Best Loupes and Microscopes for Viewing Trichomes and Harvesting Cannabis

There is only 1 way to really know if your cannabis is ready to harvest:

Looking at the trichomes.

Trichomes are the technical name for the little crystals you see on the cannabis flower.

Trichomes are too small to be seen by the naked eye, so if you want to have the highest potency weed, you NEED to use a jeweler’s loupe/microscope to check out the trichomes.

Here’s the one you should buy.

Anybody who has smoked marijuana before probably knows the trichomes as the “sticky” part of the plant.

The key with trichomes is to make sure they aren’t clear/see through, which means your weed isn’t ready to harvest. If you harvest early, your weed will suck and have 50% or less potency than if you had waited and harvested at the right time.

You don’t want to spend 90+ days growing a cannabis plant only to harvest it too early or too late and give up a bunch of the potency.

What Other Sites Won’t Tell You

There is a ton of bad advice on the internet when you try to figure out what microscope/loupe you should buy.

Most sites try to get you to buy a crazy expensive/over engineered microscope so they can make more money.

But the truth is, you don’t need that.

A simple, cheap 30x loupe with no electronics or moving parts is the perfect tool for the job. It’s what I use and I’ve never struggled to figure out when my cannabis plants are ready to harvest.

So without further ado, here’s my top 3 picks that I personally use and would recommend.

Top Choice – 30x Loupe

Most of these loupes are the same. They come from the same factories in China so there isn’t much of a difference.

Some include a light but if you’re looking at your weed plant it probably has some ridiculously bright grow lights over it so you might not need a light.

I’d only recommend buying a loupe with a light if you’re using a blurple UFO light which distorts the color of the trichomes. You need a white light to check if the trichomes are good to harvest. This loupe has a nice, small LED on it that will light up the trichomes enough for you to check them.

This loupe is the one I use and the one I’d recommend. It’s sturdy, provides the right amount of magnification, and costs less than an eighth 🙂

No products found.

Runner Up – Best Digital Loupe

If you want some electronic zoom on your loupe without fully upgrading to a gigantic microscope, this clip on loupe for your phone is a nice middle ground.

It goes up to 60x zoom with an LED light for better viewing if you use blurple UFO grow lights.

It should work with most phones so it’s not iPhone/Android specific.

No products found.

Best High Zoom Option – 30x/60x/90x Loupe

The final loupe I’d suggest is for people looking for a stronger zoom.

Personally, 30x is fine for me. It lets me see if my trichomes are getting cloudy/amber colored but it’s also not so zoomed in that I can only see a few trichomes at once.

At 30x zoom you can basically see 50-100 trichomes all over the bud so you can easily tell if it’s ready.

If you want to get a really up close view, this loupe is what you’re looking for. The 60x and 90x zoom options are more than you’ll need and the loupe also has a small LED on it for the blurple growers out there.

No products found.

Final Thoughts

Don’t get duped and buy a $100 microscope. You don’t need it and it’s a pain in the ass to use.

You want something that you don’t need to plug in and something light enough that you can hold it up with just your fingertips while you get close to your plant to inspect the trichomes.

All of the loupes I recommended are super lightweight and cheap and will do exactly what you need.