1st test of 48 hours of darkness before harvest, results

So everyone on here has their opinion on this.
The ones that do this, swear by it, but a lot of people say it doesn't do anything.

I decided to try it myself and will say that........
After 48 hours of darkness right before harvesting, it smelled WAY stronger then before the darkness. I didn't notice more trichs, which I wasn't surprised because it takes longer then 2 days to form a trich. BUT it smelled a lot, lot, lot more stronger.

So my conclusion, I will continue to do this to future plants
Thought I would share my experience

Very very interesting stuff! I have been too lazy to ever try this but after reading this I may just have to give it a shot. Even if all it does is increase the terpin levels that would be sweet, give your herb a lil extra stank =D

I took this from another forum, forgive me.

ahhh scientist got to make up their minds , last year i bought this little pill to give me a boner now i hear it could drop my poor guy flat line ... lol this studies are just studies in my personal xperiens of dark periods before harvest seems to streech the calyxes and the plants smell more during drying which i guess is good , i wiss i had a lab full of plants duing a dark period , regular period and no dark at all and see what the thc metter reads after... on perpetual harvest like mine it is so difficult to do , i allready run three rooms veg, bloom,drying , i tought of doing the dark period in the drying closet but cant fit many plants in there so only a 1/4 of my weekly harvest gets the long nap before the snap and i do see a difference like i mentioned , i dont knw how to measure thc...

In theory, the darkness before harvest just stresses the plant which in turn will make the plant think it's near the end of it's life, if the plant has not be pollinated then it will increase resin production to make itself more sticky to get male pollen to stick to it. Another theory is that resin acts as sunblock, high intensity rays, especially those high in uv light will make the produce more resin to protect it's precious buds. Another theory is that resin is produced to seal in moisture, being that resin is oil based it repels water, so when the air is bone dry it protects itself from drying out with more resin. Shocking or injuring the plant is another theory that involves torturing the plant either by feeding it ice water or jabbing it with tacks or nails so it thinks that it will soon die and must produce more resin to attract male pollen.

These are all theories that have you to be proven on a wide scale, if anybody has any incite I would be glad to hear it.

Pureblood89 said:

In theory, the darkness before harvest just stresses the plant which in turn will make the plant think it's near the end of it's life, if the plant has not be pollinated then it will increase resin production to make itself more sticky to get male pollen to stick to it. Another theory is that resin acts as sunblock, high intensity rays, especially those high in uv light will make the produce more resin to protect it's precious buds. Another theory is that resin is produced to seal in moisture, being that resin is oil based it repels water, so when the air is bone dry it protects itself from drying out with more resin. Shocking or injuring the plant is another theory that involves torturing the plant either by feeding it ice water or jabbing it with tacks or nails so it thinks that it will soon die and must produce more resin to attract male pollen.

These are all theories that have you to be proven on a wide scale, if anybody has any incite I would be glad to hear it.

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Well I was going to add something here but I was wrong.

I dont swear by it but I always do it.
My harvest routine is *USUALLY*
At 7 weeks from switch remove frets OR if watering with plants of differing ages cut the feed water in half for these guys.
at 8 weeks from switch no more fert
Beginning of 9th week just carbs, halfway into week strong water (gallon per pot).
Second half of 9th week no water at all (start dry)
start of week 10 put plants into drying tent, no light.
Let sit in dark dry tent for 2 - 3 full days.
Cut down after 3 days, let entire plant hang for 1 day as a whole.
after hang day trim all fan leaves and easy to get to stuff, hang again OR finish trim
If trim not finished on first day finish trimming now and hang dry 3-4 days.
After 4 days if crispy jar up otherwise leave on more day in dry.

I can say that when I follow this pattern I DO notice a more blingy and smellier result. I cannot say if its from removing water a little early or if its from the dark or even letting them hang that extra day after cutting but something in there is making a difference. I'll skip steps if Im in a hurry or if the timing isnt going to work out but the difference is enough for me to try and take the extra time every time.

similar to what i do but i dont cut leaves till buds are crispy dry...

I did a 48 hour dark period and saw no difference with my previous yield of same strain. I even have a nice microscope and there was no difference in trichs, at all. As for smell, my plants always smell great just before waking up for the sun.

Here is the deal, as I read it. The plant needs sugars and starches when it photosynthesizes. At night, those compounds travel back down to the roots where they are stored until the next day. If you allow all of the starches and sugars to drain back down to roots, and then chop the plant before it sees light again, technically, you are drastically reducing the amount of sugars and starches that need to be broken down in the curing process. This results in a smoother smoke, much faster than a traditional day time harvest.

Does that make any scientific sense to anybody else here? Can anybody debunk that with proven science?

no thats why we are here and not in a lab, do i have a few gadgets and books that may make think iam one my wife always reminds me that i got no phd on science... and if the plant knows the end is near it prepares its self for the last meal and shuts down photosintesys this is why you way thill plant is rippen ... think about it ...

Ive heard as much and trust it as testable science.
Theres more going on here then just that me-thinks however.

Serapis said:

I did a 48 hour dark period and saw no difference with my previous yield of same strain. I even have a nice microscope and there was no difference in trichs, at all. As for smell, my plants always smell great just before waking up for the sun.

Here is the deal, as I read it. The plant needs sugars and starches when it photosynthesizes. At night, those compounds travel back down to the roots where they are stored until the next day. If you allow all of the starches and sugars to drain back down to roots, and then chop the plant before it sees light again, technically, you are drastically reducing the amount of sugars and starches that need to be broken down in the curing process. This results in a smoother smoke, much faster than a traditional day time harvest.

Does that make any scientific sense to anybody else here? Can anybody debunk that with proven science?

Click to expand...

i have also heard the heat and light almost bake the terpenes(spellcheck) and they recover in the dark thats why they smell soo much more

Serapis said:

The plant needs sugars and starches when it photosynthesizes. At night, those compounds travel back down to the roots where they are stored until the next day. If you allow all of the starches and sugars to drain back down to roots, and then chop the plant before it sees light again, technically, you are drastically reducing the amount of sugars and starches that need to be broken down in the curing process. This results in a smoother smoke, much faster than a traditional day time harvest.

Click to expand...

Beat me to it

Also a good reason for those who don't want to do the 48-72 hrs of dark to still cut their plant in its night cycle instead of in light. Same principle applies.

Waking this thread back up. About to drop a Strawberry Glue. Really thought it helped the Sour N Sage. I used the ice bath flush along with it.

Got a Sweet Zombie and a Northern Lights DWC in the dark right now. 48-72 hours has always worked for me, and chop at night. For anyone still on this thread. I used to just chop at night until I tried the 48 of dark and now I swear by it. I'm no scientist but I hope my experience with the subject helps

Good grief.

Gotta love the methodology the OP used. The sniff test. How did mankind survive before these brilliant cannabis scientific methods?

"After 48 hours of darkness right before harvesting, it smelled WAY stronger then before the darkness. I didn't notice more trichs, which I wasn't surprised because it takes longer then 2 days to form a trich. BUT it smelled a lot, lot, lot more stronger."

A lot, lot, lot, lot more stronger reminds me of "The Best" which was just a comedy skit and probably why I'm laughing right now.

I don't know how people can think this does anything. Your plants are still alive when you chop and hang them, it's not like you are shooting them in the brain. I'm assuming you also dry in the dark....so basically, everyone is already doing this.

When the plant is in the dark it is using stored sugars to maintain it's life spark. Giving off CO2 in the process. Don't know how this would affect the buds development at this time though. But would seem to be a good use of the stored energy in the plant FWIW.

I tried this. did 12, 24, 48, 72 hrs darkness. All clones from a single mother. Organic no till grow style. No difference.
The only time I noticed a difference is when i chopped right before lights on vs chopping at the end of 12 hours light. The plant chopped at the end of the day was one harsh smoke. It finally mellowed out after 45 days cure.

As always, I could be wrong, but I believe the whole "48 hrs of dark to increase resin/quality" is a misconception based on partial truth.

Many times with growing forums, you'll find that someone mistakenly attributes the solution to the wrong thing. Kind of like swearing that "insert secret ingredient" produces better plants, when the reality is that you just watered better and mistakenly attributed your new success to something arbitrary.

It is for this reason, everything regarding plants on forums should be taken with a grain of salt, and fact checked with one's own due diligence. Its amazing how many research articles one can find by simply googling a question.

Anyway, in the case of the "48-72 hours of darkness" thing, its likely this is due to the difference between harvesting after lights off vs. before lights on.

"Plants make sugars during the day via photosynthesis and store this as starch, a complex carbohydrate. This starch is then broken back down into sugar during the night. The rate of this degradation is perfectly timed so that the starch reserves are exhausted just after dawn." source

I believe this is why people say 48-72 hours of darkness results in a better product, attributing the increased quality with this period of darkness because of how few people harvest prior to lights on. Most people harvest during or after lights on in my experience. The above paragraph perfectly explains why harvesting prior to lights on is best, and also explains the 48-72 hour phenomenon.

The same result can be achieved by simply harvesting 1-2 hours prior to lights on. Instead of doing 2-3 days of darkness, decide when you'll harvest in that 2-3 day time frame. Then, simply harvest the plants in question prior to lights on.

Much less plant matter that needs to be eliminated via drying and curing when we allow the plant to do it on it's own. Not only have the bulk of the sugars and starches been degraded at this time, but on top of that the resin glands haven't come into contact with light to degrade it.

Just try to remember, when in doubt, consider how its done in nature. In nature, we never see 24 hours of light or darkness.