wait till at least half of the hairs have turned red. I also think that it comes with experience that eventually you just know when it's ready. You can get a 30X hand held mircoscope on line and look at the trichomes. The little clear mushroom things on the leaves and buds. When the stem is milky and some of the tops are turning orange that would be fine or you can wait a little longer. what you do not want to do is wait till the thrichomes sp? all turn copper color and begin to drup.