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Sorry, duplicate post. I meant to post in this tread but also posted it in harvest tread. ----------------------------------------------- I am so excited! I am there!!!! I took a cutting from a medium sized top just below the main cola and I see about 10% clear, about 80% cloudy, and about 10 % amber and 90% of the heads are easily 2-3 x bigger than the stems and are folded over a tad (kinda like they are starting to melt a bit) I think I am DONE!!!!!!! OK, so I went ahead and killed the lights. so, we want to let them sit in darkness for a few days?? right??? and after a day or 2, should I pour ice water on the top of the soil? or just leave them in darkness for a few days then cut?
There may be other methods of harvest and final prep steps, but I would say don't do ice or anything like that. You've grown something beautiful. I'd let it sit in the dark for 24 hours with circulation going, then chop.
thanks General sir! OK I will forget about the ice shock since I have 4 plants in the 4x4, should I try to chop them in the dark to not awaken them and thus get juices flowing? (if it works like that) or am I over thinking it?, and just let them be in darkness for 24 hours and then have enough light to see, but not the main lights and just go for it I planed to removing all large fan leaves before hanging, but I imagine it will take a few hours to cut all this stuff in prep for the drying Guess what I am asking is should I just try to quickly chop at bottom of plant in the dark, or is it ok to do it in low level light, once the 24 hr dark period has lapse thanks for your time and help
1) The reason for putting them in dark is that it supposedly increases trichome ripeness, though that may not be the technical word for it haha. Light degrades THC as well. However lots of people don't even put the plant in darkness for 24 hours, they just chop when ready after the 12 hours lights out. I have chopped with lights on before, still had dank bud. For me it gets to the point of, wow... trying to harvest multiple plants in the dark is tedious. I'm going to trim them in the light, so how big of a difference could it make? So now I just give them the 24 hours dark, then chop and trim in light to get a quality trim. 2) From what you say here I take it you are drying with most everything untrimmed, just big fan leaves off. This way works and lots of people will dry this way. Fan leaves are easy to pull off, just grab near the base and pull at a downward angle. This won't take much time at all. I did that once and it took me longer because as the plant dries, those leaves curl and fold up over the bud. For one you need the right humidity and circulation to help prevent the increased chance of mildew or mold (not that it's a massive difference, but just think about it). Because of that I now chop a few branches at a time off the plant. I pull all the fan leaves by hand, and some smaller ones in the bud (without trichomes) with the tips of my fiskars. Then I trim off popcorn bud into a pile. Then I trim the rest of the leafs to get down to my mostly finished trim job. Everything gets hung up and dried. Once they are ready for mason jars I do a final once over for trimming, as well as cut the nugs off the branches. If you have a drying net to dry your bud, it may also be easier to trim the buds individually of the branch (so you don't have to hold and rotate a whole branch of buds). 3) I'm not 100% what the best scientific method is here, but chop what you're going to work with in that time frame. If you can do a whole plant, then chop it all.
Man you are way over thinking this. They are done, nothing you can do now will change potency. Just cut the branches off, trim all the leafage off, hang it up and let it dry. Don't worry about giving it 24 hours of dark. It's had 12 hours of dark every single day for the last 8-9 weeks, do you really think another 12 is going to do anything? Lol. It will be in the dark from now on anyway most probably. It will take a week or two to dry and that will be dark I expect. The whole ice water thing is what some people do in the last week or two to get the purple to come out. Colder temps add colour. It's not something that I think is worth it. Once cured its all gone brown anyway lol
I just did 36 hrs dark on my skunk b4 chopping, honestly don't notice any difference. but as light degrades thc, I like to do all the chopping under a green light wich weed cant see. a normal household light will prolly be fine, I was just carefull as its my 1st crop
If light degraded thc then the 12 hours of intensive light they receive every single day would render it useless. I have kept bud in glass jars in my home, not in direct sunlight but open to the light and I have not noticed any difference. I think it's all a myth
That's what I wonder, how big of a difference it really makes. I still do the 24 hours darkness because it's just something I have always done with good result not saying it really helps, but so far it hasn't hurt.