Once the plant is at about six nodes, I give them 2-3 days of 12/12 then back to 18/6. This usually encourages pre-flowers within a week.
I’ve also put seeded plants back under 18/6 to ripen seeds after they have been pollinated. Usually they are 4-5 weeks when I do that. Seeds finish just fine, but buds a generally leafy and not very dense.
Do you notice less immature seeds when you have done this? and when you do this I assume you let them ride through the rest of their cycle this way and do not flip back to 12/12?
Very interesting. I’d really like to try a side by side of this and I may have too with my upcoming pollination’s.
Honestly, it’s the opposite. This is useful for making small batches of seeds. I can do the pollination in my small QT tent, then move them to the veg room to finish.
Here is the article I got the protocol from
This is great information.
I was actually wondering about this recently.
Right on brotha! 
Great question. IMO it is just a Bro myth. Here is my logic. When you cut a plant down, is it immediately dead? We are able to take cuttings of plants and root them. The only benefit from keeping the plant in the dark is to prevent degradation or break down of the essential oils/terpenes. Plants have their own circadian rhythms. During the day they power up like a solar battery and do the heavy work out at night. If you take away the power source for 24hours, it runs out of battery and cannot recharge. You should be asking what time of day is the best time to chop? Say for example you were to collect lavender or tulips, you would want to harvest at dawn for best preservation.
Tried the 48 hours in dark thing once or twice many years ago, i cant say i noticed any difference in the end result, i still got smashed on the bud either way. Thinking its more bro science than real science, i maybe wrong though, just my opinion.
Hello, I follow that technique of 48 hours of uninterrupted light before harvest. It seems more logical to me than darkness.
Just kill em first thing in the morning while they’re still groggy. Not really any reason to go jumping thru hoops and doing rituals.
Thats just me though…
At the very end the plant has already stopped growing more bud
And at very end plant has already ripened to its potential ( calyx fattened )
So you won’t get more bud from that extra light ( waste of money )
: )
Never worked for me
Also darkness before flip I can’t see that at all
Just what I’ve been told about the 48hr darkness period before harvest. The true origins of the 48hr dark period idea was to mimic a bad storm by adding ice to chill the substrate or resivor combined with 48 hr of darkness. The idea being the plant will put out all efforts to finish out of self preservation. This is actually written about in old HT publications. I don’t practice it so can’t speak to it. These days lots of people lowering temps as you are nearing the end of flower has similar idea that winter is coming need to complete life cycle.
Always harvested early in the light cycle, apparently to avoid excessive photosynthesis and stuff moving up from the root zone
I watch a Canadian Mr Canucks on the tube, he
Always has super frosty plants and does 3 days
Of a dark period.
Not proof of anything.
Love to see someone do a side by side
Controlled study
Im not sure I can handle any more frost as it is.
Damn I wish i was 25 again.
Yeah me too brother
And know what we know now lol 
We’d be dangerous
I did this years ago. All conditions the same, minus this one detail. There was a small noticable difference in the finished cure.
The plant that had 48 or 72(can’t remember) hours of darkness before harvest appeared to be more resinous.
I just remember thinking sticky. 