Determining Ripeness Without Trichome Magnification? And Harvesting in Stages?

I'm on Week 9 of an autoflower grow--my first. I have a magnifying glass but it's not sufficient to really see the color of the trichomes, plus I have a hard time telling the difference between clear, cloudy & amber in many of the online picture examples anyway. And my camera is absolute garbage. If I posted a pic here it wouldn't help a bit is what I'm saying.

Estimates for this strain range from 8 to 10 weeks, but most growers say that those estimates are lowball guesses & it'll take a couple weeks longer for non-professional growers. I was planning to harvest early Week 12 but now am starting to wonder if that'll be too late. The middle buds are starting to look like the trichs are fat & white & the upper half of the plant has lots of orange/shrunken pistils (about 30%).

The bottom buds on the offshoots, however, still have all white/straight pistils & very small trichs. They are getting their own special LED side lighting so it's not that they're under-lit. I wasn't planning on harvesting in stages as I wanted to hang the whole plant to dry at once. It's very small...a Solo cup grow. I'd rather not take single buds off if possible.

Can you cut the entire main stem/top cola off a small auto & continue to keep the bottom portions alive? Should I attempt to do that if the top portion looks like it's passing peak potency while the bottoms are still immature? Or just wait & harvest the whole plant at once like I was planning?

(Getting a magnifying lens is not an option right now as I'm broke--and I mean BROKE lol. Don't even have $5 to my name. So this is what I'm working with. I'm more just asking about harvesting in stages I guess).

Simple answer is yes, you can harvest in stages.
That said, I've left plants to flower way beyond "recommendations" with no ill effect.
Unless you leave a plant to just die in the pot, I don't think you can let it flower too long.
I just let the secondary buds catch up. You're not going to hurt your tops. They always mature first.

Awesome, thanks! Appreciate the help. Was hoping it'd be cool to wait it out...there's just so much hoopla about THC degrading but I'm a lightweight anyway so even if that happens I'll still end up getting high enough, haha. Haven't smoked in a year.

Cool man. You'll know when it's done. Have fun.

When all the hairs have turned brown and receded back into the bud it's ready. No white pistils should be there.
P.s. you can't go by how many weeks the breeder says. That is just a rough estimate. There are usually longer running phenos of every strain that can add a couple of weeks to any grow.

ganga gurl420 said:

When all the hairs have turned brown and receded back into the bud it's ready. No white pistils should be there

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I like my bud a little green, so I harvest earlier than you.
I wait until my bud to be like 3/4 brown, 1/4 white when I cut, because the hairs will turn darker as it dries.
I like my bud when dry to be sorta green.
Anyway, I haven't used a scope in years

Jimdamick said:

I like my bud a little green, so I harvest earlier than you.
I wait until my bud to be like 3/4 brown, 1/4 white when I cut, because the hairs will turn darker as it dries.
I like my bud when dry to be sorta green.
Anyway, II haven't used a scope in years

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Your losing a lot of weight when you do that. Up to 25% of final weight is added in the last 2 weeks of flower. (Just so you know)

I've been harvesting in three stages since the beginning of the year it's awesome take the top buds, wait about 5 days (I pinch some leaves and open it up too)

Second level fill out fast, they get fat they ripen to exactly where I want them, then I take them next..

and then I take the third level in about five to seven more days and all the popcorn bud becomes big smokable Bud thats dead on ripe, it's fantastic, highly recommend it, good luck!

Yeah, I've heard it's best to "take the time when you think it's ready to harvest & add a week (or two)" if you're a new grower since most noobs jump the gun. Plus I'm using CFLs which are basically the weakest lights if I understand correctly. I definitely want more of my pistils to darken up, which I think will have happened by Week 12ish. If not I'll just wait some mo'. Week 10 starts tomorrow.

I have observed that many smaller buds only start forming a week or two after the dominant buds, so I let those flowers run a little longer and take the doms as they ripen.

I prefer shorter running strains. I'd rather veg a week or two longer than flower a week or two longer. There is a direct correlation between vegging time and yield. That being said the shorter running strains yield less and are slightly less high THC.