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geokills said:

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FrakersFarm said:

Now the pistils are beginning to turn orange which I know means it's starting to decrease in potency.

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People seem to have you pretty well covered here, but I wanted to just chime in real quick to set something straight that may have been a little confusing (or maybe not, in which case, please forgive my bantering! ).

The pistils on a marijuana plant can often "ripen" brown or red or orange well before the bud has reached its optimal maturity.  Pistil color and shape is highly variable based on both the strain and environmental conditions for your plant, and cannot be relied on as a method to determine when to harvest, especially as a plant can often pump out a new round of fresh pistils mid-way through the flowering process.

What should be relied on as an indicator of maturity, are the trichomes (or resin glands).  They are much smaller than the pistils and reflect light to make your bud appear shiny or dank.  Sometimes referred to as crystals.  These small resinous glands will begin their journey for the most part clear, and as the flowers mature, the resin glands will begin to cloud over and ultimately turn amber in color.

You may need a magnifying glass or jeweler's loupe to adequately access the condition of your resin glands, as they are quite small.  Generally speaking, a good time to harvest is anytime between the point that a good portion of your resin glands have started to cloud over or are beginning to turn amber.  The rule of thumb is that the earlier your harvest (before the amber stage sets in), the more psychedelic-cerebral THC you'll have in your end product; versus waiting for more amber glands, which results in more of the THC being converted into various more sedative cannabinoid compounds.

Here's a graphic example that I pulled from Google Images:





Lastly, I noticed that you mentioned you had only fed your plants once during flowering.  Plants should be fed throughout flowering, though you may wish to stop the feeding about two weeks prior to harvest, so that the plant can have time to metabolize the last batch of nutrients which will allow the end product to have a better taste.  If you are only three weeks into flowering, don't stress.  Give your babies another dose of nutes (of the NPK variety, make sure there is more P than N or K - flowering makes plants hungry for phosphorous), and add some more light if you can!

Then all you have to do is be patient and see what you get.

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A better option is to just take a few clones from underneath the main canopy as you throw the plant into flowering then by the time that plant is harvested the clone will be ready to go.

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