A week from harvest, but not all of the plant is ready - inside

So this is my first grow.. its white widow in an aeroponic setup under a 400W MH/HPS

I'm in the 8th week of flowering (wednesday will be 8 weeks) i was planning on harvesting saturday, as the top buds look ready.. I'm seeing some cloudy trichs (no amber yet).

However, the bottom of the plant has several buds which are nowhere near ready (plant is probably 4-5 feet tall).

What is the best way to harvest so everything is at its peak? I wanted to cut the top buds and branches off so light can reach the bottom, but i'm worried it will over stress the plant. Do i have to just remove the buds and leave the branches? How much of the leaves can i remove?

Sorry the pictures arent very clear. One is the "Ready" buds and one is the buds at the bottom which clearly arent

Thanks
Shane

I was wondering the same thing. Like a gradual harvest to allow the bottom the little extra it needs. I'll be watching.

i have (with success) cut individual brances and cola's leaving the bottom branches in flower for a week longer. it does help, and even if you do trigger hermie, there's not enough time to produce a seed

Yea i agree with KP! :) u might as well leave bottom buds on.. its not going to hurt and most likely will help!

right but my question is... how much of the top can i cut away? The more i cut, the more light will reach the bottom, but i dont know how much it will stress, or if i'd be better of just removing the buds and not branches/leaves

or, does it not matter at all because like you said i cant cause a hermie in 7 days, cut it down, lower the light and hope its done in a week

Noty make sure you cut it so that there is some BUD left on there! (Oh thank god somebody thinks I'm so hilarious.....me!) I would just cut the part that looks "done"' (you can check your trichs going down the bud till you reach a cut-off point) and let the rest get more light. If the bud looks done...chop it. If the branch looks done.... chop IT. :D

I just bought some WW seeds....what strength were you nuting those babies at? I was urged to go light on the nutes with them. Did you? Yours look good!:thumbsup:

If you clip just the finished buds, sometimes a new bud will form in its place!

On leaving most of the upper plant intact:

1) Rule of Thumb for Crop Plants: Leave leaves whenever you can. These are your plant's solar panels. When you remove some, you cut down on the amount of energy your plant will get.

2) It matters less than you might think whether or not the lower buds are getting direct light. Flowers (buds) themselves don't do any photosynthesis, and the small leaves around them do very little because of their size. One plant is a single organism - The energy produced via light captured by your large upper leaves will feed other parts of the plant!

3) If you really want more light on your lower plant, you can buy some cheap clamp lamps, and put in some warm or daylight CFLs, or even (oh god, here comes the barrage of naysaying!) incandescents (which produce much more of the red & far-red light plants need during flower) to supplement your overhead HPS.

Weedhounds advice is good for me. Normally the topmost buds mature first, with lower buds catching up in 7-10 days. You can safely remove the mature branches. Yes, the plant will be stressed but since things are so far down the road (plant is basically ready) then you risk little in the way of damaged lower buds whereas you risk more leaving the top branches to over-mature.

I harvested 3 gals 2 months back for a week. I let each bud mature individually, took me about a week, 200g of prefectly matured bud. The last 3-4 days, all the lower buds got bathed in light, and matured nicely too, though they didn't grow much bigger, they did seem to get more compact from that.
Theres even a theory that if the plant hermies the last week, it will increase weight. The buds do swell up with immature seeds, and fill them out, but it probably doesn't do much for the quality.

Hey thanks houdini....let me get you another soda there! ;)

Interesting information on this thread, thanks for all the info.

To claify though, it seems like MackSwell is saying the direct light caused from taking the top mature buds off won't cause an increase in the time they mature (the direct light doesnt always matter) Some others are saying it will speed up the process. I can understand the logic from both sides quite honestly. I am in the middle of a harvest right now (mostly milky, not much amber just yet) but I took one down last night anyhow becuase I like that "up" high. Will take another look tonight..do they go from milky to amber quickly?

Mostly yes... More light to lower buds is not what's going to speed them along or improve them, but once you've clipped the finished buds, the plant is no longer devoting energy to them, and therefore has more to send to your developing buds.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mackSwell

Mostly yes... More light to lower buds is not what's going to speed them along or improve them, but once you've clipped the finished buds, the plant is no longer devoting energy to them, and therefore has more to send to your developing buds.

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True good point. But I guess by taking the top leaves off it would almost be a wash then... who knows though!

My man, smoke them up and then tell me they are a wash:jointsmile: I personally am into the more light the better....direct, bouncing off Mylar or any way I can get it. More light......better yield. Think of it as a plant growing in the sun vs a plant growing in the shade. :)

Good stuff. :D I have nothing to add. :)



The Fog :rastasmoke: