Chronic Monster
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Interesting discussion, never tried shortening the days, but interesting seeing everyone elses thoughts..
Interesting discussion, never tried shortening the days, but interesting seeing everyone elses thoughts..
My method was voted out. Vetoed!! 86'd..!! LoL.
I didn't think the idea was to crazy. Thats what happens when you flower outside, the days get shorter. But a ton of people agree leaving them in darkness for 3 days before chop is completely normal but that shit never happens in nature. Shit is wacky. :sign0065:
Good point. Basically you just have to get to know the strains that you grow. I know when mine put on the most weight and when they start to slow down. I know which ones will flower under 14 hours of light and which ones wont. So like someone else said a page or two back.. its really just strain specific and how well you know the strain. For instance.. My Sweet Deep Grapefruit puts on weight very early. Im talkin.. when all the other buds are just fuzzy white hairs... my SDG is already developing chunky buds. By week 5 she's put on just about as much weight as she's going to put on. Then I know that if I drop the temperatures with her towards the last couple weeks, she'll turn a nice dark purple.
So if your looking to get the most weight out of it... then stick with 12/12 and just do the 2-3 days of darkness at the end. In October, when most plants are done outside, thats what the daylight schedule is at... 12/12. Sativa dominates will go a little longer and could hit the 11/13 or maybe even 10/14. Its just a little tricked that I tried and 2-3 days after dropping the lights down to 8 hours on, I see an explosion (very noticeable) in trichome production. So you sacrifice a little weight for more trichomes.. sounds like a good trade to me.
Anyway.. hit me up about that private message I sent ya. Otherwise I wont have anything ready for ya when you need it. Cant talk about it here on the open forum.
I cant get PMs yet Im still too new here :wondering..but Ill let you know soon
I don't know how Farmers are claiming the higher resin amounts unless they have done a side by side to compare. Anyone have pictures to back up the claims?
What's up brotha? As far as your light schedule goes I personally would stick to a simple regimen of 12/12 for now. Wait till you have a couple grows under your belt and you know your strains a bit better before experimenting. Get the basics nailed down first. I don't know how Farmers are claiming the higher resin amounts unless they have done a side by side to compare. Anyone have pictures to back up the claims?
The 12/12 formula for bloom has been established for a long time. It is not a critical element in flowering actually. Well when it comes to natural light outdoors. Most strains need less than 12 hours of darkness to flower. If a cannabis plant were to not start flowering until the dark/light period is 12/12 then your outdoor plants wouldn't start flowering till the first day of autumn. Which is September 22nd this year by the way. Most 8 week strains will start to ripen between early September and late October, outdoors, starting their flower cycle August 1st. Now dawn and dusk add another 15 minutes of red light. Cannabis uses the absence of this spectrum, red, to measure the dark period. One way to initiate ripening is to give your plants an extra hour of darkness after the first 3-4 weeks of flowering. For instance if your strain is, let's say, a strain that will start flowering with 10 hours of darkness then you can change your light schedule to allow for 2 more hours of light/energy. This would add 17% more energy/time in which to produce sugars used for more and faster growth. BUT like I said unless you know what your particular strains "critical" light period is you can't take advantage of this approach without the trial and error process that could in theory put your plants back into vegetative growth OR make your female plants hermie. Both of which would affect your yield and your finish times. IMO I would let the plants tell you when they are finished. Yeah you could get a loop and check out the trichomes status, clear/cloudy/milky/amber, and use that to determine your ripeness.Some go by the pistils ratio of white to orange and harvest around 60% orange hairs. So you could use that approach until you have your loop/microscope.
As for flushing I always do a two week flush. You want to get the built up salts to be flushed away, and allow the plant to use up it's stored nutrients in the leaves. This is why your leaves will yellow and turn crazy colors when you flush. Some strains will purple when night time temps are lowered as well. IMO it doesn't add to anything other than possible bag appeal for purple bud fans. Personally I don't care if the buds are purple or not. These days the buds get processed into oil anyway. So I would stay on your 12/12 regimen and flush for 2 weeks with plain pHed water. I don't know how using a flushing agent at double the strength one week from chop will allow your plants to use up the last of the stored nutes in the leaves, but if you were on a strictly hydro system I would say that it is possible to get a decent flush this way. Point here is to not race to the finish line. Take your time and don't pick any buds before they are ripe. Also most strains will have a stretch period in early flower(weeks 1-3), then they go to the fattening up period until the buds are mature and resin is at it's peak production.
Now's a good time to get all your ducks in a row for harvest and drying/curing if you haven't already. Don't rush the drying process or curing process either! You spent all this time getting your plants to harvest, don't ruin your crop with a half assed dry/cure. You'll get the hang of it. I would just recommend getting a strain that you feel you like enough to run multiple times and get to know it well. You will have an easier time with your cycles when you know what to expect.
Last thing, keep notes of everything you do, so that when you need to do it again next run you know what worked or didn't work. For instance if you feed at 5ml/G and that wasn't strong enough then next run you can up it and meet the needs of the strain, allowing for a stress/deficient free cycle. Sorry to ramble on. Hope your plants are doing well.
:passingjoint:
Cheers,
Crom
I run 11/13 for my last 10 -14 days on strains I know when they are gonna be done
sometimes it really helps them fatten and ripen - other strains it dont do much for
So in all Hiphop... Do what you feel would be the best thing for your plants. The next time I go over, I'll bring my scope. I'll let you use it till you harvest. I have a macro lens on my camera that I usually use to check trichomes, so I wont be needing my scope any time soon.
almost everything I have grown in the last 20 something years
didnt seem to do much for some hazes and durban that I no longer have
Wow good shit, do you also use the "last 3 days in dark trick"? Do you chop before lights on?
I do not do the 3 days in dark thing
first time i tried it in 95 all I got was a bunch of new white hairs on some of the strains and no noticeable difference on others
I tried it a few years back on some og kush - nothing
last harvest I left some nice small nugs on 3 plants (about 5 grams worth after it was dry) - left them in the dark for 5 days while the weed was drying in the room
no noticeable difference except maybe they got more larfy
never seen anybody shown any evidence this is anything more then a wives tale
none of the growers I know do this and my mentor laughed at me when I told him I was gonna try it
I chop when its time to chop - it usually is during the night cycle