Whether you are growing marijuana for personal use or to sell, it’s important to know how to harvest correctly. This process will affect the taste, psychoactive effect, and overall potency of your cannabis.
To help you determine when your plant is ready for harvest, look at the trichomes and stigma color. If the trichomes are cloudy or amber, it’s time to start trimming your crop.
Time of Harvest
The time of harvest is an important step in the process of growing cannabis. It marks the end of your plant’s flowering phase and is critical to ensuring that you get the most out of your buds.
In order to determine the optimal time for harvest, you’ll need to observe your plants carefully. You can do this by looking at the development of the trichomes that produce the cannabinoids and terpenes that give your strain its distinctive characteristics.
Trichomes look like little balls that change in color as they ripen. They start clear and then become milky, transforming to a more translucent white or amber. The point when half of these trichomes have changed color is when your cannabis buds are ready for harvesting.
Equipment
Harvesting cannabis is a crucial stage of the cultivation process. The right tools can make this time of the plant’s life much easier.
Whether you’re a commercial grower or a home cultivator, you want to ensure that your marijuana is harvested at the correct time. Using reliable methods like the “trichome test” or a pocket microscope can help you decide when it’s time to pull your plants and get them ready for trimming and drying.
In addition to the right harvest equipment, you also need a sanitary work environment. Having disposable gloves on hand is important, as is making sure your hands and equipment are free of residues like lint or pet hair that can affect the quality of the buds you’re preparing for curing.
You’ll also need a place to store your buds as they’re drying and curing. Depending on your facility size, you may need to invest in hanging drying racks or mobile drying carts.
Preparation
Once the flowering stage is over, it’s time to harvest your cannabis. This is one of the most important steps in the cultivation process, as it will dictate how well your buds turn out.
The best way to tell when your marijuana buds are ready for harvest is by looking at the trichomes and pistils. These glands change color as the buds mature, and many cultivators rely on these visual indicators for guidance.
Trichomes that are milky-white or opaque show that terpene production is at its peak, and that secondary metabolites like THC and CBD are at their maximum potential.
Amber trichomes on overripe buds indicate that the bud is starting to degrade, and this could result in a less potent product.
If you want to ensure a smooth-tasting bud, flush your plants with water before harvesting. This will get rid of excess salts and other harsh compounds that can build up in your cannabis.
Safety
There are a number of important safety measures to take when harvesting marijuana. These include using gloves that are free of mould, fungus and toxic chemicals.
It’s a good idea to use gloves from a manufacturer that has verified quality protocols in place. Using the wrong pair of gloves can make a huge difference in a product’s integrity and purity.
During the flowering stage, the trichomes on the cannabis plant transform from clear to milky and then amber. These trichomes are responsible for the THC potency of the final product.
It’s important to understand when the plants trichomes are at their peak ripeness to ensure that the buds are the most potent possible. Fortunately, there are a few botanical landmarks growers can look out for that indicate when it’s time to harvest.
