If you don't look at the tris with a 'scope, the next best way to judge maturity is watching the color of the pistils.
Pistils are the white hairs that showed up at branch ends after 2 or 3 weeks flowering. They will stay all white for a
few weeks. You know they are getting ripe when you can see the frost around the buds. Soon after the frost appears
you will notice a few pistils starting to turn light brown. After another week or 2 you will have a number of light and dark
brown pistils. That point is where I harvest.
Good luck, BigSteve.