flowering sativa grown naturally outdoors at 47N.
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