About to harvest, few questions

Hi all. I'm feeling quite good as I post this because it is my second post ever on these forums and I'm harvesting tomorrow (hopefully). I almost managed to make my second post the dry weight but I've got 1 quick question and 1 opinion question. Here goes:

1) I have 4 AK-48 plants at week 8 of flowering with the trichs 50% amber and 50% cloudy. I am ready to harvest but when I look at the buds they still have a LOT of white hairs on them. I have never seen white hairs on any bud that I've ever bought nor on the bud pictures that I've seen floating around on the forums. Do these hairs mean that I need to wait longer to harvest ? Or if not do I trim them when I dry, will they change color when I dry? Any help is appreciated.

2) This is more opinion based but I'm debating whether or not to hang dry the buds while they are on the branch or cutting them off when I trim them and drying them on a piece of cardboard. I have been in the faqs and read a bunch so I know how to do each of these methods but I'm just wondering which of these two ways you guys/gals have tried and would recommend for a first timer so I can (hopefully) not screw the last part up too bad. Thanks again!

Hi Norcim, welcome to the forums!

1) Mostly white hairs means not ripe yet, so I doubt that you are actually seeing 50% amber trichomes. Like with AK-47 though, those hairs may all wither quickly, like within a week. You don't want to cut off the outside of the buds, and the hairs won't turn during drying, so you have to let the plant mature during actual growth.

2) We hang dry the fresh wet bud because that is the best way to allow airflow all around the bud. If you lay them on a flat surface, the moisture will cause mold to grow, and that's the number one enemy of drying bud.

HTH

I've had my hairs turn during the drying.... Usually about 25% of them are still white, but once dried they usually turn orange or dark red.

I however have had bud that kept whitish/greenish hairs even after cure.

Thanks for the replies Pool and potroast. I will let them go a little longer before I harvest, but its good to know that some of the hairs can change during drying. Hopefully the next post you see from me is a dry weight count.