ok, to each his own. trich color indicates when the thc has converted into its psychoactive form. when they are milky to amber to mostly amber, they are pretty much ripe. you can get a golden color early on in flowering with some strains, making it a hard indication to go off of. in all marijuana strains, the trichomes will tell you when its done.
It all depends on preference. When trichs are clear to milky they actually contain the most thc..
from wikipedia
Cannabis buds are typically harvested when fully ripe. Generally, ripeness is defined as when the white
pistils start to turn dark yellow, orange, light to mid red, etc. and the trichomes, "crystals", barely begin to turn milky from clear.
[31] These trichomes can range from completely clear (generally deemed underdeveloped), to amberish-red. Ideally, professionals will use a decent power magnifying glass, a brix meter (to measure "sugar" content), and a microscope. The potential seed pods swell with resins usually reserved for seed production, thus improving the quality of the buds (called
colitas, Spanish for "little tails"), which will swell to form full "colas" (Spanish for "tails"). If harvested early on with only a few of the pistils turned color, the buds will have a more pure THC content and less of the
cannabinoids CBD and
CBN. The latter cannabinoids are non-psychoactive; they contribute to the bouquet of the marijuana and modulate the overall nature of the high anywhere from purely psychedelic to purely sedative.
actually a awesome article put together about marijuana cultivation.. check it out.. VERY informative..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_cultivation