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dark period before harvest

johnb1963

johnb1963

New member
Hello my friends, so my girls are at day 53 of flowering, and 99% of the trichomes are cloudy. I'm not seeing any amber, so i'll going to let them go another week of so. My question is; should I leave the light off for 48 hours before harvest? I have recently came across my articles that says the dark period can increase THC levels by 1-2%. any of you guys been doing this?
 

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If you don't need your tent you could leave them. I don't water them either for the darkness. I do lights out during the drying out period, make them suck every bit of moisture from the plant It's really questionable about the darkness period. Others will chime in.
 
Some will have plants ready to go in the tent,,,,
What I read is more than 24 hours is not needed, the plant will exhaust the nutes in that time. I have done 24 hours, it seemed to increase aroma, IDK if it did anything else. Testing would be required,,,
 
Hi Rwise, I saw a video, from a guy who cut off buds from the same plant and took them to a lab to get tested. ranged from o darkness and 12 hour intervals, up to 72 hours. the one with 48 hours darkness had the best results, and highest THC.
 
Call me a skeptic, I would want info from a closer source,,, I just dropped an idea on a local involved in distro, do independent lab testing at dispensaries! Say $40 gets you a test of your bud, I would go for it! And then one could have first hand results!
Edit BTW buds taken from different places on the plant can show the same results,,/Edit
 
johnb1963 I would recommend the 48 hrs anything more you would be chancing an issue with mold specially if your not using the proper technique ..what Rwise meant was 24 hours would be a safe window of darkness without having issues with mold starting.i my self stop watering a week before I transfer the plant to darkness helps with resin profile hardens the nuggs a bit and a wonderful aroma and flavour... just the plants last ditch effort to finish up this is from what I've ready and seams to be working well so far..some people also do the stock splitting 3 days before the transfer..hope this helped you a bit p.s don't forget the fan in your dark room point it away from your girls you just want to move the air around so moisture levels don't get to high and start developing mold.
 
True story Rwise .I couldn't tell you if potency was affected by doing this or if there was any difference in potency just flavour smell and buds feel a little bit more firm idk.
 
For me it is positive, but it may just be me, smell and taste better yes, THC who knows. IDK if this did anything but when I switched to 12/12s on the MDs they got a 24 hour dark period. I am likely to repeat that at the end. With jars on the shelf, it is easier to let them have the time,,, I might take 1 at 24 hours and 1 at 48 etc., there are 6 of them. I could also do some with cloudy and little amber and some with lots of amber,,,now I need another room,,,,LOL
 
Lol Rwise in the same place right now I just do what I think works best due to the facts and results but there are many factors that come into play my grow room and temps and we're I'm grow will not be the same as yours..we as growers know this but some people still need to figure this out in the end as long as we're growing our own successfully regardless the amount we produce it's all good in the end.
 
So I looked at the trichomes before I moved the girls to darkness 48 hrs ago so I'm going to take a pic with my new..I think 50 times zoom scope and see and compare the difference I'll post a pic shortly .
 
I've been doing some reading about what plants do in the dark, and a dark period before harvest makes sense to me on paper at least.
1. They reduce chlorophyll production in the dark. Less chlorophyll= better taste. One reason we cure bud is to break down the chlorophyll.
2. They reorganize and use the molecules produced during the light period. We give them elements (nutes) and they use them to create molecules. All the terpenes are molecules. That molecule production and a great deal of growth occurs in the dark.

Will it make a big difference? I don't know but I'll be doing it in a few weeks.
 
I just make sure that pot is not wet I wait 3-4 days after last flush if it needs it they usually don't cause I use good well water an molasses I don't use a lot of bloom product just a few times, but that's me.
 
So I managed to get a half decent pic wasn't easy considering it is a long weekend and I did smoke ALOT..so here it is..crystal production is not that bad .. I've done better it is really sticky but the plant was already some what sticky before I put her in darkness 48 hours ago..?.
 

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I tried researching this recently and found a ton of pseudo science and a small amount of real studies about this subject with no real benefit shown. I guess it won't hurt to do it but I myself won't bother unless I see real concrete evidence showing it has significant positive effects.
 
JohnEmad is correct. This might be one those traditionally held myths. I must confess I do it every time before harvest. Supposed to increase resin production, but wouldn't more light be better? How's about a super nova? DrPhoton would have a far better answer than mine. Paging DrPhoton Paging DrPhoton
 
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DrPhoton has gone into the biochemistry of this question a few times. Unfortunately I don't believe he frequents this forum any longer. This appears on his profile page. "No activity results to display"
 
Id love to give a fancy biological answer. But im lazy today. Put it simply. Cannabis has no long term photosynthate storage. Only transitory starch which is biologically clocked for just less than duration of the dark phase. In other words. No light, no cannabinoid biosynthesis.
 
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