Are my babies ready to chop?

Hey Stoney-folks,

I'm halfway through week five of flowering, one Sour Diesel and two The Pure (a.k.a. Original Skunk if my information is accurate).

My question is this: How much longer until harvest? I can't find a real magnifying glass (the Target, Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Radio Shack in my town are all abominations) all I came across was one with 15x magnification. With that, it looked like all the trichs were fairly clear, but then again I don't really know what I'm looking for.

Attached are pictures taken with a digital camera on Macro and through the magnifying glass. Any help would be appreciated.

Also, do you guys think the buds will ever connect on these babies? I'm growing under pretty weak fluos (a four foot tube, 5 24" tubes, and a 100w cfl) but it looks like they are coming out ok- a bit airy but hopefully chronic.

Again, any help would be appreciated. Harvest tips, curing tricks, anything. Even comments and conjectures as to the quality.

Thanks again!
-Adio

no. only like 15 - 20 percent of your hairs are red.

maybe like 3 more weeks

how long have u been flowering for.. and they look pretty sick. nice

your budz look very very nice....beautiful colors

They look close, but you're a couple of weeks away yet. They look good though, nice job.

wow very impressive looking buds. as already stated at least a few more weeks. sour desiels are a 9-10 week strain on average and i would think that the skunk is the same. so actually like 3-5 weeks left for ya. good luck and congrats on the stellar buds

Thanks for the responses and input; they're very much appreciated.

And yeah, I was pretty surprised by how these turned out given that it's my first grow and fairly poor conditions. That's why I wanted some second and third opinions.

How about harvesting? What's the best way/time to go about it? I hear that a clean razor, bottom to top, around 10 a.m. is optimal. Is this all true?

And what about withholding light/water for the last two or three days before harvest, is this helpful or merely an old wives' tale?

Finally, I took some early snippings of the buds to test and after air-drying them for about five days they had very little smell (until I broke them open to grind up and smoke). Does curing actually remedy this? I'm baffled as to how leaving plant material in mason jars would ever strengthen the smell.

Any tips, tricks, advice, or just general information would really help me out. The Rollitup population is largely responsible for the quality of my buds so far So thanks!

Stay High

-Adio

i dont think that a specific time is important, techniqually if you harvest at the end of a dark period it will have the highest thc content, but personally i dont think it matters.
i also dont water mine for some time, actually 3-5 days. i just figure that it makes drying time a little faster, cause obviously the plant has less water content. as far as the taste and smell, a proper drying and curing will do wonders. even after a week of curing will make a big difference. i like to try and smoking reservingly until i have cured for at least 2 weeks. i have no knowledge and it baffles me as well as to why this works, but here is my take on it, think of fruit ripening. that is what weed basically is. it is a sweet protective seed producing plant part. an unripe apple or tomatoe put in a paper bag will ripen and become more tasty and smell better. this is the same for weed. again this is just my guess.

wow i typed alot, hope some of this helps

when most of your trics are amber in color then you harvest. cut the plant at the soil and start to trim all your leaves off. then put in a closet until dry. 2-5 days hang it up side down on a hanger or sumthin. then clip off all of your buds and put in a mason jar opening twice a day. make shure your buds are mostly dry and once you are shure they are dry open once a day and then enjoy a week later.

you should probably check into insect control also