This is a basic amatuer question guys, but how do ...

Hi @Gmalin105! Pistils are not the best way to tell when the buds are ready, for sure "red/brown/curly" pistils are a clue, but you cannot be accurate with pistils. The best way to ensure you're in the harvest window, is to take a daily close look at the trichomes, using a good magnifier or a microscope. You can find cheap handheld microscopes in your local growshop. You need to start this daily inspection once 50% of the pistils have turned red/brown/curly, so you can understand the whole trichomes maturation process and find the perfect harvest day. Trichomes will evolve, from "thin/clear/transparent" to "fat/milky/cloudy/opaque" and finally end their life by getting "amber/brown". Here's a good picture describing this evolution: http://www.cactusmartorell.com/blog-de-cannabiculture/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/evolution_trichomes.jpg. On this picture, the harvest window is on the 2 squares in the middle, with cloudy/milky trichomes. Indeed, harvesting too soon when trichomes are still clear will result in a headache weed, with low potency and bad high. Harvesting too late when the trichomes have turned amber will result in a couch-locking weed, with high amounts of CBN&CBD, but you'll loose some THC. Depending on the effects you want, you need to harvest when most of the trichomes are milky/cloudy/white, or when you'll see 20~30% of amber trichomes. I like energetic high so I usually cut when they're milky, just when the first amber trichomes have appeared. From what I see on your last pictures, I think you still have 2 to 3 weeks before harvest, you can give another meal with fertilizer, then you could use a ripening product for a few days, then flush with plain pH'd water until trichomes are ready. Hope this will help, I'll be around, keep us up-to-date and enjoy your last days with your babies 👊

Personally I look for the following to determine if she’s ready to harvest... if you have a loupe or other way of looking at the trichomes, the trichomes should all be milky white with some amber, not clear or cloudy. I additionally look for most of the hairs to have curled in and darkened (the hairs may be red, orange, or brown depending on the strain). And I look for the buds to have swollen up. One more good indication is when the older fan leaves start turning yellow/brown and falling off, like a tree in autumn. It looks like you’re damn close now to me. Good luck! 👍

Hi there ! To know the best time to harvest you have to watch the trichomes with a magnifier ! Then you need to now the type of effect you want from you plant as the differents trichomes ratio provided differents effects. For exemple a 70% amber 30% cloudy will make you stone for sure but he oposite 30%amber 70%cloudy will get you higher ( depending on the strain ) ! So if you wanna flush during 10 days you'll have to keep in mind that the ratio will change during those days !! Hope it will help you to make a killer's harvest 😁👍

Best way is to buy a jeweler's loupe and check the thricomes Avd harvest when most of then are cloudy. Falling that, for the plant to be ready 2 things must happen, first the calyxes must swell, Google it and check an imágenes, second the hairs (pistils) will curl back and turn red. The loupe is by far te most accurate way. You should be about done by now, maybe 1 more week, no more feeding and flush.