The Trichomes are Whispering, But What Are They Saying?

[GrouchyOldMan]

Part 1: Harvest Day Is Near…

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
Till the last recorded syllable of time…

-Macbeth, in frustration (no doubt) over the delays in his own “Harvest!”

I recently read an article in Weed World magazine that makes me wonder if we are all harvesting too early based on a misreading of trichome colors. https://frenchycannoli.com/s/WW125DimensionsofRipenessP3.pdf

In the article, Frenchy Cannoli presents some evidence suggesting that full THC production doesn’t occur until more than half the Trichomes begin to turn amber. By that time there shouldn’t be any translucent mushrooms and a minority of cloudy white ones.

I have no idea if that is right, but I’m delaying my current harvest to see how this plays out.

My small but luscious White Widow is beginning week 11 of flowering today. I would normally be harvesting already. I’d say 80% of the trics are cloudy, perhaps 5% beginning to show some honey and a few stragglers still look glassy. The attached pics are a few days old.

Here are some guidelines I intend to follow:

• I’m only looking at trics on the actual buds, not the leaves.
• I’m going to try to take micro-pictures so I can actually make percentage estimates.
• I’m going to count “Amber” from the time the trics begin to show any amber color beyond snowy white. (per the Frenchy article)
• I’m going to TRY and wait till I see at least 50% amber
• However, as self-discipline isn’t my strong suit, I intend to harvest, dry and cure some test buds along the way for a comparison at the end.

The pics below show: a ripening WW Bud, mostly opaque Trics and an early appearance of Amber.

I’d invite anyone else interested to add their stories and pictures. Does ANYONE actually have a pic of 50% Amber Trichomes?

A frosty bud, but is she ready?

The first hint of Amber in the field of magic mushrooms!

[TO BE CONTINUED…]

Disclaimer, this was originally written for another audience but da boss (@LemonadeJoe) says that’s cool so let’s see what OG has to say on the topic.

[Kushking902]

Sounds interesting! Keep us updated . I’ve grown 2 weeks longer on strains actual flower time and there was definitely a stronger sedation to the high. I’ve never actually lab tested it to see what the change in effect was caused by; wether it was higher thc or cbn.
I don’t know how true it is but I have also heard that if too much thc is converted to cbn it can actually cause the user to feel sick so I never pushed it longer then the 2 weeks.
This should be interesting to see, I will stick around and watch if you don’t mind.

[Astrodude]

I go at all cloudy and 30-40% amber. I have followed Frenchy for many seasons. I once got snow on remaining shoots after harvest, didn’t care but next day snow melted and it went to 50 everyday for a couple days. I had little buds covered in amber triches and red hairs, and I mean Amber, I wish I had pics. So big and fat. & 1" golf balls

[Crazy1]

I try to let most of mine go 30 to 50% amber.
Its hard to wait & I feel the pain…lol

[blendmedmedman]

most ill take at 63 days unless it goes more, if its a fast finisher 7-8 50 days or so. i look at the over all bud and then under microscope. some i take when the tris are all full and clear with some milky tris , and others i want more milky ambers to amber. if i want couch lock on a skunk then ill run her in around 64 days, i start a flush early and wait for the colors to start changing if i get the temps cooler, sometimes i just will see how long i can run something, to see what the plant does. in taking down the bud you want what suits you,’
clear to milky head high,
milky to amber body high and some couch loch
amber is couch lock on some strains as the thc is higher cbd then

[NorthNorthNugs]

Was thinking of doing this exact thing this year. It definitely is interesting the amount of misinformation out there on this particular subject. Will follow along to see what you find.

[GrouchyOldMan]

The Trichomes are Whispering Pt. 2

Change comes at you fast!
This dialog is getting very interesting. I have posted some updated pics below and you can see the rapid advance of the ripening process in just a few days. It’s hard to see in the pics, but a subtle color change is emerging, not so much snowy-white to dark amber, but a more general smoky tint over an entire calyx near the emergence of the rusty pistil. I think you can see much the same thing in other near-harvest trich pics, more a “yellow-ing” than amber. That’s kind of what Cannoli seems to be hinting at in his article.

It’s clear that there is much more to this than Trichome gazing than Clear-Cloudy-Amber. Trichomes are only one metric in a holistic perspective to harvest time. As a grower, I want to understand and utilize as many “Levers” as possible to obtain the desired result.

My background includes a great fondness for good wine and I’ve spent a lot of time prowling the vineyards of Napa, France, Australia, South Africa, etc. I spent a few Autumn months in the Loire valley, harvesting Muscadet grapes with a gang of pot smoking Frenchies. (Oh, to be young again!)

“Wine is proof that Gawd loves us and wants us to be happy!”
-Benjamin Franklin

What impressed me most (besides the pleasures of great wine) was the control that the great winemakers had over their final product. That’s what I’d like to have over my cannabis harvest.

So, it’s definitely not about the percentage of Amber Trichomes as much as what those trichomes really mean in relation to the overall health of the plant, the size & constitution of the buds, etc.

The most interesting thing to me about Frenchy Cannoli’s article was that even our reading of the Trichomes is still somewhat mysterious! Understanding that one aspect is my quest and the purpose of this late harvest experiment.

Despite all my pompous posturing, I’m still floundering in the dark here. I made some trichome color estimate notes on the pics below, but it’s total guess work.

Paz y Amor compadres,

-Grouchy

The White Widow in labor

Look for the colors, mebbe 5% glass, 10% tan & the rest cloudy?

PS, Regarding the closeup pics, I found that by using a little clip to position a cheap 10x loupe in front of my old, lame iPhone I could take acceptably sharp hi-res micro-photos. A critical tool for us Trichome Hunters!

[Astrodude]

No shit! That’s awesome

[TestOfOath]

But I thought on a scientific level that the ambering of trichomes was the progressive dying of THC, which is what gave them their amber coloring. IF that’s true, then you’d have highest THC content at 100% milky and progressively lose THC the more you let it amber, which went hand in hand with the “bro”(?) science of amber trichomes give couch lock and milky are more energetic.

I’ve always cut at 5-10% Amber because of this, also because it’s a very rare occasion I want to be stuck to a couch, I’m horrible at anything relaxation related

[Astrodude]

I like Amber , I married One.

[GrouchyOldMan]

Hi @TestOfOath,

I’m not sure the science is clear on the specific relationship of trich color to THC content. Anecdotal Bro-science says Clear = Cerebral, Amber = Body and that seems to be true but exactly why remains a mystery until detailed analysis (liquid chromatography) becomes cheap and ubiquitous.

I once tried to raise funds for a series of quantitative analyses to see exactly how the THC/CBD/CBN composition changed as a set of buds ripened from Indica & Sativa dominant strains. Unfortunately the cost was too high for my group to pony up.

Personally, I’m not looking for CouchLock but us Old folks like a little pain relief along with our Buzzzz.

Perhaps the OG Brain Trust has better Intel on this?

[TestOfOath]

I’m incredibly curious as well, I think after a certain amount of time we’ve all more or less learned the word of mouth knowledge cannabis has to offer and it’s very unfortunate we don’t have the option available to do the scientific work to get the factual knowledge of our miraculous plant.

I’m open to everyone’s information so I can personally make a more well informed decision, truly hope one day we can do an experiment like you’re talking about; buds photographed and cut at different ripeness and tested accordingly so we can see which set of trichome color has the highest content and what happens as they transition through the trichome colors.

20 years from now they’re gonna know the exact day to harvest based on the percentages of different chemical contents they want to ingest

[Astrodude]

I grew a single CBD Hemp last year a friend gave me. It was purple flower and when I pressed the flower in regular heavy parchment, there was no residual, everything that came out transferred into and thru the parchment, weirdest thing to me. So we carbolyzed a 1/4 lg and made oil, chocolates and holy shit, I didn’t expect anything to happen other than benefitting in all the ways I’ve read about. I was slapped down with a feeling of “Qualludiness”, It was rohrs 714 all over, but I could walk and talk. lol
Now I know what CBD does!

[GrouchyOldMan]

The Trichomes are Whispering Pt. 3

White Widow Goin Dark
(13 Weeks Flowering)

Well, this experiment is all over except the smokin!

The day before yesterday I noticed that at least half of the trichomes on most of the branches had turned yellow/brown virtually overnight. That was my signal to turn off the lights and prepare for harvest. I did end up considering the more holistic approach suggested above and all the signs were right; the buds were tight and plump, the leaves had pretty much given all they had to give, there was hardly a white pistil to be found and, well, she was just plain ready. So I harvested this morning, week 12, day 6 of flowering.

The humidity here is really low right now, 36% RH, so I’m doing what I can to slow down the drying process. That includes hanging the entire plant to dry rather than separating the branches. I don’t have a humidifier, so I improvised with a wet towel hung over the floor fan. That seems to be working slowly, we’re up to 45% RH this afternoon. I did snip the fan leaves so they don’t make the trim any harder than needs be.

This is the longest I’ve ever waited so it’s a genuine Late Harvest with plenty of amber. In a few weeks, after drying & a bit of cure, we’ll see if it was worth it.

White Widow goes Dark

Not the best pic, in person the whole bud had a yellow/brown tint

-Grouchy
Postscript: Seven days drying, time in trim jail then into the jars for a month. A bit over four oz of excellent herb, the kind I aspire to grow. I loaded my homebrew vaporizer and set the temp to 250 F so as to savor the volatile terpenes, then ramped it up to 400 F for the full measure of cannabinoids. Piney woods with a hint of musk for flavor and a sucker punch of buzz.

Mission accomplished, but damnation that extra waiting was awful!

[ABushOfKush]

Made a buddy really angry the other day trying to explain this to him. I’ve heard the trichome color relating to thc percentage from day 1 of growing. Never had it backed up with any research. Obviously I see the correlation and I’m not saying it isn’t true, but I have tried on many occasions to find some research and haven’t found any. Was wondering if anyone ever got any further on this or maybe are better at Google than I.