Is the idea/practice of harvesting a whole plant a consequence of prohibition only? 
The thoughts that lead to this were long-flowering Sativa land-races that flower for 6+ months or even indefinitely(?!) – 'can’t remember which podcast… 
It seems to me that only taking ripened branches might be ideal.
Not sure if it’s fashion but I do that a lot. I have 1/2 a UFS18 in the flower room right now that could be chopped more now but I may wait to see if it goes longer, what might come out of it. I just did my Marauder and Orange Gojis in stages as well. I find I go minimum a week and lots of times 2 weeks between trims. What actually stops me from doing it all the time is the pressure for another spot in the room.
This is really an interesting idea!? I might try this with a long flowering sativa. Thanks for the idea! And on @MBVapester take, I might try this with others whilst flowering. Thanks guys!
It makes sense to me that you only harvest the fruit that is ripe for the picking if possible. Especially if you have inspected the flowers and don’t feel as good as James Brown about it.
There’s the different harvest with tomatos & strawberries & other stuff-- some yield all at once & some bear over months, & different farming styles favor either.
I.e. mechanized harvesting wants it all at once, single pass… git mah monee … & a home grower or small-scale farmer might prefer an “ever-bearing” or slow but continous yield.
In the case of ruderalis/autoflower, the plant has already made a choice 
but with modern hybrids & the long-blooming cultivars/strains we can take what we want at our own timing.
This slower harvest permits much more intimacy with the trichome harvest but also presents the longer exposure to pathogens/pests, so there’s always tradeoffs.
For a hashmaker I suppose clones of a garaunteed resin(trichome sizes & flavor/etc) would be the most dependable but certainly is boring for most us. 
I’m high. can’t remember the next thought. 
I’m high cant remember…) awesome way to end a post. @cannabissequoia you’re 
cool
Could some of the lower popcorn buds that survived (I missed) continue to swell up a bit? I guess it depends on how much “greener” they are. I had thought about trying it if they don’t look ready.
Was wondering the same, usually it all goes to butter or extract
Sometimes you got one big honkin’ cola blocking light to the lowers, in that case I’ll often harvest it and wait a few days for the lowers to get some nice light (and hopefully chunk up a bit) before I harvest those too.
This is how I learn when to take plants.
Some, like the Heri and the White Rhino purple up at different rates so it doesn’t make sense to grab it all when the first bud is ready. Certainly this applies to long flowering types. Also when bud or stem rot happens it’s often necessary to take the growth above, along with the affected bud.
I suppose fear of the law isn’t the only reason to chop/harvest a whole plant-- i.e. farming the Afghan mountains isn’t easy life & who wants to make 2 trips? 
…but I’m still curious if 
's are a big part of why & when stuff was harvested over the years.
I just wanted to second the popcorn lower bud notion, but also an unexpected decision to revert and either reharvest or go bonzai clone mother. I’ve had good luck with this in the past