Harvest & Post-Harvest
Representative Harvest Maturity Sampling
Maturity assessment is more reliable when observations are standardized across representative flower sites and repeated over time.
Key concepts
- Sugar-leaf trichomes can mature differently from bract trichomes
- Upper and lower canopy sites can differ
- Lighting and magnification change apparent trichome color
- Maturity should combine gland observations with flower development and plant condition
What to measure or observe
- Use the same magnification and lighting
- Sample comparable bract locations
- Inspect several representative flowers
- Record changes over multiple dates
Common mistakes
- Judging the whole plant from one sugar leaf
- Using stigma color as a single harvest trigger
- Changing microscope lighting between observations
Visuals this lesson still needs
- Bract-versus-sugar-leaf sampling map
- Representative canopy sampling
- Standardized microscope workflow
- Multi-signal maturity checklist