Plants ALMOST finished, Need to cut some now, What's the best thing to do?

So, I grow just to supply my wife and I with medicine and had a couple bad rounds last year, so we're running out of medicine now and have three plants that are 1-2 weeks from being at their peak harvesting time. Well, one looks like it might have over a week, one maybe a week, and one that's within a week most likely. They are covered with trichs and buds are firm/filled in, but they are still putting out a lot of white pistils and seem to still have a little production left in them. To be honest, it's been a while since I grew stuff this good so I'm not that experienced at judging it, but I have read A LOT on here, so I know what I should be looking for.

My question is, knowing that they aren't completely finished but I do need to snip at least a few buds to hold us over, is it better to:

A) Snip the cola of the most finished plant and let the lower buds continue
B) Snip some of the medium-sized buds in the middle of the most-finished plant, leaving the cola and lower popcorns to finish.
C) Harvest the whole most-finished plant

Essentially, I'm not completely clear on the stress impact this will have on the plant and what the best approach is to limit stress, get enough bud to hold us over, and end up yielding the most I can overall with this less-than-ideal situation. Sorry about not having a good way to put pictures on here. You'll just have to take my word that the main plant in question is about one week from being fully ready, plus or minus a couple days.

Thanks for any input!

I understand that you might need medicine, but if you cut the plant too early, it may have no medicinal effects whatsoever, rendering it worthless and a waste of 7-8 weeks of flower. If you have a micro/macro-scope make sure you have cloudy trichs. If any of the plants you intend to cut down have a majority of clear trichs, then the medicinal properties will be absent. Trust me, I have had many ladies chopped a week or 2 early just to smoke, and I regret it every time. I can feel a slight effect in my head and eyes, but nothing more.

So I guess it's up to you. If the trichs are at least 50/50 clear/cloudy then I would say you can cut the plant. But anything less and you might be disappointed.

Harvest one middle interior bud at a time to hold you over. Save the colas until they peak. good luck!

Roll a bunch of big cigar-sized doobs.....get yourself a pink fur jacket......head to the redlight district, and become a pimp.

rickymac21 said:

I understand that you might need medicine, but if you cut the plant too early, it may have no medicinal effects whatsoever, rendering it worthless and a waste of 7-8 weeks of flower......
So I guess it's up to you. If the trichs are at least 50/50 clear/cloudy then I would say you can cut the plant. But anything less and you might be disappointed.

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Thanks! I have been checking the trichs with the jeweler's loup I have (not ideal but gives me an idea at least) and the plant in question definitely has some cloudy trichs. Unfortunately, I haven't found any amber ones yet but I'm at least approaching a 50/50 split clear to cloudy, maybe edging past it now. I'll go take a closer look since I haven't in a couple days.

So, I snipped one small bud so I could get a better look at the trichs without having to move everything around. My loup is too small, but I'd say it's 60/40 cloudy/clear. Definitely will let the rest keep going and conserve what we have left. Thanks for the input!

just take enough to get by , the week will fly by and then you have good meds

I've been in the same position with the wife bugging me to pull some and one day I have in and let her harvest a plant a 7 weeks and I complained the whole time. Until I smoked some. It was a very big head high. Felt nothing in my body but my head felt like something crazy. It lasted maybe an hour at best. All in all I would do it again just to have some early bud to smoke from time to time