Can someone please explain the concept behind 36 hours of darkness preharvest?

like the title asked, can someone please explain, intelligently, the concept behind putting your plant in 36 hours of darkness before you harvest? Also, why do you want the plant to be very dry on the day of harvest? i dont understand the science and i would really like to, any one knowledgeable wanna help me out?

I don't even post often, but read lots, even I'm sick of seeing threads about this, from the number of topics I've read about this, it's a utter crock, makes no significant difference, focus on growing it, not how to make it 'better' last minute..

the reason you want it dry is so that it makes your dring time shorter

wellll negative nancy here thinks it makes no diference but i think shes right. well exept the dried out part. you want to do that so there is A. less drying time and B. less of a chance of mold taking over your buds as you dry them.

as far as the 36 hr thing it is supposedly supposed to stun your plant into the beginign of flowerin. the "long night" makes it get going. i hear ppl do it and it "works ill" but i just dont see the science behind it. maybe it does but what the hell do i know.

Seems like I've heard the best time to harvest is after a long period of light so the juices are all up in the buds.. Could be more utter BS though.

Budsforall17 said:

like the title asked, can someone please explain, intelligently, the concept behind putting your plant in 36 hours of darkness before you harvest? Also, why do you want the plant to be very dry on the day of harvest? i dont understand the science and i would really like to, any one knowledgeable wanna help me out?

Click to expand...

Buds produce trichromes in the darkness... The trichromes degrade in the sunlight or artificial growing light. The object is to grow more trichromes than degrade. Thus, the best time to harvest a plant is just before lights on when the amount of trichromes are maximised. 36 hours gives them more time to build up trichs I guess...

The reason to harvest them dry is to reduce the drying time as people have already said.

Almost... the plant doesn't produce trichomes in the dark at the end of it's life cycle.. but the degrade of THC is what you mean.. not trichomes.

trichs don't grow overnight. it takes them weeks to form, fill with resins, then ripen.

this is all hogwash.

nuh-uh!

this 10 character rule thing limits childish responses.. I don't like it.

stumpjumper said:

Seems like I've heard the best time to harvest is after a long period of light so the juices are all up in the buds.. Could be more utter BS though.

Click to expand...

And chopping them down after lights are on gives you a yummy shit tatse of chlorophyll too =(

As to not watering shortly before harvesting, well that makes perfect sense from the standpoint of slightly reducing the amount of water in the product at harvest (Slightly reduces drying time, but is most helpful in reducing/eliminating mold and rot).

The 36-hours of darkness thing is pure, 100% Bullshit. You can't do some magic trick at the end of your grow to suddenly make your stuff better. Either you did a good job on your grow, or you didn't.....The end result will tell. If you followed poor growing practices for months, nothing you do at the end is going to significantly help or suddenly reverse the damage you've already done.
Also, trich's don't suddenly develop overnight and suddenly disappear in light, despite the impression that some would give. Harvest whenever the time is right for YOU (assuming of course that your crop is actually ripe!)

Amen!!!^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^