Opinons on when to harvest

Hi everyone.

This is my first grow and I know I have made a few mistakes, but until now I have been able to get by doing countless hours of research. Now I would really appreciate some input as to when to harvest and yes I understand there's plenty of guides out there and countless of responses to others asking the same question, but so far all my research has only lead to confusion. I have seen so much seemingly contradictory information of when it is best to harvest from people who seem to be pro's who have grown for years.
Pistils was something I had heard about many years before, people would decide when it was best to harvest on the percentage that had turned colour. Then my research suggested that looking at trichome development was a more accurate way of judging when a plant was ready, I even saw seasoned growers harvesting because the trichomes were ready in their opinion even though the plant hadn't starting autumning out and there was still more white pistils than orange ones. Then I read harvest guides saying if the buds still have a lot of white pistils then its not ready no matter the colour of the trichomes, confusing. So far I have come to the conclusion that harvesting is less of a science and more an art which is learnt from experience, which makes is difficult when you don't have any.
For now I'm looking for signs of my plants autumning out coming to the end of their lives, while waiting for most of the pistils to change colour, keeping an eye on the trichomes.
Below are pictures of my Swiss cheese auto which is about 6 to 7 weeks into flowering, please could I get some rough ideas of when this maybe ready to harvest, thank you.



Leaves dying off turning yellow and purple:

6-7 weeks into flowering. Some brown hairs. No trichome pics makes it harder. Buds dont look "mature", but in saying that, ive never grown an auto..so,, My advice ..wait, it just doesn't look done yet, a couple of weeks to go at least IMO. They just dont look full and dense yet.

But please take my thoughts with a grain of salt as i have never grown this strain or an auto. Im a gorilla grower who grows the same strain year in year out.

Nice first grow!

Thanks for the reply.

I will try and take some trichome pics tomorrow when I get up. This is just the plant closest to finishing, I popped in this auto so I have something to smoke while wait for my other plants to finish. I wanted to try a few different plants just to see what strains I might prefer, I really didn't know what to get, but I ended up growing a channel+, a deep mandarin and two freebies, a misty kush and a trainwreck. I guess I've made life difficult for myself growing so many different strains on my first grow, but luckily so far I've had no big problems, just one occasion when I overwatered, which was quickly fixed.

I harvest when my plant looks like shit, the buds have cannibalized the leaves, the calyx swelling has slowed to a crawl, the pistils have mostly turned brown and started receding like my nutsack in cold water, and the sheen from the trichomes have gone from sugar crystals to a sandpaper finish.

Depends what high you after mate...
Harvest times to what high U require.