Ending my first-ever grow, learned a lot here. Been reading a lot over the last few years about the whole sativa vs. indica thing now being viewed as an outdated model of describing ‘types’ of cannabis (esp. due to abundant hybrids, etc.). Now that I’ve gone through harvesting a few plants (3 more in the ground as of today), I’ve read more than I needed to about cloudy vs. amber trichomes, thusly ‘energetic’ vs. ‘couch lock’ highs. I haven’t let a plant go to amber, and weather here in CO likely won’t allow it this year.
My question is this: if this cloudy vs. amber/energetic vs. couch-lock thing is as important as the reading is leading me to believe, it seems to me that a sativa can be harvested to be like an indica, and an indica more like a sativa.
So what’s more important, the strain or the harvesting? For industrial cannabis (rec, med), it seems to me that perhaps what the grower did during harvest could impact the nature of the flower as much or more than the actual strain they are growing!
Never having let a plant go to amber I have no idea just how much ‘couch-lock’ it adds to the mix, so perhaps I’m taking it too literally.
I think it really comes down to personal choice. For me, I usually prefer less couch-lock in my smoke. I like to have a buzz while doing stuff around the house - even if it is just tending my grows. But if I want to have a truly mellow evening, maybe some candlelight with the wife and some good jams, then I like more amber.
But I have found that I can turn less amber buds into couch-lock edibles if I decarb them a little longer then normal and infuse (or even smoke) the decarbed buds.
Read up on converting THC to CBN. You can get both types of buzzes from one harvest.
Strain / genetics will always be most important. A deep relaxer like blueberry(or so I’ve heard I don’t grow couch lock strains , purposefully) will NEVER be as light and fun as a high energy like lemon mimosa .
I’ve noticed through the years due to mold that indica majority strains can be picked earlier because of mold and still give a nice high but the sativa majority strains picked early give a buzzy nervous high that is not a pleasant high. I’ve never had any circumstances that led me to pick either later than normal.
The strain whether sativa or indica does have the biggest impact on the high but the trichomes when cloudy are at their highest level of thc which creates the head high, and once they go amber it turns to cbn which creates the body high, that is how the trichomes change the high. I’ll add this fact alot of the pure sativa and some of the heavy sativa hybrids the trichomes other than a few will not turn amber