Better to harvest hips when STARTING to turn orange?

Is it clear whether it’s better to harvest hips when they’re STARTING to turn Orange or when fully orange and/or when the stem is starting to dry?

Someone once said that when the part of the stem that attaches to the hip gets some color it is time. I think if they’re more than half orange it’s usually ok to harvest but ideally the whole hip will have turned. Others will tell you to count the days since pollination, but I’m not organized enough to do that.

I seem to recall hearing that hips such as you describe have seeds which may not be as dormant, and might germinate more quickly, but my M.O. has always been to imagine, were I a critter that ate hips, at what stage would it taste most irresistible, and i go from there.

I don’t know however. Even when I do attempt germination experiments, I inevitably get conflicting results.

I think that it is mostly dependent on the particular cultivar seed parent, but recognize an additional affect that the pollen parent causes. For a given cross, some seed parents germinate better if picked earlier with just some coloring in the hip, but in my experience, it is variable when compared with other crosses.