Can anyone attest to leaving the lights off = quicker thc turn over?

P

poutineeh

Well-Known Member
So I have to be out of my apartment in a week and a day. That means I have to harvest tomorrow, but my plant is at that tipping point when its starting to produce the most bud and the trichomes are turning from clear to cloudy.

I am considering leaving it until sunday, and just turning the lights off friday so it has 2 full days of darkness. Will this help complete the transition of clear to cloudy trichomes? Or is this a myth? Will 2 days even make a difference in my case?
 
Hi - i think you will be needing darkness for the whole week if you want trichomes to boost. Two days doesn't do much to my plants.
 
Would dramatically decreasing the light help out? maybe only do 6 hours of light and 18 dark? I could feasibly let it sit until monday, but then i'm playing russian roulette with my pops finding out :-/
 
fuck it, i'm going to keep the lights off for 2 or 3 days. i've really got nothing to lose unless this completely halts thc production, which won't make much of a difference over a period of two days
 
does this really help that much? i dont see how leaving a plant in the dark would increase the thc at all.. not bashing tho im just confused.
 
i dont want to fight with anyone, ok, for the extended dark b4 harvest, light destroys thc. its the plants sunblock, among other things, well in darkness their is no light to break thc down. So if you give it an extra 12 or 24 hrs of darkness (i chop after 24 hrs straight dark about, you could wait till theyve had 36 hours if you want, but once it reaches it maximum level it cant get any higher. That why doing it longer than that is pointless. If anyone can prove to me that a week of darkness before harvest has a benefit to the plant I'd love to hear it. Proof, not other people saying it works, real proof.
 
i have turned the lights off, but I may turn them back on sunday morning and then cut sunday night. my logic is it has had 48 hours of dark to do whatever production happens at night, and then give it another 6 hours of light before chopping so that i can use whatever it produced as "fuel."

is there any strong objections? I will be cutting sunday and not letting it go any further, but should I be worried about screwing with the lights too much, even if its just one day? Its not enough to hermi it extensively, right?
 
I would harvest right after the dark period if I were you. Turning on the lights is just gonna give it an opportunity to degrade some potency.plants have their highest levels of cannabinoids right at the end of the dark period.
 
And that's not enough time for it to go hermie.I would just go for the 48 hours of dark, then harvest right afterwards.
 
Mel Frank performed tests where he took pieces of a bud, throughout flowering, in the dark and light phases. The samples taken in the dark period regularly tested higher on THC content, by up to 10%. He did not test after extended dark hours, he only tested toward the end of the normal 12 hour dark period.
 
Flush the plants well before you leave. add a bit of molasses if ya wish to the last water and cut the lights. Make sure your fan stays on to prevent bud rot. Just harvest when you get home. No big deal.
 
i only did about a 1.5-to-1 water to pot size, and in retrospect, i should have done more. however, my soil is almost half perlite, half soil, so i got quite a lot of run off. the soil is almost dry, so i don't know if I should flush again. shouldn't the soil be dry when chopping? if it doesnt matter, i could give it more water tomorrow, and then give it one more day in the dark. its been almost a week since its last watering...
 
some people have a good idea. i would flush it tonight. give it mollasses or syrup with water tomorrow and give it one or two days darkness. i agree with darkdestruction. through photosynthesis (process to absorb light) if it didnt have sunlight after a few days it would start to die. so i agree that it does get its most potent at the end of the dark cycle but i would think too much time would start degrading. plus after you flush it and get the nutes out and let the plant burn off its fuel and the mollasses or syrup will stimulate the plant. the first time i used it my buds doubled in size in two days. so good luck
 
ok cool. so i'll get back to my apartment tomorrow, flush with 3 or 4 gallons, turn the lights on for 8 hours or so (let its natural cycle continue one more time), kill the lights and let them sit over night and harvest monday morning and let them dry for 3 days.

at this point, im not concerned about any additional potency. i just want to get rid of any chemicals, which i think may be too late to do. i smoked a tiny bud straight from the plant a few days ago and i did not like the high. was almost nautious. could this have just been the effect of smoking uncured buds, or a sign there was still fertilizer in the plant?
 
did you use organic nutrients? I've smoked unflushed bud(had no choice but to harvest w/o one) and to be honest i never really noticed much difference.
 
It said organic on the package, but I got a ton of the stuff for real cheap. like 8 lbs. for $6. They nutrients reminded me of kitty litter, by the look and smell, so I don't think they are the high quality organics people use here, hence my anxiousness
 
Ok I think I'm getting closer to understanding why an extended dark period not only preserves levels of THC but also why it produces more. It's rather complicated so I'll try to keep it simple. First, THC is produced during the secondary metabolic function (when plant cells breaths). The waste product oxygen is used as the catalist to synthesis THCA into THC. Its the breathing not the engery making aspect of the plant that makes it. Hence, lights are not needed to produce THC from THCA. Plants concentrate on breathing in the dark while they do not produce food in the dark. The plant cant make glucose in the dark and but it can produce THC. Second, CBN is produced from THC through the primary metabolic function of anabolism (growth and reproduction). The labor on working on growth that it causes this to happen. Its also a cause of why potency is lower when the female is pollinated. Third, THC has high UV absorbtion properties. Its the absorbtion of light (most importantly, the radio active light) that breaks down THC into CBD. Thats why CBD is called an isomer of THC. THC can only be broken down to CBD in the presents of light.

So lets recap why dark periods are good for the potency of plants:
1. In the dark, plants continue to produce THC
2. In the dark, THC doe not turn into CBD or CBN

Before entering the dark period, your plant should be ready or almost ready to be harvested. The extended dark period should be considered a part of the curing process more so than part of the flowering process. In the dark, THC is will accomuilate, and the cloudy and amber trichs should remain the same. So are preserving all hard work while we enrich its potency. Consider this a "divine rot". We are allowing it to cure on the vine so to speak. Different plants have different time periods of darkness. High THC sativias or white strains will get the longest periods. Inidcas and lower THC plants will get less time in the dark. I dont believe trich will grow in the dark so I believe its only the existing trich will fill with more THC. Just for a bench mark, it is suggested for the White Widow to recieve 14 days of dark. An indica lowryder may only recieve as little as one or two days. Whatever you "fermenting" in your grow room for two weeks damn well better be worth the two weeks time that you are using up your grow space for. White Widow "divined rotted" for to weeks is truly divine. Two weeks with a lowryder and thats just a waste of space that only nominaly added to the potency (and maybe hurt your body stoned effect) of your plant.

I had to do some research on this but feel very comfortable in sharing this. Not sure if its perfect but it goes along way in explaining the process.
 
Crypnotic said:
Ok I think I'm getting closer to understanding why an extended dark period not only preserves levels of THC but also why it produces more. It's rather complicated so I'll try to keep it simple. First, THC is produced during the secondary metabolic function (when plant cells breaths). The waste product oxygen is used as the catalist to synthesis THCA into THC. Its the breathing not the engery making aspect of the plant that makes it. Hence, lights are not needed to produce THC from THCA. Plants concentrate on breathing in the dark while they do not produce food in the dark. The plant cant make glucose in the dark and but it can produce THC. Second, CBN is produced from THC through the primary metabolic function of anabolism (growth and reproduction). The labor on working on growth that it causes this to happen. Its also a cause of why potency is lower when the female is pollinated. Third, THC has high UV absorbtion properties. Its the absorbtion of light (most importantly, the radio active light) that breaks down THC into CBD. Thats why CBD is called an isomer of THC. THC can only be broken down to CBD in the presents of light.

So lets recap why dark periods are good for the potency of plants:
1. In the dark, plants continue to produce THC
2. In the dark, THC doe not turn into CBD or CBN

Before entering the dark period, your plant should be ready or almost ready to be harvested. The extended dark period should be considered a part of the curing process more so than part of the flowering process. In the dark, THC is will accomuilate, and the cloudy and amber trichs should remain the same. So are preserving all hard work while we enrich its potency. Consider this a "divine rot". We are allowing it to cure on the vine so to speak. Different plants have different time periods of darkness. High THC sativias or white strains will get the longest periods. Inidcas and lower THC plants will get less time in the dark. I dont believe trich will grow in the dark so I believe its only the existing trich will fill with more THC. Just for a bench mark, it is suggested for the White Widow to recieve 14 days of dark. An indica lowryder may only recieve as little as one or two days. Whatever you "fermenting" in your grow room for two weeks damn well better be worth the two weeks time that you are using up your grow space for. White Widow "divined rotted" for to weeks is truly divine. Two weeks with a lowryder and thats just a waste of space that only nominaly added to the potency (and maybe hurt your body stoned effect) of your plant.

I had to do some research on this but feel very comfortable in sharing this. Not sure if its perfect but it goes along way in explaining the process.
Click to expand...

so what do you think i should do according to my last post? give it more water today, or hope that the plant used up whatever gave me the nautious feeling from trying it a few days ago?
 
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