I do. I do.
It’s to keep the plant from drawing any remaining nutrients back up into the plant at lights on.
Keeps them in the roots.
Helps to make very smooth smoke.
A plant’s normal day night cycle requires the plant to shuffle salts and sugars between the roots and canopy (where the sugar is produced). This is done at night to allocate resources for the plant to use the next day. By extending darkness these salts are sequestered into the roots and when you chop the plant down you separate the canopy from this source of harsh chemicals. Done right it greatly improves the quality of the flower.
Another reason is that light is detrimental to THC and volatile terpines. It makes perfect sense to harvest at the end of a dark period. An extended dark period won’t harm your plants, and 12-72 hours of dark before harvest seems to work really well for some of the best growers in the world.
I do the same. Plus I don’t turn a light on when I cut them from their roots. I use a green headlamp because the green won’t trigger the plant to start moving nutrients.
Any thoughts on watering prior to cutting for harvest? My thoughts are leave them in the dark for 72 hours, water maybe an hour before cutting to give the girls one last drink, keeping them in the dark the whole time. This would possibly slow the drying/curing to allow more time for conversion of chlorophyll to simple sugars after cutting and hanging. Right? Eager to hear thoughts or experience on this.
They wouldn’t really drink in the dark though. Uptake of water is a daytime function. I time it so they have enough water to get thru the 48 hours of dark without drying out too much, but not wet either.
Was wondering about that. Thanks for your feedback it definitely makes sense. So about a week to ten days straight water to flush and one last good watering at the beginning of the last light cycle before putting them in extended darkness.