My first plant is ready for harvest, and its dark cycle began this morning at 7. Its sitting in a dark room now with 7 other plants that are well into flowering, but many weeks away from harvest. I’m looking for suggestions on how to put the Emperor into dark time. Do I isolate her, put her in a vented box, put a garbage bag, perforated over her? Read in one of the forum comments that someone suggested putting the whole Flowering Room into darkness for 48 hrs, but I’m not sure that would be good for the other 7 plants currently in flowering? I do not have grow tents, I have grow rooms, but now I’m thinking a small grow tent would have been a good choice for a situation like this.
No, do not put your other seven plants into darkness, they can hermie on you. If you really want to put this one plant into dark, then take it out of the tent, or maybe put a brown bag over her.
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Thanks. I found a space in a spare room, setup some ventilation and a oil filled space heater to regulate heat, and a small dehumidifier. Should get through this ok. Smell may be an issue but I closed off the cold air return in that room so the smell should stay within. Thanks for the paper bag idea, makes more sense then plastic. I also checked out Home Depot online, they have Wardrobe boxes, think I’ll pick one up for situations like this with just or two plants. Cheers
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FYI: the reason we want to finish the plants is to allow nutrient transport into the roots which is what happens during a normal “night”. If you follow a flush and used good quality ingredients it’s not necessary to do 48 hours of darkness. It’s more important to cut down the plant before it’s exposed to the light which starts nutrient transport again. If it causes you to upset your life style or cause undue expense I would not bother with extended darkness.
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Thanks, I’ll give it some thought, maybe forego the 48 hrs of darkness. I did a flush two weeks ago, no nutrients for 3 weeks now, leaves have been yellow for a while, so the plant must be extracting what it needs from within. Also flushed again last week, chewed the leaf stem, no bitterness, a bit watery, so I think the nutrients are gone.
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There is nothing even to think about, it is definitely impossible to place the other 7 plants in total darkness as much as 48 hours! In the end, you just make them worse because of one plant! Are you ready to sacrifice them for the sake of one plant? - I think no. Try to solve your problem in other ways.
I think yes, the nutrients out of the plant.
Zakar chill out… total darkness for 48 hrs for non harvest ready plants was misinformation I’d read and it has been dispelled. The plan was to move the single harvest ready plant to the spare room, and leave the other 7 where they are in flowering… I decided not to bother with that on good advice from others to prevent hermaphrodites and really why bother for the sake of one plant. peace out
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Then there is a completely different question. Rather then there are no questions, transfer. Can you take a photo of your plants? And show this culprit, for the sake of which you did not kill the rest of your 7 plants. 
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Not a pro here… just sharing my experience with my current grow. Had a pair of Gold Leafs (ILGM) part of a 6 plant, 3 strain grow and I read up on the darkness period and other techniques. I ended up drilling my stalk a week after a major flush cleaned all but 200ppms of nutes (started at 1000 +/- ppms avg per plant) in both then did a water molases and terpine only at 1/4 nutes (teaspoon ea. per gal.) every other watering the last week. I carefully pulled them out of my tent and the scrog netting with help from the wifey at the end of a normal 12 hr light cycle and I dumped about 2" of ice on the top of the soil and put them in a extra bathroom I have in the house with no windows and a small 6" fan to move air around but not on 'em. After the 48hrs the both plants that looked pretty pretty good as far as leaves are concerned before turning off the lights had yellowing leaves all over, the hairs turned darker and the trichs went from 25% amber to about 50-50. This happened with both plants.
Here are pics taken before and right after 48hrs had passed. She and her sister got cut down, a wet trim of half the yield and hung the other half was not fine trimmed and all took a nice H2O2 bath before the wet trim were hanged and the others were put in a hanging drying net.
My 2 Blackberry Kush went into the same process last night with the ice and start of 48 hrs darkness. I drilled them last Saturday. I’ll post my results here again?
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Some questions? Sorry really new to this im almost ready for harvest in a few days ok. Whats this drilling the stalk thing? & when Im ready harvest do i putthe plants in darkness for 2 days before cutting it?should i flush it with water ?
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Flushing, ice baths, dark periods, and stalk drilling are all bro science and do nothing to improve the product.
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Hi, well its been 7 years since I posted that and alot has changed for me…but as far as drilling and/or splitting the stalk is a waste if time. However I do try to put the girls into a 48hr dark period before I chop but I turn on the lights for an hour so the plant wakes up and starts to give off her smell again and then chop her down whole and hang her in dark room with a fan moving air around the room..the room environment is controlled by a window ac running at 62° F. Ill start my humidifier up after 2 or 3 days when my humidity level in the room drops below 60%.
The fresh cut will give off quite a bit of moisture as she dries so no need for a humidfier right away but the cool room starts right away.
This works for me in that I get a good 2 week drying time and then I start trimming branches off the plant while it stays in there until its all bottled up. Then another two weeks of burping daily..2x a day the first week and once a day the following week.
I’ve lost entire plants that I bottled too soon with too much moisture and rotted the buds in the first two weeks and the threw away months of work.
Having humidity monitors in your drying room and then in your jars will go along way in reaping your harvest. That 55% to 65% humidity level is where you want to maintain the buds for maximum flavor and temp preservation when you bottle and burp the two to 3 weeks of cure.
The smell of cut grass will usually go away in 14 days so dont think you ruined it…hang in there and keep burping.
You can even start trying it out but it will still be harsh until it fully cures out. When the ash turns grey as its smoked you’ll know you had a good dry and cure…black ash means its been rushed thru its dry and cure and further curing is needed. Keeping it in the 55% to 65% range can be a challenge. Some use bovida packs to add or remove moisture.
I will add a fresh pruned leaf into a jar thats too dry and in a few hours the weed will pickup the leafs moisture..be. careful not to leave it in too long or you can ruin the weed with too much moisture.
If the weed is too moist leave the jar open for 30 minutes to an hour to help dry it out and close the jar again to even out the buds and check back within a few hours. Usually a monitor in just 2 or 3 jars will tell you how all the jars are doing.
Keep in mind, any branches you trim first will be more dry as you continue to trim the rest to the end.. I sometimes will put all the trim in a paper shopping bag and return it to my drying room and it starts the cure process. Ill then keep all the buds together until I finish and bottle all at the same time and start the burping process. This helps keep all the bud the same moisture content as I move along. I work by day so only get a few hours a day at a time to trim when its harvest time, or a in entire weekend…(thats why they call it trim jail) not dedicating the time to trim it all down and get to the curing process can waste alot of time and energy you put into growing the plant. The drying and curing can ruin or give you the greatest weed you’ve ever had…if you got good seeds with good genes..
Hope this helps and good luck!
I believe you just interested in what, when ,& how to perform this and what it benefits, stalk drilling that is!
Thank you!
All of that “Bro science” has been debunked. A green canopy at harvest and allowed to dry out the root zone are your best options.
If in a mold-prone region or outdoors; do a bud wash in peroxide.
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Yes it did help thank you. I do remember last grow I just cutting the whole plant at base and i flipped the whole thing upside-down & dried it for a few days then i cut that down to smaller branches & hung them until the snap test I just couldn’t remember if you put it in darkness & weather i should flush it before i cut it or flush cut then darkness you gave me more info than i wanted thank you so much!
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