Understanding Visual Cues of Cannabis Trichome Development to Maximize Harvest
Professor DeBacco
Monitoring Color Change
By monitoring the change in color of the gland heads, a grower can evaluate the ripeness of flowering pistillate plants.
Using a 30x loupe is advised or some other form of magnifying the trichomes for a close visual inspection
Stages of Trichomes
Early to middle flowering, resin heads will be mostly clear
During the final phase of the bloom cycle, the trichomes will transition from clear to a cloudy, milky white color, and eventually to amber.
Most seasoned growers say the time to harvest is when the bulbous heads are cloudy with a few amber ones here and there (about a 70/30 mix).
Clear Trichomes
This indicates early development and the clear color can indicate they are not “full” of cannabinoids and terpenes.
While not true from a botanical standpoint, but you can consider clear trichomes to be “empty” and the bud should not be harvested because it is before maturity and lack desired compounds.
Cloudy Trichomes
When the trichomes start to go from a transparent to a translucent transparency this is a sign harvest is getting closer.
This cloudy look growers can think of the trichome become full of cannabinoids.
The next step is an opaque amber color
Thought to give an energetic high
Amber Trichomes
Progressing from the cloudy white color the trichomes will change to a yellow/brown amber color.
Waiting for some of the trichomes to go to this coloration is a good sign the harvest of cannabinoids can be maximized.
However, if nearly all of the trichomes are this color at harvest to may mean the peak harvest was missed leading to some derogation of the internal compounds.
Though to give a body high
Mixed Trichomes
Since all trichomes will not change from cloudy to amber at the same time, it can be best to aim from a mixed coloration to determine your harvest time.
Now, the exact percentage of cloudy and amber may be impacted by the variety, stage of development, your availability of timing.
Combined head and body high
Trichome Ripeness Summary Images
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Clear Trichomes
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Cloudy Trichomes
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