anyone ever done the 48 hrs of darkness before harvest to increase the resin production?? about to harvest and just wondering if it really works??

I have read it works, tried it, saw no difference, so I don't bother.

Same as above. Trichomes are supposed to generate during the night, so the theory of leaving it in the dark makes sense. I've done side by side comparisons and it doesn't make a huge difference at all, but still some slight variations of trichome coverage after leaving in the dark for a minimum of 24 hours. It works, but no signifcant difference.

I'm not so sure it's a myth - extended darkness before harvest. I agree that 48 hrs of darkness doesn't provide any noticeable increase in resin production.

There is a method I've seen that does appear to improve potency, but it's very demanding, and not even possible for many. It's a 3-7 day process that puts the plants in shock; their response is production of beaucoup resin.
At the end of the flush cycle, the plants are left in total darkness for 3-7 days, the room is cooled to the 60s or lower, and the roots are exposed to ice water.
The grower I've seen perform it grows in a walk-in cooler, so he has the ability to get the air temp into the low 50s, and he grows hydroponically, so the res is chilled to 32.

After a week of this, the plants look horrible. The buds however, appear to be encased in ice.
And, when smoked side-by-side with the same strain not shock ripened, they were stonier. He says his clients agree and are willing to pay a premium for shock-ripened buds.


I'm a simple grower.
Start with high quality genetics, keep things stable throughout the grow, and there's no need to perform any manipulations. (in my opinion)

ive heard of the shocking with ice water was actually gunna do that later today since i plan on harvesting in 36 hrs. the plants have been in complete darkness since yesterday so i figure one good ice shock should do the trick.

Hmmm...yes I've heard of the ice shock thing, and various takes on placing the plants in darkness, but have not seen any 'proof' that these techniques make much of a difference. Has anyone tried to set up a proper experiment, using cold and/or extended darkness to push trich production ? Love to hear from you if the answer is yes!

Thats fairly Interesting Haley. I'd almost consider trying it on 1 of my 2 beds. I can see if theres any difference! Both beds would get the same 3 to 7 days darkness, But I can give only 1 bed ice cold water, I could probably get my room as low as 60'f almost. So both beds would be in cold temps, Ice water would be the only difference.

Any harm to my ladies to try it out?(I wouldn't think so) Whats everyone think, Shall I try it?:l

1 treatment with ice water won't do it. The key to getting results from environmental manipulations is repetition.
Depends on what you call a proper experiment. I doubt that quantitative studies exist. There is, however, at least one decent qualitative paper. ...published in High Times and on a couple blogspots, I believe, back in '09 or '10.
Pretty sure the work was done by The_Medicine_Man.

This is my experience: I experimented one time leaving plants in the flower chamber and harvesting a few each day over the course of one week, seven days. My temps were in the mid to upper 50s. I used no ice water. There was no noticeable difference whatsoever in trichome production or effect of the meds. My plants did not look rough at all. In fact, they looked just as healthy as the last day the lights were on. The only difference that I could find was with the scope. To me the trichomes on the last plants harvested looked about like those on plants of that strain that I had run lights on for an extra week.

Surely, the frozen rez (32 degrees) must be the secret to this method. The roots being frozen must make the plants look horrible and must stimulate the plant to do something that nature has made the plant develop in defense of the sun.

I would be very interested to see the final product. Buds that look like they are encased in ice sounds delicious. When you say that his clients pay more for the shock ripened stuff, does that mean that he does some regular ripened? offering 2 varieties, ripened or shock ripened? And why, if it truly is better, wouldn't he just shock ripen everything?

Because he finds the shock ripened buds too narcotic.