Wow 4-7 days? Maybe I will leave one of my plants in there for an extra day or so, but I am already far to anxious to try my first harvest, and I would like to cure everything properly first so looking at WEEKS still ... Today is day 29 of a 60-65 cycle for me.
Im going to put my smallest indica in the dark in another two weeks (Once 8 weeks of flowering comes in, to finish off in 9 weeks) then my biggest indica will finish (After a week of dark) at 10 weeks and my sativa should go for another 6 weeks or so (Im on week 6 right now) Im pushing it to the limit! Tight nugs! Body high of numbing quality! No bullshit harvest early like the other times!
This dark-shock sounds too good to be true... and thus I just have to try it! My schedule allows me four days of dark starting now. Before:
Last time someone was gonna do a before and after they did the before and never followed up, My theory is that they were just too annihilated, completely forgot what a computer was and such. So don't forget the after!
i grow in coco and so the best way that ive found is the gradual method, i experimented and adapted it to suit! Think about it? its more natural and the stress levels stay to a minamal & more on the positive side (which your after) rather than the plant going into major stress by the forced & immediate light deprevation. The plant then is taking a couple of days to actually respond or should i say recover, for it to then continue where it left off by producing the terpanoids that your after. Think about it, if your original intention was to go dark for 2 or 3 days total, by the time that plant would have recovered & is ready to start pumping terps/sugars etc, your going to be chopping it down as its the end of your second or third day in darkness, so it hasnt had time to gain any benefits as such and thats why a lot of people dont see any change, because its to instantaneous!. At the same time i do my first flush, i usually reduce the light just 15 mins on my timer, i do this every day for say 4 days ( thats an hr in total 4 x 15 = 60mins = 12 to 11 in light) remember though to mimick the sudden shorter days, which is your aim and is what your theoreticaly doing, you must reduce at the end of the light cycle for the lights to go out earlier not at the beggining so that they come on later) after four days of 15 minute reductions, i switch off completely! for a further 3/4 days, this is a week in total! i mentioned that i do two flushes, the first takes place on the first day that i actually started my reductions and by the time these first 4 days have passed and the lights eventually go out completely (for the following 3 days), i give them just one last flush (half the amount than the last, due to now being in complete darkness for 3 days with no light to evaporate the run off) the plant has time to assess the situation (basic though it is) right from the first 15 min cut back and to prepare itself for what has over a 7 day period become gradual but somewhat enevitable to the living organism! they are more switched on than we actually give them credit for and the combination of gradual light shortage and of course the lack of nutes as youve been flushing is quite astounding, i do also add a table spoon of epsom salts to the very first flush as ive been told it helps somewhat but im really not sure about that one? (it certainly doesnt hurt or hinder) but i do know that gradual light depravation, leading to total light depravation can be quite effective but like all things claimed, you should have a little experiment with a plant or two and try different things, remembering to make notes (lable them) of what your seeing or even meassuring, in respect of size or circumferences! both before & after after all your the one thats going to be saviouring the warm, tingley and euphoric buzz, coupled with the sweet, exotic and totally pungent aroma of what should now be even better herb than what you were producing before! it should also be fun, so go and have some!.... peace out! from the UK..
First of all, damn, use paragraphs, this is a stoner forum. Second, welcome to the city and third, that was an incredible thread jack lol. Also your not mimicking nature by turning down the lights 15 minutes every day, try less than a minute a day, your better off just switching it off when you need and letting your plant get the extra 15 minutes of light it wouldn't have already gotten.
Results! Just chopped her today. Definitely saw some larger bud growth after the dark period. If I had more time I would have let it go on longer than 5 days.
But the real question is, if he had a strain the same size under the same conditions etc. would it have grown bigger in the dark? Or still under the lights while it uses photosynthesis to create more bud..
[quote name='"Vox Continental"']But the real question is, if he had a strain the same size under the same conditions etc. would it have grown bigger in the dark? Or still under the lights while it uses photosynthesis to create more bud..[/quote] Exactly he needs a control to judge against
I can say for sure in my situation it will increase yield, because when I put my smallest indica in the dark (For a week) I then have 4 more lights that can be distrbuted back to the other two I have.
There is another way to look at it. This web page I found gets into the biological processes of cannabis. http://www.hempfood.com/iha/iha01201.html It talks about how a plant will produce TWICE as much THC with 12 hour light cycle than a plant on a 10 hr cycle! I know how this seems counter intuitive but look at it from the plant's perspective. The leaves collect energy from light and transforms it into chemicals that benefit bud production. So to hurt the leaves by eliminating the light source is to hurt the buds...and who wants to do that?
The real question is, if light degrades THC, how is it ever given the chance to be created in the first place?!
Ono of the things the page talked about was a layer at the tip of the trichomes which protect the contents from light and especially UV light. It does go on to say that giving the plant low amounts of stress (such as LST, low humidity, etc) it will produce more cannabinoids and terpenes than a plant that is 'babied'. http://www.hempfood.com/iha/iha01201.html
"If any subject had reacted in an unacceptable manner to a lower dose, he/she would not have been permitted to receive a higher dose." - http://www.hempfood.com/iha/iha01206.html Lol
Your talking about over the whole flowering phase if u switched from12/12 to 24/0 for 2 days it's not gonna have any Ill effect as a flowering plant that only gets 10hrs light a day. Also, The leaves store energy for the buds to use during the dark phase so the buds still are getting the energg they need from the leaves but the leaves arent building up or getting stored cause photosynthesis is no longer occurring. So when the lights are on they're creating energy, when there in dark there using that energy, so having any light on before you harvest isnt logical the whole time it was creating more energy and not using it then you chop it and all that energy was created for nothing because your plant didn't get to use it in it's dark cycle, if you give it extended darkness the plant has no choice but to use up the energy stored in the leaves.
Would it then make sense to assume that the longer a plants light cycle throught the veg and flower, the longer the final dark cycle should be to compensate for the amount of energy that needs to be released into the buds. So if my auto, that got 24 hours of light everyday all day, for the last 65 days, needs more dark to use the stored energy it has than a regular strain that had been on 18/6 for veg and 12/12 to flower? Just a thought...