I bought a USB camera to photograph the trichomes, but it seems to have a long exposure, so it is very difficult to get a good, in focus image of the trichomes on a live plant that is moving in the breeze (even turning off the fan didn’t help. Here are some images:
Many trichomes look cloudy, but I know that is wrong - it is way too early.
But if I snip off a tiny fragment of a small sugar leaf, I can photograph it much better, and this shows that the trichomes are actually clear, as expected:
Is it ok to use this method to decide when to harvest, or will removing a small sugar leaf fragment (~5mm long), every day or so, affect the harvest?
Clipping off a sugar leaf is not the accurate Way of checking trichomes as sugar leaves mature faster. You’re trichomes should be read from an actual piece of the bud not the leaf.
It’s very common practice to snip a little piece and no it’s not going to hurt nothing