You should try doing an EDF image where you take multiple photos focused on different areas and build that image up to one that has more details in focus.
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Iāve done a few actually, but the quality isnāt yet where I want it published.
In ImageJ (Fiji) Iām currently trying the Extended Depth of Field plugin on a registered (aligned/scaled) stack, but the results are really grainy and just low quality so far. I also tried within photopea (online version of photoshop) but the results are really undesirable still.
ImageJ can also take the stack and create one of those 3D wobble videos to show the depth of field even more. I canāt get one of those to work out yet but still trying.
I bet I crack the code soon, weāll see!
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Something I donāt see talked about much is differences in trichome colors between varieties. In fact, Iāve only ever seen it talked once, on the uk420 forums via an older oldtimer1 post. Hereās a snippet from their pinned harvesting and curing thread:
that thread also links to two different documents written by oldtimer1 that used to be on that websites āgrowfaqā tutorial database (a reupload of the original ogās perhaps?). Unfortunately the section doesnāt exist anymore and the two docs arenāt on the wayback machine nor on our current growfaq here on og 2.0. Maybe someone has them lying around or has better google-fu skills then me? Lol. Theyāre titled āAn Introduction to cannabis Trichomes.ā and āTrichomes in depth.ā
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Thank you @ChongoBongo! Iāll try to chase those down!
Forgive the GPT-4 fun, I had it rewrite that message from oldtimer1:
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Amber trichomes, which indicate high potency and complex psychoactivity, develop only in some phenotypes and predominantly in sativa-dominant strains. These trichomes progress from glass-clear to light yellow, then to amber, and finally to red-amber while remaining translucent like cut jewels. Potency peaks when the first red-amber trichomes appear.
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In contrast, indica-dominant strains typically develop milky trichomes that transition from glass-clear to frosted. Maximum psychoactivity occurs when 40-60% of the trichomes are milky. These plants never produce true amber trichomes; instead, they exhibit amber-brown but cloudy trichomes when THC production declines, and the effect becomes more narcotic.
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Both sativa and indica trichomes eventually degrade to a brown, cloudy/muddy state, indicating reduced potency. However, true amber trichomes remain crystal-clear until they degrade and should not be confused with brown trichomes.
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For sativa-dominant strains, harvest timing is less important. As trichome changes appear (i.e., milky or clear straw), harvest a bud weekly and choose the desired effect. Sativa strains take longer to mature and degrade to the brown oxidized stage compared to indica strains.
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This gives us a good base idea of what conditions are best for canabinoid production.
At harvestā¦is your soil wet or dry?
Do you keep humidity high late in flower?
Is your fert. level too high in the last few weeks of flower?
If so you could be lowering you canabinoid content.
It may be time for a change.
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I would like to discuss this statement further.
A guy called riddleme AKA RM3 used to talk about early amber trichomes.
Not a withered trich, these would be amber in color but still clear not degraded.
I found this topic very interesting but he was bashed by the community for his line of thinking.
Anyone dare to discuss this topic with me?
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Did they have any pics of early amber tichomes?
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Yes, he had his own site, but it is gone now.
I am not sure I saw microscope pics???
I remember the regular pics for sure.
For reference:
post * #1,149
This was his avatar pic
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I remember now why he got so much shitā¦
āI water em with boiling water.ā
He was talking about plants/roots.
I always wondered what science says about that statement too.
But boil the roots was not a bandwagon I was going to get on.
I was riding the early amber bandwagon, but after a while it seemed I was the only one left.
Well probably me and riddlemeā¦ 
Here is a pic I found, not sure it is good enough to make the point.
Here is what I hope is a better one.
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Youāve just inspired a quest to capture one!! I can tell you this āLSDā by Barneyās Farm is rather devoid of ātrueā amber trichomes, at least on the bracts Iāve sampled which are admittedly very few, maybe 5 or 6.
@shag, thank you for sharing this. The cave network on this topic goes much deeper than first anticipated, and itās exciting!
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There was a whole site dedicated to this witchcraftā¦
This is a quote from that site:
"Types that go from glass clear to milky [like frosted glass]. With this type when you get 40 to 60% milky trichomes, new THC production is being produced at a lower rate than it is slowly degrading, this is the most psychoactive point for this type or variety, it will never produce true amber, instead when you get the oxidised THC starting to show, which is more of an amber brown but cloudy. With this type of var as soon as brown trichomes start appearing you know THC production is way over the top and declining rapidly, at this stage psychoactivity is also declining and the effect becomes more and more narcotic. You see this much more with genes that come from hash making type genetics or so called indicas. Its the same thing as fresh lightly pressed hash has a nice medium honey coloured look, but this very quickly starts to darken, becomes brown then black over time as the surface thc oil oxidises.
Real Amber trichomes only happen on a very few varieties (mainly sativa dominant), the order is clear, clear slightly pale yellow, ie [going amber], to clear red amber. [at all stages they remain jewel clear] "
another quote:
Some strains, however, produce fresh resins that are transparent amber instead of clear and colorless, and these are often some of the most psychoactive strains.
Quote RM3
āsome say the early amber is a sign of more THCV (the trippy cannibanoid) but that has yet to be proven via any test that I know of?ā
Here is another one of his interesting but controversial quotes: * #62
āI gotta say that all my experimentin with light timings has for sure paid off. For me, it has confirmed beyond any doubt what DJ Short said about it, that timing above 12/12 like a 13/11 will bring out Indica traits in hybrids and timing below 12/12, Iām currently running 10:30/13:30 will bring out Sat traits in hybrids.ā
How to bring out the early amber trait.
You need a light cycle that is closer to 11/13 , I have run as high as 11:20/12:40 and seen it and am currently running 10:30/13:30
You need UVB and sulfur, and a strain that carries the gene. Then you simply look for it, I look every day during weeks 5 and 6 as that is where most seem to show it, am startin to see yellow on the C99 so it could show amber in week 6 (as today is the start of week 6 in my garden) They go from clear to yellow to amber to red to black and yes there are cloudy as well in hybrids because of the Indica in them
and with the various strains I have found it in, yes you get trippy, racy and energetic highs
Once you see em, youāll know, they are shinny, mirror like and translucent IOW they are very different from what most are used to seeing (why I made the pic) and it is a rare trait not often seen
I spent years figurin this out
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looks like they were referencing the same oldtimer1 post as the uk420 harvesting & curing sticky was, I posted the same quote a few posts up
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Thanks.
I could be wrong about where that quote originated from.
I found it today on Icmag and assumed it came from RM3.
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cough cough hey I was wondering if anyone has cut their plants down after blooming for half the time and made hash? I was personally wondering how it would compare to āmatureā buds.
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@shag, when we read 11/13, is that 11 ON / 13 OFF, or the other way around. I mean I figure itās ON/OFF but need to verify.
LOL @ GPTās edit when asked for a recipe using post #134 as the input:
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I need a little of what ChatGPT has been smokinā.
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So this signifies more than 12 hours of light.
This signifies less than 12 hour of light.
So the first number seems to signify hours of light on and the second is hours of light off.
Not sure if this is an unwritten rule like female first in breeding terms?
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Thank you!
This is a 186 image stack run first as a video through VLC 3.0.19 Vetinari w/ Nvidia super-resolution turned on before exporting the frames, then same process within ImageJ of Registration (linear alignment w/ SIFT) > Z-Project to an average-intensity image:
-Imgur: The magic of the Internet
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Yes, I have. I have compared and contrasted dozens of strains with samples chopped weekly between weeks 7-12. The results were highly variable. I did find that many strains that are pushed too long a get a same sort of ā¦meh to meā¦ boring and tiring high versus the totally clear and not yet clouding trichās which seem to most likely to have a speedier and more likely psychedelic type of high. And by boring I mean that some of the sublime and more psychedelic type effects that I enjoyed from an earlier harvest were diminished or gone completely.
As mentioned, some strains donāt turn amber or maybe there is some other factor involved in ambering. For a few years I have hardly been getting ambering on a continuous basis and it confounds me because other people growing the same strains will get it so it would seem to me that there may be some as of yet unidentified factors involved in ambering. I grow in coco using maxibloom and flower under 10/14. Even though I have been growing for over 32 years, every grow is still a leaning experience. And nowadays I make sure my nuggs are plump and filled in as a foremost indicator of when I will harvest. Since I donāt get amber, I shoot for great looking chunky nuggs.
As for crystals and terp content, terps volatize off all day long to keep bugs at bay and at night the plant synthesizes new terps for the next dayā¦ which is a reason why it is suggested by some to harvest in the morning before or soon after the lights come on or after a few days of extended darknessā¦so as to maximize the terps in your final product.
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Great post @herojuana.tom
My findings seem to align with yours nearly perfectly. 
To summarize:
Looking only for amber trichomes may not be the best choice for deciding when to harvest.
When I say this sorta things some folks seem to really freak out. 
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