Growing Autoflowers almost ready, is no defoliation normal?

[TUFKA-Sleepwalker]

Hello
I have some autoflower White label White Widows.
I didn't investigate much on autos but since the only reason I got them is harvest-time in July instead of late Oktober
Plus the need to keep them below 1 meter tall, because they are grown behind glass.
Any yield is a massive WIN.
My girls already won.

I remember my foto Widows became yellow and losing leaves in the last weeks.
These plants are still completely green yet the buds appear to be ready.
Is this common in autoflowers?
I thought they would lose their leaves...

It always pains me to cut down the plants but as they looks so fresh and green it's even harder.

The biggest one looks like it could still go for a week but the hot weather these last days ripened the others very quickly.
I'm around the 12th week from germination.

 

[TUFKA-Sleepwalker]

I thought I might get another couple of days of bloom but we had several days of 33°C here.
The hairs coloured brown faster than I expected.
I think she's ready for harvest.
What do you think?

 

[Fire&Water]

Looks to me like you could give them a few more days

 

[G_Chem]

I think the yellowing and losing the leaves is either genetic or possibly some nutrient problem. My plants usually have their leaves by harvest, maybe some loss at the bottom but I’ve only had the leaves lost on certain types of genetics or of outdoor and weather gets weird.

Btw I agree after seeing the pic, let them go a bit longer, I think I see white hairs in there still. I like all of them to be turned unless you’re dealing with something like Thai genetics (like original Blueberry) where the buds form in multiple stages and certain parts will be over mature while others under.

-GC

 

[TUFKA-Sleepwalker]

I think the yellowing and losing the leaves is either genetic or possibly some nutrient problem. My plants usually have their leaves by harvest, maybe some loss at the bottom but I’ve only had the leaves lost on certain types of genetics or of outdoor and weather gets weird.

Btw I agree after seeing the pic, let them go a bit longer, I think I see white hairs in there still. I like all of them to be turned unless you’re dealing with something like Thai genetics (like original Blueberry) where the buds form in multiple stages and certain parts will be over mature while others under.

-GC

thank you. That makes sense.
That means no cutting yet.
This one is the most dense and ripest one.
The others became more fluffy, which I actually prefer.

The autoseed-genetics are kinda weird when you're use to clones
I had 4 very different growpaterns on the 4 different plants.
Some due to me always doing everything wrong the first time, and learning afterwards.
The one on the pics is dense.
And at the right heightsize i prefer since im growing in stealth-mode
The main goal was to keep them under 1 meter and keep the smell òf the total amount of bud somewhat in check for my neighbours, with nothing but a fan and sunlight.
I'm not going for the numbers, but am having a lot of fun, since this worked well.
Ill be smoking fresh grass in the summertime.

This ones more like the original widow used to grow and reached 45cm in height.


This one did some foxtails and grew to 75cm.


And this one shot up to 95cm and I had to bend the main cola in the last weeks.
I didn't turn the plants and let them adjust to the sun from the west only.
Looks a bit stupid like this from the side but turned out quite efficient. This one is a bit behind and was the slowest seedling...


Just a bit more love and patience then.

 

[papercuts]

thank you. That makes sense.
That means no cutting yet.
This one is the most dense and ripest one.
The others became more fluffy, which I actually prefer.

The autoseed-genetics are kinda weird when you're use to clones
I had 4 very different growpaterns on the 4 different plants.
Some due to me always doing everything wrong the first time, and learning afterwards.
The one on the pics is dense.
And at the right heightsize i prefer since im growing in stealth-mode
The main goal was to keep them under 1 meter and keep the smell òf the total amount of bud somewhat in check for my neighbours, with nothing but a fan and sunlight.
I'm not going for the numbers, but am having a lot of fun, since this worked well.
Ill be smoking fresh grass in the summertime.

This ones more like the original widow used to grow and reached 45cm in height.


This one did some foxtails and grew to 75cm.


And this one shot up to 95cm and I had to bend the main cola in the last weeks.
I didn't turn the plants and let them adjust to the sun from the west only.
Looks a bit stupid like this from the side but turned out quite efficient. This one is a bit behind and was the slowest seedling...


Just a bit more love and patience then.

How much longer did you let them go? WW is the strongest strain I've grown, not for the numbers on the seed pack, that said just 20%, but indoors nothing ever gets as big or strong as white widow, it beats plants that are meant to be 30%, so maybe it just likes my set up.
Edibles made from ww are knockout too.
Girl Scout Cookies is a great little indoor plant as well, it grows smaller, never more than half a metre tall when topped or fimmed, shakes off fungal disease, survives pests and poor care, although the one I've going now is pampered like crazy in the heatwave.
Ever tried the F1 varieties?

 

[Darksidesam]

I think white widow owes its sedating effects to:
a. higher CBN levels than other strains
b. high level of a terpene called Myrcene

Plant is looking fairly healthy to me

 

[G_Chem]

I think white widow owes its sedating effects to:
a. higher CBN levels than other strains
b. high level of a terpene called Myrcene

Plant is looking fairly healthy to me

The high CBN could explain the knockout edibles too. I’ve found CBN is much stronger in edible form.

-GC

 

[Darksidesam]

The high CBN could explain the knockout edibles too. I’ve found CBN is much stronger in edible form.

-GC

same if im guessing that vaped weed cakes = some degraded THC into CBN all i know is they used to help me sleep really well

 

[elgoucho9]

I think the yellowing and losing the leaves is either genetic or possibly some nutrient problem. My plants usually have their leaves by harvest, maybe some loss at the bottom but I’ve only had the leaves lost on certain types of genetics or of outdoor and weather gets weird.

Btw I agree after seeing the pic, let them go a bit longer, I think I see white hairs in there still. I like all of them to be turned unless you’re dealing with something like Thai genetics (like original Blueberry) where the buds form in multiple stages and certain parts will be over mature while others under.

-GC

Yellowing of the leaves is showing the nutrients are all out of it and the plants ready after flushing.

Your supposed to harvest when the plant is 50% white 50% brown hairs, or more importantly the mushroom shape THC heads are fully formed under the microscope.

 

[G_Chem]

Yellowing of the leaves is showing the nutrients are all out of it and the plants ready after flushing.

Your supposed to harvest when the plant is 50% white 50% brown hairs, or more importantly the mushroom shape THC heads are fully formed under the microscope.

Once again I’ve been able to have my plants retain most of their leaves even when ready to be harvested. And 50/50 is too early unless you’re looking at something like a Thai strain where the buds develop in stages. I pick mine when nearly all the hairs have turned red/brown/orange/purple/etc, 50/50 is still immature for most strains.

Then again everyone has different opinions on when to pick. I sometimes will pick a bit earlier when some of the hairs are still white as the resulting smoke has a bit more of a daytime vibe to it.

-GC

 

[elgoucho9]

Once again I’ve been able to have my plants retain most of their leaves even when ready to be harvested. And 50/50 is too early unless you’re looking at something like a Thai strain where the buds develop in stages. I pick mine when nearly all the hairs have turned red/brown/orange/purple/etc, 50/50 is still immature for most strains.

Then again everyone has different opinions on when to pick. I sometimes will pick a bit earlier when some of the hairs are still white as the resulting smoke has a bit more of a daytime vibe to it.

-GC

Yeah you can easily have the leaves still dark green for harvest time if you just don't flush it. On the whole if all the leaves are still green when harvesting then your still holding too much nitrogen.

Yeah the longer you leave it and more hairs turned brown the THC on the buds gives way to higher CBN

When To Harvest Cannabis With Perfect Timing

How can you tell when to harvest cannabis? This blog explains, with some useful tips for cutting the crop in the best possible way.

www.amsterdamgenetics.com

Everyone's got their own preferences but the key is the globules under the microscope looking fully developed. Regardless of what colour the hairs are.

 

[papercuts]

Yeah you can easily have the leaves still dark green for harvest time if you just don't flush it. On the whole if all the leaves are still green when harvesting then your still holding too much nitrogen.

Yeah the longer you leave it and more hairs turned brown the THC on the buds gives way to higher CBN

When To Harvest Cannabis With Perfect Timing

How can you tell when to harvest cannabis? This blog explains, with some useful tips for cutting the crop in the best possible way.

www.amsterdamgenetics.com

Everyone's got their own preferences but the key is the globules under the microscope looking fully developed. Regardless of what colour the hairs are.

When they are still growing the crystals look a bit wet, like damp sugar. A look of dry sugar is a sign they are ready, with brown hairs and some amber crystals under a jewellers loupe.
Got to remember things like heat can turn the hairs brown and touching the plant can turn crystals amber, it's not only maturity that looks mature.

 

[elgoucho9]

When they are still growing the crystals look a bit wet, like damp sugar. A look of dry sugar is a sign they are ready, with brown hairs and some amber crystals under a jewellers loupe.
Got to remember things like heat can turn the hairs brown and touching the plant can turn crystals amber, it's not only maturity that looks mature.

I agree but definitely all of the hairs don't need to be brown for the plant to be ready.

 

[papercuts]

I agree but definitely all of the hairs don't need to be brown for the plant to be ready.

Agreed. Tbh I'm never sure when the right time is. I snip samples but my tolerance isn't great because I don't take tolerance breaks, so it doesn't tell me much.
Few months back I had a huge Starkiller and even though it was topped the top buds were ready two weeks before the lower buds, so I did two harvests on it and kept them separate, they have slightly different effects from each other, both are great, but it took a week for the plant to recover before starting to mature another bit during the second week. When I tried one week between harvests didn't work, the buds were all the same, it hadn't done anything in the first "recovery" week, y'know.

 

[elgoucho9]

Agreed. Tbh I'm never sure when the right time is. I snip samples but my tolerance isn't great because I don't take tolerance breaks, so it doesn't tell me much.
Few months back I had a huge Starkiller and even though it was topped the top buds were ready two weeks before the lower buds, so I did two harvests on it and kept them separate, they have slightly different effects from each other, both are great, but it took a week for the plant to recover before starting to mature another bit during the second week. When I tried one week between harvests didn't work, the buds were all the same, it hadn't done anything in the first "recovery" week, y'know.

Yeah sometimes if it's a big plant or lots of heads some bits are ready before others. If I'm running low often I'll do the same and harvest some of it earlier than the rest to keep me going.

 

[Psychlone Jack]

The high CBN could explain the knockout edibles too. I’ve found CBN is much stronger in edible form.

-GC

Love that extra little stony umph from cbn and cbno. Recently discovered a pen with elevated levels of these and can definitely tell the difference.