light manipulation

[daddycrazy]

i read that the last two weeks of flowering to cut the light cycle to 8 on and 16 off has anyone ever tried this also i heard that before harvest to let them sit in total darkness for 48 hrs im almost there and was looking for any help:hubba:

 

[ishnish]

i've hard of such things b4.. never did any experiments on them tho...
i've always heard it to be best to stay flowering at 12/12..
and the 48 hours of darkness when I heard about it, was for when you switch to flowering... but like i said, i've never tried.

 

[ishnish]

oops... double post..

 

[legalize_freedom]

I've never heard of the last 2 weeks one, it would seem like your plants would finish faster, but your yeild would suffer. The last 2 weeks is when your buds will really beaf up, that is not the time that I would be wanting to rob my plants of light. There is a reason that most use 12/12...because it is the best cycle for growing MJ.

As far as the last 48 hrs I have heard that also. We have a member DOS here who's oppinion I value, and I believe he has had some success with this, but if I remember correctly he atributed the success to the soil being dry in this time of darkness also...maybe he will respond to this. I haven't seen any proof to this theory, but I have heard that some use it...if your weed is done I don't see what it would hurt to leave them in the dark for a couple days before chopping. But if it's not done yet, again I feel like you would be robbing the plants of valuable light...just my oppinion.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

i read that the last two weeks of flowering to cut the light cycle to 8 on and 16 off has anyone ever tried this also i heard that before harvest to let them sit in total darkness for 48 hrs im almost there and was looking for any help:hubba:

Where did you read this? Anytime I read something that is out of the norm, I consider the source and also I want to see some kind of valid reasoning (at the very least) why deviating from the norm would be a good idea. Is there any reason to believe this would benefit the plant?

I believe Clarke's Marijuana Botany says that far more THC is produced with a 12/12 light cycle for flowering than a 10/14 light cycle. Less light hours means less THC.

The dark thing is something that has been discussed here many times with no real conclusions.

 

[warfish]

on Attitude's sight the dscription of the white widow has this line in it...

Try to turn the lights off altogether the final 2 weeks of the flowering cycle- or at least down to 8 hours. This keeps the flowers from re-growth and stresses the plant into giving up its last drop of goodness as crystal to protect the flower!
hxxp://www.cannabis-seeds-bank.co.uk/seedsman-seeds/seedsman-seeds-regular/seedsman-seeds-white-widow-seeds/prod_313.html[/URL]

I find so much contradictory information all over the place I like to follow the known info from here as I can see the results you all have had with that info.

Here is another line from attitude's sight on another descrip that has always been a firestorm here...

Don't be afraid to thin the large fan leaves in the 5th week or so. This will allow the light to penetrate the canopy and reach the lower sites and will be replaced within a week.
]hxxp://www.cannabis-seeds-bank.co.uk/freebies/ufo-1-dna-genetics-la-woman-feminized/prod_1301.html[/URL]

So if you ever wonder where people get there wild ideas, well the contradictory info is abundant unfortunately :holysheep:

 

[legalize_freedom]

hmmm thats interseting warfish...thanks for sharing that. That is coming from the breeder of the genetics to...all I can say is hmmm...

I will say I don't know how a plant is supposed to grow in the dark for 2 weeks, but hey...these guys are the experts...lol

 

[warfish]

I think it may help to promote a bud full of white crystals, but I bet it also stops the bud from filling in more. It seems like the last 2 weeks or so is when you get the most weight added to the bud.
Personally as I said I pretty much follow along what everyone here does as it not only makes sense to me but there is picture proof from many here of amazing results.

 

[daddycrazy]

thanks for the info good people i was just wondering? just trying to get the most out of my grow these last few weeks

 

[zem]

hey there warfish, theyr not suggesting you turn off the lights for the last to weeks of flowering time, in fact theyr saying that the flowering time is 8 weeks but you should wait the 10 weeks for the white crystals and theyr saying that by keeping light off you prevent plant from growing but keep it ripening, so theyr basically saying that no light means no growth, this makes more sense. newbs reading such things might get crazy assumtions your right

 

[legalize_freedom]

I didn't go to the site and read it, so Zem they are saying it is done in 8 weeks put to not pull the plant until 10 weeks keeping it in the dark for those 2 weeks of dark?

I may try 2-3 day dark thing after they are done, before pulling just to see what happens, I can't see that it would hurt anything.

 

[cmd420]

I wish I could remember the thread, but DirtyOlSouth made an extremely compelling argument with antecdotal experience to advocate keeping the lights out for the last 48 hours before chop...

I am a stoner so I can't remember what was said exactly, just that:

1. D.O.S. said it...and

2. it isn't going to hurt anything if I test it out...

good enough for me

 

[zem]

I didn't go to the site and read it, so Zem they are saying it is done in 8 weeks put to not pull the plant until 10 weeks keeping it in the dark for those 2 weeks of dark?

ye LF thats wat theyr sayin, i dont need to do it with mine i like them best at 7-8weeks i might try it with just one sometime

 

[BBFan]

I've read several sources regarding leaving plants in darkness 48 hours before harvest.

One rationalization is that doing so induces stress to create more trichs.

Another perspective (may have been Rosenthal in "Ask Ed") was based on the premise that trich production is light independent and that light degrades THC, resulting in increased and more potent thc.

Personally, I haven't seen it, or at best it was so insignificant as to be immeasurable. On more than one occassion I have shut down my lights and not gotten to finishing harvesting for a few days- no better or worse than the stuff harvested immediately.

One interesting thing though- my last grow I shut down the lights and didn't harvest the last buds for almost 2 weeks. I couldn't determine any further "ripening" of the trichs- nor was it any more or any less potent than what had been harvested 2 weeks earlier.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I've read several sources regarding leaving plants in darkness 48 hours before harvest.

One rationalization is that doing so induces stress to create more trichs.

But it was my understanding that immature trichs do not contain much THC--so even if it did produce more trichs, is it really better?

 

[legalize_freedom]

I wish I could remember the thread, but DirtyOlSouth made an extremely compelling argument with antecdotal experience to advocate keeping the lights out for the last 48 hours before chop...

I am a stoner so I can't remember what was said exactly, just that:

1. D.O.S. said it...and

2. it isn't going to hurt anything if I test it out...

good enough for me

I think your referring to the same thread that I was thinking about, and I can't remember much about it either.

I know that I always hang my plants to dry in a dark area, because light is said to degrade the glands...so my drying and curing, and storage for that matter all takes place in the dark.

I tend to agree with BBfan, and THG...the plant is only able to produce as much THC as it geneticly can...if you have grown it to it's best potential, then there is nothing more to be done to increase trichs.

 

[nouvellechef]

Idk, nature doesn't put it's babies in the night for 48hours.. My take is if you have a healthy plant, good genetics, clean enviroment, and it puts out serious dank bud, well that's all I need. If it takes 1 hit to get blazed, I say job well done.

 

[dirtyolsouth]

HI,

I tried some wackadoo light schedule fun a while back... slowly increasing the darkness schedules over flowering til 10.5/13.5 and holding but I never noticed any difference personally with the results. There are many who will scientifically argue that a darkness period can't possibly help but I only know what I've seen in my grows over the years. I do believe there is something to giving your plants a 3 day darkness period at harvest but only if you can send them into this darkness thirsty and also drop the temps into the upper 50s to lower 60s... I used to do this routinely when I did single strain grows at an old grow location in a buddy's dug out basement. At that time the AN grow forum was really kicking and there were lots of BC growers who did the darkness cha cha... Some strains seem to benefit more than others and some strains hardly showed any difference at all compared with plants that were harvested as those were put into 3 days of darkness. Letting the soil dry out a bit is part of the equation too. I tend to reduce the amount I water a lot towards the end of flowering. I do this mainly to help prevent the plant from having too much moisture for bud rot to form inside the densest buds but also to stress the plant slightly for trich production. When I would put my plants into darkness I'd water for the last time 3-4 days before doing it and leave it dry for the next few days in the dark and the plants really pull the last of the moisture out of the soil and main stems. I'm doing closet grows now with a perpetual flowering situation so it's not feasible to put them in the dark anywhere without stinking up a non stealth area of the house so I haven't done it in years but if given the right situation I'd do it again.

I've also had power breaker and timer failures where I've come back to plants in hydro in the dark, unfed or both... One time in particular around week 5-6 of flowering when we came back from the holidays we found that the power breaker had blew and we had dried up plants in the dark. The plants were beyond the point of no return but they were covered in trichs much more than usual at that stage and despite being weeks away from full maturity it was fairly potent smoke... I dont suggest going that far but from experiences like that I've learned that there has to be something to using various stress factors to the plant's benefit if you can keep them under control.

Is any of it NECESSARY to grow dank bud? Nah....

Peace!

 

[BBFan]

But it was my understanding that immature trichs do not contain much THC--so even if it did produce more trichs, is it really better?

Yeah, THG- I'm with you on that. Everything I've read supports you're comment.

On the one's I've done, I haven't even noticed more trichs.