Hey DGC! I grow in a mix of coco and ff ocean forest amended with castings and grow dots. It has been a good mix so far. I’m doing my first photo grow after growing autos for years. My genetics are from Humboldt and Bro Grimm. I’m 60ish days into flower and these beauties have green foliage, milky trichs with a few ambers. I’ve grown long enough to know to ignore breeders suggested times of flower. But! It won’t be long before these are ready…….
So my question……. Does organic cannabis always fade some? Or is it ok or normal for some strains or conditions to allow the plants to remain beautiful until harvest? My Auto experience has me questioning myself.
I’d say it depends on genetics and feedings. Some varieties won’t have much fade and some will almost no matter what. Also if you’re feeding closer to the end they will stay greener. I usually do 20 gal pots but went with 7gal this round and cut off my top dressing way too early and they faded from week 6 through 10. I thought they’d suffer but they just stayed faded forever before finally getting some dying leaves at the very end.
Some varietals don’t fade much if at all. I noticed Humbodlt’s Blueberry Muffin didn’t fade much, although that might be because it was a fast finisher, so maybe my fades are in part due to overgrowing the pot size.
If you are in organics plants will fade on their own whether you see it or not. Think about how nature works the ground doesn’t run out of nutrients, plants naturally stop pulling them or asking for them through ion exchange when they are at the end of life. The only way plants continue to feed is if you are adding nutrients to your water and then you are essentially force feeding them. Thats why synthetic nute growers have to worry more about flushing than organic growers.
Depends on genetics. With organics you dont really have to worry about much the plants will stop taking up when they ready.
Again, a thing about this is the breeder recommneded times which most part are exagerated and/or are based on pinpoint commecerial level growing.
Me personally, I dont include the first week when the seed comes out of the soil, and I find that the bigger the plant is (5 foot +) the long the plant takes to develop fully.
Again, I find flowering times and finishing times for Autos are based on the most optimum growing conditions for that genetic and commercial sense meaning $$$£££.
The beauty of growing your own is that you can push the plants as long as you want before harvesting rather than commercial pressures to cut a plant down for dispensaries.
So my man.. the long-winded answer to your question is pull it when the trichomes are at your desired cloudiness and go as long as you can wait to let the plants do their thing in organics. Even if the dont “fade” the drying process, if done right, will take care of most excess nitrogen issues.