Extra periods of dark cycles in flowering. - 24 hour total blackout -

[mangosnapper]

I put my plants on the 12/12 flower cycle and maintained proper blooming phase nutrients and everything...
and after a couple of weeks, I noticed nothing going on with the plants...No female hairs - No male bulbs...nothing

So, I put he plants to bed one night...total darkness. But this time, the next day - I just left them in darkness.
and the following day after that. I looked at the plants and they had explosive growth. The side branches bloomed out and caught up to the top ones and it was just wild and crazy...also, I noticed that the plaNTS REALLY NEEDED WATERING... So i watered them and then the pistoles hairs started coming out...

~ Has anyone ever done this with the extra forced dark cyclers...is it a good thing or bad? ~


~~~ You can see how the side branches bloomed out and up on this plant ...and it was fast...

 

[DaveCarnage]

I have read previously about people leaving a 24 or 48 hour dark period just before switiching to 12/12 from veg. apparently gives them a slight kick up the arse, speeds up flowering and helps pant to concentrate on first stages of flowering.

Im a noob so I could be well wrong im jus repeating what I have read :]

 

[Dagardner]

But does it actual work?

 

[mangosnapper]

I have read previously about people leaving a 24 or 48 hour dark period just before switiching to 12/12 from veg. apparently gives them a slight kick up the arse, speeds up flowering and helps pant to concentrate on first stages of flowering.

Im a noob so I could be well wrong im jus repeating what I have read :]

Dave..it does work big time. I mean explosive growth. I had nothing special going on with the plants for nutes or anything. Just business as normal...And by happenstance and getting restless and pissed off at the plants, I put them in darkness for 48 hours. And like I said before and you can see in the pictures. Side branches shot out and up big time. I have never seen that fast of growth spurt ever. So I was more than happy I did the extended period of blackout. I will always do it again in the future as well..

Notice ~ If you go to extended dark period. Make sure you have prepared for the extra water your plants will consume. The exact amount IDK?... hard to say, I just know my plants were very thirsty and used up what they had. I have heard that if you let your plants go dry like that sometimes it improves the plant grow as well. That comes from GreenHouse Seeds in Amsterdam on the let it go dry thingy...

Good Luck to you in your garden of love ~ Peace

 

[mangosnapper]

But does it actual work?

I haven't done it a gazillion times to firmly say it is growers law. But mine shot up and blasted off with extra growth. The only real concern
is making sure your grow room isn't too moist or humid for when it gets dark for a couple of days...mold and pathogen issues of course.

Notice ~ make sure your plants will have enough water. Feed them right before turning the light off. My plants drank everything and soil was dry. I watered them and everything was cool, but just saying...Good Luck and Happy growing !!!

 

[Conradino23]

It does work 100%, if you're lucky you're gonna see preflowers after 36 hours of darkness (but they have to be really mature). Otherwise you'll see preflowers after 7-10 days, which is quick considering standard transition period of 2-3 weeks for indicas and indica dominated hybrids. I don't know about 100% sativas as I never grew one.

 

[mangosnapper]

All my test plants say...YES

 

[TomJones]

How big are your plants, they look kinda small

 

[3oShivaRider]

If this practice is consistently effective, why this has not become a norm? I can only assume, the 24 or 48 hr dark period can facilitate hormone development in plant, resulting in all the resources getting diverted to flowering process. Many growers even oppose it, saying it lowers the chlorophyll production down, thereby affecting cannabinoid production. I kinda looked into it, but there no scientific data on this.
I guess there's nothing wrong with trying, but I do this at the end of flowering and I see a much larger effect. I wouldn't do it a lot through flowering, could stress the plant to hermy maybe?

 

[blunt master]

I have never tried this but I wout think it would make your plant stretch... correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like your forcing outdoor plants to bud off schedule? If this is the case I would start the bud stage with 14-15 hours darkness and 9-10hours sunlight preferably mostly morning sun. And they have to have complete pitch black darkness un interupted same time everyday.... hope this helps... but I'm not to sure about the dark cycles in my opinion it will cause unwanted stretching

 

[blunt master]

Work your way down to 12/12 dark stage