White Widow - Three Days Dark to produce extra frost?

auldone said:

I pulled this off of Attitude...

Dinafem Seeds White Widow is the most potent cannabis on Earth and is named for the abundance of trichomes, giving the plant a whitish tint. It is also one of the more powerful strains of marijuana (alongside AK-47 and Afghan Kush) with a very high 20%-25% THC content.
White Widow feminized seeds are (60%/40%) indica/sativa cross-strain and is best suited to indoor cannabis cultivation. Cannabis seeds grow as high as 35-80 cm with the yield up to 450 gr per m2. It's suggested to flower (12 hour light) this marijuana variety for 8 weeks, but 10 weeks will really give you the crystals you are after. Try to turn the lights off altogether the final 2 weeks of the flowering cycle- or at least down to 8 hours. This keeps the flowers from re-growth and stresses the plant into giving up its last drop of goodness as crystal to protect the flower! The buds have so much THC on them that it is hard to see them at all.
White Widow feminized seeds produce plants that give you the taste of freshness laced with many fruits, because of the strength of the cannabis crystals - the only real taste goes hand in hand with the expectorant effects of the THC. The smell is strong pungency. It first hits you, then follows a sour sweetness with the final whiff ... turning sweet. If a plant could have a strong body odour then the White Widow needs a deodorant.
Cannabis smokers adore its sweet, thick, acrid smoke that imparts a hammering stone. Extremely powerful. Recommended for experienced smokers only.

Dinafem's site says 60 hours of darkness....

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Thanks Auldone! That's great info from a good source. Sounds like Alex Kelly is the one who should do some fucking resarch...

420God said:

Interesting quote you might find useful.

"The Stichting Institute of Medical marijuana (SIMM), the first company to sell marijuana through the pharmacies of Holland, has been investigating the medical possibilities of cannabis, together with TNO laboratories and the University of Leiden.

One of their discoveries has been that to keep the ripe plants in the dark before harvesting could increase their potency.SIMM’s growers separated a crop of mature plants, harvested half of them and kept the other half in absolute darkness for 72 hours before cutting and drying. Analysis of the resulting dried buds showed that some varieties had seen an increase of THC of up to 30%, while CBD and CBN remained the same."


As far as sugars go, they don't do anything to the plant itself. It feeds the microorganisms that live in the soil and if you don't have living soil you're wasting time.

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420 god...sorry, I am just getting around to thanking you for your contribution. It definitely made a believer out of me!

I wonder if this method works on all strains? Or is it only associated with White Widow, and, if so, is it because it's more visually dramatic?

I pulled this off of Attitude...

Dinafem Seeds White Widow is the most potent cannabis on Earth and is named for the abundance of trichomes, giving the plant a whitish tint. It is also one of the more powerful strains of marijuana (alongside AK-47 and Afghan Kush) with a very high 20%-25% THC content.
White Widow feminized seeds are (60%/40%) indica/sativa cross-strain and is best suited to indoor cannabis cultivation. Cannabis seeds grow as high as 35-80 cm with the yield up to 450 gr per m2. It's suggested to flower (12 hour light) this marijuana variety for 8 weeks, but 10 weeks will really give you the crystals you are after. Try to turn the lights off altogether the final 2 weeks of the flowering cycle- or at least down to 8 hours. This keeps the flowers from re-growth and stresses the plant into giving up its last drop of goodness as crystal to protect the flower! The buds have so much THC on them that it is hard to see them at all.
White Widow feminized seeds produce plants that give you the taste of freshness laced with many fruits, because of the strength of the cannabis crystals - the only real taste goes hand in hand with the expectorant effects of the THC. The smell is strong pungency. It first hits you, then follows a sour sweetness with the final whiff ... turning sweet. If a plant could have a strong body odour then the White Widow needs a deodorant.
Cannabis smokers adore its sweet, thick, acrid smoke that imparts a hammering stone. Extremely powerful. Recommended for experienced smokers only.

Dinafem's site says 60 hours of darkness....

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lol this is a complete and total sales pitch, not at all relevant information. breeders are great at selling their seeds to gullible stoners. but anyways i have tried the darkness thing on a couple plants before. i've done 72 hours of darkness on two grows. I cant say that it improved the quality of the herb since i didnt have a control to compare to, but i can say that i was fairly satisfied with the end results. who knows if it made a difference or not but i do like the idea of it, im gonna try it again on my next grow though, just for the fun of it. and if you guys are serious about getting more trichs on your buds then do a search on for UVB lights. people will get UVB emitting CFLs that are made for reptiles and use them on their plants for a limited amount of time per day and claim to see significant gains in trichome production, I've seen a few threads about it and the results look really promising. its definitely something i want to experiment with in the future.

I did 72 hours dark with my strawberry cough and had very noticeable gains in trich production. I'm at 48 right now with my WW I'll let you know in a couple days.

Total darkness for an extended period of time BEFORE harvest works on ALL strains !
Sugars from molasses and such feed your beneficial organisms, makes your buds taste sweeter and helps add to final yield (some more than others).
Use in combo with a humic acid nute like Liquid Karma, which feeds the little guys and increases the plants uptake of nutes, for better benefits/yields too.

WillyPhister said:

lol this is a complete and total sales pitch, not at all relevant information. breeders are great at selling their seeds to gullible stoners. but anyways i have tried the darkness thing on a couple plants before. i've done 72 hours of darkness on two grows. I cant say that it improved the quality of the herb since i didnt have a control to compare to, but i can say that i was fairly satisfied with the end results. who knows if it made a difference or not but i do like the idea of it, im gonna try it again on my next grow though, just for the fun of it. and if you guys are serious about getting more trichs on your buds then do a search on for UVB lights. people will get UVB emitting CFLs that are made for reptiles and use them on their plants for a limited amount of time per day and claim to see significant gains in trichome production, I've seen a few threads about it and the results look really promising. its definitely something i want to experiment with in the future.

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Yep, oldest trick in the book, photo of frosty plants. It's not the density of the trichome field that counts, it's what in the resin heads that counts.

Amount of light or darkness doesn't drive trichome production. Things like genetics and plant age do.

UB

OK, so now I am conflicted. The posts from 420 god & auldone seemed conclusive to me. I tend to pay attention when someone sites an actual scientific study by a legitimate institute. But then Uncle Ben chimes in. I respect his opinion and if he says it's BS then I have to take that into account as well. So, I guess it's time for my own controlled side by side experiment. I'll keep you posted on strains & results. Begin flush today, so a couple more weeks.

According to Mel Frank's studies with the U. of Miss. lab results, THC levels rise during the dark period and fall with light. His Insiders Guide has graphs showing this. Whether or not the overkill of doing 5 days in the dark promotes more THC production than harvesting during the plant's natural dark cycle, I doubt if it has any real world impact. Photosynthesis drives plant processes. He does not say what the causal effects are, just graphs the small THC increase. Get the book.

My reply was in regards to some off the wall 5 days darkness theory.

I take a plant that I plan to harvest out of the grow room the night before the evil deed and put it into a dark room for harvest the next day. It's more of a feel good thing for me, not a verifiable fact. My focus in this hobby is growing a healthy plant naturally and not relying on gimmicks. That means maintaining healthy green leaves until harvest with the judicious application of plant food.... no "flushing".

No need to split hairs, just harvest at your convenience would be my recommendation.

UB

Jack Larson said:

Thanks Auldone! That's great info from a good source. Sounds like Alex Kelly is the one who should do some fucking resarch...

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72 hours is the standard. Go ahead and do two weeks though its not my crop.

WillyPhister said:

lol this is a complete and total sales pitch, not at all relevant information. breeders are great at selling their seeds to gullible stoners. but anyways i have tried the darkness thing on a couple plants before. i've done 72 hours of darkness on two grows. I cant say that it improved the quality of the herb since i didnt have a control to compare to, but i can say that i was fairly satisfied with the end results. who knows if it made a difference or not but i do like the idea of it, im gonna try it again on my next grow though, just for the fun of it. and if you guys are serious about getting more trichs on your buds then do a search on for UVB lights. people will get UVB emitting CFLs that are made for reptiles and use them on their plants for a limited amount of time per day and claim to see significant gains in trichome production, I've seen a few threads about it and the results look really promising. its definitely something i want to experiment with in the future.

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Glad someone knows what theyre talking about.

Uncle Ben said:

According to Mel Frank's studies with the U. of Miss. lab results, THC levels rise during the dark period and fall with light. His Insiders Guide has graphs showing this. Whether or not the overkill of doing 5 days in the dark promotes more THC production than harvesting during the plant's natural dark cycle, I doubt if it has any real world impact. Photosynthesis drives plant processes. He does not say what the causal effects are, just graphs the small THC increase. Get the book.

My reply was in regards to some off the wall 5 days darkness theory.

I take a plant that I plan to harvest out of the grow room the night before the evil deed and put it into a dark room for harvest the next day. It's more of a feel good thing for me, not a verifiable fact. My focus in this hobby is growing a healthy plant naturally and not relying on gimmicks. That means maintaining healthy green leaves until harvest with the judicious application of plant food.... no "flushing".

No need to split hairs, just harvest at your convenience would be my recommendation.

UB

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Good info. Well we could always test this with a control group, although i don't know how to measure THC presence.

Alex Kelly said:

72 hours is the standard. Go ahead and do two weeks though its not my crop.

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You mean "popular". There is no "standard" that I know of, just a bunch of anecdotal evidence and feel good nonsense. I studied the tests in Mel's books and acted accordingly. Now, if indeed there is an increase in THC at harvest immediately after a dark period that you can pick up on......I seriously doubt it. If you've done an excellent job of promoting and maintaining foliage and the roots until harvest then the rest is taken care of by the plant.

UB

Uncle Ben said:

You mean "popular". There is no "standard" that I know of, just a bunch of anecdotal evidence and feel good nonsense. I studied the tests in Mel's books and acted accordingly. Now, if indeed there is an increase in THC at harvest immediately after a dark period that you can pick up on......I seriously doubt it. If you've done an excellent job of promoting and maintaining foliage and the roots until harvest then the rest is taken care of by the plant.

UB

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You're right I do mean popular not standard. I don't believe that I have seen any real scientific evidence showing an increase in THC levels, but there is definately some good first hand experience to go off of out there. Correct me if I am wrong but, during the night cycle (night time), a cannabis plant produces more THC than during the day. From my understanding, cannabis plants produce THC in order to protect themselves from sunlight. Therefor, when it is dark your plant "focuses" (i know not a botanist) more "energy, time, whatever it is" on producing THC so that it is protected from the suns harmful rays while it focuses more on other things during the day (don't want to state what the other things are and be wrong because I am not sure so I will just keep it at other things). So it couldn't hurt to throw throw em in darkness for 72 hours, and IMO this would most likely improve the concentration of the THC of your cannabis plant.

That being said, there are other benefits to leaving you plant in the dark for a period of time before harvest. When you harvest, regardless of an extended dark period or not, harvest at the end of the dark cycle, BEFORE the lights come back on. In darkness your plant performs different tasks than in light, and one of the effects of this is that alot of the salts and nutrients trickle or drain down into the root zone at night. This can theoretically help to remove unwanted chemical tastes and properties seen in cultivated cannabis (especially in hydroponics). I would think that the more dark your plant sees at the end of the cycle the more salts and nutrients would be removed and drained from the plant producing a better tasting and higher quality product. Just some thoughts. This 2nd part obviously doesnt efffect organic gardners nearly as much.

The main point of that statement was to tell him that 2 weeks is definately too long to leave your plants in darkness. I may be wrong but plants need sunlight to survive, like us, so wouldnt 2 weeks possibly kill your plants? I don't ever plan on trying this just wondering.

Alex Kelly said:

72 hours is the standard. Go ahead and do two weeks though its not my crop.

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I'll try the 72 hours with a couple of plants as an experiment. There is no fucking way I'm gonna put any plant in total darkness for 2 weeks. I don't care who says what! My point was, you said "show me a breeder that says this" and auldone did just that. Right or wrong, that's what the sponsor of this website says. No one was more surprised than me. Has anyone ever tried contacting one of these big seed distributors? Surely their statement has some research attached to the statement, or, it's just bullshit.

It's just bullshit.

Jack Larson said:

I have heard that if you put a White Widow in total darkness for 3 to 5 days @ the end of flowering that the plant will really get frosty.
Does this work?
If so does it work on any other strains?

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No. It only delays harvest by 3 to 5 days. Some will site a study by some institute but in a blind side-by-side test, I could never tell a difference between the 10 or so strains I tried it on.

well ill be damned but if this many people say yes to it then fuck.......ill check this shit out man im only a couple days till my harv. and im tryin to get situated lol

I kill my lights 2 to 3 days before chop. But im not sure if it improves anything. I use molasses as well. Think its mostly habit, but it seems to work well lol.