Youthmananswered grow question 2 years ago Hello! So there are a few methods, from the simplest (but less accurate) to the most correct (and obviously more accurate).
A plant is called ready when at least 75% of the pistils are brown, which can be seen with the naked eye. And this is the first method.
Another method is to wait until all the pistils turn brown, you will definitely have more properly mature buds.
These two methods have the shortcoming of not taking into account that the pistils may be brown due to other causes, such as having touched the flower too much, bad weather, various problems.
The third method, with the help of a magnifying glass/microscope (minimum 30x), is to look at the trichomes: you can harvest since they are white, we will have the thc at maximum levels and the effect is much more cerebral. A good rule of thumb, however, is to wait until 25 percent turn brown so that the effect is balanced, as most growers do. You can also wait until they all turn brown, you would have less thc and more cbn, so a much more physical effect. It all depends on what you're looking for :) also the terpene profile varies, the more immature the plant, the more herbaceous the flavor, the more it matures the more it releases its best fragrances, until it loses them when it's overripe and starts to die.