I use molasses right up until the end, even after I've stopped with the nutrients, and just make sure to flush heavily in the last week. Even when using it in the last week, I've never found it to impart any bad taste to the buds.

A lot of growers cut away some of the lower growth near the end to allow space for airflow... probably out of fear of the dreaded bud-rot. It's not mandatory, obviously, and I doubt that it makes much difference on buds that are three feet away from the bottom. I only remove remove dead foliage from the bottom, but that's just me.

And it's pretty common for top colas to mature a little quicker than areas that aren't receiving as much light. Some plants will pretty much mature entirely all at once, and some are a little slower. My last harvest saw plants of the exact same strain do this, and one of them actually took an extra two weeks to mature after the others had already been cut down. Probably just a slightly less vigorous female. But I rarely harvest all at once, as there always seems to be a straggler in the midst that just never caught up to the rest of them.

Enjoy them when the time does come! :jointsmile: