End Of Flower Defoliation & Dark Period Questions?

[BigNug]

Hey bros and broettes.

I'm on day 49 since flip. O.G gelato.

I know I still have a couple weeks to go. I want these buds to ripen as fast as possible regardless of the slight yield loss i may get. I'm already happy with the yield so no problems there.

My questions are..

A, is it going to be beneficial to heavily drfoliate to expose far more of my buds, and if so, to what extent should I strip them?

B, the dark period some growers use, 48 or 72 hours total darkness right at the end of flower... can anyone definitively tell me if they have done this vs not doing this, and weather they notice any real difference.

Thanks in advance. Here's a couple pics too

 

[bobrown14]

No on defoil

No on dark period

Flowers use leaves to get energy - shaded buds grow just as good and buds in the direct light.

Dark period = bro science

 

[BigNug]

No on defoil

No on dark period

Flowers use leaves to get energy - shaded buds grow just as good and buds in the direct light.

Dark period = bro science

Cool, thanks for taking the time to drop your opinion. I will see what other comments come in cos some people also swear by these techniques and I'm trying to make my mind up based on peoples experiences.

 

[bobrown14]

When I see horticultural practices being done that only happen is the cannabis growing community I tend to look to the science.

There's no science on the dark period.

There's plenty of science on functions of leaves. They do a lot more that look green. They actually send plant growth regulators to the flowers so they can grow bigger and better.

Think about it...... how does the plant know when to flower? There are no flowers yet when that process begins. The lighting period changes, the leaves send the message to the apical meristem that its time to flower.
Then they have all that stored up energy in the leaves to help produce the flowers.

There are many other reasons not to defoil but yeah we can wait for others to add input.

 

[Redcup]

There is evidence that late defoliation (three weeks before harvest) increases the yield and quality.

As for a dark period, cannabinoid synthesis continues until the precursor synthate is used up in the plant, and continues without photosynthesis or even after chopping. I do not use the dark period though, because of concern for botrytis. If theres a spot somewhere, cool dark is the perfect environment for it to spread.

Heres a ref on defol… Plant architecture manipulation increases cannabinoid standardization in ‘drug-type’ medical cannabis