You’ve watched your little plants grow and mature, getting bigger and developing buds, and can’t wait to get those buds off the plant and light up. But not so fast—harvesting cannabis isn’t just cutting down plants and trimming buds; you’ll also need to dry and cure buds before you can smoke them.
There are a few different ways to harvest weed, depending on whether you trim buds wet, straight off the plant, or dry, allowing them to dry first:
Wet trimming: The plant is cut down, buds are removed off branches—called “bucking”—then trimmed, and then dried, all in one sitting.
Dry trimming: The plant is cut down and hung to dry for several days; buds are bucked off branches and trimmed when fully dried.
Harvesting is one of the most exciting steps when growing weed, and here’s what you need to know before cutting down your crop.
Overview of How to Harvest Weed
Flush plants a week before harvesting
Determine when to harvest based on trichome colour
Decide if you’ll be wet or dry trimming
Prepare equipment
Chop down plants
Dry and trim plants
How to Know When to Harvest Cannabis
It’s important to note that every gardener has a different opinion on when to harvest their cannabis plants—some like to harvest early while others prefer later. When you harvest can also depend on other factors in life, such as your schedule, a job, the weather, etc.
Harvesting weed a week early or late probably won’t be the end of the world, but don’t let your plants sit around much longer than that.
When to Harvest Cannabis According to Trichomes
The best way to tell if your cannabis plants are ripe and ready to harvest, both indoors and outdoors, is to look at:
Stigma: These hair-like strands that cover buds will turn from white to orange and will start to curl.
Trichomes: The resinous glands all over the plant will turn from clear to opaque and then amber.
The colour and clarity of trichomes will tell you when a plant has reached peak maturity and is ready to harvest.
Ripe, healthy trichomes will be sticky and milky white; unripe trichomes will be clear; and overripe or diseased trichomes will be amber or brown. You want to look for milky white trichomes before harvesting.
Keep in mind that top colas might reach maturity faster than bottom buds because they receive more light. You may need to harvest a plant when some buds are ripe and others are under-ripe.
Additionally, information from the breeder or grower can be helpful in getting a rough estimate of when a particular strain should be harvested.
Outdoor Cannabis
Know your local climate and talk to other growers in your specific area to see when they harvest cannabis. Read our post on the 4 Stages of Cannabis Plant Growth, for our downloadable grower’s calendar.
Tips for Determining When to Harvest Outdoor Weed
Strains from regions close to the equator—sativas—need a long, seemingly endless summer to fully ripen, while strains from harsh, cold climates—indicas—tend to finish earlier. That being said, some indicas take a long time to finish and some sativas finish on the early side.
The best time of day to harvest outdoor cannabis plants is in the morning, before the sun blasts them. Ideally, you don’t want them to be wet and dewy, but you don’t want them under the bright light of the sun, which can degrade terpenes.
You can also harvest at night when the temperature cools off, but the morning is better as plants haven’t been sitting under the sun all day.
Follow the Weather
As cannabis buds pack on weight and the season changes from summer to autumn, there will be fluctuations in the weather. Depending on your climate, there might be cold snaps or rainstorms.
These aren’t disasters but you do need to keep an eye on the weather and possibly make a game-time decision on when to chop down plants, balancing peak ripeness with conditions that could compromise your harvest.
Frost can cause ice crystals to form in plant tissue, damaging their cells. Leaves will appear wilted before turning dark and crispy. The deeper the frost, the more of the plant that will get damaged.
Note that potted plants experience more severe temperature fluctuations than plants in the ground, making the cannabis more susceptible to frost damage.
Rainy Harvests
Similar to a cold snap, rain itself isn’t a huge problem, but the duration and severity of the storm is. If it’s going to warm up and dry out quickly, you can leave almost ripe cannabis to weather the storm. If the rain will be there to stay, mould awaits—cut your losses and harvest before things get soggy.
Covering your plants will help, but there will still be moisture in the air. You can cover plants with a few tall stakes and a tarp, just be sure to remove the cover when the cold or rain passes to let plants warm up and get the sun and air they need.
Indoor Cannabis
When growing indoors, plants generally get harvested about 7-9 weeks after flipping them into the first stages of flowering. Some strains may take longer, some shorter; it depends on the strain. Indicas usually finish quicker, while sativas longer.
How Often Do You Harvest Weed?
Harvesting indoor cannabis: When growing weed indoors, you can harvest as much or as little as you want. The sky—rather, your grow room—is the limit.
Weed can take anywhere from 3-8 months to grow from seed to harvest, so you can fit in as many as four harvests of smaller plants, or one or two harvests of bigger plants each year.
More harvests mean you’ll have fresh, homegrown weed to smoke more often, but it will also be more work in cleaning up the space between harvests, trimming, etc.
You can even fit in more than four harvests a year if you start with clones or autoflower seeds, both of which shave off some weeks of the grow cycle.
Harvesting outdoor cannabis: By and large, cannabis grown outdoors gets harvested once a year. In most climates, seeds or clones will start in the spring, and you’ll harvest in the autumn. In some tropical regions, you can squeeze in a second harvest in a year because of the climate.
Autoflowers
You can set up your outdoor weed grow to have more than one harvest a year if you grow autoflower seeds. Autoflower weed plants have a shorter life cycle—they “automatically flower” when they get to a certain age, instead of beginning the flowering stage when sunlight starts to decrease in the sky outdoors.
Because of this, you can start growing a set of autoflowers early in the season, around March or April, harvest them in June or July, and then start growing a second set for harvesting in the autumn. You’ll be able to have multiple harvests but keep in mind that your plants will be smaller because they’re autoflowers.
Light Deprivation
Light deprivation is another technique to get multiple outdoor harvests in a year. A tarp is placed over a greenhouse to cut off the amount of light outdoor weed plants receive, giving you the ability to control the flowering cycle of plants. As with autoflowers, this will allow you to fit in multiple outdoor harvests in a season.
The drawback to light deprivation is you have to have a greenhouse and other equipment, and you have to place and remove the tarp every day. If cannabis plants receive too much light on even one day, it can confuse them and ruin their flowering and bud production.
Preparing to Harvest Cannabis
If you’re growing the same strain, you’ll want to harvest all your cannabis plants in the same window of time because they’ll all ripen at the same time.
If you’re growing multiple strains, they may ripen at different times. But you may still want to harvest all strains at once to get trimming done all in one sitting, just keep in mind that some strains might get harvested on the early side and some on the late side.
Before you harvest, you’ll also need to know if you are going to trim wet or dry. Wet trimming involves trimming buds immediately after the plant is cut down, and with dry trimming, chopped plants are hung up to dry for several days before trimming.
It’s also a good idea to flush your plants a week before harvesting—give them only water to clear out the nutrients.
During their change from clear to opaque to amber, trichomes reach their maximum THC content. After that, they begin to break down due to exposure to oxygen and UV rays.
Equipment needed to harvest cannabis
To harvest weed, you’ll need the following tools, check out our prefered supplier at Grow Folk.
Once your plants are ready for harvesting and you have all your equipment, it’s time to chop them down. With dry trimming, plants are cut and then hung up to dry for several days before trimming. Wet trimming involves trimming buds immediately after the plant is cut down.
No matter which method you choose, start by grabbing a large pair of shears and delicately cutting off big branches, being careful with the buds. If the plants are small, you may be able to cut them directly at the base, just above the soil.
For dry trimming, cut branches in a way that leaves a hook on one end, making them easy to hang. For wet trimming, cut branches so they’re easy to handle and trim buds from.
Here are some additional tips for a successful cannabis harvest:
Flush your plants: Give them only water, no nutrients, for about a week before harvesting.
Check trichomes: Ensure the trichomes on your plants indicate they’re ready to be harvested.
Wear appropriate clothing: Harvesting cannabis is a sticky job, so wear clothes that can get dirty.
Keep your tools sharp: Sharp shears and scissors make the process easier and more efficient.
Harvest at the right time: To avoid overheating your plants, harvest in the morning if growing outdoors, or soon after the lights come on if growing indoors.
Staggered harvests: If you’re growing different strains, some plants may be ready to harvest before others.
Wet trimming: If you choose this method, be sure to trim buds immediately after chopping down the plants.
How to Harvest Cannabis Plants
You’ve watched your little plants grow and mature, getting bigger and developing buds, and can’t wait to get those buds off the plant and light up. But not so fast—harvesting cannabis isn’t just cutting down plants and trimming buds; you’ll also need to dry and cure buds before you can smoke them.
There are a few different ways to harvest weed, depending on whether you trim buds wet, straight off the plant, or dry, allowing them to dry first:
Harvesting is one of the most exciting steps when growing weed, and here’s what you need to know before cutting down your crop.
Overview of How to Harvest Weed
How to Know When to Harvest Cannabis
It’s important to note that every gardener has a different opinion on when to harvest their cannabis plants—some like to harvest early while others prefer later. When you harvest can also depend on other factors in life, such as your schedule, a job, the weather, etc.
Harvesting weed a week early or late probably won’t be the end of the world, but don’t let your plants sit around much longer than that.
When to Harvest Cannabis According to Trichomes
The best way to tell if your cannabis plants are ripe and ready to harvest, both indoors and outdoors, is to look at:
The colour and clarity of trichomes will tell you when a plant has reached peak maturity and is ready to harvest.
Ripe, healthy trichomes will be sticky and milky white; unripe trichomes will be clear; and overripe or diseased trichomes will be amber or brown. You want to look for milky white trichomes before harvesting.
Keep in mind that top colas might reach maturity faster than bottom buds because they receive more light. You may need to harvest a plant when some buds are ripe and others are under-ripe.
Additionally, information from the breeder or grower can be helpful in getting a rough estimate of when a particular strain should be harvested.
Outdoor Cannabis
Know your local climate and talk to other growers in your specific area to see when they harvest cannabis. Read our post on the 4 Stages of Cannabis Plant Growth, for our downloadable grower’s calendar.
Tips for Determining When to Harvest Outdoor Weed
Follow the Weather
As cannabis buds pack on weight and the season changes from summer to autumn, there will be fluctuations in the weather. Depending on your climate, there might be cold snaps or rainstorms.
These aren’t disasters but you do need to keep an eye on the weather and possibly make a game-time decision on when to chop down plants, balancing peak ripeness with conditions that could compromise your harvest.
Harvesting Weed in Cold Temperatures
Read all about how to grow cannabis in cold temperatures in our last post.
Frost can cause ice crystals to form in plant tissue, damaging their cells. Leaves will appear wilted before turning dark and crispy. The deeper the frost, the more of the plant that will get damaged.
Note that potted plants experience more severe temperature fluctuations than plants in the ground, making the cannabis more susceptible to frost damage.
Rainy Harvests
Similar to a cold snap, rain itself isn’t a huge problem, but the duration and severity of the storm is. If it’s going to warm up and dry out quickly, you can leave almost ripe cannabis to weather the storm. If the rain will be there to stay, mould awaits—cut your losses and harvest before things get soggy.
Covering your plants will help, but there will still be moisture in the air. You can cover plants with a few tall stakes and a tarp, just be sure to remove the cover when the cold or rain passes to let plants warm up and get the sun and air they need.
Indoor Cannabis
When growing indoors, plants generally get harvested about 7-9 weeks after flipping them into the first stages of flowering. Some strains may take longer, some shorter; it depends on the strain. Indicas usually finish quicker, while sativas longer.
How Often Do You Harvest Weed?
Autoflowers
You can set up your outdoor weed grow to have more than one harvest a year if you grow autoflower seeds. Autoflower weed plants have a shorter life cycle—they “automatically flower” when they get to a certain age, instead of beginning the flowering stage when sunlight starts to decrease in the sky outdoors.
Because of this, you can start growing a set of autoflowers early in the season, around March or April, harvest them in June or July, and then start growing a second set for harvesting in the autumn. You’ll be able to have multiple harvests but keep in mind that your plants will be smaller because they’re autoflowers.
Light Deprivation
Light deprivation is another technique to get multiple outdoor harvests in a year. A tarp is placed over a greenhouse to cut off the amount of light outdoor weed plants receive, giving you the ability to control the flowering cycle of plants. As with autoflowers, this will allow you to fit in multiple outdoor harvests in a season.
The drawback to light deprivation is you have to have a greenhouse and other equipment, and you have to place and remove the tarp every day. If cannabis plants receive too much light on even one day, it can confuse them and ruin their flowering and bud production.
Preparing to Harvest Cannabis
If you’re growing the same strain, you’ll want to harvest all your cannabis plants in the same window of time because they’ll all ripen at the same time.
If you’re growing multiple strains, they may ripen at different times. But you may still want to harvest all strains at once to get trimming done all in one sitting, just keep in mind that some strains might get harvested on the early side and some on the late side.
Before you harvest, you’ll also need to know if you are going to trim wet or dry. Wet trimming involves trimming buds immediately after the plant is cut down, and with dry trimming, chopped plants are hung up to dry for several days before trimming.
It’s also a good idea to flush your plants a week before harvesting—give them only water to clear out the nutrients.
During their change from clear to opaque to amber, trichomes reach their maximum THC content. After that, they begin to break down due to exposure to oxygen and UV rays.
Equipment needed to harvest cannabis
To harvest weed, you’ll need the following tools, check out our prefered supplier at Grow Folk.
Tips for a Successful Cannabis Harvest
Once your plants are ready for harvesting and you have all your equipment, it’s time to chop them down. With dry trimming, plants are cut and then hung up to dry for several days before trimming. Wet trimming involves trimming buds immediately after the plant is cut down.
No matter which method you choose, start by grabbing a large pair of shears and delicately cutting off big branches, being careful with the buds. If the plants are small, you may be able to cut them directly at the base, just above the soil.
For dry trimming, cut branches in a way that leaves a hook on one end, making them easy to hang. For wet trimming, cut branches so they’re easy to handle and trim buds from.
Here are some additional tips for a successful cannabis harvest:
Read more in our other instalments: How to Top and Prune Cannabis Plants, Top Tips for Growing Cannabis in Cold Weather and Cannabis seeds 101: How to grow Cannabis from seed
For all your seed requirements, shop our online store.
This article is for informational and research purposes only.
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