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1 Day till Harvest, Questions for the pros!

G

GrassArt

Member
So, I am going to be harvesting tomorrow and I have read a few threads about all of the different "tricks" people use to improve yield/potency/quality of their herb right before harvest. The main ones I have questions about are.

1) 24 hour dark period before harvest. Anyone use this? Searched the forums and saw that some people even said 72 hours of all darkness and then cut it down. Reason - nutes climb into all of the branches/stalks durning the sunlight hours, and go into the soil and the roots at the night time hours, so less nutes in ur bud = tastier bud? Also someone said the plant knows it is going to die and just produces huge amounts of resin as a last dieing effort to catch pollen.

2) Trimming all of the major fan leaves and as much leaf off the bud as possible, and leave just the bud still growing on your stems for just 1 more 12 hour period and then harvesting. So in this way you would basically trim as much leaf as you can from the plant, leaving all of the bud sites, supposedly transfers all remaining energy to the bud and they swell in size??

Fact or fiction? or at least personal experiences :)

Ready to come down tomorrow, so I hope those responses are quick! Thanks all. Oh and she was a random bagseed that a friend gave me whe it was like 1.5 feet tall in veg, badly taken care of. Hermied on me 2 :(. But thats ok i guess, first flowering plant not everything can be great right? Looks frosty, smells delicious, never smelled lemon diesel but I really feel like thats just right on.










GrassArt
 
G

Guest

thats a hell of a finished plant. i have only seed a few plants that get that really pure vert growth. its neat.
 
P

peacenik

Member
Go ahead & cut off the old leaves & anything brown before you hang it to dry. I don't trim it all down, some folks do, but just do it after it's dry. The LEAST you handle it the better.
I don't know about the light question, when I did an indoor thing, at the end I had the light at 6/18 for the last week. Worked good for me,just experiment with your next crop & see! Good luck & good smoke!
 
P

paulobaca

Member
Cool Grassart-
Looks like some LSTing really paid off for you. Im gonna have my first harvest very soon = P !Happy harvest!
 
S

smokeymacpot

Active member
Veteran
cut off the big fan leaves and clip the smaller ones, cut off non resiny parts.
its also easier to do it when its just been harvested and not dried. when the leaves wilt it will be a pain clipping them.
 
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P

peacenik

Member
I agree, Excel, it has to be longer than a day to really make a difference. I wonder if there is really a true difference between running your lights 24/7 vs. giving them some period of darkness. I always thought that they do some of the best growth during the night. Any thoughts about this?
 
soxx16

soxx16

Member
peacenik said:
I agree, Excel, it has to be longer than a day to really make a difference. I wonder if there is really a true difference between running your lights 24/7 vs. giving them some period of darkness. I always thought that they do some of the best growth during the night. Any thoughts about this?
Click to expand...

dark cycles promote root growth. roots will grow under 24 hours of light, but optimal conditions would have a dark period. i've read that plants are better off with a 36 hour darkness period before inducing flowering for indoor and have heard about the 48/72 hour pre-chop method. just havent seen results with my eyes, something i may have to do this time around...
 
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facelift

facelift

This is the money you could be saving if you grow
Veteran
Excell and peace said something I thought I had read 5-6 years ago that the plants need a few hours of darkness to grow properly. I'm not complaining about the results I've seen with my current grow. The plants definitely look healthier.

I've never kept the plants in the dark for 36-48 hours before harvest, but I'll give it a try this time.
 
G

Guest

I use a 20/4 light cycle for veg and it has worked well for me. I found this report at another forum before my first grow and went with it because I didn't have a clue what would work best. Turned out ok. I've not tried the prolonged darkness thing and probably won't. Here's the light schedule report and a pic of what results I got.

When the grower who wrote this schedule talks about "mum" lines, he's talking about "moms."


This is what I found and what I use as my rationale for going with a 20/4 schedule:

________________________________________________________
Lighting Schedule

We did a lot of experiments with light times a few years back using known sativa and sativa dominant clone lines.

With Vegging under HID lights.

20/4 produced the sturdiest growth and the most bulk. Best final yield, taken as 100%
22/2 Less of both growth and bulk. Yield 88%
18/6 Sturdier than 22/2 but slightly less bulk. Yield 87%
24/0 Much lighter in all aspects than 18/6. Yield 79%
16/8 The weediest plants. Yield 67%

Plants vegged to final pots under fluorescents at 20w per sq ft on 18/6 yield 49%

Have not tried 36 hrs dark but did try 48 hrs from 18/6 veg. The final yield was down between 15% and 20% by varying the pure sativas with the biggest loss in final weight and caused the odd herm, [sativas] it did reduce the flowering time by 5 to 8 days.

For the mum lines we have 20/4 to 12/12 gives the best crop weight and bud quality, really that’s all I’m interested in.
_________________________________________________________

Here's the picture of the results.








I got over a pound dried off each of the two plants I grew. Once again, I haven't tried the prolonged period of darkness.

Peace
 
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D

Depths Of OG

Member
mojo said:
I use a 20/4 light cycle for veg and it has worked well for me. I found this report at another forum before my first grow and went with it because I didn't have a clue what would work best. Turned out ok. I've not tried the prolonged darkness thing and probably won't. Here's the light schedule report and a pic of what results I got.

When the grower who wrote this schedule talks about "mum" lines, he's talking about "moms."


This is what I found and what I use as my rationale for going with a 20/4 schedule:

________________________________________________________
Lighting Schedule

We did a lot of experiments with light times a few years back using known sativa and sativa dominant clone lines.

With Vegging under HID lights.

20/4 produced the sturdiest growth and the most bulk. Best final yield, taken as 100%
22/2 Less of both growth and bulk. Yield 88%
18/6 Sturdier than 22/2 but slightly less bulk. Yield 87%
24/0 Much lighter in all aspects than 18/6. Yield 79%
16/8 The weediest plants. Yield 67%

Plants vegged to final pots under fluorescents at 20w per sq ft on 18/6 yield 49%

Have not tried 36 hrs dark but did try 48 hrs from 18/6 veg. The final yield was down between 15% and 20% by varying the pure sativas with the biggest loss in final weight and caused the odd herm, [sativas] it did reduce the flowering time by 5 to 8 days.

For the mum lines we have 20/4 to 12/12 gives the best crop weight and bud quality, really that’s all I’m interested in.
_________________________________________________________

Here's the picture of the results.








I got over a pound dried off each of the two plants I grew. Once again, I haven't tried the prolonged period of darkness.

Peace
Click to expand...

Although I appreciate the effort, your experiment is about the least scientifically sound experiment you could do. Your results are totally inconclusive and mean absolutely nothing. There are wayyyyyyyyy too many variables for those results to be taken seriously.
 
D

Depths Of OG

Member
Oh, and it took you 60+ days to just flower your plants to the point they are at now, do you really think there is anything you can do in the last 48 hours that will make any kind of difference? I love it how people come up with these obsurd theories. 24/48/72 hours of darkness doesn't do anything that 72 more hours of 12/12 would do. Just cut the damn things down.
 
S

smokeymacpot

Active member
Veteran
Depths Of OG said:
Oh, and it took you 60+ days to just flower your plants to the point they are at now, do you really think there is anything you can do in the last 48 hours that will make any kind of difference? I love it how people come up with these obsurd theories. 24/48/72 hours of darkness doesn't do anything that 72 more hours of 12/12 would do. Just cut the damn things down.
Click to expand...

i agree, i cant see anyones buds getting more weight or bigger or stronger with a cpl of days darkness.
 
G

Guest

just harvest when the dark cycle is over(no light) and everything else well its different depending on who you ask...i dont 48 hrs of dark its silly in my humble opinion
 
P

peacenik

Member
Thanks, Depths,for finding that info, that pretty much says it. I thought that 24/0 was a little over-kill as darkness is so important also. And when it's not even getting any until it's being forced (more or less) to flower, it's got to have an effect on the results. And I doubt it'd make any difference what you were using as soil, it'd be the same results, just the normal difs between them as it is. :joint:
 
G

Guest

I use a 48 hour dark period. I grow identical clones so the variables are nil. 48 hour dark before harvest= smother smoke. I haven't tried 72 hours. This supposedly causes the plant to send excess starches and sugars to roots. Personal experience tells me this is worthwhile.
 
Vermonster

Vermonster

Active member
I don't think the darkness thing has anything to do with gaining weight or THC, i read that it is done because all of the things you do not want in your buds, run down to the roots during the dark peroid and therefore you get tastier herbs. i do it, but have since day one so i do not know a diffrence. My herb always taste good though, and never like hay and it don't burns like charcoal rather leaves a clean white ash.....
 
Oilmeister

Oilmeister

Member
I haven't read any scientific hypothesis on this theory. I've been growing for years and I don't see how giving your plants NO energy to work with in the last couple days is going to increase the mass of the plant even an iota. If there is some science to support this theory, point me to it, I would love to read it.
 
G

Guest

verm- "don't think the darkness thing has anything to" Dark periods cause starches and sugars to trans-locate to roots. This is well documented in most plants. There is a blanching that takes place (less green) as the plant uses up the energy stored within the plant as chlorophyll sugars and starches. This is a pretty straightforward principle. Side by side the plants with extended dark period are not more potent. The plants just have less starches and sugars to cure out resulting in a smother smoke. Starches and sugars will dissipate during a good cure. I am not sure if anyone believes this extended dark would result in more potent smoke. The people who try it claim the smoke is less harsh. I would not harvest indoor any other way after trying the extended dark.
 
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