Darkness before harvest

When you're ready to chop down your flowering plant, it's common knowledge that you provide a dark period for the plant to beef up a bit right before the axe. However, I've heard a lot of conflicting things- do you personally like to give it 24 hours of darkness, 48 hours, etc? I've heard some strange stuff, like 36 hours and a whole 3 days.

Many young noobs and those who should know better do this, I go the other way and give them as much UV as they can get... better even good sunshine,
tho time of harvest is best...first thing in the morning

i always try to harvest my guerrilla grows very first thing in the morning; BMNT (begin morning nautical twilight)

I've been wondering about this. I suppose when u think about it the plant is basically alive still either way. Why not just chop em. The difference is cutting off the water supply. If u leave then rooted in darkness for a few days what does the ability to drink thru the roots do for ripening of buds. Probably not much difference. Then u have boiling the roots....Lol wonders never cease.

Fease said:

I've been wondering about this. I suppose when u think about it the plant is basically alive still either way. Why not just chop em. The difference is cutting off the water supply. If u leave then rooted in darkness for a few days what does the ability to drink thru the roots do for ripening of buds. Probably not much difference. Then u have boiling the roots....Lol wonders never cease.

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Well cutting off the water supply isn't the main idea, I don't believe. The concept is that by depriving the plant of sunlight, it will bulk up its buds in an effort to get any possible shred of male pollen that it can. It makes sense if you think about it. Marijuana measures the amount of light it receives and responds accordingly- which is why, when you flip the lights from 18/6 to 12/12 for example, it'll switch from the vegetative phase to the flowering phase. So, by giving it numerous hours of complete darkness, you're making the plant think, "Oh shit, it must already be fall or winter because I'm not getting any sunlight and all the males will be dead soon, I should try to get as much pollen as I can quickly". At least, that's the theory- but, that's the point of this thread, to see whether that's what's actually happening or not. Personally, it makes sense to me, and I've heard a lot of people say it works. However, I think you're right to a degree, I doubt it makes a super significant difference in the quality, but really, can it hurt since you're gonna chop it down anyway?

besides the fact its 2 or 3 extra days of drying", nah, probably wouldn't hurt at all. Still kinda wonder whether the plant sorta does that whole process anyways, just in a much shorter time frame after chopping. But ya couldn't hurt.

I've heard that you do it first thing in the morning. Reason being is the the plant stores all of its sugars in its roots at night. Plants do this as a defense to frost and other environmental conditions. This way when you harvest, you are harvesting a more pure flower that has all of the plants "chemicals" taken out naturally. Said to leave you with a smoother smoke and a whiter ash.

The morning harvest is beneficial also because that is when the buds have the greatest concentration of terpenes and they evaporate steadily until lights out occurs again. Greater concentration of terps means more smell,flavor, and more of the synergistic effects those terpenes provide. I try to harvest at lights on cause bud can never be too stinky.

I was just checking on my girls this morning and noticed they smell like crazy! Way more then when I usually check on them which is usually a couple hours after lights on. When I checked on them they had been sitting in the dark for 9hrs.

Yeah i think it has something to do with the evaporation of moisture from the plant carrying the terpenes out with it, not 100% certain but ed Rosenthal grow bible details it has graphs explaining how to harvest at the peak for terpene intensity.

greenmagic469 said:

When you're ready to chop down your flowering plant, it's common knowledge that you provide a dark period for the plant to beef up a bit right before the axe. However, I've heard a lot of conflicting things- do you personally like to give it 24 hours of darkness, 48 hours, etc? I've heard some strange stuff, like 36 hours and a whole 3 days.

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I read on that too and just harvested this morning. I left it in the dark for 24 hours before harvest and it looked like it had more crystals than before. I think I should've left it for another day or 2 to actually know if the theory works

Hmm,