# When to harvest high CBD strains?



## deadkndys (May 11, 2015)

So i'll be harvesting this Thunderstruck in a few weeks and was wondering if the same principle applies to harvesting high CBD strains. By principle I mean waiting until most trichromes are Amber. Or should I harvest when the breeder says so?


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## Rosebud (May 11, 2015)

That is a really good question. I just looked up Thnderstruck and it is sativa dominate. 75%, so i guess what are you going to be doing with it? if you want it for morning pain i would take it with very little amber. If you are making it into medicine I would go at least 50 % amber.  
What cha going to do with it?


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## deadkndys (May 11, 2015)

Cool i'll let her go for a few more weeks. And I plan on making some  RSO and give it to my uncles friend who has skin cancer. He has been using High thc RSO. It was working but lately he is reporting the cancer has gotten worse. I hope this high CBD and low THC ratio helps him out.


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## Rosebud (May 11, 2015)

Can i give you advice you didn't ask for? When you do the RSO, keep it a little runny. The hard thick rso is hard to apply to the skin. You might even want to use an oil like coconut...hmm I am going to think about that. I gave some of the real deal to a friend for a skin cancer but we caught way too late.. He is fine it wasn't melanoma, but it was hard to apply.  If it does turn out very hard and thick like mine does i would dilute it a smidge with coconut oil.


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## The Hemp Goddess (May 12, 2015)

I was looking at the Harlequin BX4 from Reeferman.  I did notice this in the description:  "Fast to flower, an extended flowering time can actually diminish effectiveness, *because CBD degrades earlier than THC*. Harlequin generally tests at around 7% CBD at 10 weeks while delivering CBD levels as high as 12% at just 8 weeks."

So the question is....do the trichs show the maturity of the THC or of all the cannabinoids?  If we wait until the trichs are amber, has the CBDs gone too far and degraded?


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## deadkndys (May 15, 2015)

Thanks for the replies.
@rose thanks i'll look into using coconut oil too.

well I asked this on icmag and got a similar answer. So I guess it's safe to assume that in this case you would want to harvest sooner rather then later.

The ratio changes later in harvest. The color of the resin is pretty arbitrary. Amber is variety dependent. I have stuff that only ambers when its damaged. Others that fully amber after harvest.

Most stuff is 10 weeks of 12 hr photo period. Some stuff is 8 and at worst 12-14 for your under-bred sativas. I've harvested the same cut at 9 weeks and 13 weeks both giving about 20%THC and almost no CBN. Sometimes, a clone might take longer from various factors than it usually does.

The THC declines earlier than CBD. Your ratio shifts towards higher CBD later in harvest. CBN is variety dependent but does increase somewhat with later harvesting. You will always see steady decline after 12 weeks if it is not a pure sativa.

Our 'Cannatonic' was 11.1% CBD at 12 weeks and 12.9% CBD at 10 weeks. That is a lot less decline than 12% to 7%.

I do 'Pennywise' at 8 weeks and get similar numbers to the 'Cannatonic.' It puts on flowers weeks faster than 'Cannatonic'.


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## ston-loc (May 16, 2015)

Iteresting to know thanks Deadkndys :aok:

Last season harvested my cannatonic like a normal strain at partly amber. Not sure weekwise exactly outdoors. Good info to know for this year.


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