Is it time to harvest your weed? Learn when to harvest cannabis buds for the highest potency, biggest yields, and best effects with this comprehensive “when are my buds ready to harvest?” picture gallery.
Peyote Critical by Barney’s Farm – Ready to Harvest!
by Nebula Haze
Cannabis buds come in all shapes and sizes! Although variety is the spice of life, this can make it a little confusing to know when to harvest your buds based on how your cannabis plants look. But if you harvest right when buds are ready, you get rewarded with the best yields and potency. It’s a good idea to try to harvest at the right time if you can, and this picture gallery can help!
Harvest marijuana buds at the right time for the best bud quality and potency.
We have a full harvest tutorial, but this article is mainly just a picture gallery 🙂
When cannabis buds first appear on your plant, they look like little round puffs of hair. Each bud is made up of many white hairs (“pistils”) that stick straight out.
Not Ready
Baby buds (budlets) look like a ball of white hairs. When cannabis buds look like this, it means they are not potent yet and still have many weeks to go before harvest time!
If your buds are all white hairs, they’re just getting started. Expect much more fattening from here.
Watch out for pollen sacs!
If you see pollen sacs instead of white hairs, it means your plant is growing male flowers and should be removed from the grow space immediately. Why toss male plants? Male flowers don’t contain much THC and their pollen causes nearby buds to grow seeds.
Immediately remove any plant that grows pollen sacs instead of white hairs. Learn more about male plants.
Still Not Ready
As the marijuana plant buds get closer to harvest, they thicken, and those white pistils start to darken and curl up. You’ll notice your buds are slowly getting thicker and denser. However, if you still have a lot of straight white pistils, like this bud, it means you still have a few weeks to go.
Ready to Harvest!
You’re in the weed harvest window when most of the pistils have darkened and curled in. However, sometimes it’s a little challenging to identify when buds are ready since each plant is different, and buds can look very different at harvest time. So today, I want to share lots and lots of pictures of many different cannabis buds that are ready to harvest so you can see the full gamut of variation!
A bud is ready to harvest when most of the hairs darken and curl in
Continue to the picture gallery below, or read the full tutorial on when to harvest your cannabis 🙂
These Cannabis Plants Are Ready to Harvest!
Without further ado, here’s the gallery of “ready for harvest” cannabis buds! Several are of unknown strains, but I will be adding many more strain-specific pictures in the near future!
Runtz Muffin by Barney’s Farm
Platinum Cookies by Seed Supreme
Peyote Critical by Barney’s Farm (grown by Hash Hound) – This one might need an extra week to achieve max potency. However, since the plant was experiencing deficiencies, Hash Hound decided to harvest this plant on the early side to prevent the deficiencies from spreading to the buds.
Pineapple Chunk by Barney’s Farm
Another Pineapple Chunk by Barney’s Farm – I love this strain and have grown it many times!
A different Pineapple Chunk by Barney’s Farm (grown by GG)
Moby Dick by Greenhouse Seed Co.
Zweet Inzanity by Ethos Genetics – I love this strain! I’ve grown it multiple times and it always has lovely effects and good yields. Highly recommended!
Dos Si Does 33 by Barney’s Farm (grown by Max)
Purple Critical Kush by Seedsman – This is in the harvest window, but could probably use another week for peak potency.
Peyote Wi-Fi by Seedsman (grown by Prairie Homegrow)
Candy Games by Happy Valley Genetics
Pacific Punch by Square One Genetics
Sour Lime Haze by Dirty Bird Genetics
Purple Ghost Candy by Seedsman (I LOVED this strain! Read my strain review.)
Strawberry Sorbet by DNA Genetics
Peyote Gorilla by Seedsman (this is just in the harvest window, but could benefit from another week or two to reach max potency)
Amnesia Lemon by Barney’s Farm – These buds came out incredibly fluffy/airy compared to all the other plants in the tent, and not that potent. So I don’t recommend this particular strain.
Kaya Gold by Nirvana Seeds
AK-47 by Serious Seeds
Blue Sunset Sherbert by Barney’s Farm
Mandarin Cookies by Ethos Genetics – I love the bud effects on this strain, so relaxing and chill yet potent. It is a crowd favorite every time I grow it. Highly recommended!
Mandarin Haze by Ministry of Cannabis
Ocean Fruit by Square One Genetics
Wildberry Runtz by Robin Hood Seeds – Could use another week for max potency.
Pacific Punch by Square One Genetics – I unfortunately can’t find this strain anymore but it was a banger! Square One Genetics seems to mainly do “drops”, and rarely carries the same strain for long. That being said, I’ve had great results with all seeds from this breeder.
Critical Hog by TH Seeds
Haze #1 by Nirvana Seeds
OG Kush by and unknown breeder
Another OG Kush by unknown breeder (grown by Ranja)
Blue Cheese by unknown breeder
Wedding Cake grown by Max
Critical Sensi Star by unknown breeder (grown by Endive)
Mint Girl Scout Cookies by unknown breeder
Runtz by unknown breeder
Purple Punch by unknown breeder (Source: northernscrogger)
White Widow by unknown breeder (grown by JB) – Note: The pipe cleaner here is there to support the heavy bud from falling over. It’s attached to a tomato stake behind the bud in the picture. However, just as a hint while you’re here, I prefer plant twisty tie for this type of application. Plant twist tie is easier to use, cheaper, and waterproof. But pipe cleaners work in a pinch!
Totally Unknown Strains – Ready to Harvest!
Very beginning of harvest window on this one. Could probably wait another week for max potency.
This one has a somewhat unusual bud structure. But all the pistils have darkened and curled in. Under a magnifier, the trichomes also indicated peak potency. Ready to harvest!
Some buds kind of look almost white at harvest due to either lots of trichomes or the buds themselves may be pale. This type of coloring is how strains like White Widow got their name 🙂 If you look closely, the actual pistils/hairs have all darkened and curled in, so this bud is ready to harvest!
A few more examples of pale buds that are ready to harvest.
This cannabis bud keeps putting out new white pistils right when it looks like it’s about ready to be harvested. Some plants keep doing this over and over during the flowering stage, and you may eventually have to decide to make the chop. This picture is right before the grower decided to harvest this plant. Learn more about what to do if your plant keeps making new pistils.
Fruit Spirit by Royal Queen Seeds
Here’s that Fruit Spirit plant from a little further away for context.
This strain grows in a similar way, and this bud is also ready to harvest even though there are lots of new white pistils.
Another strain with a similar bud structure. Although the trichomes look ready under a magnifier, there are a lot of white hairs. This one could be harvested now, but could probably use another week or so before harvesting to maximize potency and yields.
This bud has many tiny new sugar leaves and new pistils on top. It also has a top-heavy “fist” shape. These are common symptoms of heat or light damage, especially if they only appear on the parts of the plant close to the light. If this is happening, look at the older parts of the buds to decide when to harvest. Even though there are a bunch of new white pistils on top, this bud is ready right now because the rest of the bud looks ready.
Since the non-damaged parts of the plant are ready to harvest, this plant is ready to harvest now. All the new pistils are from heat or light damage, and should be ignored! Learn more about why this happens!
Here’s another example of a fist shape due to light stress. Notice how the lower part of the bud looks ready to harvest, but the top part that is experiencing the stress is throwing out new white hairs.
Auto Blueberry Domina by Ministry of Cannabis – ready to harvest (new white hairs are from heat or light stress)
This strain grew a yellow “banana“, also known as “herming”. These structures produce pollen and can pollinate your buds and cause them to grow seeds. There are some strains that tend to produce bananas right before they’re ready to harvest, as the plant is making a “last ditch effort” to make seeds before winter comes. Typically, it’s a good idea to harvest a plant when you see bananas, to prevent pollination. But if you’re close to harvest, and only see one or two, some growers might pluck them off manually. It’s up to you to decide what to do. Here’s more info about different types of herms, including bananas and pollen sacs.
Luckily in this case, the bud already looks mostly ready to harvest. If I saw this, I would personally harvest the plant immediately.
Examples of Outdoor Buds that Are Ready to Harvest
These outdoor cannabis buds are ready to harvest. Sometimes outdoor buds look a little different than indoor ones. For instance, they’re often leafier (though not always).
Purple Ghost Candy by Seedsman
Frisian Dew by Dutch Passion (pic by Hamburger)
LSD-25 Auto by Fast Buds
Loudmouth by Top Hat Genetics
When to Harvest if Hairs Pistils Come in Pink or Purple?
Sometimes it’s harder to know when to harvest with certain strains because the hairs/pistils might be purple or pink from the beginning instead of white at first.
For some strains, hairs can come in pink instead of white.
This one shows how some of the pink pistils are fading into a more brown/orange as the buds mature.
The pistils on this plant came in pink, and as they got closer to harvest, they curled in, and they darkened slightly to an orange hue.
You need to do your best to try to harvest when most of the pistils have darkened and curled in as best you can tell 🙂
Ready to Harvest Auto-Flowering Buds
Auto-flowering strains of cannabis are a special strain variety. Autoflowering plants start flowering (making buds) after about 3-4 weeks and are usually ready to harvest 2-3 months from germination. This is different and faster than standard photoperiod strains, which need to receive 12-hour dark periods every day to start flowering and develop buds properly, and typically take 3-5 months to grow on average. Learn more about why growers put plants on a 12/12 light schedule.
For the most part, autoflowering buds are the same as photoperiod buds. Some of the newer autoflowering strains have buds that are indistinguishable from their photoperiod counterparts. But some autoflowering buds tend to be a bit leafy looking. Here are some examples of different autoflowering buds that are ready to harvest.
Auto Lemon OG Haze plant that’s ready to harvest
Zkittlez Auto by Seedsman – Mine didn’t turn purple, though admittedly it was under a small LED light. Purples tend to come out more under stronger light intensity.
Black Jack Auto by Sweet Seeds. It’s in the harvest window, but could probably go another week for max potency.
Gorilla Glue Auto by Fast Buds Genetics
Cinderella Jack Auto by Dutch Passion
Black Cream Auto by Sweet Seeds
Lemon Haze Auto by MSNL
Purple Kush Auto by unknown breeder
Pink Kush CBD 30:1 Auto by Seedsman
Lemon Auto (unknown breeder)
Mandarin Haze Auto (unknown breeder)
Creme de le Chem Auto by Mephisto Genetics (grown under LEDs)
A different Creme de le Chem Auto by Mephisto Genetics. This one was grown under weak fluorescent lights (a T5 grow light). I’ve noticed fluorescent lights (and other weak grow lights) are less likely to bring out colors like purple. But the buds were still great to smoke!
Blue Mazar Auto by Dutch Passion
What If Buds Appear “Burned”?
This bud was too close to LED lights and got burnt, and is ready to harvest. Anytime you see a completely “burned” looking bud without any green leaves left, it’s time to harvest before the quality of the bud starts degrading further.
This plant also got burned from a too-close LED light. When a marijuana plant is damaged this extensively, harvest immediately to prevent further yellowing from spreading to the buds.
Nothing terrible happened to this plant, the grower just wanted to let it go a little longer. However, a plant is usually ready to harvest by the time the sugar leaves are turning yellow.
Unknown autoflowering strain. I’m not sure exactly what happened to it, but I’d guess some kind of nutrient deficiency or pH problem.
What About Trichomes?
Looking at the buds themselves is very important, but if you want to ensure the best potency, you also want to look at the glittery trichomes on your buds under a magnifier. By combining looking at the buds with looking at the trichomes, you can pinpoint the perfect time to harvest with any strain.
Learn more about looking at trichomes to determine when to harvest.
Read the Full Marijuana Harvest Tutorial – with more information and additional tools to help you check if buds are ready.
How to Dry and Cure Buds – this process is necessary to ensure a good taste/smell, prevent headaches, and increase potency compared to fresh buds!
Jump to…
Tips to Growing Top-Shelf Cannabis
How To Get To Harvest As Fast As Possible
