Harvest and Curing questions, please help

hello, getting ready to harvest my first grow, ended up with three budding plants. I've got a couple of questions if any can help me out, much appreciated. #1) First, I'd like some clearity on the trichomes, you generally want to harvest when the trics have all turned milky white and are barely(10-33%) turning amber if you want a "head" high, if you want that couch lock you want to harvest when the trics are about 50-65% amber??? #2) What is the most effective curing process, I live in a hot and dry place so drying may be about 7-10 days, is jaring it the next best step or should bag it then jar it or is there another process that is better to for curing? I am not worried about speed but I'd like to smoke the stuff with in a 4-5 weeks. #3) Water Curing? please explain? I understand this to be the best especially if your not growing high quality stuff. The process goes something like submerge plant matter after harvest in water, stir a few times a day for a bit and then once a day after until 7-10 days is up, then pull out and dry by hanging and fans in dark room as you would normally, but does this really help out and remove the water soluable toxins??? #4) My dad is an old school hippy growing and he was telling me that they used to pull the whole plant for harvest and dip the roots in boiling water to "shock" it for some reason... sound familiar or anyone know why someone would do this? Thank you for your input and replies

well curing is personal prefrence but i would say just simple jaring is sufficient, cant say thers a noticable difference by bagging first. at a guess on ur dads shock theory, i use a method called splitting, 2 weeks before harvest i stick a sharp knife right through the main stem below your first node if possible, this stresses/shocks the plant and its defences cause the plants 2 produce extreme THC!!