Auto Blueberry – Windowsill Grow! and “How Do I Know When It’s Time To Harvest?”
Auto Blueberry grown in a windowsill box.
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
A while back I received some free seeds with an order, and decided to sow them in a windowsill box next to some spinach and lettuce, just to see what might happen. The window has southern exposure and receives plenty of direct sunlight, although with the limited soil volume and competition with neighboring plants, I was unsure what to expect. Here are the two freebie seeds after 8 weeks of sunshine and regular watering:
Auto Blueberry & Pineapple Express; harmonious neighbors.
I hadn’t grown an autoflowering blueberry strain before, and was curious to see if the “blue” traits would really come through. As you can see, I wasn’t disappointed. The sugar leaves and buds have developed a purplish tinge, although the aroma is pure ganja, with none of the fabled “berry-tinged aroma” stuff. Nevertheless, the copious amounts of shiny trichomes promise a nice mini-harvest from this unexpected grow.
The plant on the right in the above picture is a Pineapple Express, and although the plant is smaller, the buds are less leafy than the auto blue, and the aroma does remind me of “pineapple weed”; a wild cousin of chamomile (Matricaria discoidea). I should note that the soil in which both these plant were grown was a bit on the “rich” side (compost soil) for cannabis, leading to a rather leafy growth overall. But again, this is an experiment that worked out better than expected.
Since a common question we receive is “How do I know when it’s time to harvest my bud?”, I’ll combine this post with a good tip for the harvest stage of home-growing. Have a look at this picture of a yellowing fan leaf on the auto blueberry plant:
Yellowing fan leaves
In a nutshell, as the plant nears the end of flowering it draws nitrogen from chlorophyll in it’s own leaves. This starts with the lower fan leaves, and progresses to upper fan leaves and the smaller so called “sugar leaves”. If you look again at the first picture here…
…you’ll notice that even the upper fan leaves are also beginning to yellow. So I’d say that this plant is about two weeks (maybe a bit less) from harvest time.
It’s always tempting to cut to the chase, but don’t rush your harvest. In those last couple weeks the buds will fatten up on the plant’s last energy reserves. When the upper leaves pull off the stem easily with a slight downward tug, you’re about good to go. At this point, there’s not much left for the plant to put into the buds, so you can harvest knowing that the plant has given you all she’s got.
best regards,
Glenn Panik
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
Cannabis Growing 
One of my two plants (est. 7 weeks old) is showing clear pistils all over. However, they are not pure white. They all have a distinct purple stripe down the length. Does this tell me anything about the strain? The starts were a gift with no info. It is fun!
Very interesting – I am not familiar with that particular characteristic… but thanks for sharing! Drop a line back if you find out anything. best, GP
Can you tell the gender of the seed. Some people say you can, rumor is, if it has an inny it’s a female. If it has an outie it’s a male what do you think?
my gold plants are starting so show a yellow leaves and beginning pistals in window sill. I live in Ohio so brought plants in-doors . They look very healthy but aren;t even a foot tall. The are no buds at all now but they are starting. Should I wait to harvest ? OR, Can I put them under 12/12 lights now so they get bigger buds?
Bringing them in at this time of year in Ohio is a good idea! Get the females under 12/12, take care not to over-water (and don’t fertilize!), and you’ll see some rapid upward growth as flowering progresses. best, GP
That’s a relief, I thought my beauties were just dying or something!