How soon can I harvest?

This is my first grow and I have a couple of plants that had 4 weeks of veg. And are now 37+ days into flowering. I know I'm supposed to monitor the trichomes to determine when they are ready. But we have family rolling in town for Christmas... We wanted to have a little stash ready for my wife's brother and us, while moving our grow room to a more discrete location for the other 4 still growing (2 veg, 2 flowering).

So yes, I want potent bud. But I'm willing to cut it down a little early if we can still get good herb from it. Should I just snip a few buds off, or will it stress it too much?

Here's a pic of the cola from about 3 or 4 days ago.

Thanks for any tips, and if you need further details on the grow, just ask!

Well even if you are not looking at trichs with a magnifying device, I believe at least some of the hairs on the bud should change color from white to whatever when they get near done.

That said, On about the 35th day of flowering of one of my plants. i cut a bud off. cured it. and smoked it few days ago. gave me a nice head high. not real long and all. but i got high.

yu have atleast another month,just snip some lower ones and leave the top,if yu need a little

Your not going to be smoking any premium smoke for at least 7 more weeks. That being said you can take off some of the lower colas, dry them for a week, then cure for a week and have something somewhat to smoke. Its not going to taste really good, and it may burn black and pop and snap due to ferts that haven't been flushed out yet, but it will be something to share.

You probably need another 25-30 days of flowering yet to do then a week to dry and 2-3 weeks to get a proper cure in.

You just can't rush the process, there is no way to make it finish faster.

thanks for all the responses. some of the hairs have been changing colors. just nothing overwhelming at this point. i'll be flushing all this week anyways. so come middle of next week i might start trimming a few buds off and see. then harvest all of one the week after that. and wait and see on the other. can't have empty bowls when company comes in. plus i'm tired of paying for a bag!