2 weeks of darkness

Hello everyone,

I had to leave for Christmas break and decided to leave my grow in total darkness at the end of the flowering stage (8th week out of 9-10 required by the strain). Ill be back the 6th of January which will then have left the plants for two weeks in the dark.

I know it is not a very good idea but since I didnt want to cut down the plants too early and leave them drying for two weeks that was the final decision... Theres an extractor on a timer and an additional fan so mold will hopefully not be a problem.

So my question is what do you think, if not disastrous, would be the best possible outcome for the plants in this particular situation? I really had to leave and feel really bad for leaving them alone. Having someone looking after them was really not an option either.

'
A picture of how it was a couple of days before I left (maybe not that illustrative, but quite nice)

Thanks in advance!
Cheers

If you get back and have a room full of super-mutant VW Van sized buds we'll ALL start leaving em in the pitch black. I've heard people do 48-72 hours at end of flowering, I'm interested to see what two weeks does

• what do you think, if not disastrous, would be the best possible outcome for the plants in this particular situation?​
  
  
  
  

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The best possible outcome would be it would make no difference....

my best guess is they are gonna be laying on the floor. buds might be ok though; some kinda crazy drying/curing phenomenon.

You only want to do this when your plants are ready to harvest - 2 weeks in the dark will end your plants life cycle; especially if there's no water being given. This is totally okay if you harvest your plants as soon as you get home. Basically, you're giving the plants two weeks to expend ALL of the energy they have left. If you've given then tons of light and food for 3+ days before the big shut-off, you could see some pretty awesome and crazy results. Two weeks is pushing it; one week and I almost gaurentee cool results; but, I can't promise they'll all be favorable.

Anyways... your plants were not mature enough to begin their final two weeks; so, I think you have an early harvest on your hand. Make sure you cure really well; your plants might be super dried out. Good for hash.. and medibles.. and oil.. GL

To be honest, Im sure you'll have some pretty good smoke on your hands. What strain??
Depending, the early harvest will just mean a higher concentration of Thc vs. Cbd.

Hope you like heady highs!! Haha.

With the darkness, i feel like you pretty much just shut the whole, chopping it up before drying, part. Youll have a fun time removing all that dry leaf matter, but, your plants had more than enough time to breakdown some undesirables in the buds. Read about darkness before harvest. As long as you have youre cure technique down, you should be fine.

I cant wait to hear the outcome.

when you return your buds will be trimmed, dried, cured and ready to smoke. i don't know how it works but it works.

As long as you really flooded them with water before leaving and ur temps stay down, they shouldnt be too dry. I only water once a week as it is with the lights coming on every day, so with no lights that may still be ok. My only worry would be that it turns out middy instead of real good and that it doesnt dry out too much.. As long as the majority of the remaining clear trichs were able to mature it will be ok but theres really no way to tell until you get home.. as another poster said, it will be all head high. Dont expect cbn or couch lock from this batch, all head high

gonna be a bitch to trim. i have done the 3 days in darkness thing and that was the only results i saw, but that was only 3 days.
please let us know how it turns out

Whats gonna happen is after maybe 10-12 days max the plant will wither and die. Without the food source provided by photosynthesis, aerobic respiration will stop. Wish you luck. Even if you could put maybe a couple of t5s or t8s in there on a timer for a few hours a day will keep them alive till you get home.

you should have just bought a 10 dollar timer

ernsthra:

I like the idea that Cpappa27 said: even just a few low powered CFL's would keep them alive, and very little risk of fire with CFL
Dr. Jekyll

The lack of water could be an issue, but if you soak the hell out of them they just may last the two weeks
Mr. Hyde

We're back and been having a look at the plants which in fact is not doing bad at all! It looks like they just in to some hibernating state, they did't grow much though the buds got bigger, though still premature. Trichomes still transparent. Some are have a lot more trichomes than other. And on one the flower's startet to get brown some places without having much trichomes.

Do you think we should feed them and keep going with 12/12 a week or so, or harvest now?




this one does't seem that developed at all but the white strings are starting to turn brown

dam nice result still ! im glad you're on your way to harvest them girls as you just surprised me by saying the strain
im growing the exact same as first grow, this will be interesting im just a little bit deceived i couldnt find "seedlings to smoke" grow log bout that strain

ernsthra said:

Thanks for all the great insight! There's already timer but we don't want to burn the place down you know. 2 weeks with no control... Hoping for something like what mrCRC420 is pointing out. Usually watered moderately three times a week and gave them tons before leaving so hopefully they won't dry out completely. But yea its probably gonna be an early harvest. Too bad as I was wishing for more CBD.

the strain is sweet deep grapefruit (80 indica 20 satica).

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CBD production has very little to do with harvest time and mostly involves genetics. A late harvest WILL include more CBN (Cannabinol), which is a much less phychoactive chemical that THC degrades into, but CBD (Cannabidiol) is it's own cannabinoid, not a byproduct of THC degradation. Therefore a late harvest will not, in fact, give you more CBD. This is good news, because if you want high CBD it has just as much of a chance of being there (Depending on strain) now as if you harvested late.

i think if they go back in 12/12 they may reveg slightly before continuing flowering.

i recently had a light problem 6 weeks in 12/12, the lights went out for more or less a week and when they went back to 12/12 the buds went a bit funny then reverted back to flowering, it meant i had to flower a 70 day strain for 81 days.

So yeah, as a firm believer in 3 days of darkness, interesting to see this.

mysunnyboy said:

gonna be a bitch to trim. i have done the 3 days in darkness thing and that was the only results i saw, but that was only 3 days.
please let us know how it turns out

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I dont get this at all. What made it harder to trim?

Ace Yonder said:

CBD production has very little to do with harvest time and mostly involves genetics. A late harvest WILL include more CBN (Cannabinol), which is a much less phychoactive chemical that THC degrades into, but CBD (Cannabidiol) is it's own cannabinoid, not a byproduct of THC degradation. Therefore a late harvest will not, in fact, give you more CBD. This is good news, because if you want high CBD it has just as much of a chance of being there (Depending on strain) now as if you harvested late.

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Thanks for clearing that up!