Knowledge is experiential is my favorite cliche,
this is my 4th grow and most successful grow yet and it’s probably not an accident.
I will definitely selectively harvest earlier this year based on this Trichome discussion.
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I recently did just about the same thing. I left the bottom third of some plants I recently harvested. I have insomnia and smoke to fall back asleep so amber is something I’m after for some of my weed.
1 turned out great after a month of additional light. I just took it out of the dryer this morning.
2 others turned pale and the buds started to look funny. 1 eventually burst out some more foxtails and white hairs and I don’t have time or space for that to mature again.
Then I read somewhere that left in bloom for too long plants WILL hermie so I got paranoid and ended the experiment. I don’t want any pollen in my basement and I’m not willing to risk it for this. I didn’t bother to check tricomes, just took it all down.
1 have 1 final plant I’m doing this with. I think the sweet spot is 2 weeks or so, then they start doing weird stuff. That one will come down this monday, and I don’t think I’ll do this again.
Anyway just wanted to mention it because of the hermie thing, though I don’t know if it’s a growers myth or reality.
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Very hard to see if the Trichs are clear or milky, judging by the pistils it looks like I am a ways away but I like the idea of the early harvest for the headier high. I am in the country (Argentina) and a Jewelers loupe is hard to find, I found an attachment 60X for a cellphone camera but it seems unlikely that its better than my macro lens on my camera. Any opinions?
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@Stonybalony Please show us a pic of the whole plant. Those trichomes look cloudy, but those pistils and leaves make me think she’s got a ways to go.
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No. Needs a few weeks at least.
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I am old and have not tried this since the early 80’s, things have changed. I think today I am going to cut away some of the shade leaves. I thought it needed a little more time but was getting worried. Thanks
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I’m just harvesting some autos I’ve been cultivating to have plants finishing spread throughout the next month. The first autos, planted in early May and didn’t do much due to crap weather. I’ve been waiting for them to finish but they barely produced any amber.
The leaves are very dark purple and the pistils are all dried up, there are plenty of clear and cloudy trichomes and few amber ones. I harvested the top flower, dried some of it for a week and tested. It’s great BTW; Strawberry Cheesecake.
I’ve just finished trimming the rest. What I will say is that the buds that got a bit more time are fatter but another week didn’t make much difference to the number of amber trichomes. In future I will be harvesting mostly according to the general state of the plant and the pistils rather than the trichomes alone.
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Thanks Covert. 
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Thought I’d add a pic. This poor thing has had a couple of spots of mildew already and the weather here is cool and humid. Worst of all worlds.
This should be ready now but I see lots of white pistils and no amber trichomes. Most are milky though it seems to me. I’m currently removing any affected leaves and all the lower leaves to try to help. I’ll not be waiting for the trichomes to turn amber because I think it’s possibly light that triggers that. Like fruit ripening. I’ll wait for the pistils to turn though.
This is what my tricombs looked like on my GSC plants I thought it would be more of a couch lock high because of the amber coloring but ended up being very energetic.
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The quality and potency of your cannabis plants depend on the harvest time. There are different methods to assess the maturity of your plants. Some are more precise than others.
Harvesting your cannabis a bit early will produce a milder taste and effect than letting your plants ripen a bit more. Harvesting your cannabis too late will yield a very strong taste and a sedative effect.
So it’s a matter of choice, and you will have to test different times to see what fits you best. Find out more about when to harvest cannabis here.