Darkness at end of budding

[mimime1]

Has anyone out there with experience done a side by side comparison to determine whether 24-36 hours of darkness before harvest actually works? I've read the science on it. I'd like to hear from anyone who has some real life experience with this. I am close to my first harvest and am wondering if it's worth trying this.

[SoOrbudgal]

I just did this for 24hrs only and i don't know if it made a difference? I'm not sure if it's suppose to accelerate the production of THC or what to be honest i just wanted to give it a go. The plant was a Black Domina from Sensi seeds. It's still curing after hanging, i don't know what to expect LOL

[Canuck147]

How many plants you got to harvest? If more than 1 - then maybe you could answer your own question by doing a side by side comparison?

[Rwise]

Or harvest half (as in one side) then go to the dark room with the remaining half.

[Damngrower]

I don't have the capacity to do a side by side but I am going to try this for the first time this grow. I plan to measure a few buds beforehand and after and I'm gonna eyeball the trichromes to see if I can see any difference.

[mimime1]

Unfortunately because of where I am growing I don't have the freedom to harvest at different times or separate the plants. I also must dry in the grow tent. Odor is a major issue here as I share my house with others who don't care about the grow but can't have the odor for professional reasons. I have a solid carbon filter that so far is working great, but yeah.....so it's either try it with all six plants or don't try it. In reading through other forums it seems there's a 50/50 response - half say it does nothing, half say it helped. The science says the darkness stresses the plant to produce everything it can as a stress response and a "last gasp attempt to live" as it thinks it's dying. Colloquially speaking. Should produce more trichomes and terpenes. But many said that's garbage and all it does is delay your harvest when you're already finished.

[Canuck147]

If odor is under control now - adding terpenes will increase that odor. That's where the odor comes from in all odorous plants - well maybe not all - I'm not an arborist.

[Xena]

I recently saw some dude on YouTube that also tosses a bowl of ice cubes around the base of the plant before the dark time because the plant thinks it’s the start of winter.

[SoOrbudgal]

Xena i saw that one also very interesting.

[MagicMike66]

I did 72 hours darkness before my last harvest. No idea if it did anything as I had to harvest everything same time

[mimime1]

Canuck 147 - so you suggest it's worth a try? Have you personally tried this?

[Canuck147]

Didn't suggest and I've never tried

[SoOrbudgal]

But we are talking about the whole plant not the harvested buds. The entire plant right? That's what i did but only for 24hrs don't think it made a difference in the dark closet and i did'nt want a spider to crawl in them LOL

[mimime1]

Yeah I mean you look at your plants and you say "these are ready to harvest now" and then you simply plunge them into uninterrupted darkness for 24-36 hours and when you open the tent back up you harvest immediately. Supposedly it makes more terpenes come out and helps with smell and taste. I have a few friends who grow who swear by it and one who thinks it complete garbage, lol. When I researched it myself, fairly thoroughly, it seems to be one of those things you get a 50/50 kind of response on. I couldn't find anyone who had done an actual side by side test via whatever means and reported on it, I was hoping someone here might have done that experiment.