Trichomes

"fast" flowering is a marketing gimmick. They rarely have shorter flowering times. Any normal photoperiod can be as fast as 7 weeks, but it's just rare and from what i see they don't do a good job selecting for that trait and the mixing of autoflower genese is silly because those plants are not 'faster' flower plants... people just count flower phase at a later point compared to a photoperiod, lol. apples to oranges is easy to be "faster" if you start counting 7-10 days late based on what a human eye can see rather than actual cell behaviour. Same as alwyas.. amber is degredation. Some degredation is probably necessary relative to overall maturation top-to-bottom on plant. The top will be ahead of the lower buds. I'd favor the top a bit more than the bottom of course because it's a lot more mass up top. It's a guess... take notes... try different levels of amber. what do you prefer? that's what you want. it'll take some trial and error. Some strains don't amber up and the plant over-ripens. I've seen it... I also think this happens if there is any late pollination.. the plant tries to stay alive and instead of senescence kicking in it is trying to form seeds and live longer. that's just a guess. But... if it's just not turning amber and you were dilligent looking for nanners and sacs, the next time i see that context i'm just going to harvest 10-14 days after the point the calyxes are fully plump. I had 2 plants over-ripen last grow and the flavor that results from over-ripening is not my prference at all. context matters.. if you like late-harvest window, it's less of a concern for you.. wait for amber. if preflowers turn hollow and a dark purple - regardless of purple genetics - that's getting to the over-ripe stage. the preflowers are the oldest calyxes on the plant.