General consensus? 36hrs of dark before flower?

Yo guys,

Whats the general consensus on this one? In "Jorge Cervantes Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible" he said to give the plants 36hrs of darkness before flower?

We are currently 4/5 week into veg and (18/6) going to 12/12 flowering time!

Any thoughts on this? I know about 48 hours before harvest...just this one is new to me. I have watched his dvds and thought they were pretty good.

Thanks

Sure. Unnecessary.

Does the sun do this?

The sun does a lot of things.... For instance gradual darkness and gradual light. Which doesn't make a bit of difference to a plant. Total net solar energy over the day is all that matters(decades of artificial growing has proven this). However, it also gradually increases temperature and gradually decreases it typically, which is quite desirable(rapid temperature change can cause shock).

I've seen some people try to mimic the intensity of the sun over the day.... It gives me a good chuckle.

A little darkness isn't a bad thing, though. Healthy plants can go for weeks, probably months, without light. I've had this male in a cardboard box kept completely dark... I'm pretty sure it's still alive(it has been over a month now). I don't really water it much. I just gave it some water(been a couple weeks.. lol). I'll tell you if it perks up. It's badly dehydrated, though. It's still managing to produce pollen.

When i return home I will enter the reasoning why he says to do this (36 hours of darkness)...something like the plants think they have missed their chance to flower and it speeds things up.

Cant remember it word for word...too many doobies last night haha! Thanks for the answers...

cervantes a showboating douchebag. my 3 yr old could grow circles around him. burn those videos.

and yeah, i think its hoodoo.

your taking away the plants power source just when you want it to shift gears. makes no sense to me.

Thanks for your input SlikWiLL13, suppose it does make sense when you say im taking away the plants power source just when its going to change...but he did have a reason for it. IF its a good idea, i dunno. I will have to see what it says when im back home after work.

Anyhoo, i was under the impression people reckoned he was decent? I guess im waaaay off haha. So, who is good? DVDs, books etc?
I have the following;

SeeMoreBuds (DVD) - 1-3
Jorge Cervantes (DVD) - 1-3
Mr Green (DVD)

Really want to learn about lst, topping, fim, super cropping etc intime for the 2nd grow. Cant find any really good videos...anybody on RIU make decent tut videos

no extended dark periods before flowering or harvesting(absolute nonsense).
as growtech said does this happen in real environmentall circumstances ??????????.
just grow it the way nature indented.
LUDACRIS.

I've never put any plant in straight up 36 hours of darkness lol. Mine turn out fine. If anything I like more of this thing people call light.

Also to answer your question I watched the mr.green dvd on youtube. I liked it, was very humorous rather than informative though.

On my last grow I gave 24 hours darkness before switching to 12/12, but only because I wanted to change the timing of the lights to come on at night instead of in the morning. Didn't seem to do any harm, but I can't say it did anything positive either.

ive heard the seemorebuds videos are pretty good. i suggest you read dozenz of grow journals right here at RIU. find one that is succesful on a level you feel you can duplicate and copy that shit! al b fuct, filthy fletch, garden knowm are a few that come to mind. al b fuct probably has the most duplicated method on this site.

the couple cervantes vids ive seen were full of "forhead-slapping-its-so-basic" pointers and urban myths. virtually all of the "pot guru's" are on the payroll of some nute company and have seperate agendas.

Jerry Garcia said:

On my last grow I gave 24 hours darkness before switching to 12/12, but only because I wanted to change the timing of the lights to come on at night instead of in the morning. Didn't seem to do any harm, but I can't say it did anything positive either.

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i do this every spring and fall. i run lights on in the night during summer to keep the heat down. no negative effects, but no positive either.

I put mine in 72 hr of darkness and my haze had pufballs in less then one week.

Merlin11 said:

I put mine in 72 hr of darkness and my haze had pufballs in less then one week.

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Was that just before flowering? Cause...according to cervantes it helps the buds come out quicker?

I will be home soon, i will type up what he says so you guys can see what you think.

no doubt be a load of shite but i wanted to double check with the good people of RIU before I did it with my plants

He might know something that I or we do not know, there is that possibility.

But I know for sure, I have done 7 successful grows without a dark period when changing to 12/12 or at Harvest, and I was very happy with my crop and harvest.


I agree it doesn't sound natural, but how natural is growing pot in a closet, indoors, in a bucket of water with air stones bubbling in it???

yeah it supposedly shocks them into flowering a little quicker.

someone run the test

Shocking them to flower quicker is not always desirable(greater darkness periods can also cut the total maturation time, eg. 10/14), having a plant grow 'naturally' to full maturation would probably produce the best quality smoke, as it'll have a greater time to produce THC/CBN. Likely making the plant more potent.

Here is what OT1 had to say about this:

oldtimer1 said:

Have not tried 36 hrs dark but did try 48 hrs from 18/6 veg. The final yield was down between 15 and 20% by var the pure sats the biggest loss in final weight and caused the odd herm, [sats] it did reduce the flowering time by 5 to 8 days.

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Taken from here.