What you need to know about harvesting
Your plants have been flowering for a while and the yield is starting to form up. You feel like it might be time to harvest soon. But how can you tell for sure? And what do you need to pay attention to during the harvest?
The plant will tell you when to harvest
To determine whether your crop is ready to be harvested, you need to pay attention to the plant. It will give you lots of hints. Of course you’ll notice the crop ripening, but usually there will be discoloration as well. Around the end of the flowering period, leaves will start yellowing or turning brown. These are signals that your harvest has matured. Do not interpret this as a yellowing due to a nutrient deficiency. If you increase nutrient dosages you may overfertilize your plants in order to fight a problem that isn’t there.
What do you need for harvesting?
So you’ve determined it’s time to start the harvest. Let’s get to it! Luckily, you don’t need much to harvest your crop. But it’s a good idea to prepare your stuff ahead of time.
Scissors. We recommend a small, pointy pair of scissors. These are handy for the precise trimming you’ll have to do.
Alcohol. Disinfect your scissors before cutting your harvest off of the plant. This prevents infections to the stem.
Gloves. These too are meant to prevent infections.
Flushing
There is another piece of preparation you can do before you start the harvest. You could flush. Sounds like quite a thing, but it’s really just rinsing the substrate your growing in. You don’t need special tools to do it, but its effects are important. In the week before the harvest, don’t give your plants any nutrients. Just give them clean water. This rinses the unneeded nutrients out of the soil and out of the plant. This will improve the taste of your end product. The plant will only take up water and flush its own system. No nutrients will remain behind in your end product. How much water to use for flushing varies. A rule of thumb is to give twice the regular amount of water. In practice, the most important thing is that you soak the ground around your plants or in your pots. You can also add Pure Zym to speed up the purification process.
How does harvesting work?
There are a lot of different plants and just as many ways of harvesting. To start, you put on your gloves and clean your scissors with alcohol. Pick or cut the crop away from the plant. With some types you can remove whole bunches of the crop on their branch. Cut branches away with the scissors so you can keep the wounds small. Other crops can easily be removed by hand.
Do you need help with your (indoor) grow?
If you need help during your grow cycle? Ask for tips about your plant or nutrition. Use this link to get in contact with our Grow Experts at our Servicedesk. We also have online tools available to help you choose your Plagron grow style with the Substrate Selector, then follow it up with our Grow Schedule Calculator for correct Plagron product combinations and dosage.