i just heard this also. i search for it to see on this forum but he swears on it.
he says he's been doin it for years. so i'm gunna try it out on a plant or two and see what it does.
First of all, it's not a "rumor" that boiling roots at harvest causes the buds to be more potent. Nor has it been proven as fact. It's simply what the common thought was among growers back in the late 1970's, early 80's -- particularly in Hawaii. Back then, I was a high school stoner who grew his own weed in the gulches or in my back yard, depending on whether I lived with my mother or father at the time. Getting busted by Green Harvest with dozens of plants didn't result in arrests like it does today...just cops pulling your plants and saying, "Sorry, brah, we gotta take 'um."
Whether boiling roots increases potency or not, whether it's myth or truth, we should still respect the fact that it was a part of modern-day history of marijuana cultivation, as well as the culture leading up to the innovative techniques that we have at our disposal today. Such things as boiling roots, placing moldy orange peels with your herb to give it a psychedelic feel, freezing your weed to make it more potent, etc....all these "myths" were things that we youngsters experimented with nearly 40 years ago...the same way that today we experiment with LED lights and other techniques.
My point is, let's not discredit "boiling the roots" as being an ignorant myth but, rather, an early component of the ongoing research in our quest for the perfect bud.
Aloha!