First harvest, not sure if it's ready (with pics)

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So as title says, it's my first grow and I'm just not sure if it's ready for harvest, I'm at week 6 on NL #5 from Seedsman and it says it's 6-7 weeks flower time. Can anyone tell from the pics if it's done? the first one is upside down -__- I know I'm growing Northern Lights and it's a deep indica high but I'm not looking for a sleepy-munchies type high, rather a head buzz.

I have a magnifying glass but it's not 30x only 3x so most I can see some amber trichs (hard to make out but that's just from what I can tell) and most of the trichs look milky. Think I should harvest now or give it a week? I have 2 other plants going, but they look like they might need another week compared to this one. The calyx are swelled like mad on the plant in the photos, pistols are turning dark orange/brown and somewhat receding into the buds, but that may just be the start of the pistols receding. Also the upper fan leaves are starting to yellow and curl, started giving moderate flushes with feedings of molasses in the last 2 weeks so that has aided bud swelling a lot.

I have always been told when 90% of the crystals are milky and the other 10% are turning brown or amberish.

My rule of thumb is if two thirds are browning then it is ready......
(and it would help if "image shack" would let me have a good look at your photos!)

Two thirds of my pistols are browning, maybe more...but I'm only 6 weeks 3 days now. In your opinion should I let them grow out to 7 weeks and start 3 days darkness then chop, or start 3 days darkness earlier? Only asking for opinion, thanks for the response!

Not the pistils, the trichomes. You go by the trichomes NOT the pistils.

I don't have a microscope to check trichomes...I have a magnifying glass but it's hard to tell the trichomes color really.

nwaredstar7 said:

I don't have a microscope to check trichomes...I have a magnifying glass but it's hard to tell the trichomes color really.

Click to expand...

Time to buy a magnifying glass! lol Just playing, but seriously just throw down like $15 for a new one. No point in gambling over a month of work. If you have two magnifying glasses just put one and front of the other and adjust distances until it is in focus.

Fuckin' ImageShack. Just post those bitches on here and we can get a better view.

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I should note that a lot of the bud sites are swelling to the max, if I had to guess. I don't really want to have these be the biggest couchlock buds ever (yes I know they are NL and I should expect that lol) but I also don't want to prematurely cut. I bought this magnifying glass thinking it was what I needed, I was wrong. So I'm stuck with this for now, even though it doesn't really work but I when I pluck off a leaf I can somewhat tell the colors of the trichs.

I'm probably going to give until friday to drop lights for 72 hours, chop em sunday night. Any special end of week hints anyone has? Should I stop feeding with molasses now and flush them sometime before friday? I have partially flushed before in the last few weeks, which accounts for the yellowing I'm seeing in most of the leaves. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!