Knowing when to harvest your cannabis is just one of those double-edged sword things.
If you harvest too soon then your buds will not be as potent as they can, whilst if you take them off too late you’re gonna end up with an altered cannabinoid profile which may give you different effects than what you were initially going after (read: Less THC than planned).
As a newbie grower, it may be confusing to figure out exactly when to harvest cannabis. In all honesty, I’ve read probably two dozen articles on this particular topic and they all recommend different methods:
Use a magnifying glass to look at pistils, closely examine the trichomes, follow the seed labeling, look at the visual examples…
There’s a lot of them, but which approach should a beginner grower go for?
That is exactly why I decided to look for weed growing case studies and start-to-finish tutorials and see which harvesting signs expert growers like to use.
I mean, if anyone knows the best then it’s the guys who harvested their plants hundreds of times: Pigeons 420 and NVclosetmedgrower are just some of the guys who do a tremendous job at explaining this.
So, without any further ado, here are top 5 telltale signs of when to harvest your cannabis:
When the hairs (pistils) turn dark and begin to recede
Pigeons 420 is one of my favorite cannabis YouTubers, case closed. The guy is a master at explaining how weed growing works, so I trust him when he says that hairs are the primary thing he’s looking at, come harvesting time.
Essentially, you want your pistils to become slightly darker and mature looking, so you’re looking for this:
Just make sure not to harvest while the hairs on your buds are still white. At this stage, the plant is still flowering and the majority of the pistils will appear straight.
Once the hairs get darker and start curling up, you should be good to go. But be sure to check out the other signs as well, just to be safe.
When the soil becomes extremely dense
Once the plant is ready for harvesting, it will simply not consume as much water like in the stages before. The plant simply did its biological purpose: it produced ripe flowers that are ready for male seeds.
This is best when combined with other signs, but as a general rule of thumb, when the plant starts taking in less water, it’s getting close to its harvesting window.
When there are 60-70% milky trichomes, 15% amber trichomes and 15% clear trichomes
You won’t be able to see this only with your naked eye, so make sure to grab a pocket microscope (preferably with an LED light attached).
Here you’re looking for the color of the trichomes: you want the majority of the trichomes to be milky with an equal distribution of both amber and clear trichomes.
The big question here is what’s the difference between milky and clear trichomes?
It’s easy — clear trichomes look like polished glass and milky trichomes look like frosted glass.
Avoid: there are a lot of growers who tell you to go for majority amber, but in my opinion this is too late. For maximum THC levels go for 70% milky and you’ll be fine.
When the leaves begin to turn yellow and crisp
Another indicator of your plant’s ripeness can be seen in the leaves surrounding the calyxes and even the bigger fan leaves. When the plant is ripe, the leaves will turn yellowish and start curling up and becoming dark and brittle.
It kind of looks like this:
Image source: Cannabis Pictures
Now, at this point you’re probably familiar with the fact that cannabis strains differ, especially when it comes to their growing stages.
In other words:
Make sure to learn how to recognize the flower ripeness, not just by blindly following any advice but by developing experience and that gut feeling that’s worth its weight in gold.
And if you are still confused about your harvesting window, just follow Pigeons 420’s advice:
“If you think she’s done, give her one more week”.
More on harvesting and growing cannabis
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Luka Petkovic
Editor in chief at Greencamp. Researching topics related to the biochemistry of cannabinoids and interested in the latest industry happenings.
Christopher Deaney February 11, 2019 at 11:42 pm
This is the best cut and dry answer that I have found . Great article !
Luka February 12, 2019 at 9:19 am
Thanks Chris!
Chris April 16, 2019 at 12:54 am
Very helpful, nicely summed up and straight to the point. The other articles left me stressing over harvest time, I'm feeling much better now, Thanks
Luka April 18, 2019 at 12:43 pm
Thank you Chris! :)
Mark bayliss July 8, 2019 at 6:55 pm
Very informative
Nicole September 22, 2019 at 3:14 am
This was right to the point. Thanks. So much easier to understand
D September 24, 2019 at 1:29 am
Great advice thanks
Luka Petkovic September 24, 2019 at 9:08 am
Glad I could help.
Katherine Blankinship September 24, 2019 at 11:23 pm
Time to dry some Cannabis! Thank you so much.
Luka Petkovic September 25, 2019 at 2:43 pm
Glad I could help Katherine! Make sure you cure it as well :)
Bonnie October 7, 2019 at 10:44 pm
Thanks for the great information!I have my first plant and I think it is about ..ready it is getting sticky also.. it is about 6 feet high
Rhonda September 13, 2020 at 3:10 pm
How do you harvest and keep the plant living for many harvests?
Blue dream September 26, 2020 at 11:52 am
Are you talking about cloning? A plant can only have one harvest before it dies.
Brandon Geer October 7, 2020 at 2:17 pm
Wrong. You can leave the bottom of the plant on or a few branches not harvested and you can re-veg the plant
Esteban El Mexicano September 20, 2021 at 7:08 pm
Agree with @Brandon. By mistake, I ended up leaving a plant to "go over" (too much rain, etc). I stripped off all of these very brown/gray flower from the stem thinking they'd be junk (wrong! - quite good!) then forgot about the plant and it re-sprouted to become twice the original size with a nice crop of new flowers. It's probably not ideal, but weed is a weed and it's good at surviving.
charette November 12, 2020 at 11:58 am
Thank you for the article man !
Linda April 8, 2021 at 1:42 pm
Thankyou for this helpful information. This is the first time I have tried to grow a plant, it has become sticky, could you tell me how long does the stickiness last before it needs to be harvested, thankyou
Chris August 24, 2021 at 1:35 am
More varieties in the article would be appreciated. Of course, show the top breed. But for new growers a variety of visuals would support more of the theory in the article.
Chris August 24, 2021 at 1:36 am
More variety pix please.
jc October 8, 2022 at 7:47 pm
Yes you can reveg a harvested plant. I did that with several white widows that were grown inside. Just replanted them outside. Leaves looked odd shaped and funky for a while, and it took a long time before they developed more than 3 leaflets . But turned out GREAT!