What happened?

[sneakypete1]

I grew some Hindu Kush this year, thet didnt start flowering until the middle of August. Its a 7-8 week from what I researched so I was thinking we would go well into october maybe Nov. I checked the tricomes the weekend before last and I could see there wasnt much but they were about 20% amber. Now the plants havent been giving off much smell, not frosty really, but almost all hairs have turned and so I was thinking I didnt want them to go to long, so I chopped them down this last sunday. At this point Im really regretting this move. I was lucky to find anything to put in the ground, these didnt even go in untill the last week of june so I shouold be stoked either way. Anyways, I feel like I blew it and am just looking for opinions. A couple of my buddies have been nice but it still coming down to me blowing it, probably should of let them go.

 

[PipeCarver]

I grew some Hindu Kush this year, thet didnt start flowering until the middle of August. Its a 7-8 week from what I researched so I was thinking we would go well into october maybe Nov. I checked the tricomes the weekend before last and I could see there wasnt much but they were about 20% amber. Now the plants havent been giving off much smell, not frosty really, but almost all hairs have turned and so I was thinking I didnt want them to go to long, so I chopped them down this last sunday. At this point Im really regretting this move. I was lucky to find anything to put in the ground, these didnt even go in untill the last week of june so I shouold be stoked either way. Anyways, I feel like I blew it and am just looking for opinions. A couple of my buddies have been nice but it still coming down to me blowing it, probably should of let them go.

I read something on here by one of the resident experts that said something like many people regret cutting them down early but few regret cutting them too late. Something along those lines any ways, so I've taken note and patients pays off is what I took from that.

 

[Jimster]

From my experience, plants put on a lot of their girth and the taste develops during the last 2 weeks of growing. Using the Trichome method for determining the "best" time for harvest, the difference between the THC/CBD levels is very small compared to the plants that have been allowed to grow until the leaves fall off (mostly Sativa strains tend to do this). Many growers see the size of the buds and get excited, but when they dry them out, 80% of the weight can disappear and the buds get loose when dried.
I usually grow them for at least 10 weeks of flowering, pretty much regardless of the strain. Sometimes I'll go up to 14 weeks for some Sativas. 1 thing to remember is that no matter when you harvest, it will not lose weight if you let it grow fully, but you can lose a ton of potential growth if you take them down too early.