Here you go I pulled this from one of my previous posts
. It covers the important stuff:
You don’t want to ever harvest based on one signal.
Stigma changing to 90% + reddish and shrinking towards buds is the first sign of maturity a plant begins to show. That tells you the plant is done trying to reproduce and grow fresh bud, and is ready to swell and ripen. During the swelling process the buds won’t grow much on the outside but will bulk up and get more dense inside. Increasing significantly in weight.
Plants typically need 2-3 weeks AFTeR the stigma change before they are done swelling and properly ripened. Don’t bother looking at trichomes before then, and make sure when you do look at them that you look at the buds.
The trichomes are the final signal of ripeness. It’s also important to look at trichomes from the side not the top. From the top the bulbous head of the trichome can magnify the opaque stalk underneath and give a false impression of maturity.
It is really easy to harvest plants too early. This is one of the main causes for new growers (and even some veterans) having sub par buds.
It is nearly impossible to harvest them too late, atleast on accident.