I’d chop for sure. Both plants look ripe…the Gush Mint slightly less so. But you’re in a good window. Sometimes a strain will keep throwing out new pistils despite being in a good harvest window.
It could be caused by less than ideal conditions, but I’ve had plants lose some of their Terps while I waited on more amber trichs. The buds lost a little of their stickiness and aroma. The funny part is there really wasn’t any significant increase in amber trichs after waiting.
Your plants look outstanding though…..please do your homework and dry them properly.
You want cool temps and a fair amount of humidity. 60f and 60%rh is ideal. Also, good airflow is important. A very very light flow of air around the buds but not directly on them.
Lastly, I’ve tried it both ways and def prefer hanging with almost all the leaves attached.
I’ll pull off a few larger ones if they’re blemished, but no more than 10% or so.
The goal is to dry extremely slow….and leaving most of the leaves on helps slow down the dry. If the outside of your buds are dry and crunchy after 4-5 days, you’re drying too fast. This is why they’ll lose their dank aroma and smell like hay.
A plant w/ good sized buds will take 10-12 days at least in the proper conditions…sometimes longer.
Once the outer leaves are crunchy and the stems are snappy, they’re dry enough for the next step.
At this point they’re dry on the outside but still wet on the inside. U wanna seal them up in an airtight container, loosely arranged, for 24 hrs.
After 24hrs, open and the outer leaves should be less crunchy, if not moist.
Leave the buds out for an hour…..no extreme conditions…..then once the outer leaves feel a little drier, seal them back up.
Repeat this process 2-3 times and the moisture should be more evenly distributed.
Then serve your sentence in trim jail and manicure your harvest.
The process is simple:
1. Dry slowly…very slowly at 60/60 or as close as u can get.
2. Seal the buds up and “sweat” them, to redistribute the remaining moisture.
3. Trim and enjoy.
Good luck and I didn’t mean to go so deep, but there really isn’t a short way to explain.
