how to know when my girls are ready

Ok well I have 3 plants that have been flowering since October 4th and are looking.....ok lol. its my first grow so there is room for mistakes I think my problem is that I did not allow enough time for veg but its ok not the point. the point is im trying to figure out how much longer untill I can harvest my crops. I will post up a few pix of the buds later but for now ill just explain. the pistils or white hairs are turning redish orange. now I was wondering do I have to wait untill all of the white is redish orange? or is there any other way to know when its ready??

thanks alot.

The colors of the pistils (hairs) have no role in determining when the plant is ready. The only true way to tell is to buy a hand microscope from Radio Shack, cut a small bud leaf off (one that has tricomes) and look at it. If the trics are clear, wait it out. If they are milky/ cloudy, you can harvest for a head high. If they are amber, then this will give you a body high. If they are brown to black you waited too long and its waste. Read up on the GrowFAQs, it has pics to help you better than what I can tell you.

Congrats on the grow, +rep.

The best way to determine if a plant is ready is to look at the trichromes with a 60x microscope, you can pick one up at your local radio shack/electronics store. If you want more of a couch lock stone, then look for more amber colored trichromes, otherwise, look for mostly cloudy, few amber

.... when the calyxes are swollen like popcorn.

not ready..........





ready.......







this is from another post thought u might wanna see it

thanks alot guys. heh where would I be without this forum

wow so I went out and purchased a microscope and looked at some of the trichs so It turns out my blue mystic plant has some nice redish amber trichs and my ak48 and northern light have clogy/clear ish trichs. well I guess this means I will b flushing for the next week or so and harvesting good timing on me asking that because I would have just kept waiting. now all I need is to finish building my dryer box and im good

thank u guys I will let you guys know how much I yeild.

Galeer's pic links are deceptive.
As someone who has grown/harvested for over 25 years I can
assure you that the buds in the top two piccies will give you a
much, much more "pure" high than the over-ripe and nearly degraded ones pictured
as the bottom two.
If you want a stupid/heavy and dumb stone, then maybe, maybe those
two bottom ones might do, but I would suggest NOT.