Increased dark period for better yields?

Kcbum

New Member
Has anyone heard of turning your lights off for 3-5 days at the end of the flowering cycle to increase resin production?? Doesn't sound right to me, but I read it on a seed companies website...??
 
Yes, but 3-5 days sounds quite high ! Most growers i've seen use 36-48 hrs, some only 24 hours. I haven't heard of it increasing yield, people are thinking potency &/or trichome production.

I did it on my last crop for 36 hrs, I would say it might of got a tiny bit more of resin. There are no ill effects so why not give it a try ?
 
I haven't quite made it all the way to "harvest" yet. But I am extremely close one one (FINALLY) Let me know if the light thing helps or hurts. It took me almost 2 yrs to get one this far, I want it to be as good as possible.
 
I haven't quite made it all the way to "harvest" yet. But I am extremely close one one (FINALLY) Let me know if the light thing helps or hurts. It took me almost 2 yrs to get one this far, I want it to be as good as possible.

:goodjob:GrannyA I will head over to check out you grow...I just finished my first grow over Christmas holidays and I too gave my ladies the lights out treatment before I took their lights out....I went 24 hours...

This round I am going to take select bud sites, cut them low on the stem and place them in a jar of flavoring solution and going to place them in a cool dark place for 24 to 36 hours...Kinda like how a rose is cut and survives in a vase of water.
 
That would be great Born. I have thus far (until I found 420) treated them like all other plants I have fiddled with. I am quickly learning it is NOT like other plants. This one is the closest I have ever gotten so any advice to keep it healthy would be great.
 
I did the opposite with my last harvest. I kept the lights on 24/0 for the final week. It's difficult to judge whether yield increased because there are so many other variables, but I can say that it did no harm to the potency at all, I'm smoking the stuff now and it's as good as the best weed I've smoked over the last 20 or so years.

I think that when the lights are on the plants have to be making significantly more THC than is degrading. Once you switch the lights off the plant will fall back on energy reserves and metabolism will slow down and so will THC production.
 
ive never heard of anyone leaving the light on 24/7 for the last week of flowering and IMO it wudnt make any sense to do so as thc degrades under light thats why people give it the dark period and also u dry in the dark people do the 48 hour dark before harvest as to produce more thc an not degrade it also i think it wud confuse the plant in the last week as ur basically telling the plant the seasons have changed agen ive never read anywhere that people have tried this or that theres any scientific reason to leave ur light on 24/7 for the last week (this isnt ment to sound rude green bag)
 
ive never heard of anyone leaving the light on 24/7 for the last week of flowering and IMO it wudnt make any sense to do so as thc degrades under light thats why people give it the dark period
First up, I've never heard of anyone doing it either. However, I have thought this through when I'm not stoned and it does make some sense. I'll try to explain my thinking...

The dark period is there for one purpose. That is to allow the build up of phytochrome, which triggers the flowering process. As far as I know that is the only step in the flowering process that needs darkness.

In autoflowering strains this specific step has been bypassed and they can go through the whole flowering period under 24/0 producing bud. I'm sure that they don't produce more THC if you give them a dark period.







and also u dry in the dark
There's no need to dry in the dark, just out of direct sunlight.

also i think it wud confuse the plant in the last week as ur basically telling the plant the seasons have changed
The plant takes about five weeks to return to vegetative growth. It will continue to produce bud for most of that time.

agen ive never read anywhere that people have tried this or that theres any scientific reason to leave ur light on 24/7 for the last week (this isnt ment to sound rude green bag)

I've tried it. Like I say, I'm smoking the stuff now and it's doing the job nicely. I don't think you sound rude at all but I'm not convinced by what you're saying.
 
interesting point on the autoflowering strain there a fairly new to the market but i dont think kcbum is using an autoflower strain to be fair on the fact of not drying in the dark u can dry under light or even out of direct light in a well lit room if u want to its just a fact that light will degrade the thc of the weed thats why its best in a cool dry dark place why risk degrading any of it even if only a small amount for the fact of puttin in a cupboard where its optimal condition thats like sayin mj grows best at 24 degrees but it will still grow at a slow rate upto 28/29 degrees so if u can control it y wudnt u it will increase yeild and potency which im sure is every1s aim here also yea it does take a plant 4/5 weeks to revert to vegative growth that doesnt mean that its ok to keep disturbing ur dark period thats wot causes hermies it stresses a plant were tryin to create the same environment as outside if the sun decided to stay out 24/7 for the next week it wud make world news and wed all be thinkin wot the hell is goin on so im sure the plant must wonder
 
interesting point on the autoflowering strain there a fairly new to the market but i dont think kcbum is using an autoflower strain
Probably not, but the important point is that we know that a dark period isn't essential for producing THC.

to be fair on the fact of not drying in the dark u can dry under light or even out of direct light in a well lit room if u want to its just a fact that light will degrade the thc of the weed thats why its best in a cool dry dark place

I don't think we have any major disagreement about this. Direct sunlight is about 500,000 times brighter than moonlight or a dimly lit room. I figure if I can keep it out of bright sunlight completely then that base is covered, I don't worry about light leakage.



if u can control it y wudnt u it will increase yeild and potency which im sure is every1s aim here also
You're preaching to the choir here bro' yield and potency is what it's all about. However, ocassionally I'm prepared to risk both to learn something useful.

yea it does take a plant 4/5 weeks to revert to vegative growth that doesnt mean that its ok to keep disturbing ur dark period thats wot causes hermies

They had 7 weeks of strict 12/12 prior to 24/0. It takes a few days for these things to change and as it was done in the last week, there wouldn't be enough time for the hermies to produce any pollen.

it stresses a plant were tryin to create the same environment as outside if the sun decided to stay out 24/7 for the next week it wud make world news and wed all be thinkin wot the hell is goin on so im sure the plant must wonder

I think it's a lot simpler than that, plants are pretty stupid and there is just a single switch for flowering that is either on or off.
 
Green bag I like your thinking, it's outside the box. I mean how do you think we got to this point. I'm sure whoever first mentioned turning the light off for the last 2-3 days was bombarded with all kinds of people saying it won't work or giving reasons as to why it shouldn't. Now look at us, half the growers I know use a dark period before harvest. You can't get anywhere by flooding your thoughts as to why it should or should not work because a plant does not think like us. You must use trial and error and record your findings to help further understand the plant.

KeepitSimple light only degrades THC ONCE the plant is harvested. If it was true that light degrades THC while the plant is growing then we wouldn't have such resinous buds Lol

People are still trying to find ways to manipulate plants, although I agree that you can't beat growing under the sun, there are still ways to manipulate the plant while still reaping the benefits. The GLR light cycle for instance, 12 hrs on- 12hrs off for vegetative growth. How is that possible, because you break up the darkness period with an hour of lights on. For instance 12 on,5.5 off,1 on,5.5 off We are manipulating the plant by greatly reducing the light period for vegetative state to save electricity and it has been proven that growth does NOT suffer, in fact it benefits with even faster growth.

My point is that the plant is a crazy thing and their are always ways to improve. Turning your lights off or on 24/7 the last few days isn't gonna magically make your plants better, it's going to let you reach your plants pre-determined genetic potential by growing under the ideal conditions that the PLANT prefers, not it's owner/grower. We've discovered plenty of helpful things already by trial and error, trying to apply human Logic to a plant is like applying it to an animal. Yes we can study it and predict what will happen, and the reactions that are cause by changing variables, but it is IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to be able to tell for sure the results without testing it first. So as a reminder don't throw options out the window because it doesn't sounds logical to YOU, because the plants reaction might surprise you. I've even seen cases of people purposely stressing their plants with temps, insect infestations, etc to see the results. Yeah that might sound stupid but THC has been thought to be the plants natural defense mechanism against the suns powerful UV rays and insects so it may not seem so stupid after all
 
Here's a simple experiment that I've done a couple of times that anyone can try. The timings are for aeroponics and probably strain specific YMMV.
At harvest prepare the plant for a simple reveg, except, don't remove the lightest airbuds.

Put the plant under 24/0. Wait patiently for about four weeks. At this stage you should have lots of nice healthy new growth, in addition all those airbuds will have grown into nice solid little buds (little bit more green than normal but don't let that put you off). Chop and dry those buds. 1 week later consume using your weapon of choice and report back. Leave the plant for 1 more week and it will be ready to put back under 12/12 to re-flower.

My experience was that it was good weed and got me heavily stoned. (Sorry I can't be any more precise than that, but without access to a lot of expensive lab equipment or expertise, I think that's about as objective as you can be about being stoned.). If the theories about using increased dark periods were right then I would have expected to be smoking some very poor quality stuff.

It was that experience that convinced me to try the 24/0 for the last week. It's hard to see how doubling the light exposure isn't going to lead to some increase in yield. Equally, it's difficult to see how cutting off a plants energy supply for 48 hours is going to do anything other than reduce yield, regardless of whatever effect it may be having on potency.

For me it casts a lot of doubt on using increased dark periods, particularly in terms of yields, but also in terms of potency.
 
I disagree completely and consider your tactics on growing monkey bud bad info.
You state the dark period is there for one thing... Nope, dark periods are for a lot more than one thing, including building cells from stored energy.

Your idea is disproven in the chemistry, and in the biological process.

Sure 24 would mature the glands that exist so you get slightly over cooked trichs. Major head hitting trichs on that, but the stuff stopped developing and matured rather than waiting on its quality. So the real quality is in allowing the trichs that exist to mature and newer trichs cloudy. Your growing couch lock smalls bro. Go for euphoria, go for the best.

No matter what, dark periods of approximately 24-36 hours before cutting leaves the thc at its highest right in the morning before the lights come on.... Any longer and the plant starts storing energy because the sun disappeared.
 
I did the opposite with my last harvest. I kept the lights on 24/0 for the final week. It's difficult to judge whether yield increased because there are so many other variables, but I can say that it did no harm to the potency at all, I'm smoking the stuff now and it's as good as the best weed I've smoked over the last 20 or so years.

I think that when the lights are on the plants have to be making significantly more THC than is degrading. Once you switch the lights off the plant will fall back on energy reserves and metabolism will slow down and so will THC production.

Nope...... Not even close.
And your ideas on what happens when the lights are off is way off too.
 
Oil production and trichs are the plants defense to protect the seed pods. However, since we are producing seedless flowers(sensimilia) the plant still thinks it is protecting the seeds which she doesn't have. A good way to "stress" the plant into this protection mode is to add blue light the last 2 weeks or so in flower to up the sticky goodness.
I like to run my eight week strain and add the blue light week 9 as I flush for the week.

:peace:
 
I disagree completely and consider your tactics on growing monkey bud bad info.

Please don't insult my bud, buddy.
You state the dark period is there for one thing... Nope, dark periods are for a lot more than one thing, including building cells from stored energy.
If that's the case how come cells are built quite happily under 24/0 when the plant is in veg and how come autoflowering plants are able to go all the way through their life cycle without a dark period? When I learned about cell mitosis at university, I'm very sure that it was pretty much the same process in plants and animals and a dark period wasn't required for plants to produce new cells.

Your idea is disproven in the chemistry, and in the biological process.

I don't understand how? I'll happily study any credible references you give to support your assertion.

Sure 24 would mature the glands that exist so you get slightly over cooked trichs. Major head hitting trichs on that, but the stuff stopped developing and matured rather than waiting on its quality. So the real quality is in allowing the trichs that exist to mature and newer trichs cloudy. Your growing couch lock smalls bro. Go for euphoria, go for the best.

Like I say, the stuff I'm smoking now came from 24/0 for the last seven days and it's as good as any bud that I've ever smoked. I also pointed out that I previously got some very good bud in the past that was under 24/0 for four weeks while the plant started to reveg, and it was a bloody good smoke.

I know the standard received wisdom on interpreting trichome colours to asses maturity. The thing is that in practice it's not true, the colouring of trichomes is very much strain dependant and some strains simply don't go through the "textbook" clear-cloudy-amber changes at all.

I like a heavy couch lock stone by the way so do most of my friends. If I wanted a sativa high I would be looking to change the genetics, not the light cycle. I've never come across anyone who could tell the difference between early harvest and late harvest weed in a blind test and I've tested quite a few experienced tokers. If there is a difference it's a very very subtle one, only clear to connoisseurs like yourself.

No matter what, dark periods of approximately 24-36 hours before cutting leaves the thc at its highest right in the morning before the lights come on.... Any longer and the plant starts storing energy because the sun disappeared

For reasons given above that assertion isn't actually backed up by my personal empirical experience. Additionally my understanding of the biological processes is that plants store energy during the period that are able to photosynthesise i.e. the light period. They can't store it during the dark periods because they are not making any energy to store, starch and sugars produced during the light period are used to fuel metabolic processes during the light and dark periods.

I can see why a plant would have evolved mechanisms to survive dark periods of less than 24 hours I can't see any reason why they would have evolved mechanisms to go much beyond that. It's known that light starved plants will slow down their metabolic processes, just like food starved animals. I don't see a credible reason why the production of THC would speed up.
 
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