does 48 to 36 hours of darkness really work?

some people say it works and some says it doesnt work....i read where it only works on certain strains. what is everyone's opion.

personally i dont see a difference. ive done 1 days darkness and 3 days darkness. id rather let the buds soak up the light for the remaining days.

yea i did it the first time i grew and didnt see a deferince in my plants,...i 'am about to harvest my new crop and i;am going to just cut my skunk down tonight it will be 50 days of flowering, and i still have 3 slh plants going 1 will be an 8 weeker and 1 will go nine,and the last one has to be a pure sativia dominate phenotype because all the trichomes are still clear and all the hairs are white...a very lemony smell,i think it has more lemon skunk in it than the other 2 phenotypes...

I can't find the links I had when I posted about this before. But the only credible study done on this claims there was a significant increase in THC and resin. Only to provide a disclaimer from the director stating that in fact the results were inconclusive later at the bottom of the page. Otherwise I believe those who insist it makes a difference are experiencing more of a placebo effect from their strategy. It all reminds me of the early days when some growers swore splitting the main stem and putting cocaine in the split weeks before, and then boiling the roots at harvest increased potency. These people really beleived it worked and claimed all sorts of plausible sounding proof to the effect. Then there was the Hops scion thing. With the idea you could graft a Hops top on a cannabis main stem, technically getting around the law. The belief was the Hops upper portion would begin to produce THC, but technically be still a Hops plant so cops couldn't bust you. Though quite difficult to do, hops can be grafted to a cannabis main stem. But it doesn't remotely produce THC as a result. We can laugh at this stuff today, but back then these folks were serious.

I've done 48 hours of darkness and none whatsoever and I can say the dark period makes your buds frostier.

bullwinkle60 said:

I've done 48 hours of darkness and none whatsoever and I can say the dark period makes your buds frostier.

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Thing is others have done side-by-side comparisons with control groups of cloned plants (genetically identical) and found that the only reason the buds looked and in fact were frostier and heavier was the added 3 or 4 days before cropping, lights on or not. One would have to weigh out buds that seemed frostier in a controlled setting by comparison to determine if what seemed frostier actually translates into heavier or more resin to back up the assumption. The placebo effect can fool you thoroughly, much akin to a subject under hypnosis. So it requires far more than the buds looked or seemed frostier. Not meaning to dis your efforts, but too many who've done exacting comparisons repeatedly over successive crops say otherwise. Even the Guru of Ganga, Ed Rosenthal calims an extended darkness prior to harvest has no effect worth attempting.

Anyone have a can opener for this big ole can of worms I have?

Seriously though. You might as well be asking if flushing makes a difference. You're going to get all sorts of answers. try it and make your own decisions as the ones your about to get are all gonna conflict. (Just a prediction)

srg.bigbud said:

some people say it works and some says it doesnt work....i read where it only works on certain strains. what is everyone's opion.

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NO.waste of time.

Amaximus-

But the numbers tip heavily on both issues in favor of just following what's happened in Nature for thousands of years. Nutes get depleted in the ground to zilch by harvest, so feeding up till the day of harvest is pointless. And there's no place on earth, ever, where plants experience several days of darkness. So when you tweak what happens in Nature so far out of the ballpark, it invariably amounts to a whole lot of placebo effect and nothing else. Some just are dying so much to make some high tech breakthrough or effect the genetics in surreal ways to get off the charts results they're willing to con themselves it actually works. No hard nosed scientific evidence has been able to support the idea extended darkness has any such effect. And, just like some are more easily hypnotized than others, some are more susceptible to being influenced by the placebo effect than others.

Jar Man said:

Amaximus-

But the numbers tip heavily on both issues in favor of just following what's happened in Nature for thousands of years. Nutes get depleted in the ground to zilch by harvest, so feeding up till the day of harvest is pointless. And there's no place on earth, ever, where plants experience several days of darkness. So when you tweak what happens in Nature so far out of the ballpark, it invariably amounts to a whole lot of placebo effect and nothing else. Some just are dying so much to make some high tech breakthrough or effect the genetics in surreal ways to get off the charts results they're willing to con themselves it actually works. No hard nosed scientific evidence has been able to support the idea extended darkness has any such effect. And, just like some are more easily hypnotized than others, some are more susceptible to being influenced by the placebo effect than others.

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I didn't argue in favor or against flushing or darkness before harvest. I don't get into these silly arguments. I was stating to the OP that he was about to get a bunch of conflicting answers and that he should try them all himself to get his own answers. I know what happens in nature and what doesn't. I know what is common sense and what isn't. However, What I know has no bearing on other peoples ignorance.

I pick a strain that's frosty before they are ready to chop, no need to fuck with dark periods...

..Whether or not this applies to Cannabis, I would not know; however I have seen many gardening websites with articles on growing herbs ( like mint, lemon balm, etc) and many of them say to harvest as early as you can in the morning because this is when the oils concentrate in the top 1/3rd of the plant. Which means they smell more and have more taste. I found a PDF from the Herb Society of America, founded 1933; that talks about this and cites some studies done in Spain. However this applied to Lemon balm..but I see it applied to other herbs as well..It could very well apply to cannabis, but I don't think it would actually make your bud stronger, but it might be a bit stickier and smell more. I don't think however prolonged dark helps; you could probably harvest before the lights come on and achieve the same result.

"Essential oil content is reportedly highest in the top one-third of the plant (76), and one study that took
place in the Ebro-Delta of Spain found that harvesting in the morning during August and September
produced the best essential oil content (1)" Pg 15

(1) Adzet, T., et al. 1992. Content and composition of M. officinalis oil in relation to leaf position and
harvest time. Planta medica. 58(6):562-564.

(76) Mrlianová, Mária, et al. 2002. The influence of the harvest cut height on the quality of the herbal
drugs Melissae folium and Melissae herba. Planta medica. 68:178-180.


Source : herbsociety.org/factsheets/Lemon%20Balm%20Guide.pdf

(This is a link to the PDF)

Amaximus said:

I didn't argue in favor or against flushing or darkness before harvest. I don't get into these silly arguments. I was stating to the OP that he was about to get a bunch of conflicting answers and that he should try them all himself to get his own answers. I know what happens in nature and what doesn't. I know what is common sense and what isn't. However, What I know has no bearing on other peoples ignorance.

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Think you misinterpreted where I was coming from with my comment. Reading it again I can see how you did.

Part of my steadfast beliefs about this comes from something I read long ago from Ed Rosenthal. He claimed daily potency swings, though slight, determined that about 2-3 hours after the lights have been on was the ideal time to harvest. This also jives closely with what a poster above says. Harvest in the early/mid morning if possible for optimum results.

Taking a hour of light a day for the last week(shortening days) and then with a 36hr dark period absolutely works. Plants calaxys swell like crazy hoping to get that last little bit of pollen so it's genes are handed down.