Dilemma here. I need to chop ASAP and earlier than I like (~5% amber & still some clear). I normally do the 24+ hr dark prior, but am considering letting the lights blast for the full day to promote those last few ripening trichs. New strain to me and I’m guessing the plants would mature to my liking within the week but need to chop sooner.
All thoughts,suggestions & facts welcome. TIA
Hi!! Apparently, it’s best to chop in the time before the sunrises, I like to chop 30 min before the light cycle occurs…because trichomes are optimal at that time…
One could just do the normal 12/12 and follow
the above… try to mimic nature.
Good luck, let us know how it goes!
Like @dollhouz said, I wouldn’t chop after a full day with the lights on. If you can, chop after some time in the dark then hang the whole plant or large branches. It’ll continue to ripen as it dries, same as tomatoes on the vine do.
OK gotchya, will certainly chop after dark as I do normally. What about skipping the dark today by extending daylight for 24hrs then giving one last dark period? Any downside to that? I can’t imagine any chance of hermie or reveg doing this so close to chop. Better yet, is there anyway to expedite flower finishing during the last 48 hrs of growth?
Too bad I’m in this bind - the run looks like it would finish fabulously. Yes, I will update my subjective observations after cure. THANKS again!
Yes, you can always try a finishing product to get the fade…
I wouldn’t mess with the light!
Try an ice bath. This close to harvest nothing is going to make that big of a difference but if u can top her soil with ice and put her in complete dark for the next 24-36 hours covered in ice she will resinate to protect herself from the upcoming winter.
Congrats on your impending harvest. Enjoy!
Love the ending. Impending harvest! Ha sounds like impending doom! Ha ha.
I guess this ''lights off harvest ‘’ is coming from the wine industry . Just reminder in the wine industry they do it because of low temperature , not because of the light , on that way the sugar levels are stable, if its cloudy and cold day they do it during the day . There is a video that can be found on internet, the guy harvested after 12h,24h and 48h of darkness and then he tested everything . Guess what to be even more comic the thing , the testing show reducing in terpenes with the samples harvested in dark , and they were decreasing proportionally how the dark period was increasing .
The reason for harvesting in the dark is pure science. The plants feed in the light. So when the lights come on they are triggered to send the nutes from the roots to the rest of the plant. When the lights go out the nutes settle back in the roots.
As a consumer you want to smoke as little nutes as possible. Cutting during the dark you harvest as minimal nutes as possible. Cutting about midway during the dark period is optimal.
That is not true .
The levels of nutrients concentrated in plant tissue are up to 1,000 times more concentrated than those nutrients in the root zone. One-hundred ppm nitrogen solutions produce plants whose leaves can contain upwards of 10,000 ppm of nitrogen.
Well if you think its working for you go ahead , but no there is no science in that .
I know personally big farm people harvesting in the dark because of the terpenes peak . Terpenes evaporate and the plant produce them on the daily base , the smell is actually coming from the evaporation of the terpenes on higher temperature . So the idea is to harvest in cold/dark for peak terpenes . That somehow i can understand , but again the plant loosing so many terpenes during the drying and curing process that harvesting in dark is like water drop in the sea . There is one method for saving terpenes and thats fresh frozen .
Update: Just kept my standard routine, but chopped early. Ended up with a lot of larf that I know would have matured nicely within a week or so. If a similar situation rises again I’ll try the ice bath right after flush.
Pre chop three days dark
Pluck em in the morning after the lights have been on for a couple hours 
If you do that then the plants systems are awake and moving. Trust me. Leave them in the dark three days for the final push. Never cut your plants in the light or during a light cycle. I also have a thing I do and that is harvest on Sunday only. Call me crazy. But I always harvest amazing smoke. But I have been doing this for thirty years what do I know
Sunday its very important ! From 4pm to 4:45pm for peak trichomes , before melt ice , if possible ice cream with 48 dark period and Mars covering Jupiter !
We have a winner:100:
Well there was a guy named "ed Rosenthal🧐 and he says harvest no bud until ripe. Meaning you do not have to chop the whole plant. Take all the ripe stuff off and then let the larf get more light and it will fatten them up and then they will ripen. Remember!
Yep, read a few of Ed’s books and often chop tops first. This time I could only allow an extra day on the larf though. Too bad, I believe another week would have made this an outstanding haul and I it likely would have precluded lotsa larf. If I had predicted the timing to be so tight I would have removed the more lower bud sites earlier in the game and focused on the colas more. Live-n-learn, all we can do is continually try to hone our skills and learn our art. I will run this strain again to full term - smells great already.
This is true. But also consider that source for what it’s worth also. However this method does indeed work. Infact. Leave a few leaves on that plant. Towards the bottom. And reveg it. It’s called monster cropping. Slow process but she will come back
