I was just wandering around the net looking for any extra tips on growing when I ran across the Advanced Nutrients forum where everybody swears by giving the plants at least 3 days of darkness before harvesting. Ive heard of up to 48 hours on here, but no mention of 72, they even said you could have up to a 5 day long dark period before harvesting! The guy that knows the most about it is a moderator for the site and one of the owners of Advanced Nutrients (which is a company out of Canada that produces fertilizers specifically engineerd for the growing of cannibus) so Im sure he knows what hes talking about, but anywho...he says giving it the long dark period causes the buds to increase their resin output and tighten up, causing increases in density, quality, and cured weight. The reasoning behind it is that by taking light away from the plants, they go into a sort of survival mode, and begin producing all of the resin they can in a last ditched effort to try and get polinated. It was also said that the plant needs to be almost out of water in order to draw all of the access oils and resin into the bud. There were a few before and after pictures, and side by side experiments that were pretty convincing. The weight and size didnt increase so much, but the overall quality was far better....anyway here's a link to a thread on the site that explains alot....theres alot more info on there about it if you search. around.http://www.advancednutrientsmedical.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=2452&page=1&pp=30&highlight=dark+cycle
Yes it tricks the plant into thinks it is dying so it produces the most THC it can.. I have a m8 that has been growing years,and he told me that he does it in the middle of the flowering also just switches them off for a day and back on. I never tried this because I thought it could stress the plant too much but he said it works very well maybe somebody else can comment on this!! Iam going to def do it at the end of my grow there is nothing to loose, but also I heard some strains dont responde to this but hey you have to try because if you dont you will never no.
I will definaetly be pulling this manuver before harvest gonna stop watering 5 days before though so 10 days of no water thats just plain cruel
my last harvest i gave the plants about 36 hours of darkness before harvest, it seemed to help but i didn't have more plants to harvest the "traditional" way to compair. i did however, just give my current grow (4 skunk#1's 3 fem white widows) 36 hours of darkness before switching bulbs and 12/12 light. i've yet to see if that works.
Ya, they said it works like 2 out of 3 times for the average grower. Im deffinately going to try this when I harvest though....Theres plenty more information about tricks to make a better harvest on there, Id reccommend for everyone to browse that website, lots of good info.