Ripening is the most difficult phase. The buds need to ripen at this point in order to be harvested at the best possible moment. The buds are still getting bigger, but not as quickly as in the previous phase. The hairs are becoming more red and the resin balls are getting heavy, sticky and start to shine more and more. The smell is alsogetting stronger.
Since the buds are getting thicker, all flowers are growing against each other and real big,compact budsare forming. The smell is so strong in this phase that it could become a problem. If you don’t want your neighbors or visitors to smell anything, a carbon filter is the only solution. They’re easy to install and very effective.
You now need to give your plants a solution with a lot of phosphor and potassium. This helps to create compact andheavy budsand it promotes the production of THC. Stop givingnutrientsone week before harvesting to rinse the minerals out of the soil and your plants. Rinsing is very important if you want to have a quality end product.
If your plants are overloaded withfertilizers, they become too strong to smoke and the taste will be negatively affected.
If you give your plants nothing but water during the last week, it will take all remnants of nutrients from thesoil and the planttissues.
Don’t worry about a nutrient deficiency, because the plant has a sufficient buffer for a week.
You’ll also see that the bottomleaves are starting to turn yellow. This is because the plant will use all of its chlorophyll reserves at the end of its life.
So all chlorophyll in the leaves is used as food, which is why they turn yellow.
Don’t do anything to these leaves and only get rid of them when they come off very easily.The plant needs themas a food source.
Bergman’s Numbers
Environmental factors
- Light cycle: 12 hours of light – 12 hours of darkness
- Light color: Orange-red – HPS/span>
- Temperature: 70 – 77 degrees
- Humidity: 50%
- Fertilizer: 1.7 – 1.8
- pH: 6.0
Day 78
The buds won’t grow as much anymore. They’ll grow a little bit, but this is the phase in which they’ll harden and get heavier.
A lot of potassium is needed for this. If you aren’tgiving your plants a boosteryet, this is the right time to start.
I’ve been giving them Booster byFlower Powerfor a week now, which is a quality booster you can use in addition to yourbasic floweringfertilizer.
Fox Farm and Canna also have very good products.
Thetemperatureandhumidityare still right. The buds look healthy and the leaves still have a nice green color.
As you know, the plant uses its leaves to catch sunlight and convert this to sugars.
The more sugars a plant produces, the thicker and heavier your buds become.
Thequality of your marijuanaalso improves when more sugars are being produced.
Do you want to know more about photosynthesis and the special enzymerubisco, which plays a large role in photosynthesis?
Read the articlePhotosynthesisand exactly learn how this works.
The more knowledge you have about the various processes that take place inside your plants, the better you can take care of your plants. And the higher your yield will be?
Download myfree marijuana grow guideand start growing high quality strains
Day 80
Just see how nice and white those buds are starting to become because of all the resin that’s being produced.
And once you taste the sharp flavour of this marijuana, you’ll understand why this type is calledwhite widow.
The buds look healthy and are developing well. More and more hairs are turning red and I think we’re right on schedule, which means we’ll beharvesting in little over a week.
The plants are watered 1/2 gallons ofwater per plantevery other day, and they use all of it.
This means the evaporation is going well and a lot of water and nutrients aretransported through the plant.
A properly functioning transportation system in the plant leads to a healthy, strong plant.
Sugars from the leaves, water and nutrients from the roots and plant hormones from allcellsmust be transported to the places they’re needed.
Transportation in the plant takes place inxylems and phloems. Xylems transport water and nutrients.
The water only moves from the bottom to the top. You can compare it to a straw; the leaves suck the water upwards through evaporation.
Phloems transport the sugars that are produced in the leaves to the other parts of the plant they’re needed.
Phloems consist of living cells, so the transportation can take place in all directions through the sink and source principle.
Read the complete part onTransportation inside a marijuana plantfor more information.
Day 82
This is looking so damn tasty.
I’m expecting to harvest about 1.5 to 2 ounces per plant, so this amounts to over a pound of marijuana from 9 plants with 1 x 600 watt HPS.
It’s not my all time best harvest, but I’m always satisfied with this amount.
When I was growing for the coffee shops inAmsterdam, I always counted on a pound per 600 watt lamp. A grow room had between 10 and 20 lamps, and I received $3000 dollar per pound.
This resulted in nice amounts of money, but also many problems.
A large plantation like this is hard to keep secret and in spite of the flexible policy for hobby growers and users in the Netherlands, professional growers can count on a hefty amount of community service if they get caught. Not that that’s a reason to not do it ;).
In those days I was much more concerned with the final weight than the smoking effects and the flavor.
I dream about genetically modified plants that wouldyield ten timesas much as normal.
A bit like what Monsanto does with its corn and grains. Marijuana breeders cross plants with certain characteristics to create strongerplants with higher yields.
But how great would it be to make some modifications at the DNA level. Read this article onDNA and genetic modification.
Day 85
The buds continue to grow nicely and thetemperatureandhumidityare perfect. This is the last time I’m givingnutrientsto my plants, because there’s still enough in the soil and in the plant to get through the final week.
If you harvest the plant when there’s still a lot of fertilizer present inside, the weed will have a very strong taste and the effect becomes a bit narcotic. Don’t be afraid of buds not developing properly during the final week. They keep producing THC, keep hardening and will continue to get heavier.
From now on you should only provide your plants with water with apHof 6. In this way, the plant absorbs allnutrientsthat are present in the soil and you can possible reuse your soil for the next harvest.
Make sure you measure it properly and if necessary, consider it an inert medium, so without any nutrients and minerals. Here are some standard rules for harvesting marijuana. Make sure you know what to look out for and just post a picture on the forum if you have any doubts.
And read the article on When to harvest marijuana plants.
- Harvesting based on flowering time
- Indica: 8 weeks
- Sativa: 9 to 12 weeks
- Autoflower: 10 weeks from seed to bud
- Harvesting based on pistils
- 50-70% brown – young, light weed
- 70-90% brown – ripe, heavy weed
- 90-100% brown – sharp, narcotic weed
- Harvesting based on trichomes
- Clear trichomes – wait a bit longer
- Milky white trichomes – ready for harvest
- Amber trichomes – overripe
Day 87
These plants are almost ready to beharvested. The majority of the pistils are brown and the plant uses less and less water. The main bud still has many white hairs, but that’s because it keeps producing them. So also pay close attention to the larger side buds to decide the right moment of harvesting.
I sprayed one of the buds every day of the final week to see if bud rot would occur, and it did: the main bud is completely rotten. Bud rot is one of the most annoying fungi, because there’s little you can do once your plants are affected.
And it always occurs towards the end of the harvest. So you have to act preventive by keeping a lowhumidityand by properlyventilating the area.
You can recognize bud rot by the brown leaves growing out of your buds. They come off very easily when you gently pull on them. This is because bud rot starts inside the bud, so the stem of the leaf is already rotten. Since it starts inside the bud, you won’t notice it until the plant is already contaminated.
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Cut off all rotten parts and look closely between the flowers to see if the trunk is nice and green again. Always wear gloves and make sure you work in a very sterile fashion. Bud rot is highly contagious and you really don’t want toinfect your other plants. Read the partMost common fungifor more information onbud rot and other fungi.
Day 89
I’m going to harvest these plants today. They use little water and the leaves are starting to turn yellow. About 70% of the hairs are brown, which I think is exactly right for awhite widow. Move on to the next section to see how you should harvest,dry and trimthe plants. But first, check out this photo series on the development of the buds.Good luck harvesting!!!
