i have also been reading on this dark period before harvest as well, a lot of people say it makes the plant go into over drive and produces more trichs, now i have been reading conflicting things about this, some of them say, does the plant produce more trichs in them 24 hours of dark and if so how does it get them to grow and be ready for harvest that quick,
others say giving it 24 hours of dark makes the trichs turn more amber making the smoke a more of a couch lock, iv ready lots of stuff about this, i have not tried it yet but might give it a go this time round, i have got 2 plants in flower now that was clones from the same plant, so im thinking ill harvest the one as normal and the other ill give 24 hours of dark, then i can see what the difference is.
their was a test done about the best time to harvest, is it before the lights come on, is it before the lights should go off, and after 24 hours of dark, this test was done with the same set of clones, and the results showed their was no difference at all in the strength,taste,smell etc, it said all 3 plants was exactly the same with no difference, but their is that much conflicting info out their so i need to try this myself before i can make my mind up, i dont actually think it makes a difference, now the reason i dont think it makes a difference is because when you harvest the plant and hang the buds to dry you hang them in the dark, so this is basically doing the same thing, even after the buds have been harvested the trichs and pistils will still change colour while it is hanging and drying, this happens just after harvest, so does giving it 24 hours of dark before harvest make a difference, thats what i want to try and find out, so when these plants have flowered im going to stick one in the dark for 24 hours before harvest, ive even heard some give it 48 hours of dark, but to be fair i cant see it making much difference as we put the buds in the dark after harvest anyway so im a bit undecided till i try it myself.
flushing is a good idea though, but this is also not needed as long as you have not been over doing the nutes, but i still flush mine to make sure the plant is only taking in water for the last few days, id prefer to do this than take the risk and end up with harsh tasting bud due to the nutes, so flushing is something ill continue to do,