When should cannabis be harvested?
This is the burning question many aspiring growers ask and one we will answer below!
If you are new to cannabis cultivation, you likely want to know the time that is best for your lovely buds to be dried and harvested.
If so, stick around as we will share when indoor and outdoor marijuana is best harvested.
We also cover when to crop it if turning it into oil or hash is your goal – now two of the most popular ways people enjoy cannabis!
Seed-to-Plant Harvest Time
Knowing how and when to harvest cannabis is essential to enjoying your flower to the fullest. And after months of work and attentive care you want to ensure the harvest is done on time to maximize potency.
How long it takes to go from seed to harvest varies on the strain being grown and whether it is grown indoors or outdoors. Each strain also has unique growth patterns so not all mature at the same time, which can make it hard to know when it is ready if a new strain is grown from one harvest to the next.
What is the Best Time to Harvest Cannabis?
The best time to harvest a marijuana plant is when its flowering stage peaks.
How can you tell it has matured and completed its flowering cycle – you ask?
Well, it will be layered in vibrant pistils and blanketed in resinous trichomes, and large swollen calyxes that make leaves sticky to the touch!
The real magic occurs once trichomes go from being clear to dark and cloudy as this change means the flowering phase began. Given this, keep a watchful eye on trichomes as once you detect this transition you will know the final stage of the growth cycle is underway, which will help you plan a date of harvest.
These cues are essential to gauging when a cannabis plant should be harvested though the strain being grown, as well as the desired effects and environmental growth conditions, also play a role in when the plant should be cropped. Join us below as we delve into ways you can tell if the time to harvest arrived.
Seed Label Insight
To start, when you buy cannabis seeds, the package they come in should have the flowering time listed.
This will be shared in days or weeks so it may say six to eight weeks or forty-five to sixty days. It should also list a projected flower time for indoor and outdoor grows so you have an idea of when your harvest will be. But, stats on the package are not always precise so they should be read as a reference and not as a strict guideline as the time it takes the plant to flower can be shorter or longer than the label states.
Leaves Turning Yellow
Leaves turn yellow during the entire grow cycle, but as the plant nears the end of its life and flowering cycle, more and more will begin to turn this color.
However, yellow leaves do not indicate the plant is ready to harvest though if most have turned yellow there is a high chance buds are ready to be clipped and dried.
More so than yellow leaves, pistils are a better way to determine if a plant is ripe and ready for harvest.
These tiny, pollen-catching hairs are white and translucent at birth but turn opaque with a dark red hue as they mature. If you see most of them have turned yellow you can be confident it is ready for harvest!
Now, while this is a solid way to know if a plant is ready to harvest there are better ways as in some cases, a cannabis plant may produce pistils that never mature. If this happens, they will not turn color even if the plant itself matures, which may cause a grower to think the plant is not ready even when it is.
Trichomes
Trichomes is the most reliable way to tell when a plant is ready for harvest as these contain THC; the all-cherished compound that brings the fuzzy, feel-good, couch-lock vibes we all love and very much know.
To view trichomes clearly enough to see their color you need a microscope but even a cheap one will get the job done. If it is ready to harvest, the trichomes should be seventy percent white with the rest being clear or amber in color. Trichomes never lie, so they are a trusted indicator of when your harvest should take place. Pick up a microscope, any brand or model will do, and you will be able to harvest accurately!
Cannabis Harvest – Planning and Preparing
When the time finally comes, you should transition the grow space into one that is ideal for harvesting.
This means keeping humidity at fifty percent with a temp at or around twenty degrees Celsius. Outdoor growers usually start the harvest process on a dry day early in the morning but indoor growers do have more flexibility given their control over the environment, which outdoor growers have no influence on.
What do I need to Harvest Cannabis?
Not much is needed but there are some things you want to have on hand for a smooth-sailing harvest:
- Magnifying Lens, this is to inspect trichomes; a pocket microscope/smartphone camera also works.
- Trimming Shears, you need a sharp pair of shears to cut through thick resinous branches and leaves.
- Gloves, get a pair of gardening gloves to prevent sticky hard-to-rid resin from getting on your hands.
- Collection Bin, grab a large bin or tray so you have a place to store debris and branches as you work.
- Clear Work Area, have a cleared-off table or surface area so you have room to trim and prep flower.
- Fan, put a fan or two in the room to keep air circulating as doing so will speed up the drying process.
- Hangers, you need a way to hang branches so they can dry out and hangers make doing so a breeze.
- Herb Dryer, this is optional but you can get one if you want your flowers dried by a machine instead.
- Mason Jars, you for sure want to have a few of these on hand so you can store your flower and keep it fresh. Just make sure it is airtight as any leaks will cause the herb to dry out sooner than it should.
When is it too early to harvest cannabis?
If pistils and trichomes are clear and white they are not yet ready to harvest. If you choose to harvest it anyways, buds will not be as potent as they can be as the plant has not had enough time to fully develop the cannabinoids that bring the effects most seek. This said, once trichomes are cloudy and murky, and once pistils begin to change color, only then is it a good time to begin the long-awaited harvest process.
When is it too early to harvest cannabis?
Tell-tale signs of an overripe and mature cannabis plant are pistil recession and amber-toned trichomes.
If the plant grows too long, THC levels, cannabinoids, and the quality of buds can be adversely affected, which will take away from sought effects, so keep a very close eye on trichomes during the growth cycle.
