nail before harvest trick

Hi,
I have both read and had a friend tell me that you can stick a nail in the main stem a few days before you harvest. This makes the plant think it is dying and produce crystals at an excellerated rate to protect its, in this case nonexistent, seeds. Does this work? My friend never tried it because they said it was cruel.

Resin production is about genetics, not to say the plants don't need the correct conditions to grow and prosper. I would suggest not trying to be mean or anything, that instead of looking for the gimmics to increase yield that you focus on learning to grow the plants to give you the best it has to offer. Learning the proper growing conditions, nutes and such will make you happier for years to come, where sticking nails into plants will only lead to dependence on tricks.
Happy Growing

never clever said:

Hi,
I have both read and had a friend tell me that you can stick a nail in the main stem a few days before you harvest. This makes the plant think it is dying and produce crystals at an excellerated rate to protect its, in this case nonexistent, seeds. Does this work? My friend never tried it because they said it was cruel.

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I've heard of this "trick". However, the problem I have with this.. is, is that the trichs on the cannabis plant.. are not developed in order to protect the plant. Trichs have nothing to do with "protection" so to say. In other words, protection of the seeds.. is not done by the plants trichromes.

The trichs on a cannabis plant (the Glandular or 'dome top' trichs) hold resin/THC up inside the dome part of the trich.. also known as the 'head' of the trich.

The purpose of these phallic wonders, believe it or not, is not euphoria in humans. Most glandular trichomes in plants serve the same purpose as other types, with some glandular hairs serving to trap insects for semi-insectivorous plants. The production of THC is probably a development for warding off larger herbivores (Ever try to get your cat stoned? Most animals aren't fans of this.) with the psychotropic effects and the distinct smell.

The only thing the nail through the stem trick is going to do.. is stress the plant out, causing the plant to speed up. However, the downside to this method.. is the fact that your going to lose a percentage of your final yield.. because of the stress on the plant itself, as well as the fact that your causing the plant to speed its processes up.

ughh.. before I write a book on this subject, I'll stop with that last statement.

A little advice.. I personally wouldn't use this method if I were you.

I would use the other method.. which is just as good if not a little better.

The other method I'm talking about, is the '48 hours of darkness" method. Which basically, all you do is.. is whenever you think your plant(s) are ready for harvesting, you basically just take your plant(s) and put them in TOTAL darkness, with no interruptions.. for 48 to 72 hours. This will also stress the plant.. causing it to push out all the resin it possibly can.. therefore raising the potency of the final product.

I have only tried this method once. I wasn't able to really see a difference.. but I could almost taste/smell a little difference in the final product.. versus one that wasn't given the '48-72 hours of darkness' before harvesting. I mean, the difference is so small and minute.. that your not going to be able to really tell that there's extra resin that was produced during the long dark cycle before harvesting.

But, each to their own.. just trying to save you some time and possibly some heartache.

peace.
http://ournewskin.tumblr.com/post/101096369/glandular-trichomes-of-the-cannabis-sativa-plant#

The darkness period is also helpful because the chlorophyll starts breaking down in the absence of light; a little bit of "pre-curing", if you will.

I've got two identical plants that are almost done. I'm toying with the idea of driving a galvanized deck screw into one of them on the last day. Seems like a harsh thing to do, but then again I can tell myself that I'm expanding the frontiers of Science.

I'm very skeptical... if I get the courage I'll be sure to take some pics and report.

if its the last or secound to the last day of flower whats it going to matter if you try a new thing your not going to lose
any production in weight or potency, there is just a gain. nothing ventured nothing gained!

lol
that ols an old hippie trick from 20-30 years ago bro

Beansly said:

lol
that ols an old hippie trick from 20-30 years ago bro

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Yeah I know... that's what kinda makes me wanna try it. I'm sure the topic will come up again and again so it might be nice to be able to say that I did it.

I tried that 20 yrs ago.....no it doesnt work sorry.... you will get more crystall only if you have a strain that has it in their genes

'bout to harvest some Wonder Woman and she is looking fine... she's got the genes of a champion!

well if you don't know then here ya go if you spray your plants yea they stay nice and moist but if you keep them dry then they build up more resin and trichs to protect it so this could be true

i´m going to give it a try in the last two days. im sure theres nothing to lose

i did it. i shall post some pics later it looks like jesus christ

That's why I love this site, u learn so much in so little time. I even school my friends on growing and I'm still a noob myself.

I did the 48 hours of darkness but who knows if it really works and I haven't tried the nail trick yet, figured it was old hippie lore but maybe I'll try it samuel

it looks like jesus christ

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. I also read somewhere else on rollitup that if you do hydro put the plant in an empty rez for the last three days. So I did darkness and no water for 48 hours, but the only way I guess I can check if it works is doing two of the same strain only one with this method and check them through a scope. Thanks for the advice all.

the only thing i could think that putting a nail or any other object through the main stem of the plant will do for it is to cause the stem to get thicker in the area where the object went through it at, kinda like what you get where you supercrop a plant at, and some people may believe that this thicker area will better help the plant to carry more nutrients and food and water and what not through that area of the plant some what, but i don't really see it doing much, if anything at all...
i'd think that all of the trics that are going to be present by the last day or two are there already.. and even if it did create more trics, which i highly doubt it does once again, all of the trics are going to contain clear heads and the thc in them is going to be very immature and not the maturity that one would really want to be smoking it at, so i don't really see the benefit there at all..

ya its total BS dude just dont bother sticking a nail in your plant

ya its total BS dude just dont bother sticking a nail in your plant

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hahaha, fair enough. I'll stick to what I'm already doing.

From what I've read what you are describing will just slow down flowering and probably not do much good.

never clever said:

Hi,
I have both read and had a friend tell me that you can stick a nail in the main stem a few days before you harvest. This makes the plant think it is dying and produce crystals at an excellerated rate to protect its, in this case nonexistent, seeds. Does this work? My friend never tried it because they said it was cruel.

Click to expand...

LOL! Slap your freind..

lol? would it really hurt after you flush for 2 weeks then say you throw it in dark for 72 hours with the nail in the stem? it would just think it's dying and probably suck it dry