@pelt im about to check out your grows man, probably a landmine of info.
Well tell us the difference from 58 day NL and 68+ day NL? I mean what drove you to longer times, and what were you trying to achieve? I mean not knocking but you through out numbers without any reference why, and what to look for. I know when and how to harvest, but always like hearing others if they incline to share.
Please do brother.
Hehe, I always say, I'm no expert. I just have had quite a few grows, and surprisingly each one gets better than the previous. In terms of what works for me, what doesn't, what makes things easier etc......
But for my harvest timing...... Initially, particularly with that first grow, seems like me and everyone else is just pretty excited about it. Which makes sense, and you can't wait to chop that puppy down!!! So my first grow, I didn't check trichs.... I was pretty much looking for any excuse to cut it down so I could sample all of my hard work. But, don't get me wrong, I am not that guy that would tell anyone how they should conduct their grow. Imo, for the hobbyist like me, it should be somewhat fun.
So I hope I didn't come off as preachy or anything, as I just look to share the few things I've learned since I began if someone asks. I think I'm a newb at it myself. So we're all in the same camp.
But back to the question, mainly I was looking to chop initially based on the advertised time of the seedbank. Which usually seems to never work out that way for anyone. Now, mainly to judge harvest time, I look at the trichs through my magnifying glass, and I like to see the majority of cloudy trichs. I no longer use time for anything except a general gauge. I.e. based on MY personal setup, and how my plants typically like to grow, I don't even bother to look at trichs till about day 70 of flower, which is why I still keep track of my days pretty religiously, just for a general idea and for historical purposes.
So I can pretty much tell, based number of days, density of my buds, color of the calayxes, when there is no more white growth, as vertical growth stops, how quickly they are absorbing water, and other things before I start to look at my trichs close-up..... mainly because I've done it so many times. So basically, just like you BigBuddah, eventually you just kinda "get to know your grow."