I did a little experiment with 4 blueberry autos that are all in the bag now.
the first one I chopped one week after all the pistils had receded and turned brown .{ I use a usb microscope and get high res high mag look at the trich} it was maybe 5% amber, then next one s I chopped at weeks 3,4 and 5 , by week 5 was maybe 30% amber.
week one buds were on the Larfy side
the buds were quite a bit denser for the week 3 and 4 and about the same for week 5 ,
for me if not fighting horrible weather forecast or rot issues I am planning to let my remaining photos ( critical, gold leaf, pineapple, purple haze and mystery seed) go another 4-6 weeks, I doubt the mystery plants is going to finish it is barely starting to flower
This year im looking to get all pistils gone color, then start looking at trics. When i get them full cloudy where i would be happy to harvest. Then i will do my flush for 7 to 10 days. Hopefully by then ill have some color. Id like to finish at 10 to 20% amber. But i will probably do a double harvest if weather permits. Double harvest will try to get some more mature then normal. Im not going early on anything this year. Its just not as good as fully mature buds
Not only do I look at the hairs and the trichomes but I watch the health of the plant. If its still looking beautiful and she’s still thriving its usually too early. Usually the plant is dropping leaves and starting to sag a little like its starting to give up but the buds will still look healthy. Thats when you get the best colors and the prettiest bud pictures and the best weed.
Same here, my Black Widow and the Grandaddy purple are a couple weeks ahead. The LA Confidential is barely a week into flowering she’ll go into November probably.
Also the trichomes haven’t elogated too much and have the the little spheres at the ends drop off. Also a matter of percentages. the undeveloped versus the declining trichomes.
My take on it .
