Hi everyone!
I’ve been reading about turning off the lights for the last 2 or 3 days of flowering before harvesting for more resin production. They said that the plant goes into an alert mode and produces more resin to “pollinate another plant if it dies”
Does anyone here know or have already done this technique? Can you tell me?
hug from Brazil.
I heard it produces more resin when really low temperatures, also heard about that dark period and not watering some days before harvest. I even read someone pinching the leaves with needles so the plant thinks of a bug attack and produces more resin as a defence. The only way to find out the truth behind this strategies is trying them and comparing results … 
Wow! Needles is new! haha
Yeap, people also sticks a screw in the middle of the stem 
, I just let them die in peace 
. They say when an animal suffers while being killed fleish is harder and tastes worse, who knows if it will be the same with our princess … 
It’s probably splitting hairs in the end, its been 60+ days, can 3 more really make a huge difference? Maybe.
some say it encourages mold and serves no purpose.
others say the plant is still metabolizing sugars as it dies, producing more resin due to stress response like you guys are talking about.
really you’d need to do a real world test, same strains chop & dry some normally and do the rest on the vine.
Well I haven’t ever tried it side by side in a true test but I think it has more to do with terps than trichomes. I know plants are at their most “fragrant” just before sunrise and this would maybe make the plant to keep concentrating those terps.
But honestly with most modern strains how many more trichs does one want lol. Heck I’ve had plants extremely coated in resin and weren’t any more potent than those that had minimal trich coverage.
Terps are just flavour, they don’t trap bugs or protect from cold the buds as resin does. I also heard you must harvest in early morning because it is when THC is higher, one never knows … 
I have tried keeping my plants on the dark for 2 days before harvest and saw no increased trichome production.
someone did a side by side comparison on OG or thxxxxxxr or riu and found some visual difference with the light deprived trichromes being somewhat larger. the sweet spot was 48 hrs dark. He said it was not really quantifiable, but many do it anyway. I do sometimes. As for the screws in the stem, I jammed and left a plain finishing nail in one of the branches on an outdoor plant a few years ago, and that particular branch colored up sooner and more intensely. I don’t remember any difference in the smoke, and that nail was petty rusty come harvest time, I expected the bud to have a metallic taste, but I couldn’t tell. Definitely made for a pretty branch. The morning harvest timing makes sense, as direct light is suppose to cause degradation of THC somehow. Why plants do what they do isn’t always explainable, duplicatable, or quantifiable, but that shouldn’t make some unique growing tweaks (like ice water last week of bloom) being laughed at as ‘bro-science’ either. Do a test for yourself and see if it works for you!!!
I am doing the lights thing.it seems to help strength as flavor
LOL I have had similar relationship with my sister since shortly after she was born. She is a pain too! 
I use chopsticks and a switchblade.
I like the low temp, stem split, flush with ice, 48hrs of darkness combo.
Also harvesting before light on seems to have its advantages. Oh and what about the ol harvest on a full moon trick is a classic.
I usually just let them dry out really well and maybe give 24-48 hours of dark. Try to harvest before lights on, but usually just when it’s convenient.
I have done 24 then 48 hrs of dark at the end,but didnt use clones, so really dont know what i learned.
Didnt seem to matter for potency, but i should of used clones for the side by side.
You gotta love those moments you finish a test only to realize you forgot part of it. Happens more than I care to admit.
