ok everyone... so I am still here waiting. Haven't cut but a couple tips of leaves to check trichs. Here's where we stand. I think there could be plants in my closet for another 2 or 3 weeks (at least the WW). Looking at buds... I'd guess about 30% of the Hindu's look anywhere near ready. 50% look like they are getting there... and 20% don't have any brown hairs on them at all. The white widow is just barely on some buds starting to change hair color. Like mafia mentioned they are starting to change from the bottom of the bud/ cola up. Interesting.
The super bud in the middle has 80-85% amber trichs, but still has 'new growth' parts that are not ready yet... when I say new growth, I just mean that the specific part of the bud has sprung up much much later than the rest and is not even close to ready yet.
The bud in the back, that I thought has looked ready for a couple days now... it's trichs before were totally not ready, maybe 30%... but in the 2 1/2 days the trichs have turned to 60-75% amber... and the bud itself hasn't changed at all from what I can tell.... I was watching it (like you told me jesse) and the first day I think I noticed a tiny bit of swelling, but in the 48 hours since that point it looks to be exactly the same... only the trichs have changed.
I asked my wife and she looks at it from a risk reward of cutting now/ later. And really there is no point to cutting it now. Just for arguments sake... let's say the but would be perfect to cut tomorrow. If I cut it today I would lose more than if I cut it in 2 days (a day late)... becuase from what I gather from you guys and reading is that the week before the 'optimum' time there is a lot of maturation that goes on, while the week after the 'optimum' time doesn't really deteriorate the bud that much (as compared to the dfference in the week before). Does that make sense?
Also... I understand there is no 'optimum' time so much... not like it's a mathematical equation, but picturing an optimum time helps me to understand the ideas in harvesting and maturing and stuff.
Another thing... does anyone cut up branches as the buds dictate? what I mean is some of my taller shoots (along the walls) seem like the top couple inches of bud is more ready then the bottom few inches. Does everyone just cut the whole thing, or if I'm crazy enough should I cut what is ready when it is ready? Or is that a ton of extra hard work for nothing?
Thanks for all the help and interest guys.