using macro photography to check maturity of cannabis trichomes

With my Steem OG harvested and curing, my attention turns to the 2 Northern Lights plants in my little indoor garden.

Click here for the latest full update on Kaila and Beauty. Both plants have been in flower for 10 weeks, about how long Northern Lights typically flowers for.

So I'm using my camera in macro (close up) mode, to find out the state of the flower maturity.

First, Kaila

What I notice is still close to 50% of the pistils ('hairs') are fresh and white (the other half have turned auburn). Usually this is typical of a plant still adding bulk to its flowers, and likely not fully mature.

The smell is notably muted unless the trichomes are physically disturbed (which I try not to do).

I see lots of milky-white trichome heads all over the flowers.

The plant could be harvested now but I'm going to give it about another week.

What about Beauty?

I see mostly dark pistils on this lower bud on Beauty.

The smell is incredible - like grape bubble gum! Sweet, berry, with a hint of pine and diesel! It has smelled like this for weeks.

Mainly milky-white trichome heads here.

Undecided, I'm going to look for clues on the top buds, which generally 'ripen' before lower buds:

Trichomes on the 'sugar leaves', small leaves which are part of female flowers, often mature before those directly on the central bud, so I'll focus there:

I was very happy with this snapshot, which I took using hand stabilization and a 12-year-old camera!

A field of trichomes dots the landscape, with a variety of head colours. Milky trichomes progress to...

• a yellow, tan, or amber colour
• then toward gray, beige, or red
• and eventually brown and almost black

I'm looking for about 2/3 pale and 1/3 coloured trichome heads.

Circled are yellowish trichomes, perhaps containing some THC, CBD, and trace cannabinoids:

There are also a few darker trichomes, probably containing heavier, more mature cannabinoids like CBD, CBN, CBG:

This shot also captured dozens of tiny oval-shaped openings in the leaf surface, made more clear by the waxy leaf surface and angled light:

Could those be stomata, the pores plants exchange oxygen (O₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) through?

If so, that's pretty awesome, considering each stoma is only a couple cell widths across. They're typically open most in the evenings, after the heat of mid-day sun, to avoid losing too much water through transpiration. They close shortly after the sun goes down (or lights go off), as photosynthesis ends for the day, and the plant doesn't need to exchange gases as part of sugar production. (The photo was taken a couple hours before 'sundown' in the garden.)

Conclusion

Beauty will be harvested in a couple days or so. I've trimmed off her fan leaves and she won't be watered again. Looking forward to giving her the no-touch harvest, drying, and curing treatment! Those berry terpenes are going to be intense.

Kaila's buds are larger, but she's still growing, and her trichomes are a bit behind in maturity. I'll give her another week.

That will be just the right amount of time to germinate my next crop (strain to be announced soon)... so the sprouts will be ready to go into the garden as soon as it's free!

DRutter