How amber do you guys let your plants go before the chop?

I've got 2 critical mass plants (1 of which I thought was a black widow), a black widow, and a jager that are ripening up in the 11th week of flower. There is only a little amber showing on the bw and one of the cm's. No amber on jager yet. I've ran maui waui 4 cycles now, and this time I let her go about 10 weeks instead of the usual 9. It's the most potent narcotic like effect I've ever gotten from maui, and the flavor is both stronger and more pronounced. The glands were about 25-30% amber. I was almost stressing a bit thinking I allowed them to go "too long." After sampling some that was dry last night I now feel 25-30% amber is the ideal harvest window. What do y'all think?

Same, I like going over 20% on my indica Dom hybrids for that night time knockout effect.

Sounds good to me. I harvest when I can no longer see any clear trics. And by the time all of them become milky, some will already be amber. That's usually ~25% amber but depends slightly on every plant. I tend to avoid too much couchlock but I don't want any headaches either. More milky for hybrids, a bit more amber for sativas.

Curious as to any difference when making bubble hash?I found plants with more amber yielded more hash?Not sure if that had anything to do with it.

10%

I've had some Sativa hybrids that looked done -except that the trichs stayed clear even after 12 weeks. There was a point at which the plants smelled delicious, but then after waiting for the trichs to ripen (which they never did), the delicious smell changed and became less fragrant and kinda dull.

Let plants finish. Checking trichs is out dated.

If you want a ‘couchlock’ buzz then grow a strain that produces that buzz.

If you want a ‘daytime’ buzz then grow a strain that gives that kind of buzz.

Some trichs almost never amber and some amber early.

Craigson said:

Let plants finish. Checking trichs is out dated.

If you want a ‘couchlock’ buzz then grow a strain that produces that buzz.

If you want a ‘daytime’ buzz then grow a strain that gives that kind of buzz.

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First time I've read "checking trichs is outdated"

Millo said:

First time I've read "checking trichs is outdated"

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Its not the best way to tell when a plant is done.
I see people almost daiky chopping plants early because they ‘checked the trichs’.
Even if you were goingn to use trichs to determine when ready, the plant needs to be at a certain point before even thinking about trichs.

Craigson said:

Its not the best way to tell when a plant is done.
I see people almost daiky chopping plants early because they ‘checked the trichs’.
Even if you were goingn to use trichs to determine when ready, the plant needs to be at a certain point before even thinking about trichs.
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Well yeah, of course. But usually when you have enough amber trichs the stigmas also become brown, giving the flower that overall "ripe" look. And by the time this happens, enough weeks should have passed. But yeah, I get what you mean. Harvesting early is a guilt that almost everyone has had at some point.
Regarding the couchlock/daytime buzz, it is true that they are a big % strain-dependent but I also think trichs have some play in it too.

I exclusively grow indicas and indica dominant hybrids and I shoot for 20 to 30% amber, but typically I know my strains well enough that I just go by the general appearance of the flowers. If they look done I typically am right in that 20 to 30 range anyway.

Lots at play for sure, but a loupe always worked for me....... To each their own

I wish I could go by that. What day do I have off??? That's the perfect time to harvest. That said I try to time it for ~20ish% - they ripen a little more after being cut down.