Harvest & Curing dark period

[surffreak23]

One of the reasons it increases resin content is for the plant's last ditch effort (extra dark makes it think it's late for pollination) to pick up some pollen and hold on to it, it wants to be sticky for this purpose... Another good reason to harvest after a dark period is that it will smoke smoother due to there not being much of all the active photosynthesis chemicals like chlorophyll etc...

 

[Trifid]

This quite an interesting debate. Mature plants that have had 48 hours darkness do indeed appear to be more frosty than normal.. I was always under the impression though, that THC resin was secreted by the plant as a defense against UV light stress - a way for the plant to protect itself and it's developing calyx.. Seeds exposed to long periods of UV light have tendency to be less viable so this does make sense. Maybe periods of dark cause a swelling to the glandular hairs - the same way other fats/oils thicken or increase their viscosity at lower temperatures... although that wouldn't necessary give a higher concentration of TCH or quantity of resin it might just appear that way from the swell? Certainly need to investigate this further though

 

[~Cupcake~]

Amazin' post.. will be waiting for conclusion, and will be investigating myself.. will report if anything comes up..


Cupcake, stoned and out.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Thanks for that guys, good advice about ventilation etc, 'cause I was just going to put them in a box and mould would def' of been an issue as my shed is now RH 80+%!

ugh! That is very high. I feel you, because our humidity is very high when it is warm, about 8-9 months a year. Have you taken an RH measurement with ventilation??

Seriously, you may want to start a separate thread about your humidity issue. The 80%+ RH is too high... if it doesn't come down after adding the ventilation, you may want to reach out and see if anyone on the site has successfully dealt with a similar situation. If it was me, I would want this sorted out before I tried to dry a harvest.

 

[Dopey Jim]

All windows are closed permanently because of the smell and the neighbours!
However, I have a large old wooden chest and have found that if I put a small tube heater in and then suspend a chicken wire shelf above it, about a foot, then this keeps temperature between 17 - 22c and 50 - 60% RH which seems like pretty good drying conditions.
I'm lucky enough to be at home all the time and can check regularly for fluctuations and adjust the lid as is needed.
So far, so good no mould, no crispyness just nicely drying MJ

 

[RAMBLNMAN]

Gotta expose the bad side. I've done it and it does make the plant produce an extra burst of trichomes. But.... It can also cause your plant to self pollinate causing a hermie. People have started cutting the dark period. It's a little safer to go on a 24 hour blackout then 72. Just my 2 cents

It can also cause your plant to hrmie?????lol come on now man...use common sense your pnat was already hermie and if it happened to turn hermie while in 72 hrs darkness your harvesting anyway???

 

[The Medicine Man]

It can also cause your plant to hrmie?????lol come on now man...use common sense your pnat was already hermie and if it happened to turn hermie while in 72 hrs darkness your harvesting anyway???

Just FYI, that kind of attitude is not going to be tolerated here. Telling someone they don't know what they're talking about when they're a contributing member to our forums and you only have 1 post? Seriously... that's some BS.

You could have phrased it like...

"Does it matter, though, if they self pollinate and there's only 3 days left before it gets cut down? Just curious."

'Cause that's what I would say. While it *might* cause something like that to happen, I don't see how it'd be a big deal if there's no light and only a matter of hours before it'd be chopped down.

 

[Muddy]

So not cool to call someone out on your first post. Apparently you've been lurking here for awhile so you should have seen that people don't behave like that around here. As the Medicine Man said, it won't be tolerated. Why not do as most new members do, go to the Introduction forum and introduce yourself. Perhaps you've got more to offer than just trying to start trouble.

It can also cause your plant to hrmie?????lol come on now man...use common sense your pnat was already hermie and if it happened to turn hermie while in 72 hrs darkness your harvesting anyway???

 

[Akers07]

True that to the above posts. But back to the thead. What i do is start flushing when most trichs are cloudy which usually comes to 7-10 days of flush.(im running a dwc setup btw). When i start to see amber i start a 48 hr dark period before harvest. When it comes to cutting it down, i chop it before any lights are turned on, using a green bulb to see what im doing. Ive done ot twice now but the second is still drying. I wasnt sure if i could tell a difference in frostiness the first time but the second time i did notice more frostiness. I do feel ive gotten a pretty smooth smoke though.