Save This Plant or Harvest Early?

Hey all, you may have seen my other post.

I came home from a trip to a severely burned and crispy indica plant. I trimmed all the crispy leaves (may have been a mistake but they looked fairly dead,) and have continued to water the plant over the last 2 weeks. Temperature has been under control since the incident.

The plant has shown some slow new growth in the lower regions, but some of the buds are burned to a golden crisp (see pics) and there are no healthy/large fan leaves. Pictures below.

I am moving in 22 days! I have an Indica plant (on right) that is looking good and a Sativa that is just beginning to finally show large amounts of flowers but it could use the extra light.

Should I just harvest the struggling Indica? This would allow for a more favorable light configuration for the Sativa to get the most growth out of it that I can in the next three weeks.

If I were to harvest early, based on the pictures of the buds do they look fairly smokeable? Or would it better to just stay the course and harvest all three plants in 22 days (or less.)

Also forgot to mention:

If there is anything you can suggest to help get this damaged plant back on track, your advice is much appreciated.

Also... goes without saying:

My goal is to have the most yield by June 30th as possible.

Thank you.

They would probably be smokable. I think I would try and water them for 2 weeks and see if they perk up. If not, then you've flushed them good with no nutes so they should be good.

You mean another two weeks? They've already been like this for two weeks of watering.

I'd say you can chop the burnt parts (since they won't grow anymore), but if some parts are still green and growing, then leave it them. What do the trichomes look like under a microscope? Text

The burned plant has small amounts of new growth at the bottom of the plant. Not enough to seem like it will significantly increase yield in three weeks (see for yourself in the pics above, you will notice small new nodes along the branches.)

Here are some pictures of the more healthy-looking buds on this plant. As I mentioned there are no fan leaves. Please try to gauge if this is ready for harvest. I have read some guides but my lense is not good enough to tell the composition of trichs.

Thanks!

I would say wait out the 3 weeks to get those main buds a little bigger. They dont seem to be ready from what I can see.

Can't really tell from those pictures, because the lighting makes it difficult to see the color or the trich's. Try using some different light, and zoom in as close as possible (while keeping the picture clear of course). Post again and we might be able to tell you where you're at.

Radio shack microscopes are like $12... a great investment, and fun to look at nugs stoned :stoned:

Sorry BigTops, I'm just not able to spend any more $ on this project at this point.

Posted new pics with better zoom this time, let me know what you think. I value all input. I can post a zoomed in .jpg if that would help but I figure you can digitally-zoom on your own.

I would really love to harvest this one now (despite some new growth at the bottom,) because the Sativa is growing buds more rapidly, and at this point is larger than the other two plants.

Perhaps I missed it, but how old are the plants? To me, they dont look anywhere near done. Since the sugar leaves are still green, I'd let them go. Without the fan leaves they won't do much as far as yield but you can at least get a little bit more mass and let the trichs mature to get the most out of your work.

Thanks for the feedback Deja. Plants are 2 1/2 months old. They have been in flowering for 5 weeks. I know this isn't ideal, I just want to make sure I get the most yield-possible by June 30th which is the last possible day to harvest because I'm moving out that day.

I had a plant last summer that I killed at 5 1/2 weeks and it looked a lot like yours except all the leaves burnt up and I harvested it. I got 3.75 oz from it and while it got me stoned, it tasted really funny because it was so green. A friend of mine that tried it said it gave him a headache, which I could believe because of the under-developed trichomes. I would let it mature as long as possible, as you still have some green leaves which means it is still able to go through some of its processes. If all the leaves start drying up, its most likely dead, but if you really want to cut it at this point you will have some bud to smoke that will get you stoned, but it will taste pretty bad. My advice would be to let it go until those leaves start drying up.

When you say "those leaves start drying up," will all the leaves typically dry up? A lot of the Harvesting Guides I've looked at are all on such the microscopic level, so I don't really know what a plant generally looks like at this phase. I'm sure it varies a lot, but could you link me to any pics?

My two other plants have lots more green leaves, although due to another heat torture incident it looks like my Sativa is starting to drop it's fan leaves and curl the leaftips while the healthier Indica is starting to show brown spots... Not good!

I just want these babies to produce as much as I can. I got laid off from my job so I need this yield to last me as long as possible. Should I see no green at all on the leaves or how do I know when to pull the plug? Here's some buds on the other plants. You can tell by the pic how immature the sativa is compared to two Indicas.

Sorry I must not have been clear. The leaves will dry up if the plant is dead. The leaves on my plant last year dried up because I killed the roots, and therefore killed the entire plant. Once it stops trying to survive, it will just shrivel up and die. This is bad, and doesn't happen normally to a plant that is about to be harvested. Sorry if that was confusing, but I harvested my plant because it died at 5.5 weeks, not because it was ready to be harvested. I was just saying that if your leaves start to dry up, the plant is most likely dead so you might as well cut it down.

In order to check for peak ripeness, you need a 60x magnifier to examine the trichomes. I got a 60X-100X one with a light for like $12 at Radio Shack. That is the only way to truly tell when they are done. Generally, indicas finish between 7-9 weeks although some can go longer, whereas Sativas go like 10-12 weeks +. For example, my Dutch Passion Master Kush usually finishes in 51-54 days, and I had a Purple Kush that finished in 50. Both are pretty much pure indica. I've never grown a sativa, probably because I don't think I could wait that long! :jointsmile:

Hope this was a bit more clear, and I hope your plant can hold out for a couple more weeks and you can still get a decent yield. :thumbsup: