Rate my Northern Light.

Congrats on the harvest!

Originally posted by oscarsmith Jesus! I wasn't expecting there to be so much bud!!!

That's of of them good problems...
(I love The Wire)

Oscar - the colour of resin gland is generally in synch with the maturity of the bud, similar to the colour change of the pistils. I feel that pistils give a better indication of overall readiness than resin colour, but some growers prefer to go by the resin.

In a plant that has entered flowering, new resin glands are clear. After these clear glands swell to full size, the resin of many plants will turn milky or translucent (but still basically whitish).
When resin glands have passed their ripest point, they turn amber (which usually indicates that the THC within is turning into CBN).  In my opinion, living buds with a majority (or even a large proportion) of amber glands are over-ripe and beyond their best point.

To be clear, amber resin is not a desirable thing (unless the grower likes really stoney weed). It's more an indicator of readiness - almost a warning sign IMHO.

I like buds that have a mixture of clear and milky resin, with a minimum of amber.

Just to confuse matters, there are many strains (often Sativa-heavy) whose resin stays mostly clear right up until harvest. Waiting for one of these to turn mostly milky or amber will take a long time.
This isn't an argument for early harvesting, but if the pistils indicate that a plant is ready to harvest, yet the resin glands are still mostly clear, don't wait for the glands to change - judge by the pistils.

The resin of dried buds (even those harvested with a majority of clear resin glands) will slowly change to amber over time; the speed of this change depends on method of storage.