Yield Signs
Take two pot growers and give them both similar equipment and the same strains. Check back after harvest time, and you’ll often see dramatically different results in the final quality of their buds and how they smoke.
While some of the differences may occur due to growing practices and management, much has to do with whether the buds were harvested at peak ripeness, and how they were handled, processed, dried, stored and cured.
Think of a properly ripened cannabis bud like a perfect moment in time—to be patiently waited for and worked toward, then finally captured and preserved. Any experienced toker knows that a well-ripened, -cured and -stored bud will smoke like a masterpiece over the same strain that’s clumsily processed and winds up with qualities more like hay than distinctive cannabis.
Canna Obscura, Courtesy of House of Cultivar
Winding Down the Crop
Tasty buds begin with winding down the crop—rather than killing it on the spot when it comes to harvest time. After buds stop swelling and growing, there is still plenty going on, biologically speaking.
Cannabis plants will spend the final days of their life cycle transferring stored energy into swelling calyxes with a healthy matting of trichomes (the tiny hair-like structures found in abundance on female cannabis flowers).
Trichomes and the resin-filled gland heads they form are your key to identifying peak maturity to determine the optimal time to chop your crop. The process of winding your crop down to mature the buds should start 7-10 days before your anticipated harvest date.
Canna Obscura, Courtesy of House of Cultivar
Cannabis Maturity Triggers
- Lower day-night temperatures—ideally 75°F during light hours and 62-65°F during dark hours.
- Maintain dry air in the growing environment, both