Potency and harvesting, what am I doing wrong?

Hey guys and happy Christmas Eve!

I'm having a problem here. I am running critical kush, critical plus, white widow, killing fields and super lemon haze. The indicas I harvested between days 45-55 and the sativas I haven't touched yet.

I have been watching the trichs closely under my 1000 watt hps day by day. The Killing Fields and Super Lemon Haze are currently 64 days into flower. I can't remember exactly if I started counting my days at the start of 12/12 or if it was at signs of first pistil for sure, but either way i'm pretty experienced in determining harvest times.

Now to my question since you know the stats. All of my friends totally LOVE the critical kush, critical plus and white widow with there favorite being the Critical + which suprised me. Keep in mind this is a from seed grow, not clones from specific mothers so the phenos vary (I am however in search of some mothers and have cuttings from each plant. The problem is, I have one super lemon haze pheno showing almost all orange hairs and looks well finished with 80 milky 10 amber and 10 clear and VERY frosty. I cut a nice sample bud of this and let it dry out for a toke.

My friends all say that it is no where near the potency of the previous indicas and felt it needed more time? But by trichs it should be definitely ready. I'm also noticing now that some of the trichs heads are missing and they sort of look shriveled, some, not all. But I know it couldn't be over ripe because there isnt a large percentage of amber at all. I also did this with the killing fields which are 50 cloudy/40 clear/10 amber and they said it was good but the high didn't last no time. I was a strong believer that the Super Lemon Haze was a very potent plant. I feel if I let this one pheno go much longer it will over ripen. Im judging the trichs the same exact way I did on the critical plus phenos but this is however my first grow with a more sativa dom hybrid.

What am I doing wrong? Most people say super lemon haze is ready between week 9-10 and im in that window, same with the killing fields. Will I really get more potency if I let them go longer? I dont see mostly amber trichs doing anything for the mind crippling euphoric high im looking for, ive always harvested at mostly complete amber for this very reason. Please, someone give me some advice. Thanks!

BTW, I know the high is very different between sativa and indica. I love the psychadelic high and so do my friends. But to me and to them also all the indicas mess us up way more even mentally. I've smoked plenty of sativas before that gave me the feeling im after, however I did not grow them. And I have always heard that you should not let super lemon haze get amber if you want the powerful effect from this strain. Can't find a whole lot of info on the Sannies Killing Fields though other than people harvesting mostly between 9-10 weeks and very few at 11. One KF pheno looks WAY beyond finished but thats not what the trichs are telling me nor the high. I'm clueless.

But super lemon haze? Come on, its got to be more powerful than all these commercial low THC strains im running. Am I being too impatient? Or have I missed the harvest window. On another note, the SLH that looks finished now, at 8 weeks all trichs were very milky and swollen huge, some of the biggest trichs ive ever seen. Now at 9 weeks they are just cloudy looking not so much milky and white anymore. I guess im trying to say that now they dont look right anymore. But everything I have read says wait till the first signs of amber. I'm beginning to wonder.

Sounds like you've got a good handle on determining when the buds are ripe. If you dry and cure properly, you've done everything you can do. If its from seed, it might just be a genetic dud.

If your trichs are mostly cloudy I'd harvest now.

That is what I was thinking but still quiet a bit of clear in a few. Is there anyone that has experience in growing SLH? I have one pheno that is quiet short with HUGE buds and smells quiet alot like lemon cleaner mixed with the Sensi northern lights I ran last grow. It has the most sativa looking leaves of all but its showing a strong mixture of cloudy, clear and amber. Its the only one I haven't sampled. I think it is a more NL x Haze pheno without the skunk. But the other two are definately pure sweet lemon with one being a bit more sativa like in growth.

Could anyone at least inform me in what days of the window the "sweet spot" is for SLH? Thanks.

Pictures of your SLH grows would be frickin blessing right now. I will post some pics of mine soon. The leaves around the buds are very pale yellow/white also.

Some buds stay living a few daysand they still mature till totaly dryed. Think of when someone puts flowers in a vase with water to prolong the plants life and they wont die for another week week and a half.

Is everything else dialed in? Temps, RH, any deficiencies? What are you feeding them and how are you curing?

if theres no heads on the trics you may have cut early.

or you could have beat the hell out of it when you trimmed it. if you used a bud trimmer and then manicured it after drying you can knock those balls off.