Complete Dark for 5 days/pre-flower

You'll never know for sure until you try it. And most of us won't be convinced until you do a controlled experiment or two.

i do 24-48 hours dark period on the flip..
there is a difference than just flipping over to 12/12 IMO
first 2 weeks into flower the ones with the dark period seems to develop faster

5 days seems excessive, but for monsters its reasonable. All stuff is true being right now

Just come across this article in my FREEBIE!!!

Garden Culture - The Art of Urban Growing

Plants Are Maths Experts
Not simple stuff like addition and subtraction. We're talking complicated equations - tricky formulas and they can adjust at a moment's notice. Plants use stored starches from Daylight Hours throughout the night to Grow. However they never run short and until very recently it was unknown how they made this happen.
Plants can measure the amount of food in their Cells and actually ration it out over the Hours between Sunset and Dawn. They figure out the rate of consuming the rations by complex division. Every Morning at Dawn only 5% of stored starches remain unconsumed.
Researchers have studied this, They made the Nights longer and shorter trying to trip the plants up.
The Plants still made sure they didn't run out. Lights were even turned on in the middle of the Night, The plants just adjust their rate of processing stored food instantly to match the new situation.

Know I know it's not totally related to keeping Plants in Darkness for up to 5 days(Which just goes against Mother Nature) Where on this plant do Plants get 5 Days of Darkness??? Apart from Alaska!

http://geosun.sjsu.edu/paula/103/activities/daynight.pdf

IDK? But I remember reading some Info about when You switch your lights OFF that it takes X Amount of time before it switches to Night time mode, IDK? Baked and Canna remember everything, it does kinda makes sense to give your ladies 12-24 Hours of Darkness before flipping to 12/12, But being as (A) I've never done it! and (B) I Tend to always run 18/6...simply because I believe every living thing needs down time,sleep, Darkness whatever You wanna call it...

Without seeing some proof on the matter(5 Days of Darkness increasing Flowering rate and Bud sites) then I think I will give this pass....

A couple things. Did finally get ahold of the source of the idea and asked him about the 5 days. Knowing my newbiness, his first response was simply to "kick-start the flower process". Without telling him of the discussion here I said I had read it only takes 24 hours or so. He answered straight away that flowering "settled in" and finished more rapidly for him with 5 adding he did not think he would get his 4 harvests a year without it. He said that 5 was his standard but he has been known to deviate from 2-5 days. He also added that if I was not comfortable with it, they will certainly flower with a shorter dark period but that he would not go below 2 days. I am going to help him with his next harvest (next step in my training) that is suppose to happen shortly. I will try to get some pics. My dark period is a couple weeks out and I will see about documenting the results. I have labeled my FG and my future documention of it "Of Kites and Keys" (Good suggestion about documenting it, although it disappeared, Teddy...was it you who thought better about utilizing substandard colloquialisms or did it get zapped by the hall monitors?) Oh and after all this I mentioned that my question about this on a internet forum caused a bit of a stir...To quote: "What's an internet 'form'?" , I described RIU and he said "Sounds like those people might need less time in front of the 'pooter' and more time with their fingers in the dirt." I smiled out loud.

cc2012 said:

Just come across this article in my FREEBIE!!!
Garden Culture - The Art of Urban Growing
Plants Are Maths Experts

...

Baked and Canna remember everything, it does kinda makes sense to give your ladies 12-24 Hours of Darkness before flipping to 12/12, But being as (A) I've never done it! and (B) I Tend to always run 18/6...simply because I believe every living thing needs down time,sleep, Darkness whatever You wanna call it...

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I do like the sound simple rationality of your (B) and that is part of the plan I am building for G2 although I am leaning towards a 20/4 with G3 being 18/6. I might add that on your "flip" just doing 12 dark before going to 12/12 is hardly going out on a limb.

A smarter than average person such as yourself should know the credibility that is generally attached to hearsay but as a friendly reminder, no credibility is generally attached to hearsay.

I would think that the plants would stretch like a mother with 5 days of dark! They stretch enough that first week with just 12hrs of darkness. That would be my biggest concearn, that 5 days of dark would make them stretch wildly

Doppey said:

.I mean why come on a forum to tell ppl to use Google?!some ppl...

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i second that....it really pisses me off when certain members here knock ppl for "dumb questions" as if they were born "all knowing" and it is usually the same ppl doing it.

Yep, we all had to learn not to shit our pants at some point in our lives, think people forget that sometimes...

IT'll be nice when this thread ends... reading ppl's 2 cents just makes it worse...confirmation bias is all this was and why it turned awry. Suck it up buttercup, the world is full of askholes

bravedave said:

Yeah, I don't know either. But of course, until the lights go on, the flowering hasn't really started, has it? Still waiting on what he has to say, but might he like the plants to stretch out for some reason? Might there be some additional foundation root growth. I have read a bit on here about 24 vs. 20/4 vs 18/6. Could not someone who is utilizing the 24 turn to an 18/6er and say why are you stunting your plant growth? These things are rhetorical, but hey I am just learning. Luckily I am blessed with an uncanny ability to do so. Thanks for your response.

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WRONG. Flowering starts the minute your dark cycle runs long, intentionally or not. Your plants aren't timing daylight.

moving_shadow said:

A smarter than average person such as yourself should know the credibility that is generally attached to hearsay but as a friendly reminder, no credibility is generally attached to hearsay.

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Not sure what you are talking about. To me, hearsay is something totally different from believing what a good friend tells you he is doing not to mention suggesting to you.

ttystikk said:

WRONG. Flowering starts the minute your dark cycle runs long, intentionally or not. Your plants aren't timing daylight.

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Obviously. Probably should have said that your first actual flower is not going to be produced until you turn the lights back on...or does that happen too?

To us it is hearsay. I don't think you are as smart as you think you are.

moving_shadow said:

To us it is hearsay. I don't think you are as smart as you think you are.

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Do you have a mouse in your pocket? But yes, it certainly would be hearsay to you and SOME others here...to me, having verified results and completely trusting the source, not so. (granted, I have not sat there for 5 days with his plants nor seen them directly after)

I kinda feel a little dirty but I just could not stop reading . Now I have to work extra hard to make up for the time I just wasted lol.

Recap: (disclaimer) There is some paraphrasing done here so feel free to go back up and read entire context...mainly trying to show yeas and nays in one way or another so some additional validation/experience/thoughts given by responder may be omitted.

"I see no real benefit to doing this, just losing 5 days of growth."--natro.hydro
"i've heard of this, and done it, but not for 5 days" --Silky Shagsalot
"5 days is a bit extreme I feel, I did a 24 hour period of darkness and yes, it stretched a bit."--Silky Shagsalot
"It doesn't add up; ... In short, this is a solution in search of a problem." -- ttystikk
"Why are you wasting our fucking time?" --Ben Franklin
"maybe with a 100% sativa with a 16 week flower and a 3-4x stretch but i dont see it."--pinkjackyle
"your a fckwit simple"--weedenhanced
"Go fuck yourself, hard, you'll never grow anything that will amount to shit."--Ben Franklin
"I believe the darkness before flowering was originally created by the 24/0 guys because such little hormone was created during veg, and they realized that keeping them in the dark for 24-36hrs resulted in plants flowering quicker."--Squidbilly
"...but in my experience my plants flower pretty damn quickly no matter what I do, so no dark period for me." --Squidbilly
"I think 5 days is a little too long. Maybe 24 hrs of dark"--ayr0n
"stem cells will receive more flowering hormone if the flowering hormone is not destroyed by light. the longer the darkness, the higher the concentration of the hormone. 5 days no light means every stem cell capable of doing flowery shit will do the flowery shit."--ImGrowingWeed
"5 days of darkness not a good thing at all we have tryed this with no real good resaults at all bad streatch also a very high chance of hermi due to mass stress"--rob333
"i do 24-48 hours dark period on the flip.. there is a difference than just flipping over to 12/12 IMO...first 2 weeks into flower the ones with the dark period seems to develop faster"--6 Leaf General
"5 days seems excessive, but for monsters its reasonable."--ImGrowingWeed
"That would be my biggest concearn, that 5 days of dark would make them stretch wildly"--Squidbilly
" flowering "settled in" and finished more rapidly ... with 5 days of dark"--mentor

Your paraphrasing kinda makes me sound like an ass lol, coulda included the part abkut do what you feel is right.
I had heard of people doing 24 hours of dark to transition but I veg under 24 and have never had a problem getting my plants to flip so I just choose not to do this.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Rollitup mobile app

natro.hydro said:

Your paraphrasing kinda makes me sound like an ass lol, coulda included the part abkut do what you feel is right.
I had heard of people doing 24 hours of dark to transition but I veg under 24 and have never had a problem getting my plants to flip so I just choose not to do this.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Rollitup mobile app

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Not my intention nor did I feel your reply reflected that of you. Au contraire, you were a thoughtful, helpful addition. Thanks. ( I did add a little disclaimer)