"HASHY FINGERS "

 

 

 

 

I always tell growers “ Don’t pick it early” and I mean it. That’s the worst thing you can do is pick a cannabis plant too early. All the time, risk and electricity for an early picked harvest is quite a waste. When growing, have patience, think of your garden as a food garden, nobody likes green bananas.
Many people I talk to look at their calendars when they grow counting every passing day in great anticipation of reaping the harvest. I tell them, don’t look at your calendar, look at the plants. Consumable plants have ways of telling us humans when they are ripe. I am not just talking about tomatoes and bananas; I am talking about cannabis as well. I am including several photos of what ripe cannabis is supposed to look like.

There is a point when your plants are ripening where the smell goes from a green, grassy, hay-like odor, to a hashy, fruity aroma. That’s the fragrance you are looking for. As a marijuana farmer, you must use all of your senses to know when the right time to harvest is. When you touch the buds are they very sticky and hard? If the trichomes are looked at under magnification are they slightly amber in color? Many types of cannabis plants turn a color other than green when the end is near, much like apples, tomatoes and bananas. These yellows, purples and reds are indicating colors telling you in a visual way that harvest time has come.

The quality of care that you give to your plants while they are growing will come back to you in the form of the quality of your harvest. If you use chemicals and non-organic foods the plants will look good but will taste bitter and harsh. If your system is very automatic, you may not get the chance to look over your plants enough. In the same way, using organic nutrients like guano and worm castings will give your marijuana plants a delicious fruity, pungent, stick to the roof of your mouth taste.

I don’t use poisons for insect control. How is this Sacred Plant going to help heal someone if it has poison hiding within its cells? True, poison gets rid of the insects, but leaves an invisible toxic side effect. My answer to this problem is Neem oil. When sprayed every 3 days during vegging, and up through the 3rd week of flowering, Neem oil will give you an insect free harvest. It is organic, is used on the hair, skin and is even used internally in some Indian medicines. When using it you know it is non-toxic, to you the user and to whoever consumes it afterwards. I highly recommend trying Neem oil.

In the same way that I urge fellow growers not to become impatient with harvesting, I urge them not to be impatient with drying. You do not want to dry your plants too fast or too hot. I dry my plants in a cool dry place, hanging them up by a strong bottom crook of a branch on a line strung between two walls. I give them at least 10 days like that, and then check to see whether a stem snaps when I try to break one. If it is close to that point, I start to manicure the plants with fingers and scissors.

 

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Last updated: July 30, 2005