harvest

Harvest time is the most crucial process of any grow operation because at this time all your hard work taking care of your plants will pay off and you will finally get those buds that you have grown yourself!

But there are a lot of variables included in this harvesting process. And you have to know when to harvest, how to harvest, and what to do with your buds after harvest.

Let’s be real the question “When to harvest my autoflowers?” is one of the most asked questions on any cannabis-related forum. So, here is a complete autoflower harvest guide that you can use when the time comes to harvest your plants!

Some background information

Cannabis plants produce the active ingredients THC and CBD inside tiny ball-shaped things called trichomes. These trichomes are the white “snow” that covers any marijuana bud. When a cannabis plant starts the flowering process and bud production then at the same time also this trichome production process is started and believe it or not but in nature cannabis plants produce these trichomes to protect itself and the seeds that it produces from UV radiation that could damage them.

So when the plant starts to end its life cycle then there is the most trichome production as it prepares those buds and protects them from future UV radiation. This is why many growers use UVB lamps at the end of their flowering cycles to promote more rapid trichome and in that sense THC production.

But if you let your plants grow for too long then that precious THC will start to degrade and your buds will not be as good as they could be. So that is why getting the harvest process just right is so crucial!

Harvest checkpoints

Here are the checkpoints that must happen when you want to harvest your cannabis plants

  • harvested budFlushingFlushing before harvest is necessary to get rid of any unwanted chemicals especially if you are using inorganic fertilizers.
  • Find the right time to harvest – This is the time when your plants have the highest amount of THC in them and are in their peak potency.
  • Remove big fan leafs – before starting the harvest process I usually like to remove all the fan leaves so I have a better view and access to all the bud sides and branches.
  • Cut off the buds one by one – You should start from the top and work your way downwards chopping down those buds.
  • Manicure buds – After you have removed a bud you should manicure it from all the bigger sun leaves and also those so-called sugar leaves that can be later used to make hash or edibles.
  • Dry your buds – After manicuring those buds you should let them dry for a couple of days in a cold and dark room so all the moisture evaporates and you can have a great smoke.
  • Curing – And the last part is to cure your plants and in this process you will allow all the moisture that is left inside those buds to come out and be evenly distributed throughout the plant.

If you manage to do all these things properly then you should have an amazing stash of home-grown cannabis that you can proudly use any way you like. But probably the most important thing is that autoflower harvest time and getting it right is by far the hardest thing, especially for beginners.

Usually, growers use one or two harvest signs that give them insight into when is the right time to chop that bud off but because autoflowers are a whole other beast and they grow according to a pre-set time period then you can’t rely only on just one of those signs and you have to take into consideration almost all of them.

But even with all that information you could miss and chop your buds off too early or too late and the real experience and skill will only come with time and experimentation.

How to tell if my autoflower is ready for harvest: autoflower harvest signs

Here is a list of all the possible signs that your autoflower plant is getting closer to the chopping day that you can use all together or pick just some of those signs that you feel are the most important.

But keep in mind that each plant is different and what worked for one strain may not work for another and that is where all that experience comes into play as you grow more and more plants you will start to get a feel of when it is ready and the time has come to cut it down!

Yellow leaves

For autoflowering plants maybe the best sign of when your cannabis is ready for harvest is yellowing of leaves as autoflower trichomes usually don’t change color as fast as it is with photo-sensitive plants.

When your plants larger fan leaves are starting to yellow then you can start flushing your plants but when the larger leaves start to fall down by themselves then it is probably time to cut your lady down.

autoflower Plant ready to harvest

Autoflower cannabis plant that is ready for harvest

But be careful with fertilizers because if you give your plants too much nitrogen in the flowering phase then this leaf yellowing will not happen as fast as you would like and you can miss that peak harvest time.

Trichome color

Trichomes or specifically trichome color and appearance is considered the standard measurement when finding the right time when to cut your plant down. You will need a good digital camera, magnifying glass, or a microscope that is able to magnify those trichomes and give you the exact status of your plant.

Trichomes usually have about 3 different states that are clear/cloudy/amber and the best time to harvest is when about half of those trichomes are amber and half are still clear or cloudy. But because autoflowers have different growing patterns and usually the top buds ripen earlier it can be hard to tell when exactly the right time is by just looking at your trichome color.

Trichome amount

Then there is also the amount of trichomes that can be a general sign that your plant is nearing the end of its lifetime as usually you will get more and more trichome production as your autoflower sucks up all the energy from those leaves and pushes it into bud production.

Pistils/Stigmas

For Photo sensitive plants the second most used method is to check the pistils or also called stigmas and to harvest your plant when about half of those pistils have turned brown.

Pistils are those white hairs that usually are made for catching pollen but when they don’t get that pollen then those hairs start to turn brown and wilt. But again for autoflowers this method is not that accurate and even when half of those pistils have turned brown your plant might still need a couple of days to fully mature.

Water usage

If you like to get your buds full of CBD then you can let your autoflower go almost as long as it can and when your plant starts to take up less water because there is no new growth happening it is time for harvest.

This is not an exact science but when the soil stays moist for a day or two after watering then that may be a sign you can chop that autoflower off.

Smaller leafs curving/drying out

Another method you can use to tell if your plant is ready to harvest is the curling and drying of those smaller sugar leaves that are around the bud. This starts to happen at the same time that the plants start taking up less water and it is in its final stages of its life.

Breeder’s schedule?

And the last method is to go by the seed breeders schedule that is supplied on the seed packaging. This schedule usually is just an approximate number and depending on the growing conditions your plants can take more or less time to fully mature but like a general guideline, it can be used to know approximately when to start looking for all those other tell-tell signs of harvest readiness.

Usually, all these signs can be used together to tell if your plant is ready for harvest or you have to still wait and there is not one exact measurement you can take to know if your plant is ready for harvesting.

Different growers like different buds and some like to harvest early to get only a head high but others allow their plants to mature to their end and get that CBD rich body high. You have to experiment and test yourself which one of these options works for you!

harvest small autoflower budsharvest picturesEarly Harvest

Harvesting your autoflowering plants early might not be a great idea as you are losing precious bud production time but there are many different reasons why you might have to do it. Molds, bugs, and misplaced fingers knocking a plant over can be causes for early harvests as well as an unwanted house guest or some other stealth grow problems.

The thing is that you can start harvesting your plants almost as soon as they start producing flowers and trichomes but in the first few weeks the THC content will be very low and you will probably don’t get any high.

New growers usually want to harvest some early buds to “test” their plant and that is doable but just remember that it might not be as potent as it could be and you are losing the most important days of the flowering phase when all that real flower and bud production happens.

Early harvested buds usually have higher THC content and lower CBD content but that is true only if you don’t harvest too early before those trichomes have started to produce some real buds. And in general, you should avoid pre-mature harvests but if you have to then it will still be better than no harvest at all!

Late harvest

Late harvest means that you allow your autoflower plants to fully mature and die off themselves without looking at any of these harvest signs.

This method usually is considered wrong and many “experts” will tell you that THC degrades and those buds that are over ripen will taste bad. But in my experience even if you allow your plant to start drying while it is still in the pot you can get a great smoke and a very great product.

Usually, if you harvest your autoflowers later than their peak potency you will get more of that “couch-lock” feeling that will make you sleepy and relaxed and will be more like the effect from Indica dominant strains.

With sativa dominant autoflowers you can increase this effect by harvesting them later than usual but if you do that to indica dominant autos then you will definitely feel the effect and you better smoke a plant that is harvested late in the afternoon because it will so to speak “knock you out”!

Some strains, sometimes, will produce male pollen sacks at the very end of their lifetime because that plant feels that its life is ending soon but it still has no seeds and so it can turn into a hermaphrodite and self pollinate, so be careful and watch out for those pollen sacks.

Sequential harvest

One of the best methods to harvest your plants if you have the time and energy is the sequential harvest method that basically means harvesting the top buds first and letting those lower buds grow for a couple of days and ripen before chopping them off.

This method is very powerful in small grow spaces with a limited amount of light and can increase the total yield that you can get from your plants but you will definitely need more energy and space to do this process.

Usually harvesting your plants is a very messy ordeal and you need to wear gloves, cut down those fan leaves, manicure those buds as well as collect all those sugar leaves for later usage and that can be time-consuming. But when you do a partial harvest you have to prepare all that at least two times if not three and for some growers, those couple of extra grams that you can get is just not worth that hassle.

Dry vs Wet Trimming

And another question that I see asked a lot is about the trimming process and if it is better to trim your buds before drying or after drying.

I think that the best method is to trim those plants right after the harvesting process and then hang them to dry because afterward those smaller leaves will curl up and be very hard to trim as well as the drying process will take longer and there is a greater chance of mold infections.

But for some growers, the dry trimming method is more convenient and they just chop off their buds and hang them to dry for a week or two and then afterward those smaller leaves will easily break apart and can be trimmed with ease. The choice is yours but the vast majority of growers use that wet trimming method.

trimmingSome key points about curing

When your plants have properly dried and when a branch is bent it snaps not bends your harvest is almost done but one more crucial thing remains to be done and that is the long curing process.

There is a lot of misconception about curing and some growers swear that curing increases potency but in general this process will just make your buds taste better because the moisture that is trapped inside those dense nugs will get evenly distributed and you will get an all-around great smoke.

Curing usually is done in glass airtight jars and after loosely compacting them inside those jars you need to open them once a day for a half an hour to let that excess moisture out. In the second week, you can open them once a day for 10 minutes but in third week you can open them for a couple of minutes every other day. And by the end of week three your buds should be properly cured and can be stored for months or even years.

Curing is not an obligatory thing and if you like you can consume your buds right after drying the but with this process, you can make them taste and smell even better!

30 Comments

  1. Adam green on

    Please help my autoflowers have only reached 14 inches tall and are flowering now can’t be tall enough surely

    • Hi Adam, what is your exact strain, growing method, what nutrients did you use, what is the pot size, what are the enviromental conditions? Some autos realy stay that small and probobly if they are starting to flower then there is nothingmuch you can to do but to finish your grow.

      • Kevin Hawkswood on

        Autos are short anyway compered to photos . I find indica dominant autos are short and stumpy and satvas hav some hight to them . What I will say tho is don’t be too disappointed because if you keep the plant well manicured and get plenty of light to those bud sites you will be shocked as to how much smoke you actually get . I have just finished an og Kush it got to 12` tall and produced 3 0z 16g

    • This is my first grow I have a white widow auto that is 31 inches but all the reading from 420 maz.and ilgm 14 to 20 inches is normal a LOT depends on strain GOOD LUCK

    • Lilbear420 on

      I have some 6 autos but they r from last year i had some growing and a full trem one right next to it and it turned in to a male so when harvested them the auto had some seeds so i saved them and grow them this year but the like cycle of that auto was only 60 days but now it been 70 days and they r just starting to look like they r flowering and it seem really slow and they r about twice the size they were last year has any one ever heard something like this happenin plz help cuz i dont want to was time @nd energy on them

    • That’s it on some types of auto. There’s places on here that are great auto’s. I’ll go look for you. Try living soil. All.s you do is water and throw in a few worms. Auto’s are small. There are a few that are bigger but not by much. Good Luck. Rooster

  2. HELP !
    Hi ! :S im confused , what should i do if the plant is have the brown mostly on the top but some of the bottom not ? is it ok to cut the top and after few days to cut the rest ? links and comments for this subject are welcome!!!!!!
    thanks !

    A n.

    • Hi,

      Yeas it is ok to harvest the bottom part of the plant later, I call that process “sequential harvest”. But be sure to let the bottom grow for at least a week to let it properly mature after removing the top part.

    • Of course, that depends on your taste. I have also harvested plants with clear and with completely amber trichomes and they all gave different effects.

  3. Hi i have auto flower northen light what is the best way for drying them after harvest my flowers are near to harvest pls tell me eazy way for drying them

    • I like to hang my plants in the same grow room with a small fan that mixes the air. But keep in mind that it is best to keep your plants in the dark and over ventilation can dry them out too fast.

  4. Been doing autos for many years. Learned a lot along the way. Somethings I thought were set in stone ended up being wrong. For me, the time to harvest is when the last white hair turns red. This indicates that the bud is no longer growing. Until I learned this, I harvested when plant fan leaves turned yellow. This ended up being a pretty big mistake over the years in that I missed out on some very large colas. (buds)

  5. Help first grow white widow auto my lady is 31 inches she 9 weeks old STARTED flowering 2 weeks ago have about 60 little buds drop light cycle grow 21 hours to 12 hours any idea when buds will start getting bigger ???

    • Be patient Mike!

      Autos usually swell up really fast at the end of their growth cycle so you just need to wait a little bit more.

    • Not sure you need to change the lights…I never changed mine on my skittles and I have foot long buds…light cycle used was 20-4

  6. Hi iv got three blue treacle autoflowers, two have white pistils and not many crystals but on one the pistils have all but gone brown and has lots of crystals, is this one ready to harvest early as they shouldn’t be ready for another week or so?

  7. Shit I fucked up NEED HELP PLEASE on

    So Im on my first grow ever, and for some stupid reason I decided to trim all leaves near my buds.

    I have 4 Lemon OG Auto seeds, using GH Nutes, a drip DWC system with all 4 plants in the same container, water pump and drip manifold inside container along with two large airstones..
    I started my first two plants on 3/14/2017 and the second two on 3/25/2017.
    Oh and I have a 400W MH/HPS lighting setup, in a VIVOSUN Tent.

    I am getting all sorts of white trichomes, nothing is going amber/red yet though and I just snipped like 40 leaves.

    Plants looked really great before and now im afraid i just wasted the last 60 days as I cut most of the fan/sugar leaves.

    If anybody can let me know what I should do please do. I’ve done so well so far for my first try but i am so lost on this harvesting part. Should I just harvest right now? If so, how? This guide doesn’t really explain the WHERE TO START part of the actual harvest.

    I’m freaking out at the moment. HELP!
    Oh and this is an extreme stealth grow in limited space.

  8. This is my first grow. It’s for personal use only, and I don’t smoke often. In fact, I much prefer turning my buds (mostly) into edibles like cannabutter — I have respiratory issues that make smoking unpleasant at best, unhealthy at worst. I have four plants, two LSD and two Trans-Siberian. I started the LSDs about 3 weeks after the Trans-Siberians, so they’re maturing at different times. After getting them well-established indoors in Jiffy pots, I transferred them to fabric grow bags and put them outside (zone 5, northern New England) where they’ve thrived.

    The original Trans-Siberian seem ready to partially harvest — leaves turning yellow and falling off, pistils turning brown (haven’t checked trichomes closely). A couple of questions. I know it’s OK to start harvest top down, but I have a dozen buds that are clearly not ready — small or just popping out, pistils not really visible. Will those buds continue to mature if I start harvest mature buds? And what about the yellow leaves — is there anything worth extracting in my cannabutter? Or are they destined for the compost pile? And exactly what are “fan leaves”? Thanks for any insight.

    • I use Eva dry. You put in and it sucks out the humidity. I have two I bought on Amazon. As one is inside the other is plugged into an electric outlet to dry. Hope this helps.

  9. Thomas Boyle on

    Do Auto’s need a dark period, I’m on week 11 and thre’s trichomes but they seem to be all clear I’ve already flushed 3 times I got my P.P.M. DOWN TO 70-80, so should I put them back under light and keep feeding them with water when they’re dry, will my trichomes change as I’ve had photo period plants I had to chop even though Ihad milky and clear then It wsa stll a grear smoke. Any tips or pointers will help Thanks O.G.’s.

  10. I have 2 candy kush autoflowers one is 6 inches tall ones 8 the small one is producing less of course but seems further along with the trichomes being more milky than the bigger one. I’m about 7-8 weeks in how long should I wait

  11. My northern light auto is 60 days old and has been in flower since day 21.It looks ready to harvest but how can this be at 60 days….all primary lvs gone,just small sugar lvs around the buds.The top cola isn’t that big,about 6 in,but its solid and smells wonderful.theres about 25 or 30 other smaller buds but there solid too.I do not know when to harvest as I have conflicting symptoms,clear tri chromes but all red hairs on the buds.Help!!~!

    • Not all strains and or phenotypes will produce ambered triches, that’s how white widow got it’s name.

  12. Hi
    First time growing Early Miss auto flower. I changed light from 18/6 to 12/12 as they were 11 weeks and not flowering! They are now 14 weeks and still not ready. Should I change light again or just wait it out? Seed package said 8 weeks.

  13. I have a Autoflower cheese from Msnl and I’m trying to figure out the best time to harvest.

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