Totally not critical. If she’s done…chop her. You’ll still have up to 14 days of drying then curing.
I decided last water only just now, then friday pm as lights come on, maybe turn rite back off for a few, then chop her. If she was a prized plant, I’d be more apt to go by the book with 48 dark. Plenty of bud on her. Now that I have a humidifier, will get a proper dry time. At least bringing her inside wasn’t a complete debacle. Then the mango will carry on as usual for what im thinking another 1-2 wks. 90% trichomes still clear, and buds bulking up nicely. Frostier plant I’ve had so far. By far. Thanks for the input.
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Here is my Mimosa cake.
She was in 55hrs of darkness before harvest with
5-10% amber.
My problem is curing, never taste worth a crap.
Crossing my fingers
I will never do 48hr of darkness again!!
Turned my rock hard Super Skunk nugs into marshmallows!
Besides - I’m not aware of a 48hr period of darkness occurring in nature anywhere so…Maybe Alaska? And by that point I’m sure the outdoor growing period is over anyway.
I think the dark period is 100% bro science and I’m not aware of any concrete, science-backed info that confirms it actually does anything for the plant.
Now if HLG would ever get the damn Far red strips back in stock I’d be down for that.
Like UV light that IS proven science.
I wonder what Rosenthal’s take on it is? I’ll have to consult my handbook.
But from my experience it’s a waste.
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Ed Rosenthal says:
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Yes, it’s always best to chop just before lights on, that I agree with. BUT - in that statement he doesn’t specify 48hrs of darkness either! He just says “dark period” which can just mean “lights out”.
edit: I’ve been told multiple times in life I should have been a lawyer.
which, considering how many and how much I’ve paid them over the years, would have been a good choice! LOL! But hey - I never got “busted”, just 4 different “first time offenses” LOL!!
Got to love the law! LOL!
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Doesn’t say it stops after 12 hours either.
Never happens to my buds and I’ve done the 48 hours of dark over a 100 times.
At first I was thinking humidity was the issue but all the fans and exhaust were left on and my hygrometer data log shows the humidity was below 45% for the entire period. In fact, bellow 40 for most of the period.
I will say the Skunk and the NYD that were in there are sticky as hell BUT I was running HLGs UVB light on them too, which is proven to increase resin/trich development.
And the high is definitely better on the NYD from the tent vrs what was grown outside.
Perhaps it’s a strain thing, or had something to do with fighting lock out near the end of flowering, but either way I was not happy with the soft, mushy bud structure afterwards.
They tightened back up some with drying and the cure, but it was kinda shocking and a disappointment as I hadn’t heard of that happening to anyone either.
I’ve also read that people have opened the tent after the dark period and discovered that mold had set in and covered the buds. I imagine that’s because they shut off their exhaust and nothing more.
The only Rosenthal quote I can find DIRECTLY related to the question of 48hrs is that there “may be some evidence”. Kinda non-committal!
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Again, just look at the pick I posted above. Not much difference in the frostyness. That was a full 60 hrs of darkness. Kinda look the same to me.
I would not expect any difference visually from the 48 or even 60 hours of dark, really need to do lab tests to see any real difference, like that grower that did lab tests that I posted the youtube video for on post #13 of this thread.
Makes sense. Hell, frosty is frosty to me. Just as long as it does what it should. Can’t wait to sample. Still curing. Got about a week to go.
Genetics and good lights and keeping them nice and healthy to the end and proper drying and curing is way more important than pre-harvest tricks like the 48 hour of darkness, stem splitting, ice treatments, etc…
I’ve cut down plenty of plants just after a 12 hour of darkness and never had regrets for doing so, it’s a completely unnecessary thing to do, but I’ve never seen it hurt my plants when I do it either.
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Didn’t do any harm to the purple kush. Buds were still rock solid with an awesomely sweet smell.
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Here’s a question. Have you ever had any experience with Dark Wizard Genetics? Just curious if there are any good.
No experience with them.
Just curious. Got some from sticky seeds. Grape Ape and Girl Scout autos. Prices are great and customer service is outstanding.
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