Extra dark before harvest

[Gingerbeard]

I'm starting a new topic based on the topic through the link below.

What's the deal with giving plants 24 or 48 or ? hours darkness before harvest? Is this a one time thing?

https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum...hat-can-happen

[starramus]

DrPhoton might like to comment on your thread. I searched for his previous excellent post , but came up empty handed. He monitors the forum, but I believe he is more heavily invested elsewhere.

[DrPhoton]

Yea, i have only just started being active again here. I do focus most of my energy elsewhere but i started here and i enjoy the conversations.

[Gingerbeard]

Daggum search engine on the GWE website is like Google for weed. I found this. Says a lot. If I listen to N. Haze, it's not such a good idea for bud production, but maturing a plant faster meaning smaller buds. Looking for experiences.

https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/312978-3-days-away-when-in-12-12-what-s-the-worst-that-can-happen

[DrPhoton]

The hypothesis goes that darkness before harvest, allows the plant to allocate leftover resources to sink sites. The problem here is that cannabis does not hold any long term stored resources, due to it being a angiosperm (anual plant). It is typically biannual or perennials that hold this ability. There is whats called transitory starch, which are short term energy stores that are used for the dark phase of the diurnal cycle. The problem here is that this store is used to such accuracy, where almost all of this resource is used before the light cycle returns. So 12 hours with 12/12 light cycles. This means if there is any benefit. Then anything longer than 12 hours of dark will do nothing. But it can also be said that even with those first 12 hours, the effect is minimum and if there were more potential to be had, then you would instead be better off continue growing the plant as normally. Rather than harvest.

There is no current theory that supports this, or research data.

[Gingerbeard]

That's a whole lot to digest, DrP. Thanks. I'm going to check out your other articles.
I guess it's a preference thing. Perceived effects.

Edit: Dude! Do you work for the CIA? All your articles have been removed for security reasons. You're sharing alien technology, aren't you?

[Toker1]

Haha. I noticed that too. Security reasons. 😳 Yes, read the articles DrPhoton has in his signature. We have a great in house specialist here.

[Gingerbeard]

Man... the Feds. I knew this place was too good to be true. I was just joking about that whole "growing pot" thing. Don't tell my mom.

[Rwise]

I have read and read on this, and I tried a dark cycle on my autos near finish time. What seemed to happen was the aroma increased, not sure it did anything else,,,,

[Toker1]

Yeah..agreed, the first 12 hours of darkness should be enough. I believe 24 hours is a safety net. 48 hours, overkill. Anything over 48 hours risks preme seed production.
On the other hand, (after 12 hours of darkness) I don’t see an additional 36 (max) hours with out light really having any detrimental effect on final yield (as long as you are harvesting at the correct time).
Something else to consider is that when running lights through the night, if you do 12 hours in darkness then harvest you will be trimming (if you wet trim) and hanging during daylight hours. For some, that might be undesirable due to sun light exposure. So a 24 hour darkness period could be logical in that sense.

[starramus]

I am certain if you PM DrPhoton he will navigate you to his very pertinent articles.

[Gingerbeard]

Perhaps a 48 hour followed by an immediate harvest? How much can the flowers grow in that amount of time? Would that be sufficient time to up the aroma?
I'm going to keep to the standards. But when I win one of the lotteries tonight I'll pay for a few of y'all to head to Colorado and we can talk about it. Hell, what's Colorado's second largest city that is not Denver? We'll rent that city for the weekend.