So far man small-t-truth that is the best way for my comprehension anyway or how I uptake info to learn about harvesting. Man I just wanna hone in my own craft and I’m scared as a rookie trying to rank up to novice grower of batching this whole thing overall.
Especially when I’m approaching the finish line.
I just wanna cultivate properly man.
I’ve been through a lot of yt videos grow journals support forums etc. Man it gets saturated with conflicting info.
So the general concensus for each individual of the 4 girls is they all individually have about 4 weeks…
Cause from my uneducated eye 1 smaller one looks mostly cloudy or plastic like trichomes almost 90-100%
I see 4 different stages from 4 different plants all
W.w. photos.
But ill just upload the 4 in 4 individual image profiles.
Probably just more tripping on my behalf.
When 90 to 100% is that racy or gas 
right?
Partly amber is dialing in that creeper couch lock sleeper smoke roughly ?
I want 2 of each if I can pull off separate harvests and still max my lil yield up to almost total 100% bud fattening
So much of this is strain-specific, but there are some fairly established guidelines, albeit varied. Honestly, nothing you read will teach you better than just doing it yourself, making mistakes, and eventually dialing it in. That being said, I will tell you what I have found to be reliable indicators of maturity. If they are all different strains it will be difficult (if not impossible) to time these to all flush and harvest at the same time. A few amber trichomes just indicate that most have fully matured and some are now in decline via oxidization. That does not mean they are of lower quality, rather, just a slightly different composition. To get the strong couch-lock effect you would have to wait till 60% or more were amber. When all of them are clouded and a few are amber, that is what many veteran growers consider ‘balanced’. Older books on this subject tend toward more amber, the ‘stonier’ high, whereas newer growers tend to go for the all cloudy. This is in part due to access to research that shows when THC is at its peak. But keep in mind that cannabis is more than THC, and a lot of the high is the way the various cannabinoids enhance and affect one another. As for pistils, white pistils mean the calyxes are still swelling and growing. Nearly any grower will tell you, the bud is NOT ready at that point. In most cases, the pistils have all turned and shriveled before the trichomes have matured. I don’t even start checking my triches till I see that my bud has ceased to grow. There may sometimes be a few areas where new pistils are still being produced (usually on lower bud sites that aren’t getting as much light), and that isn’t a big deal, but what should be evident is that most bud has entirely brown/orange pistils that have shriveled and that new growth has ceased. At that point, you should begin monitoring your trichomes. Take a look at the pic. This is WiFi OG that I am just starting to ripen for harvest. Trichome heads are clouded (white) with a few amber mixed in. All pistils have turned.
What kind of bugs? Fungus gnats are common and thrive in humid conditions and I get them about every other run but in the winter. I top dress my medium with mosquito bits and Diatomaceous Earth, both seep down into your soil killing the larvae. The DE is like micro shards of glass that destroy their exoskeleton 
I couldn’t say if that stuff is safe or not, but looking at the ingredients, I don’t see any toxic chemicals. The problem is, they do not list what the ‘other ingredients’ are. I use the big yellow sticky traps (no pesticides) and keep them near the base of the pot, where the gnats tend to gather. I hang a few up higher as well. They are dirt cheap. And, while they do not fully eliminate every single one, they destroy about 99% of them. The few that are left are manageable. I also have this organic essential oil-based spray (rosemary, mint, etc) that works pretty well for control. It’s made for spider mites, but the gnats don’t like it either.
What is the name of the spray
Grower’s Ally. It’s OMRI listed and smells lovely. 
This item Grower’s Ally Spider Mite Control | 24 fl. oz. Ready-to-Use | Insecticide and Miticide for Plants | OMRI Listed
Works best for smaller insects, but it certainly reduced the number of gnats I had. That and the sticky, yellow fly traps (as mentioned earlier).
Here is a more individualized view of my four girls to see individual developments.
I mean all are White Widow fem.
F.f.ocean forest
Earth worm castings
Vermiculite
But being a rookie and scatterbrained pot head to da bone. I think I started 6.
I killed 2. 
.
2 out of the 6 plants where started on sept.17th.
The other 4 sept.9th.
Now I thought the 2 I f’d up fatally on i thought was on the 17th girls. Now I’m not so sure.
So some def are further along then others.
Since they are mixed starting dates im nervous im gonna botch a good harvest.
Here’s pics individually #1.Lil Ginger
#2.Mary Anne
#3 Da Widower Succubus
#420 Harley Quinn
The rest r definitely mixed burnout ninjanuiti…
Individual assessment still 4 weeks out all of them roughly?
I think i would like to try a grow of the lsd strain
After this next of and last of my white widow seeds.
Afterwards I wanna learn about cloning becoming more organic mixing my own supersoil.
Top feeding or just composting my own all natural nute feeding.
Molasses banana tea etc.
What is your method approach?
I might want some guidance cause I’m going to germinate my other 12 widow seeds with the soil pots and nute lines I already acquired
Then start dialing in my niche and my technique.
Would you or some of the other grow vets
help me quarterback this next launch while reeling in this harvest
What about a defoliation at this point?
Maybe total like some growers choose to do?
Thoughts?
A defoliation is not a bad idea I think. Some of them look a little bushy and dense.
I would suggest no more than 20% of the vegetation. Lollypopping is pretty high stress and not recommended unless you have some experience. I believe those who lollypop also train them early for the maximum effect.
Re-evaluate in 4 weeks anyway.
Too early to defoliate. However, you can clear out the lower stuff that’s blocking airflow and getting little to no light, and some of the big fan leaves that are covering up bud sites. I would only remove a couple leaves from each plant at a time. (That’s me… some go harder, some NEVER remove leaves in flower).
I lollypop, and start training from the first couple sets of adult leaves (I started with bonsai, so training is engrained- lol). Lollypopping should be a progressive act, feeling out the growth of your girls at the end of veg and getting rid of sites that will bear tiny, underdeveloped bud and underlit leaves. Knowing how your strain grows is a must, as well as how it reacts to defoliation. I tend to clear out the lower growth in stages, maybe 4 or 5 sessions before completed, and sometimes finish after the 12/12 flip… *if you do this, it should be the last bit of foliage and done no later than the first week of 12/12
Hey, sorry I didn’t really address some of your questions… My approach? Well, if you are doing a soil grow, you can really go all out with organics. You also don’t have to stress about ph as much if you have a hearty microbial presence, as the actions of bacteria and enzymes will help keep that in range (at least that has been my experience).
I currently grow in Coco mixed with about 25-30% perlite to open it up a bit. I use a reservoir and irrigation lines to small stakes with sprinklers. This is a non-recirculating system. I would not recommend recycling nutes in coco. Too many complications. They are on a digital timer that waters 1 minute at lights on, 1 minute midday, and 1 minute at lights off. I dialed in the amount of nutrient solution coming from the sprinklers/drip lines to get about 20% runoff. The nutes I use in the reservoir are mostly salt-based to keep the tank clean. In addition, I keep compost tea brewing all the time, and add that in via hand watering. I use a lot of fulvic and humic acid, kelp, molasses, and a little organic-based nutrient like bio-bizz in the tea.
I start my seeds (if I am not cloning) in the little root plugs (like root riot) and keep them under a humidity dome (watching the humidity as they sprout to avoid molds or rot) until they have put on the first set of adult leaves. I then put them in small peat pots with a healthy dose of mycorrhizal inoculant. I use a lower-intensity LED light and adjust the height as they mature. The peat pots are actually helpful for air-pruning the roots. Once they have reached the appropriate size, with a well-established root-ball, they are transferred into 3-gallon or 5-gallon grow bags with more inoculant and introduced to brighter lights to harden off. Light intensity is gradually increased as they adjust to the new environment.
Anyway, that’s my basic approach. I’ve been growing for about 15 years and have grown in soil, coco, and hydro. I like coco over the other mediums. It’s a good hybrid medium. You do have to watch the ph more than in soil, but when done right, plants and mycorrhizae thrive. And if you hear that salt-based fertilizers kill microbes, do some reading. There are real studies on this. One would have to use a high concentration, high enough to kill the plants. There is much more nuance involved than I want to address right now, but one can employ some organic methods (like teas) with a coco grow that uses salt-based ferts without it being an exercise in futility.