harvest time!!!!!

so im going home next week to chop, but what r the reccomendations on putting the plant in darkness for a couple days before harvest? how many days and is it totally worth it? the strain is early girl.....my nicest plant yet and being out doors is well kinds pathetic on my part. 3rd grow i got one more but its 6ft tall not bushy at all and in week 2.5ish of flowering. i flushed once there in 1.5 gall pots i flushed with 2 gals of water think ill need another flush yet? or what? can u flush 2 days before harvest and have it do anything?

You only need to flush to avoid or recover from a potential threat such as nute burn. There is a lot of myth going around about flushing chemicals or something near the end of harvest which im assuming that is the flush you are referring to. All you are doing is flushing out nutes that the plant would have used for building buds/producing resin.

Having a minimum of a 12 hour dark period before you harvest will produce the flavor you desire. Farmers have been doing this for centuries =p

As to your other question. During a 72 hour dark period, cannabis plants have been known to increase their potency by 5%. This means that if your plant's base THC content is 20% it will increase to 21%. Is it worth it? I think so because in my experience this method also produces the best flavor and smoothness which has been confirmed by others. I'm sorry you fell for that flushing nonsense that's been going around. Good luck.

heum.. quick math here twistedfunk.... wouldnt 20% + 5 % give 25% ????

No....... 5% of 20 is 1

angelsbandit said:

No....... 5% of 20 is 1

Click to expand...

I know BrickTop and others swear by this method, and there have been some test results showing possible increased potency, but after thinking more about this, what is the difference between keeping the plants in the dark with the roots on, or the roots off?

If you chop the plant and put it in darkness, doesn't the THC acid keep flowing during the drying process? I don't know really, but I do try to harvest in the morning before the lights have a chance to bake (degrade) the trichs.

z4qqqbs said:

so im going home next week to chop, but what r the reccomendations on putting the plant in darkness for a couple days before harvest? how many days and is it totally worth it? the strain is early girl.....my nicest plant yet and being out doors is well kinds pathetic on my part. 3rd grow i got one more but its 6ft tall not bushy at all and in week 2.5ish of flowering. i flushed once there in 1.5 gall pots i flushed with 2 gals of water think ill need another flush yet? or what? can u flush 2 days before harvest and have it do anything?

Click to expand...

Regarding proper flushing:

14 days on plain water is optimal - this gives the plant enough time to use up excess residual nutrients in the plant, and the soil.

It's also optimal to harvest once the soil drys out, so you don't have as much watter in the plant material.

These are just guidelines, and If you're all organic, proper flushing is probably less crucial

kk ty for the info

Green Cross said:

I know BrickTop and others swear by this method, and there have been some test results showing possible increased potency, but after thinking more about this, what is the difference between keeping the plants in the dark with the roots on, or the roots off?

If you chop the plant and put it in darkness, doesn't the THC acid keep flowing during the drying process? I don't know really, but I do try to harvest in the morning before the lights have a chance to bake (degrade) the trichs.

Click to expand...

The plants that were given 72-hours of darkness were not harvested before the period of dark, and that included being pulled from their pots with either a full rootball, partial rootball or mostly bare to bare rootball.
　
The plants were left to finish the last 72-hours of their life, while still continuing to function, in darkness.
　
Plants store energy during the day to be used during periods of darkness. During periods of darkness most plant functions are turned off and the stored energy is used only for the most needed most important functions to continue after sundown or lights are turned off.
　
Since only key functions are performed even though the plants are running on stored energy those functions then get a larger amount, an increased amount of energy to use then during daylight hours. During hours of light plants perform many more tasks and allocate their available energy to more functions meaning less energy for some functions than they would receive when they would be one of the few functions performed during hours of darkness.
　
In very simplistic terms one of Mother Nature’s reasons for THC was to work like sunscreen for the inner trichome head. As light rays strike trichome heads THC works like sunblock but in doing so some THC is broken down, it is lost. During hours of darkness when more energy than during the day is allocated to the function THC is produced to replenish what was lost during the day and then some additional amount is also produced and that is likely greatly genetically controlled.
　
So what you have is a washboard-like uphill line of THC creation, up a little, down a little, back up again and then a little more, down a little, back up again and then a little more again etc.
　
The idea of giving plants 72-hours of darkness in part is found in that means for what is the longest expected or possible amount of time that plants can operate on stored energy and have there still be at least a minimum amount of improvement in relation to the time taken the trichome heads have 72 hours to crank out THC without experiencing the loss normal amount of loss that would have occurred during the same hours if in a normal light cycle.
　
Not all genetics will respond equally as well, and that cannot be expected, but in some strains tested there was as much as a 30% increase in levels of THC found in the plants that where given a 72-hour period of darkness when compared to the same genetic plant grown under the same conditions but that did not get 72-hours of darkness before harvesting.
　
So it is not just a matter of leaving roots on or leaves on. Once a plant is dead, or at least its root system and or stem are damaged to the point being useless and death is imminent all those functions that still occur when a plant spends its last 72-hours living in darkness cease, they stop, they do not go on, they cannot go on so they cannot produce the same effect or a similar effect.


You asked; "If you chop the plant and put it in darkness, doesn't the THC acid keep flowing during the drying process?"

The answer is no. For one THC doesn’t really flow, or at least not in the way many people seem to believe. THC is created in the trichome heads and the only flowing it does is to travel an extremely short distance to a honeycomb shaped subcuticular surface and gather.
　
Again to keep it simple various substances travel up the trichome stalk into the head and interact with light and chemicals and cannibinoids and various substances are created.
　
When you whack a plant what is needed to maintain the delivery of the needed substances to then travel up the trichome stalk to then interact with light and each other is not longer there, that function has ended. Like I used as a very simplistic example expecting those functions to continue after branches are removed from a plant (regardless of leaves being left on or not) would be like expecting the blood in a severed arm to continue to pump into the hand and it being able to continue to function to some degree for some period of time.
　
If you remove a branch the previous transferring of substances halts. The water pipeline has been severed, the electric lines have been cut, the phone lines are down and the cable line is down … however you want to look at it for comparisons sake that is what happens.
　
The most that might be drawn from some very nearby plant matter to other nearby plant matter would be moisture and moisture could contain nutrients but remember you are now in a drying situation, not a growing situation.

You do not want light, the less light the better since light breaks down THC so even if some small amount of moisture could be drawn from a few cells around another it will not draw up a branch and through leaves like a wick once the plant is dead.

All that would happen if some cell or small group of cells did draw a small amount of moisture from surrounding cells would be a more equal overall drying out of the plant matter through evaporation and not that some cell or cells of a dead plant were still functioning and used up the moisture and what might be found in it in some normal profitable gainful way, and that includes any; "flowing" of; "THC acid."

Brick Top said:

The plants that were given 72-hours of darkness were not harvested before the period of dark, and that included being pulled from their pots with either a full rootball, partial rootball or mostly bare to bare rootball.
　
The plants were left to finish the last 72-hours of their life, while still continuing to function, in darkness.
　
Plants store energy during the day to be used during periods of darkness. During periods of darkness most plant functions are turned off and the stored energy is used only for the most needed most important functions to continue after sundown or lights are turned off.
　
Since only key functions are performed even though the plants are running on stored energy those functions then get a larger amount, an increased amount of energy to use then during daylight hours. During hours of light plants perform many more tasks and allocate their available energy to more functions meaning less energy for some functions than they would receive when they would be one of the few functions performed during hours of darkness.
　
In very simplistic terms one of Mother Nature’s reasons for THC was to work like sunscreen for the inner trichome head. As light rays strike trichome heads THC works like sunblock but in doing so some THC is broken down, it is lost. During hours of darkness when more energy than during the day is allocated to the function THC is produced to replenish what was lost during the day and then some additional amount is also produced and that is likely greatly genetically controlled.
　
So what you have is a washboard-like uphill line of THC creation, up a little, down a little, back up again and then a little more, down a little, back up again and then a little more again etc.
　
The idea of giving plants 72-hours of darkness in part is found in that means for what is the longest expected or possible amount of time that plants can operate on stored energy and have there still be at least a minimum amount of improvement in relation to the time taken the trichome heads have 72 hours to crank out THC without experiencing the loss normal amount of loss that would have occurred during the same hours if in a normal light cycle.
　
Not all genetics will respond equally as well, and that cannot be expected, but in some strains tested there was as much as a 30% increase in levels of THC found in the plants that where given a 72-hour period of darkness when compared to the same genetic plant grown under the same conditions but that did not get 72-hours of darkness before harvesting.
　
So it is not just a matter of leaving roots on or leaves on. Once a plant is dead, or at least its root system and or stem are damaged to the point being useless and death is imminent all those functions that still occur when a plant spends its last 72-hours living in darkness cease, they stop, they do not go on, they cannot go on so they cannot produce the same effect or a similar effect.


You asked; "If you chop the plant and put it in darkness, doesn't the THC acid keep flowing during the drying process?"

The answer is no. For one THC doesn’t really flow, or at least not in the way many people seem to believe. THC is created in the trichome heads and the only flowing it does is to travel an extremely short distance to a honeycomb shaped subcuticular surface and gather.
　
Again to keep it simple various substances travel up the trichome stalk into the head and interact with light and chemicals and cannibinoids and various substances are created.
　
When you whack a plant what is needed to maintain the delivery of the needed substances to then travel up the trichome stalk to then interact with light and each other is not longer there, that function has ended. Like I used as a very simplistic example expecting those functions to continue after branches are removed from a plant (regardless of leaves being left on or not) would be like expecting the blood in a severed arm to continue to pump into the hand and it being able to continue to function to some degree for some period of time.
　
If you remove a branch the previous transferring of substances halts. The water pipeline has been severed, the electric lines have been cut, the phone lines are down and the cable line is down … however you want to look at it for comparisons sake that is what happens.
　
The most that might be drawn from some very nearby plant matter to other nearby plant matter would be moisture and moisture could contain nutrients but remember you are now in a drying situation, not a growing situation.

You do not want light, the less light the better since light breaks down THC so even if some small amount of moisture could be drawn from a few cells around another it will not draw up a branch and through leaves like a wick once the plant is dead.

All that would happen if some cell or small group of cells did draw a small amount of moisture from surrounding cells would be a more equal overall drying out of the plant matter through evaporation and not that some cell or cells of a dead plant were still functioning and used up the moisture and what might be found in it in some normal profitable gainful way, and that includes any; "flowing" of; "THC acid."

Click to expand...

I think I understand everything you're saying, but do you have a link to this study that was done? Nothing personal, I question all new findings, as I know you do. "There's nothing new under the sun", as the saying goes.

After harvest, chlorophyll and THC acids continue to be converted into more desirable chemicals. The phone lines may be cut, but the plant is still alive, much like a chicken with it's head cut off, continues to run... and moisture in the stems continues to feed leave and bud, is all I meant... this is why the top of the plant is the last to wilt.

I'm aware trichomes act as a sunscreen to protect against heat and UV, so in theory both (heat/UV) should enhance TCH production, but there is really is no confirmed method of forcing THC production other than keeping the plant healthy and giving it as much light as possible, because light and heat also degrade THC.

"the trichome heads have 72 hours to crank out THC without experiencing the loss normal amount of loss that would have occurred during the same hours if in a normal light cycle."

It does make sense that the plant continues to force resin into the heads, in darkness, so that the plant is protected from the suns rays the next day. When the next day doesn't come, this production continues.This may explain an increase, but I'm still sceptical, when THC is actually degrading at the time of harvest.

Once THC production has peaked, I can't see how darkness can give much of a final boost, but if it does i wanna know about it! LOL

You're probably better read on the subject of Marijuana botany, than I am, so I'm unable to confirm what processes continue during dark hours, except that photosynthesis shuts down, and CO2 uptake *increases.

Correction: CO2 uptake actually *decreases at night

Brick Top said:

The plants that were given 72-hours of darkness were not harvested before the period of dark, and that included being pulled from their pots with either a full rootball, partial rootball or mostly bare to bare rootball.
　
The plants were left to finish the last 72-hours of their life, while still continuing to function, in darkness.
　
Plants store energy during the day to be used during periods of darkness. During periods of darkness most plant functions are turned off and the stored energy is used only for the most needed most important functions to continue after sundown or lights are turned off.
　
Since only key functions are performed even though the plants are running on stored energy those functions then get a larger amount, an increased amount of energy to use then during daylight hours. During hours of light plants perform many more tasks and allocate their available energy to more functions meaning less energy for some functions than they would receive when they would be one of the few functions performed during hours of darkness.
　
In very simplistic terms one of Mother Nature’s reasons for THC was to work like sunscreen for the inner trichome head. As light rays strike trichome heads THC works like sunblock but in doing so some THC is broken down, it is lost. During hours of darkness when more energy than during the day is allocated to the function THC is produced to replenish what was lost during the day and then some additional amount is also produced and that is likely greatly genetically controlled.
　
So what you have is a washboard-like uphill line of THC creation, up a little, down a little, back up again and then a little more, down a little, back up again and then a little more again etc.
　
The idea of giving plants 72-hours of darkness in part is found in that means for what is the longest expected or possible amount of time that plants can operate on stored energy and have there still be at least a minimum amount of improvement in relation to the time taken the trichome heads have 72 hours to crank out THC without experiencing the loss normal amount of loss that would have occurred during the same hours if in a normal light cycle.
　
Not all genetics will respond equally as well, and that cannot be expected, but in some strains tested there was as much as a 30% increase in levels of THC found in the plants that where given a 72-hour period of darkness when compared to the same genetic plant grown under the same conditions but that did not get 72-hours of darkness before harvesting.
　
So it is not just a matter of leaving roots on or leaves on. Once a plant is dead, or at least its root system and or stem are damaged to the point being useless and death is imminent all those functions that still occur when a plant spends its last 72-hours living in darkness cease, they stop, they do not go on, they cannot go on so they cannot produce the same effect or a similar effect.


You asked; "If you chop the plant and put it in darkness, doesn't the THC acid keep flowing during the drying process?"

The answer is no. For one THC doesn’t really flow, or at least not in the way many people seem to believe. THC is created in the trichome heads and the only flowing it does is to travel an extremely short distance to a honeycomb shaped subcuticular surface and gather.
　
Again to keep it simple various substances travel up the trichome stalk into the head and interact with light and chemicals and cannibinoids and various substances are created.
　
When you whack a plant what is needed to maintain the delivery of the needed substances to then travel up the trichome stalk to then interact with light and each other is not longer there, that function has ended. Like I used as a very simplistic example expecting those functions to continue after branches are removed from a plant (regardless of leaves being left on or not) would be like expecting the blood in a severed arm to continue to pump into the hand and it being able to continue to function to some degree for some period of time.
　
If you remove a branch the previous transferring of substances halts. The water pipeline has been severed, the electric lines have been cut, the phone lines are down and the cable line is down … however you want to look at it for comparisons sake that is what happens.
　
The most that might be drawn from some very nearby plant matter to other nearby plant matter would be moisture and moisture could contain nutrients but remember you are now in a drying situation, not a growing situation.

You do not want light, the less light the better since light breaks down THC so even if some small amount of moisture could be drawn from a few cells around another it will not draw up a branch and through leaves like a wick once the plant is dead.

All that would happen if some cell or small group of cells did draw a small amount of moisture from surrounding cells would be a more equal overall drying out of the plant matter through evaporation and not that some cell or cells of a dead plant were still functioning and used up the moisture and what might be found in it in some normal profitable gainful way, and that includes any; "flowing" of; "THC acid."

Click to expand...

Yeah I'd love to read some study that was done on this, this sounds really interesting, thanks for sharing.

I read the article he's referring to. Hell, Brick may have been the one to send me to it. You could probably find it depending on how your google-fu is. This is also the best way to start the curing process imo. I have had the best results/flavor by harvesting after a dark period.

Twistedfunk said:

I read the article he's referring to. Hell, Brick may have been the one to send me to it. You could probably find it depending on how your google-fu is. This is also the best way to start the curing process imo. I have had the best results/flavor by harvesting after a dark period.

Click to expand...

Right on, but it would be great for a hard link and not a reference to google, I'll have a look see later, I'm dealing with mold on my DWC today.

Yeah sorry. I wasn't tryin to just say "google it!!" I went looking for the link and I can't find it. Apparently my google-fu is weak. Also, mold sucks. I'm dealing with wooly aphids that don't seem to want to respond to either alcohol or azatrol.

Twistedfunk said:

Yeah sorry. I wasn't tryin to just say "google it!!" I went looking for the link and I can't find it. Apparently my google-fu is weak. Also, mold sucks. I'm dealing with wooly aphids that don't seem to want to respond to either alcohol or azatrol.

Click to expand...

Damn pest, yeah i gots gnats all the time they are shitty in my area cant walk in or out of the house without bringing em in, I use sand there. Im gonna get this shit and use, seems most promising from what I read on RIU
http://www.discount-hydro.com/productdisp.php?pid=681&navid=24

Yo new question.....im only home for the weekend im plaining on putting the plant in the basement in dark for about a day and half? Is that enough to help the thc production? And cause im gotta go back to school how can i chop and harvest and dry all in one day so i can clean everything up before i got back?

yeah man
I put mine in for 48 hours in a dark closet
they build buds at night
they have plenty of stored energy to last upto 3 days in the dark so go for it!

does it do damage if i leave it for day 5 days? without a fan? in the dark cause i wont have time to put in dark for 72 then harvest and dry all in one day cause i gotta go back ot school and all any subjections?

z4qqqbs said:

does it do damage if i leave it for day 5 days? without a fan? in the dark cause i wont have time to put in dark for 72 then harvest and dry all in one day cause i gotta go back ot school and all any subjections?

Click to expand...

Man I wouldnt leave it 5 day, def without a fan, your lookin at a mold issue if you do that.
Sucks your limited for time...
But 5 days not air movement or light, def gonna see white and grey on your babie.

well does it matter that the basement is only about 50 degrees will tghat help or hinder at all?

and another thing i just found out...out so i took a peice of a leaf with trigs on it to lookat under the scope last week....well it wasnt rip at all...so i left it on the slide and now just today i loked at it again and its full of full trigs all ember?