Don't wait until more than half the trichomes are amber! When they're amber, they're overcooked. When most are cloudy, but there are still some clear and maybe 10 percent amber, that's about the optimum time to harvest, assuming maximum potency is the goal.

The Dutch say that at the end of harvest, some strains will generate as much as 30 percent more THC if you give them 72 hours of complete darkness right before you hack them down. Not all strains will do this, but I didn't read anything about it *harming* the strains that don't benefit from the extended darkness. So I'd do that too, and hope your strains react favorably.

You can't go by the amount of red hairs to determine the right time to harvest. I've had buds that *looked* pretty damn done, but upon examining the trichomes, they needed more time as there were no amber trichomes at all, even though there were plenty of red hairs. Go by the trichomes.