After nurturing your plants for the last few months, caring for them like they are your own kids, and giving them time, care and all the attention, it has finally come to the harvesting stage. Firstly, a big congratulations is in order. Growing a plant from seed to harvest is not easy, and no matter what conditions you are growing it under, or what strain you are growing, getting to the harvesting stage is something to celebrate. 

In this article, we are going to explore the importance of harvesting your plant at the right time and what signs to look for so you are confident in making that first snip. We are also going to discuss a bit about the tools you will need for the harvesting process, as well as a couple tricks of the trade that can elevate your buds from dank and delicious, to truly extraordinary. 

When Do I Harvest My Marijuana Plants?

Knowing exactly when to harvest your plant is a major part of growing smooth, knock-you-off-your-feet type of buds. There is a huge variety of things that can affect harvest time from strain type, to whether you are growing indoors or outdoors or whether your plant is an autoflower or a photoperiod. Although seed packets will often say 8–10 weeks of flowering before harvesting, choosing the right harvest day within that 2-week period can affect your buds more than you imagine. And they may take a week or two longer than stated, based on a range of variables.

First things first. How do I know when my plants are ready to harvest? Well, there are a number of tell-tale signs you can look for that will tell you exactly this. 

Fan Leaves Begin To Go Yellow

The first visual sign that your buds are ready to be plucked is the remaining fan leaves on your cannabis plant will start to turn yellow. When you notice this, get your scissors and gloves ready and be prepared for harvest in the next week or two.

Trichomes Look Different 

The most telling sign, and the one you can trust the most, is the change in trichome appearance. Trichomes are a great indicator of THC potency, and will appear as a different color depending on their THC levels. 

One thing to consider before going any further is how to examine your trichomes. As they are so tiny, and hard to see with the naked eye, you will need a specific tool to help you. 

We recommend a jeweller’s loupe (mini magnifying glass), or even better, a USB microscope. 

Trichomes present themselves in three different colors. 

1. Clear: This means the buds are not ready and that their THC potency is not quite high enough.
2. Milky: This is what you are looking for. When your trichomes look a little milky, it generally means the THC potency is optimal. 
3. Amber: When they appear amber/orange, it means you have left your buds a little too long, and that the THC has started to convert to CBN, which has a more sedative effect. 

Most growers will look for a 70/30 split between cloudy and amber. Anywhere close to this ratio is pretty good, and if you harvest now, and dry your buds the right way, you will be sure to have something that you can be proud of.

When Should I Harvest My Outdoor Cannabis Plants?

Growing cannabis outdoors can be a lot more challenging than indoor setups. There are a heap more factors to consider and a lot more variables that can affect how your plants turn out. 

In the Northern Hemisphere, being a warm-season annual plant, weed is ready to harvest sometime between September and November, depending on the strain. 

Harvesting in Cold Climates 

Cannabis can withstand light, fast frosts of around 28-32℉ for about 3 hours. Anything colder than this, or for longer than this, and your plants are likely going to die. This is why planting at the right time of year is so important. If you plant too late, you will be harvesting in the cold winter months, exposing your plants to the risks of cold temperatures. 

Rainy Harvests

Similar to cold snaps, cannabis plants can handle a bit of rain, given the temperatures are going to warm up shortly and dry out your plants. 

On the other hand, if the rain looks like it is here to stay, we recommend cutting your losses and getting those buds to a dry place ASAP. 

Covering your plants can definitely help protect them against heavy rains, however, there will be plenty of moisture in the air after even an extended light rain. You can put some tall stakes in the ground and cover your plants with a tarp, but make sure you remove this as soon as the cold breaks or the rain stops, so they can soak up that sun and dry out. 

How Often Do You Harvest Weed? 

The number of times that you harvest each year depends on how you are growing your weed, and what type of weed strain you are growing. There is a big difference between indoor grows compared to outdoor setups, as well as a big difference between growing photoperiod plants and autoflowers. 

Indoor Grows 

Growing plants indoors gives you a whole bunch more freedom in terms of when you can plant and how many harvests you want to get each year. This is made even easier when growing autos. Because they stay under the same light schedule from veg to flower, you can stagger your planting and have a perpetual harvest.

With photoperiod indoor setups, this is a little trickier, as you need to change the light schedule to initiate flowering. However, if you have two separate rooms, you can still achieve a perpetual harvest. 

Outdoor Grows 

Outdoor setups are entirely different to indoor ones because you are at the mercy of mother nature. Generally, you will only be able to have one harvest per year with outdoor setups, however, you can have multiple staggered harvests if you grow different strains that have different flowering times. 

We also recommend, especially if you are growing a large amount, to stagger the planting stage over a 2-week period. This means that when it comes to harvest time, you can avoid having an overwhelming amount that is ready to be harvested all at once. 

What Do You Need to Harvest Weed?

Before you get to trimming, make sure that you are properly prepared and ready for the next phase of the journey. After your buds are snipped, they need to be dried. 

You should have a drying room prepared at harvest time, so you can get those buds that you have worked so hard for, into the right environment as soon as they are removed from the plant. 

In order to properly trim your cannabis plant, you are going to need a few specific items. 

1. Sharp Scissors or Pruning Shears: The sharper and cleaner the better. You want to make the neatest cuts as possible when trimming, making sure you can remove the branches without damaging the buds in the process. 
2. A jeweller’s loupe or USB microscope: We mentioned this above, but the only way to truly know if a plat is ready to come down is by inspecting the trichomes. This cant be done with the naked eye or even your macro photo setting on your phone. Grab a USB microscope that can easily plug into your phone to make the job as easy as possible.
3. Trimming Trays: Most growers will use a tray to keep their buds before transporting them. Trays easily fit on your lap, which makes things comfortable. We also recommend getting one with a screen for collecting kief. 
4. Gloves: Trimming can be a dirty and sticky job, so gloves can be a huge help. Clean gloves also prevent the potential spread of bacteria that you might find on dirty hands. 
5. Drying Racks: You’ll need to get your buds drying as soon as possible, so having drying racks on hand can be super useful.
6. Buckets or Bins: When you are doing a big harvest, the amount of buds that you have on hand at the end of a trimming session can be overwhelming. Grab yourself a bucket or a clean bin to make transporting them to the drying room a hell of a lot easier.

Flushing Cannabis Before Harvest

Flushing is something that is done in the week leading up to harvest. The reason we flush our cannabis plants is to remove all the chemical and minerals from the growing subsrtate that might affect the taste and aroma of the weed when it’s ready to smoke. 

When we refer to flushing, we are talking about a process in which you stop giving your plants nutrients in the last 7 or so days before harvesting, and instead just give your plants water. You should fill each pot with as much water as you can before it overflows, and once this has fully dried, repeat the process. Usually, flushing takes around 4–7 days to properly flush out all the unwanted nutrients and minerals from the soil that might affect the smoking experience. 

If you are using organic soil (more common in outdoor grow setups) flushing is not as necessary as coco or hydro grow plants that have been fed synthetic nutes. However, you can still do it with organic soil, and you will probably still notice a small difference when you light up that first bud. 

How To Harvest Cannabis 

Now that we have gone through all the information to prepare yourself for harvest, the time has finally come to get those scissors out, chuck on your favorite Grateful Dead album on and get trimming. But what is the correct process to make sure you are getting as much yield from your plant as possible, without damaging any of the buds. 

Cutting Down The Plant 

When it’s time to cut your plant, you have two options, but you need to consider the climate first before making your decision. Keep in mind that you want your plants to dry slowly and in a controlled way, so if you are in a warmer and drier climate, they will naturally dry faster. Your two options are: 

1. Cut the whole plant at the base of the stem: This allows for slower drying, but also requires more space in your drying room. If you are in a warm and dry climate, we recommend this technique. 
2. Cutting each branch: This is the technique that most home growers opt for. It takes up less space in your drying room and generally dries a bit quicker than hanging the full plant. 

Trimming Leaves and Branches

Start by trimming away the large fan leaves. These generally don’t have any trichomes and therefore won’t contribute to the final product. All they are going to do is get in the way and take up space in your grow room. 

Once you have trimmed all the fan leaves, be sure to set them aside and save them. You can use them later to make tea, juice, or as a part of the compost for your next grow.  

The next step is to trim away the sugar leaves. This is where it gets a little trickier and hands on. Sugar leaves are pretty small and grow very close to the bud itself. If you don’t get rid of these sugar leaves, you could expose your plants to bud rot when they are in the final drying stage.

Be super careful when trimming these leaves, and make sure you don’t start snipping away at the bud itself. Sugar leaves get their name due to their high concentration of trichomes, so make sure you save them! They can be used later on to make concentrates or edibles. 

Wet vs Dry Trimming 

Another thing to decide when harvesting is whether you want to do a wet trim or a dry trim. This generally depends on personal preference or how well regulated you are able to keep your dry room. 

Wet Trimming: This is when you cut the branches and remove the excess fan leaves and sugar leaves immediately. It is way stickier and trickier, however, it does help if you are struggling to control high humidity in your dry room. With a wet trim, your buds will dry much faster. 

Dry Trimming: With a dry trim, we leave the plant to dry with the excess fan and sugar leaves still attached, for a couple of days, then go back after and trim them away. This is a lot easier and generally a more popular method as it slows down the drying process, as long as you have good control over the temperatures and humidity levels in your drying room. 

Drying Process 

After months of hard work, you have finally reached the drying stage. But stay aware, because you can still ruin your buds if you don’t dry them properly. To get the very best out of your buds, your drying room should be kept at temperatures of 65-70℉, with humidity levels of 50-60%.

When you hang your plants, make sure you give them enough space to breathe. If they are too close together, you will slow down the drying process too much, which can lead to mold issues. 

We recommend drying your plants for 7–10 days for the best results. 

One more thing to think about is ventilation. 

You want air circulating inside the dry room, and an extraction fan is important to remove humid air and replace it with fresh air. Try and make sure that you point any fans away from directly hitting the buds. 

You may also want to invest in a carbon filter to reduce the dank stank that will be coming from the room. 

Curing 

Unfortunately, many new growers skip the stage of curing cannabis. Think of it as a way to elevate your bud from fantastic to spectacular. The process basically involves storing your buds in jars to extract any excess moisture. As the buds cure, the terpenes and cannabinoids mature, making the bud that much more potent and delicious. 

We recommend curing your buds in glass mason jars, filling them up about 75% to the top, so that the buds still have room to breathe. Keep them stored at around 65℉ and in an area that is protected from sunlight. For the first two weeks, you should open the jars up each day to let any moisture out. This process is called burping. After the first two weeks, burp your jars once a week for the remainder of the curing process. 

How long you cure your buds is totally up to you. Like a fine wine, whiskey or bourbon, aging your buds will only increase their potency and quality. You can cure for anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months (if left in the right environment), however, we recommend starting with a 4-week cure and seeing how that goes. 

After curing, store your buds in a cool, dark place. If they are stored correctly, you can keep your buds for years without them losing any potency. 

Conclusion 

As growers, from the moment we first plant that seed, we dream of the days when our buds are fully grown and matured, ready to be snipped, trimmed and hung up to dry. But as you may have noticed from this article, there are a bunch of things to keep in mind during the harvesting stage to ensure the quality of your buds. 

As with every stage of the grow process, take your time when harvesting and do it right. The end result is just around the corner, and after coming all this way, we wouldn’t want to ruin that now!

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