I’d like to thank everyone for their input, it is much appreciated, I’ve food for thought and adjustments planned. Still several weeks out until I get to try again.
I don’t want to open a can of worms on a potentially controversial topic, but I’m thinking I could be cutting things too early as well. Tell me there is a difference between 10 weeks 12/12 vs 10 weeks “flowering “. I’m beginning to feel I’ve seen them incorrectly as the same thing?
12 on and 12 off triggers flowering, though I've read that the 12 hours of dark is the actual trigger and not the amount of light.
I may have misunderstood your question about pulling early, but without a doubt in my mind, the best most accurate method of knowing when to pull is by looking at the resin itself.
I use a jeweler's eye myself as they're pretty cheap and good enough to see color in the resin.
The "time" to pull can very much have an impact on the smell and taste since the resin is where the THC and Terpenes are, and if you pull it early you don't get the most you could.
If you look at ge resin and most of it is clear (looks like wet sugar or salt) it's too early.
If you see approximately 40 percent "Cloudy" (white coloration) in the little mushroom cap looking resin, you can pull it, but you're going to end up with what some would call a "Sativa Effect".
If you wait until most of the resin is cloudy, you'll have the highest THC content and a decent mix of effects.
If you wait until you see the white cloudy resin turning Amber colored, the amount of amber you see, will dictate essentially how much couch lock you can expect.
Some strains will have Purple resin, which I've personally only seen twice, as not every genetic allows that coloration, but you can treat Purple essentially like the Amber color.
The Amber color is the THC turning into CBN, which from what I've read, THC and CBN together cause a drowsy effect more so than THC alone.
If you really like a certain strain, you could pull some for day time, and then let the rest go until it's breaking down into CBN, and have that pull for "night time" or "Wife is PMSing" time.