For me it was the 3/4 brown hairs in the beginning of my growing, it hasnāt changed much with watching the trichs, maybe 5/4 now
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To a degree you have a good point. My only counter argument to that is dragged down/sleepy affects. Iāve adjusted slightly since making seeds at later harvest, however definitely more energy draining as you smoke more.
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Iāve noticed terps morph over the few weeks time and that the rankest buds sometimes look early if you go by trichs.
I heard something about terps helping the agonist and antagonist pass the bbb blood brain barrier
The picture above looks and smells like shit, and I love it 
just my 2 wooden nickels
No amber yet, but the funk is so strongā¦I have noticed a decline in olfactory penetration āwaiting it outā sometimesā¦
Iāve aways been a supporter of āthe terps never lieā
Edit: Sometimes people lie tho, like when I said the picture was āaboveā lol
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I would disagree. I see inexperienced growers all the time harvesting too early. This is where 2 more weeks is stated over and over. You see these folks harvesting their bud when itās still full of white stretching pistils. Also THC is only part of the puzzle. There are many 15% THC strains that I would rather smoke over a 25% strain. Thatās due to the terp profile which I find more important than the THC levels. It all comes down to personal preference in the end. Some like to harvest early, some late, just depends on how things react to them and their preference IMO.
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I find all this intel fascinating. I have read much regarding the harvest range and coloration of trichomes relationship.
What I donāt often find is the information specifying where one would look on the plant to accurately determine the stage of completion.
Reading the trichome stage of a sugar leaf can, (and has) lead to a very premature harvest.
After much research, speaking with many advanced growers, ad growing a plant or two myself, Iāve learned, for me, the best place to āread the trichomes for harvest purposesā is solely on the calyx. Mostly on the calyx.
This has been my experience to be most accurate. If you are using this method to solely determine the time to harvest.
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I agree that sounds way too early. Plus, judging maturity based on pistils is outdated. My LSD girl has almost all brown pistils and literally all-clear trichome heads at day 64F.
Sure, I guess what Iām saying is go ahead a post a picture of clear trichomes on ANY forum, anywhere, right now. You must agree that 90%+ of comments will be ātwo weeksā. The meme exists on basis of clear trichomes these days now that we have better digital photography.
Me too. I had a new way of looking at it after digesting that study I posted though that implicates our beloved terpene and other-cannabinoid friends.
The study I linked is purporting that amber (mature/dying) trichome heads literally tear and leak resin. That leaking resin contains all of the things we are after (terps, THC, CBN, CBD, THCA, etc) all in proportion.
Keeping that in mind, the study also claims that amber trichomes are often prematurely caused by high-heat, low-moisture, high stress conditions.
And therefore, It might be that a good long cure of an āearlyā harvested flower is an approach someone can take even if looking for that narcotic effect while maximizing quality overall.
Same here. I think in my mind weāre talking about sweeping differences in presentation (all clear vs. all clear/cloud/few amber vs. very mixed with much amber). The changes happen quickly enough that we can only really catch a harvest at one of the milestones there.
The āall clearā is what I mean when I say āearlyā. Clear on every part of the plant.
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Thatās fair and I would agree.
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Wellā¦breastmilk only has the nutrients the mother was able to eat in the first place. Iron being a good example of low input low output. But Iām just saying that to get you going!!
There is no right or wrong or single best method! There is however definitely a single best moment, per pheno, to capture the highest concentration of cannabinoids and terpenes, independent of qualitative effect.
Iām postulating that having a large ratio of amber trichome heads is not that moment. The cure and storage will take care of whatever range of secondary oxidation effects weāre after (I think).
If you want a slick analogy go with bananas. I eat some still greenish, tangy! Some pure yellow, nice blend of sweet, very little tang. Then we get browning and the fermented tinge of dank sweetness. Take that way far and weāre making banana bread. Something for everyone. Totally agree.
And this is all still agreeing that if you want a ānarcotic / sleepā medicine you can take any plant to itās amber end. I actually think this is the least debated factoid in the thread. Amber = sleep.
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Pick āem any way you like em. They are yours.
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Sometimes I think we assign pos and neg terms even if the neg is what weāre after
Also, what @Foreigner said.
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Believe it or not this is the most insightful post Iāve read on here in a bit. I donāt argue that highest concentration of cannabinoids = pos and oxidation = neg. I argue that losing resin out of a torn trichome head is neg. No one has touched that part of the topic, which to me IS the topic! I can however imagine itās what we actually want (pos).
Here for pos, so offer it up in kind!
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im a big fan of secondary oxidation / fermentation in general. i think of it as two broad stokes
- fermentation
- chemical reactions / degradation
both add up to noticable changes in the bud, a bit of browning and general mellowness. science!?#
maybe. anyhow i like old bud. its better. i smoke fresh bud when i want max terps but for day to day smokin give me a yr old stash and ill be happy
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In general I find my weed best at 6-18 months.
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My new auto-response, āEight more weeks!!!ā
True story, I never checked trics, and the first time I used this āAdvanced Techniqueā I totally screwed up the harvest by chopping too early. I used my fancy new clip-to-phone microscope and Wow! Look at those amber trics!
On them sugar leaves.
Must be done.
These days, I use several different methods together, instead of one. For me, as an outdoor grower, you want the plant to be very near or at the end of its life cycle. Dying, yellowing leaves, most if not all white hairs have turned dark and dried up, trichome color, and a few other things I look at.
One is a hollowing of the stalks. Canāt remember who showed me that, but, Iāve found, for me, that near the end, my stalks can tend to become mostly hollow, and you can tell by pinching the branch. Know it sounds weird. Just one of the things I look at.
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I read that with great interest!!
The cob curing stuff gets me, it doesnāt look like any actual trichomes survive.
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This would make sense to degrading down as structural integrity continues to weaken to burst and rupture.
Iāve had early harvests that were phenomenal so Iām open to this idea, but agree, if youāre still seeing tons of white hairs reaching for the light, you may want to put that early harvest plan on pause.
It seems like a lots of strains put on quite a bit of weight in those last couple of weeks. ā¦and Iām still going to be smoking that leaky resin.
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Dudes, without a little bit of degradation how do you even know if your alive? Lol
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Without pain we wouldnāt recognize joyā¦
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