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#224 - Sunday, July 31, 2016 Dear Fellow Grower,
In today's issue... - Learn why your buds are taking so long to mature and what you can do to make them ripen faster!
- Learn how the color spectrum of light affects how your plant grows!
- This week's trophy pic features someone growing his first garden since the 70s!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com) "Whether you're a programmer or a seamstress, it's all about new techniques, simplifying old techniques, and consolidating steps. Making things go faster - but not worse."
~Martha Stewart
Why Are My Buds Taking Forever? by Nebula Haze |
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Sometimes you'll run into a situation where the buds of one or more of your cannabis plants don't appear to be maturing as fast as expected, even after you've been in the flowering stage as long as the
breeder has estimated. Why isn't your plant ready to harvest yet, and what can you do about it?
Here are some of the most common reasons your cannabis buds may be taking a long time to mature, and then I'll explain exactly what you need to do to speed things along so your buds ripen faster!
Strain
Some cannabis strains or
specific plants just take longer than others to finish ripening in the flowering stage, especially Sativa, Haze, and "XXL" strains (part of what makes these plants yield so much is the flowering stage just takes a lot longer).
Another thing to consider is that some strains are "lazy" and their buds don't look ready for a long time, but then suddenly look mature almost overnight. I think of these
end-heavy flowering plants as "procrastinators" :) Make sure to keep a close eye on your plant if it's taking a while because you might be surprised to look one day and realize it's just about ready to harvest!
This cannabis bud looks like it's a long ways from harvest even though it's been 10 weeks in the flowering stage - look at all those white
pistils!
Here's that same bud only 7 days later. It has almost completely matured in that time, and it's also gained significantly in weight. Nearly all the white pistils have darkened
and curled in, and the trichomes have turned cloudy. I think of strains that do this last-minute spurt as "procrastinators" :) This impressive growth right before buds are mature is one of the reasons why you don't want to harvest early; you could be losing out on potency and yields when you only need to
wait a few more days!
Unrealistic breeder expectations
Speaking of strain, has it actually been long enough?
When looking at the estimated flowering time for a strain
(information you can find with nearly every strain from a trustworthy seed source), remember that most breeders start counting when first flowers appear, not after the switch to 12/12. That makes sense for outdoor growers, but indoor growers should add two weeks to the breeder's listed time for a more accurate estimate.
Even when doing that, in general most cannabis plants take a little longer than the breeder's recommendation to be "fully" mature. This is partially because people are more likely to buy "fast-maturing" strains. Many breeders estimate when to expect the beginning of the harvest window, because slightly early-harvested buds will do the job, even if potency and yields are somewhat reduced.
Heat or Light Stress
High heat or very bright light levels can cause your plant to keep putting out new waves of growth as a result of stress.
If the top leaves of your plant are starting to look yellow or burned and you keep seeing the tops of your buds closest to the lights put out more and more new white
pistils or foxtails, it's a sign of possible light stress or heat burn. This can cause the plant to keep trying to make new, "fresh" buds that aren't getting stressed by heat or light.
If you keep seeing more and more new growth on the buds closest to the lights (especially when combined with all the top leaves being yellow) it is likely a sign of heat or light stress. Buds like this will keep getting thicker and thicker on top closest to the lights. Another example of the plant making new buds in response to heat or light stress is when you see "foxtails." Don't pay attention to the trichomes on this type of new growth when determining when to harvest.
Make sure you're checking the trichomes on the sides of the buds with older growth. And of course make sure to fix the temps and/or raise your grow lights to prevent further damage until harvest!
LED Grow Lights
Some LED growers are getting odd results with flowering times, and certain plants seem to take much longer than expected for buds to mature. This seems to happen more often with auto-flowering strains though this issue can also affect
photoperiod (regular) strains.
At this point we're not really sure if it's just certain LED models or light spectrums that are causing this, or if it's more of a strain thing. In either case, usually you can get plants to mature faster by reducing the number of hours of light they're getting each day.
For some growers, LED grow lights seem to be associated with longer flowering periods
Reverting Back to the Vegetative Stage
One possible reason your buds may have stopped maturing is the plant is "re-vegging." This means it's reverting back to the
vegetative stage in which the plant only grows stems and leaves.
This happens most often when plants are somehow getting light during their 12 hour dark period. Sometimes it can take just a small amount of light to trigger the plant to reveg (for example an indicator light, or a small light leak).
Re-vegging will cause buds to stop maturing and if the plant isn't but back into flowering the buds will turn brown and die after a few weeks. If you see new round or "smooth" leaves appearing on the buds, and buds stop getting bigger, it's a sign the plant is revegging.
Sometimes an extremely stressed plant may show similar symptoms. How can you tell the difference? In the case of heat/light stress your plant puts out lots of new foxtails/buds, while a
re-vegging plant stops making new buds or fattening the ones that are there.
In this example, you can see the strange leaves are appearing on new buds/foxtails. If you're seeing the plant make lots of new, strange
looking buds, it's most likely actually heat stress or light stress because a re-vegging plant doesn't make new buds. These are more like out-of-control sugar leaves.
Check Trichomes on Buds, Not Leaves
Make sure you're looking in the right places. Check the trichomes only on buds, not any of the leaves including the small sugar leaves. If plant keeps putting out new white hairs over and over, check the trichomes on the sides of the buds where the older growth is, instead of looking only at new growth.
Ignore trichomes on leaves because it's the buds you want to harvest on time! Examples of Buds That Should Be Harvested (Even If Trichomes Don't Appear Ready) When determining when to harvest your cannabis, you can visually inspect the
plant, but the best way to ensure the highest level of potency in your buds is to look at the trichomes/glitter on the buds themselves. When the buds have reached the highest levels of THC, the trichomes will have mostly all turned white and milky looking.
This means you can check the trichomes under a magnifier to ensure the highest potency when you harvest (learn how here).
However, there are times when your trichomes might not look 100% ready under a magnifier, but you should still harvest them anyway. Keep scrolling for pictures!
Don't forget to check out the full tutorial on when/how to harvest your buds with even more pictures and information!
Buds Are Becoming Brown or Burnt
When buds start to appear toasted or are becoming brown in spots, it's time to harvest even if the trichomes don't look right quite
yet.
Burnt Buds - Ready to Harvest It's especially important to harvest when the buds themselves are turning brown as potency may start degrading at this point
Plant Has Stopped "Living"
In the wild a cannabis plant germinates in the Spring,
lives its whole life, and dies by the end of the year. It is designed to make buds and then perish. Once a cannabis plant has stopped "living" you won't really be able to get more growth out of it.
If you've burned off or otherwise lost all your leaves and sugar leaves, take the plant down. Your buds won't fatten up
without any green on the plant, but buds may start to get discolored or otherwise damaged.
No Green Leaves Left - Ready to Harvest!
Once all the leaves have turned yellow, you should harvest the plant in order to prevent discoloration from spreading to the buds
Hermies
If a marijuana plant has completely busted out with hermie pollen sacs or
bananas, you might consider harvesting immediately so it doesn't self-pollinate or pollinate your other plants, which causes seedy buds. Be very, very careful moving a hermie plant if there are other plants in the room, and realize that even if you can't see any, pollen may have contaminated your grow room!
Pro Tip: GENTLY cover the plant in a plastic bag before attempting to move it. This
will contain most pollen if any escapes.
If you see "balls" or "bananas" among your buds, you have a hermie and may want to harvest immediately to avoid letting buds get
seeded
Bud Rot
If you've been affected by bud rot, I highly recommend taking down buds immediately. Do it the same day if you can! You don't want bud rot to spread, and once its hit one cola it can get others overnight!
Although it's not ideal to harvest plants on the early side, a good dry and cure will help make up for an early harvest. It's way better to harvest a little early than to lose your crop!
As an outdoor grower it can be a good idea to take down plants if you have dense buds and you know it's going to be cold and rainy/humid for a few days - those are
prime conditions to create bud rot which can ruin a whole harvest!
If you see bud rot,
don't wait; harvest all your plants immediately!
Bug Infestation
If your plant is within a few weeks of harvest, but has gotten
infested by bugs which you can't seem to stop, I recommend taking down your plants and salvaging what you can as opposed to treating the plants with potentially harmful pesticides (which can get on your buds). You can safely make hash out of buds you may not want to smoke for whatever reason.
How Does Light Spectrum Affect Plants? |
When it comes to light, your plant doesn't just pay attention to "how much" light it gets, but also "what kind" of light it's getting. In order to grow as good as possible, cannabis plants (like all plants) respond to the color of light, which is known as the "spectrum" of light.
The fact that spectrum affects plant growth is actually one of the coolest things about LED grow lights - you can control the exact spectrum they give off, which actually gives you the ability to manipulate how your plants grow so you get better results!
Different colors of light actually make your plant grow differently. Your plant is "listening" to the sun for instructions and you can take advantage of that!
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Here's a quick rundown of the effects of each light major light spectrum:
Ultraviolet Light - May possibly increase THC levels in small doses.
Blue Light - Ideal for vegetative growth and tends to make plants grow short and squat.
Green Light - Although you don't need a whole
lot, even just a little green light helps plants grow faster and healthier (though once your plant has "enough" adding more doesn't seem to help).
Red / Infrared Light - Red and infrared light is especially crucial to
cannabis growers because they play an important role in getting plants to make buds. In fact, adding more red light can help support your plant in the flowering stage and produce bigger yields!
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I learned a lot from your site today - I was researching LED lights and ideal distance from the plants and you had an article that was exactly what I needed. So much so that I went to look
for a "Donate" button to thank you, alas, no button, so I guess I will just say, "Thank you".
-Robert |
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"First time since the 1970s"
~anonymous
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Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
I'll be honest with you, when I first started growing, I struggled. Now, it is my mission to make it easier for new growers to
get started as well as help advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We are updating and adding articles every single week and our goal is to eventually build a comprehensive growing resource so anyone and everyone can grow if they want to! If we all share the knowledge there's more buds in the world for everyone :) |
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Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium (deep water culture,
bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis is a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much
easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
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