I still had most of my girls out there, buds shrinking down, and he gasps and says, "Mom! Why haven't you started flushing these?" I said, "What?"
When the buds start shrinking, they are just loosing moisture. Might not look as pretty, but you're not loosing dry weight. And I completely agree with your earlier post about being emotionally invested and not wanting to cut them down though. I never want to chop them.
I've noticed that usually people who are growing commercially cut a week earlier than ideal, people who are growing for personal enjoyment usually wait a week too long.
For myself, I usually wait until new batches of pistols stop popping, and by new batches, I mean bunches of calyxes bursting with 10/15 pistols, not the odd pistol or two popping up. Then I flip it 0/24 (constant dark) for a few days and then chop them.
Your buds look done to me, although its obviously a moot point now that you've chopped em.
Enjoy, man. Smoking your own weed is 1000000X better than smoking someone else's.
