Any truly ripe bud will have plenty of amber trichomes. The other signs of ripeness are more important, if you want to get the density that happens in the final crucial weeks. Watch for fully swollen seed bracts, the pistils should change color AND retract, and you'll notice an overall change in color in the bud itself-it will get sort of a rusty tinge to it. You'll also notice the buds start sagging much more than before when that final push for density happens. Don't worry about trichome color too much. When they are ripe, they will have from a little to a lot of amber, that really doesn't matter at all. You'll get the best experience from any given strain if you let it go until fully ripe-you pick the type of high you want by the strain, not by some arbitrary % of trichomes..
