dark period

Im nearing my first harvest also!
Congrats on making it this far

Im going to do a 48 hr dark period no water no lights. In my reading and research the answers are mixed as to rather or not there is any real benefit from it

However i am going to do it anyway it cant hurt i dont suppose

 

It's pointless. It does nothing to build up resin. Another one of the many growing myths.

Plus, if you are growing more than one girl and you have different strains, how on earth can you do 24-72 hours of darkness without screwing the rest up?

Other people do the 10/14 nonsense as well, same idea same results. Peace

 

Yes, the extra 12 hours of light each day instead of 1-3 days of straight darkness is better not only for finishing off the buds but for safety. 24-72 hours of darkness will only help mold or fungus if it exists anywhere in the buds or room. I would have no issue with 24 hours of darkness if you wish to experiment, but I've seen it done many times. I once worked at a grow op, a legal one, in Canada and they kept detailed records of every aspect of the grows, including harvest, drying, cure and dry weights. And all the experimenting done there for years, one experiment of which was the darkness before harvest, it absolutely had no positive effects whatsoever. Only a few negatives. Most experiments to get more or better bud failed because what has already been established in the growing world has been found out already. New tech will always bring something new to the industry but as for myths like this one, it is only myth, maybe opinion.

And again, unless you have only one plant, or a few that ripen at the same time, or many that are the same strain, you can't do the 1-3 days of total darkness without screwing up the others who are not ready to be harvested. Peace

 

I'm harvesting tomorrow, lights have been off since yesterday. I'll let you know if I see a difference. (I'm taking before/after pics)

 

To think that 24-48 hours of darkness is going to make any difference is not a reasonable inference. There is no scientific proof this is a method to increase resin production. It took the plants 8-10 weeks to get to this point, 24 hours of darkness is not going to somehow magically increase resin that took two months to produce. The only thing that will happen is you will harvest your crop 1-2 days later.

Harvesting soon after the normal dark period ends is a good thing to do to maximize the terpenes that produce the scents, but you cannot increase the resin production by putting the plants in extended dark cycles. This is just a waste of time and another beginner fallacy of growing MJ.

PW

 

My friend who owns a canna club that's been in business a decade already recommends the two day dark period with a cold water flush to bring out purps. You guys may not like it, but there are reasons people do it.

 

Two days of darkness and cold water to boot. Sounds like he's got his own thing going because none of the professional growers I've been around, and this includes ones from the largest legal grow ops in both Canada and California, perform these actions.

Cold water DOES NOTHING for bud or resin production, quality or yield. It actually hinders all. You can help bring out certain colors and hues on a plant by using cold water and air, but there is no logical growing reason for a cold flush.

As for the darkness that has been thoroughly tested and disproved. This issue isn't even debated by professional growers anymore because the debate is long over, as for cold water that's just silly.

I love your comment, you say you have a friend who owns a canna club, and you end with "but there are reasons people do it". Yet you fail to even list the reasons why. It's because there are none. Peace

 

In order to do a comparison you need separate rooms with the same strains under the same conditions, except one room you do the darkness routine and the other you don't. Then you'd have to harvest and dry, and cure in the same fashion. Then you'd have to weigh all the dry bud, test the quality with daily users and get a variety of opinions and send off samples to a lab for gas chromatography tests in order to get accurate THC percentages.

You will see no difference in anything unless your mind tells you to. Unless you have 100+ detailed grows under your belt your eyes will tell you little.

Most growers can do all the above except the gas chromatography tests, let us know if you ever do that.

The before and after pics are even more meaningless unless you allow one to go the extra 2 days in regular 12/12 and the other go the extra 2 days in darkness. Peace