Choosing the Best Time to Harvest Cannabis Plants | EP9

[00:07] As it gets into September, it's time to prepare your drying and curing area. This is very important because you can ruin a good crop if it is not dried and cured properly. Welcome back to How to Grow Cannabis Outdoors with Nikki and Swami.
 

[00:30] As a rule of thumb, it takes just as much room to dry the plants as it does to grow them. This can be addressed by choosing cultivars that are harvested at different times — early, middle, and late maturing plants — thereby cutting the necessary drying area to a third of the growing area. But if you only have a few plants, this shouldn't be a problem.
 

[00:57] Choose the dry room carefully. It needs to be dedicated to drying for up to two weeks for each harvest, with limited human access and absolutely no dogs, cats, or other pets. The area needs to be clean and dry with no mould and mildew issues. Cover all windows with black plastic or black cloth. For hanging, stretch strong string or galvanised wire a little above head height from one side of the room to the other.
 

[01:37] Airflow is important, so you will need some fans and be able to open and shut the windows. A dehumidifier may be necessary depending on the weather outside — if it's very dry, it might not be needed, but if it's very rainy you will definitely need it.
 

[02:16] Now comes the most exciting moment of the whole exercise. The exact moment of harvest is crucial and each grower has their own special way of deciding the exact day. If the hairs on the top of the lower level buds still look juicy and sort of green-yellow, it's still too soon to cut. When these hairs — or pistils as they're called — are brown, crinkled, shrivelled, and almost burnt looking, then you are close to harvest.
 

[02:45] You can get a 60x or 120x magnifying glass and inspect the trichomes — looking for clear, cloudy, and amber trichomes. Most people think that when you have a quarter to a third of the trichomes amber, it's time to cut right away. There seems to be a three or four day window of optimum potency. Pick too early and the THC is not at its peak; pick too late and the THC supposedly starts to deteriorate or turn into CBN.
 

[03:14] I have a special technique for choosing which plants to harvest — though I'm not sure everyone can use it. What I do is ask the plant. The method is based on the science of Kinesiology, also known as muscle testing. You touch the thumb of your right hand to the little finger of your right hand and hold it there as you ask the plant to tell you if it's ready to be cut. It's a way of tuning into the plant's energy — and after decades of growing, it's a method I trust deeply.
 

[04:00] Once you've identified a plant that's ready, plan your harvest day carefully. Have all your equipment ready — clean secateurs, collection bags, a place to work. Early morning is the best time to harvest — temperatures are lower and terpene levels are at their highest before the heat of the day.
 

[05:00] Make sure your drying room is ready and waiting before you cut. The transition from plant to dry room should be as smooth and quick as possible. See you in the final episode where we cover the drying and curing process in detail.
 

[05:45] Hey home growers. I'm Parker Curtis from Homegrown Cannabis Co. Thanks for watching How to Grow Cannabis Outdoors with Nikki and Swami. Grab your seeds at homegrowncannabisco.com and use promo code SWAMI10 for 10% off. See you in the garden.preparing the drying room in advance, reading pistil colour changes, inspecting trichomes under magnification, and Swami's personal plant-communication method. Don't guess when to cut — learn to read your plants.