Should I Flush My Cannabis Plants?
After your cannabis plants have completed both the Vegetative Stage and the Flowering Stage, they are ready to be harvested.
Depending on the conditions in which you’ve chosen to cultivate your cannabis, your plants may have been thriving for anywhere from three to nine months at this point. You’ve obviously put in a lot of effort, and the time has come to start seeing results. Our in-depth article will teach you everything you need to know to successfully harvest cannabis.
Do you know what it means to flush? Relax; there’s no need to use the restroom.
It is recommended to “flush” cannabis plants around 14 days before harvest. The term “leaching” refers to the method by which any remaining nutrients are flushed away (fertilizers). Fertilizer is not something to skip, as it can make the buds taste bitter and could even be harmful if ingested.
In the final two weeks, you can either simply switch from fertilized water to pure water, or you can take extra precautions by following a two-step flushing process to remove all traces of nutrients.
The Two-Step Flushing Method
- Once the nutrients in the water have dissolved, add them to the soil or hydroponic medium.
- It’s recommended to add another glass of pure water. Take a look at the runoff that accumulates as a result of this technique; it should be roughly equivalent in volume to the planter’s holding capacity.
Within a few days, your cannabis plants will begin showing signs of nitrogen deficiency. This is promising because it suggests the nutrients were eliminated successfully through flushing. Assuming that everything goes according to plan, the dark green leaves will gradually turn a lighter green and eventually a bright yellow. Stalks of leaves may also turn red. At this point, the leaves and stems of the plant are no longer necessary for bud development and can be harvested for other uses (such as juicing or cooking).
When Are My Cannabis Plants Ready to Harvest?
Before you start collecting your plants for harvest, there is a lot to plan and consider.
Dehydrating your plants slightly before picking them can increase your yield. You can accomplish this by delaying watering by a few days. This is a safe way to induce stress in plants in order to harvest as much resin (which contains THC and other cannabinoids) as possible during the plants’ final hours. Likewise, lowering humidity levels will have the same effect.
How To Tell If Your Weed Plants Are Harvestable
There needs to be a suggested harvest date printed on every packet of Royal King Seeds Cannabis seeds. Although this data is helpful, it should not be used as gospel, as many other factors, such as altitude and growing conditions, affect when a plant is ready to be harvested.
Look into the strain recommendations of other growers.
- Overeager first-timers often make the mistake of harvesting their plants too soon, resulting in a smaller yield of weaker buds.
- The medicinal benefits of the buds will be greatly diminished if they are harvested after their “window,” which is only a month long.
There are two methods you can use to determine if your cannabis plants are ready to be harvested, and both of them are easier to execute with the help of a magnifying glass. A digital microscope is more expensive, but will allow you to see the buds on a computer screen, so a jeweler’s loupe or simple handheld magnifier will do.
Harvest Readiness Option One: Pistils
Pistils are the terminal apexes of flowers, identified by the tiny white hairs that develop on them. There’s a good chance that the pistils will be white and emerge relatively upright from the bud right up until harvest time.
Harvest time is approaching when the pistils curl inward and turn a darker shade of yellow, orange, or red. When this occurs on between fifty and seventy percent of the plant’s pistils, the THC content is at its peak. The time to harvest for psychoactive euphoria is now.
Some of the THC in the plant will have been converted to CBN and the medicinal buds will have a calming, anti-anxiety effect if you wait until 70-90% of the hairs have curled and colored.
The pistil method suffers from two major flaws:
- To start, some types of cannabis have hairs that never darken and always stay white. Don’t put off harvesting until the buds have gone bad. Taking the time to investigate relevant online discussion groups and other resources will prove useful now.
- Second, the curling and darkening of the pistils can be caused by things other than harvest readiness, such as excessive rain, a prolonged drought, or strong wind. The risk exists that you will pick your buds way too soon.
Some people think the next approach is more solid because of these reasons. The pistil method can serve as an early indicator that harvest time is near, while the trichome method can be used to pinpoint the exact day.
Option Two for Harvest Readiness: Trichomes
It is more accurate to harvest at the peak of trichome development. During the flowering stage, marijuana plants develop trichomes, which are the tiny crystal-like “hairs” responsible for the “frosted” appearance of a mature marijuana plant.
Trichomes, also known as resin glands, are formed when resin accumulates in a layer-by-layer fashion to form tiny stalks. When the trichomes reach their capacity for cannabinoids, the tips begin to swell and eventually form a ball at the plant’s crown.
If you want to use the trichome technique:
When harvest time is drawing near, examine the buds and leaves up close with a magnifying glass of at least 10X magnification (ideally 50X). Sticky trichomes, which are initially transparent, will be transforming into a milky white colour. The THC content of cannabis is highest when 80-90% of the buds have reached this colour, when about 40% of the pistils are coiled and red. If the buds are picked at the present time, they will have a more stimulating effect.
Don’t look at your trichomes again for a few more days. They will have started to turn a golden or amber colour. Some of the THC has converted to CBN, so the buds have a nice balance of effects, and they’re ready to be harvested when about 30 percent of the trichomes have changed colour.
If you miss the harvest “window” and the trichomes on the buds have turned grey and dried out, the buds will no longer be useful for medical purposes. Even so, there’s no need to worry unduly about missing the harvest because of this: the window is roughly 30 days long.
If you’re not sure when to harvest your plants, do so in stages, taking four days to a week between each harvest, anywhere from milky trichomes to fully amber ones. Document the harvest dates of each batch; this will help you establish a pattern that will allow you to identify the optimal time of day for you to harvest this strain.
Harvesting Your Cannabis
In other words, now is the time!
Once you’ve determined that your plants are ready for harvest, you should get started as soon as possible before the day’s light cycle begins. Wearing gloves is recommended, as trichome resin is notoriously sticky and can be a pain to get off your hands.
It’s a pretty basic process, at this point!
Step One
If you haven’t done so already, remove the largest leaves from the plant. When the majority of the plant has been trimmed, it can be uprooted from the rootball and thrown away. You could also remove individual branches from the plant’s main stem, starting at the top and working your way down.
Cutting the plant roughly could result in the trichomes falling off, reducing the final product’s efficacy. The stems should be left attached to the branches in a “V” shape to facilitate hanging and drying the buds.
Step Two
After the branches have been severed, it’s time to remove the smaller leaves from around and between the bud clusters. Leaves that emerge from the buds should have their tops lopped off.
However, because of their proximity to the buds, the undersides of these leaves are densely covered in trichomes, which makes drying them a more time-consuming process. If you get rid of them, you’ll also get rid of a lot of the cannabinoids. Some additional advantages of a slower drying time include increased potency and weight retention.
Wet Trimming vs Dry Trimming
Wet trimming involves removing the plant’s leaves immediately after it has been cut down. The dry trimming technique is used by some farmers, and it entails immediately hanging large bunches of buds and leaves, then separating the leaves after some drying has occurred. Whatever method you choose, you’ll end up with the same thing: beautiful, curative flowers that can be used to treat a wide variety of diseases and ailments.
