what would u do?

ok heres the crack: my plants r 54 days (ish) 12-12 and doing fine. but the main colas keep growing and the hairs are still 75% white and new growth keeps coming out of the top of the plant (more height that is-just a little but still more). Yet on most of the lower buds about 80% of stigmas have died (gone orange) and the buds are looking a couple of days from harvest. What i wish to know is: would u cut off lower branches first and leave main colas to carry on or is this a bad idea?
hit me with it!

You need to harvest depending on the trichomes... not the hairs... forget about the hairs...

yeah turtle is right i have heard that once the trichomes go a cloudy white
and/or an amber colour then that is the time to harvest , if you can wait till they are amber in colour then that will mean ya will get a better high when smoking and as far as the dead bits on the plants well i couldent say unless i saw a pic
thanks all and a big shout out to turtle and all the crew:)

hmmmmmmmm yeah i read that bit but i dont have much spare cash at mo so microscopes must wait. and how much difference can a day or two off optimum make?? surely not much??

both these pics were taken today and are of the same plant. This plant got flushed a week ago but im worried that it may have like 3 weeks left and run out of food.....
the top has grown out of the cola another couple of inches and is immature, yet the bottom buds have stopped growing (a lot anyway) and look far more mature.

fuck that was a quick reply a day or too could make all the difrence the longer ya leave it the better it will be when ya smoke that shit but i couldent say to much cause evry plant is difrent i need a pic really
one of my m8's has new growth coming out the top of some of his buds and just when he thinks hes gonna harvest he see's this new growth so hes in 2 minds 2 harvest aswell

sorry i dident see them pics ill look now silly me lol

yeah looking nice personaly i would leave it for a couple more weeks keeping an eye on it, but its up to you at the end of the day it will be alot better if ya can leave it longer m8
cheers hope this helps :)

yeah man im not going to cut um yet. and if i can sort out a microscope i will.. i may take some of the lower branches off soon though, if they show no new growth... cut one yesterday as i needed something to smoke but she looked ready... well perhaps.. this bugger:

this is drying now...... im sitting on my hands....... dont want to quick dry it.... but fuck i want to smoke it....

Believe me wait a little.
http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=50280

I am still waiting.

well one of my m8's has got an eye glass which is a 2.5x it only cost about £4 so they are not that dear and they work nicely ive looked thru it and ya can tell, ill attach a pic for yas to see and by the way your bud is looking very tempting m8 beleive me i would have dificulties leaving it alone if it was mine lol

ok it seems like a microscope is needed. cant get away from it. going to go and buy one: anyone know of a good one to get??
cheers all.
i just smoked my last bud (some ok stuff, but not top quality my any means) so im out till its dry.......... wheres my hairdrier, hehe.

I like the ones offered at radioshack myself. They're grrrrrreat.

ok please, please, please can somebody send me a link to a cheap but good microscope i could buy in uk without having to get it posted hapfway around word?! i know nada about these things and cant be bothered to learn, ill take the risk! i looked on ebay but there were hundreds and i had no idea what was good, what wasnt. cheers people....
westside, etc