It’s been years since I’ve grown anything but this year a friend had too many plants so I threw one in my garden. It is time to harvest it but I’ve been reading about a 72h dark period being great for those that grew indoors. My thought is that I could dig it up, place it in a plastic tub, and throw it in my shed for a few days before cutting it. I know stress at the end can help push resin production, but this would be pretty high stress on it. My question is, will I ruin it by trying this? I figure if I see it’s not going well I can always end it at any point. My searches through the interwebs provided no info on if someone had did this before.
Stoner Science. They've confused it with the change to flower. The only time a long dark is useful is at the flip to flower. A long dark helps to launch to plant into flower by sending a strong signal and it gets the Flower Hormone level up nice and high. Leave them in the ground and just harvest when ready. 50 years I've been growing this plant. Long enough to know one way or the other. Your odds of getting the plant dug up and replanted without killing it are low. Yesterday I got more harvesting done. BNW
From a friendly debate perspective - secondary metabolite production peaks during the dark period. There are definitely a few commercial shops that implement a 48hr dark period prior to harvest....some also drastically reduce the temperature in the grow room. Cannabinoid testing can show a minimal 1-2% increase in secondary metabolite production from the processes. As soon as I come across new commercial videos talking about this process I will post the videos. But is this due to darkness? not having light heat? Does the cold do it? You'll also find commercial shops that dry & cure at 55% humidity for 20+ days. As far as the OP's question - I would refrain from your suggested thought process of the shed.
Well, I’m an impatient cow and know what I’m getting from the plant as it was, so I went ahead and am trying it anyways. I have some already dried and curing from the same bunch of seeds. I’ll let y’all know how it turns out. It was free stuff and I like experimenting. I’ll check it every 12h or so. It’s in the attic instead of the shed, wasn’t completely dark in the shed, and temp is better in the attic.
Love it when science comes out with something everyone didn't know until now and totally turns a blind eye to what else is or is not happening in that 72 hour time period to those plants. Last 10 days of harvest if you use UV-B supplement lighting you can increase Trichrome production from 10 to 30% more. How is total darkness effect trichrome production ? In part Trichrome 's act or are produced to act like a sun blocker so the plant will not burn . That only one issue I see with 72 h of darkness. 72 hour darkness doesn't normally happen naturally .
The studies I've seen on UV-B show very minimal gains, similar to the darkness/coldness techniques (1-2%). But they are gains. I also read that constant use of UV during X flowering weeks had a negative effect vs short bursts of UV during that same time period. The great thing about these new commercial cultivation shops is that they are gathering data at record speeds. The documented science behind it all will come out this decade too imo..
After day 1 I’d say they are stickier. Reached down to below the plant today to pick up a couple buds that had fallen off and my arm is still sticky. Didn’t get that yesterday. Got a fan blowing on it to try and keep mold from forming. The buds do seem a bit wilty. I know a lot here take growing real serious, but for me this is just a fun experiment. Stressing the hell out of the plant at the end of the grow to see what happens. So far, no harm, no foul. If I see it’s going bad, I can always cut it, which was my plan yesterday anyways. Next year I’ll grow at least 2 plants so I can have a control.
I remember Dr. Bugbee going over several growing myths one time and he said darkness is a myth. By removing the light you're stalling production, not increasing it.
Well, it was done today. The way I dug it up I might have well been just drying it. Didn’t get all the roots and the plant acted like I had killed it. Can’t tell that it did anything to the plant and ain’t gonna test any of it besides by myself. I went to hang it but it was dry enough to start cleaning up and curing, so that’s what I went on with. If I do try it again I might bury a 5 gallon bucket in my garden to dig up. Only way I could get all the roots and not make the thing think I’m killing it. It was fun and interesting though.
Probably going to do more damage to the plant digging it up than if you just chopped it and strung it up on lines in the dark. The plants continue to bloom until they're completely dry on the lines anyway.