Plant yield

[louis1]

hi everyone, my name is louis1 and I am 62. Is there an average yeild in grams of dried bud per plant grown hydroponically vs organically. I in interested in high quality, high thc, good taste. Also need to know if different seeds from different quality plants need different light/climate/grow conditions to give the plant the optium enviornment to grow in. Organics have nature and natural sunshine but mine will be an indoor inviornment that I hope I can build to mimic the optium outdoor climate along with the best feeding system. I am a newbee but I am a willing student and would like to learn.

 

[Rodrigo]

Re: plant yeild

Hi, Louis. Welcome to the world of growing.

First off, lets get the concepts straight; hydroponic is not the opposite of organic. Hydroponic means basically that the plant get all its nutrients through direct water absorption as opposed to extracting the nutrients from the soil around the roots, the medium used for hydroponics is normally rockwool or expanded clay pellets (I use both).
So in short, the opposite of hydroponic would be soil-grown.
Organic means that the nutrients supplied are organic in origin, i.e. they contain no pesticides or synthetic nutrients.

As for an average yield; in indoors grows due to the common space constrains that we growers are afflicted with, the average is normally around an ounce per plant, however when you do things right and you get a nice strain you can get up to 2 ounces per plant in an enclosed space. If you happen to have room to spare then you can get much more. I'd say that the most you can get out of a good plant if everything goes well is up to 5-7 ounces.
I'd like to point out that these numbers are guesstimates based on my personal experience and scaling the results

Growing conditions are pretty much standard, sometimes a slightly different temperature may be suggested, this varies from strain to strain. However this difference is negligent. The suggested environment is 30-40% RH and 25°C. Plants in vegetative state prefer cold lights (with °K, around 6,700K) and plants in flower are benefited by a warm 2700K light. Preferably a 400W or higher HPS bulb. You can also use MH or CFLs, but HPS is the best for flower. Common fluorescents are more than enough for veg. How many bulbs or total wattage you'll need is going to depend of the space you're working with, but normally a 400W HPS is more than enough.

Just to give you an idea, I have a hydroponic AND organic system working. My work area is very limited yet I get a very high yield. My flower area is only 20"x20" and they can only get about 25" tall before being way too close to the bulb and they end up cooking the tops. I have 3 plants flowering in that space and on my last harvest I got 117 gr (4.2oz) total bud, no stems or sticks or leaves at all, and this harvest is definitely going to be better. I'm growing AK-48 and they are very strong and they have a great aroma and fruity aftertaste.

The hydroponic system waters the plants on its own and the lights also come on and off with a timer, so it requires minimum attention, all I have to do it sit and wait, and change the water every week or so. I had to invest about $1,000 in equipment and seeds, and a hundred things that you didn't know you needed but they were well worth it because what I got of my own plants was one of the best weed I've had.

If you want more details on my setup just let em know, I can guide you in what you need to start.

Good luck.

 

[oldman60]

Re: plant yeild

"Hydroponic means basically that the plant get all its nutrients through direct water absorption as opposed to extracting the nutrients from the soil around the roots"

The roots don't extract the nutrients from the soil, they get dissolved into the water just like in hydro. The physics are the same.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Re: plant yeild

Yield may depend on strain grown & alot of factors may influence this...


I prefer indica dominate strains due to their shorter flowering time aprox 7 to 9 weeks average some may finsh as early as 6 to 7 weeks under optimal conditions ya need to shop around for those strains

Hybrid strains are the mid range flowering time aprox 8 to 11 weeks...

Sativa take longer aprox any where between 10 to 14 weeks.


This may be one of your biggest deciding factors of strain grown or how many plants you can accomendate to yield required for self supply over the period of time !


Does not include veg growth which may be an addittional 2 months on top of the flowering time !


Ultimately leading to grow style or methods used such as super cropping to tweak yield



A perpetual growing system will pretty much turn out a harvest every 8 to 12 weeks depending on strain grown (flowering time)

This basically means you are flowering a crop whilst vegging another crop with in the same time frame... requires two grow areas tho with some growers keeping mother plants for clones, whilst others may take clones/cuttings from vegged plants before entering flower cycle... rince & repeat proceedure.

Supercropping techinques are pretty easy to learn & helps improve yield

LST/low stress training is one of the easy ones to learn being quite popular amongest many growers.

Topping is another suitable method... aka prunning the apical leading stem or other lateral side branchs above the node so that it forms two addittional branches equals more bud sites !

Scrog is a combination of topping & lst eventually leading to the lst'd branches being trained through a wire mesh grid before being placed into flowering... this creates a huge flat canopy with a greater percentage of bud bearing sites leading to larger yields but may make the vegging longer by the training involved... normally pays off quite well.



Me, i'm an organic nutrient & soil grower under a 400w hps which i grow four indica dominate girlies under (extremely short growing strain) in an area of 3' by 3' thats just a tad under 1m square area.

On average i may yield between 5 to 6 oz combined total dry weight from 4 plants every two months using a perpetual growing system

I have had the odd plant once in while produce a whopping 2 oz of dryed bud tho with all my grows involving LST training !





Some other stuff you may wish to look at about growing indoors is the optimal enviroment... this can be a challange & a half depending on where in the world you based !


Ideal temps are about 25c, you can get away with abit ither side comfortable... temps over 30c & greater may stunt growth but the use of Co2 carbon dioxide can be used to off set the problem & infact is knowed to help increase yield in such high temp enviroments, but adds total over all cost !

Ideal grow room humidity is between 40% to 60% & thats more than fine for veg & flowering... how ever seedlings/clones prefer mildly higher temps & humidity !

High humidity above 80% does & can induce fungal problems such as powdery mildew & bud rot, lower humidity coupled with dry conditions may well result in ideally conditions for spider mites...

Venting of growing room is important with fans should be left run 24/7 as humidity spikes do occur in the lights off period... constant air exchange is a must for successful growing.

This may lead to odour control such as carbon filters with the use of gels etc.


Lighting in short.

Veg growth - MH/metal halide or the use of cfls/T5 etc in the kelvin range of aprox 6500k is best for veg growth... MH are a little lower in kelvin.

Flowering - I prefer HPS aprox 2100k to 2050k, you can use cfls which are 2700k... but hps will out perform yield wise over cfls !


The whole light spectrum stuff boils down to plant hormonal things involved with various stages of growth.


The use of air cooled hoods/reflectors also aid in controling temps... in case ya in a warm part of the world.

Which may lead to ventilation such as intake & extraction, thats another story...




Anyway i've rambled on quite abit here... time for munchie break

 

[Cultivator]

Re: plant yeild

fuzz has covered alot there. so if conditions are optimal and u are talking about like for like grows comparing soil vs hydro, from experience i say in deep water culture u can yield 3x the soil yield with same quality. that being said there are many things to think about. i use a fast flowering heavy yielding strain (greenhouse seed AMS and greenhouse seed Trainwreck mainly) and the above rule may differ for dif strains.

pick ur budget then decide how sophisticated u want to go. ive build rooms that have cost thousands of $$ but it can be done very cheaply also.

how many plants are u thinking of growing, in what size space?

clones will grow faster (can turn to flower faster) and more reliably than seed.

if u give me an idea of budget and ur space and how many u want to grow i can help u out with what to get.

 

[AZ007]

Re: plant yeild

Ive read on many diff websites that you can produce well over 6ozs growing indoors with a 400watt hps if grown to optimum results, so is this just misinformation?

 

[GreatLife4All]

Re: plant yeild

Ive read on many diff websites that you can produce well over 6ozs growing indoors with a 400watt hps if grown to optimum results, so is this just misinformation?

It may be a lie... it may be an exaggeration... or it may be someone who knows what they are doing. By that, I mean it is certainly possible to get 6oz out of 1 plant - but it takes some time and work. If you just throw a seed in a bucket of dirt and water occasionally - you would be lucky to get 1oz.

As mentioned in this thread previously, if you let a plant veg for six months while doing SCROG - I believe that you could get 6oz. And with the correct genetics, likely even more. It would be very helpful to have a mentor for this type of grow - a couple of apparently small screw-ups will prevent you from getting this type of yield.

But you can also go with a couple of plants (say 4) and a shorter veg cycle (say 3 months) and likely end up with the same yield of about 6oz... you just get there faster.

It is all about technique and lighting. The better your technique, and the more lighting you can use effectively, the better your yield - regardless of how many plants you use.

And when you have your technique down - then genetics start to matter.

 

[Cultivator]

u could def get 6oz easily of 1 plant under a 400w bulb. in hydro or soil. bare in mind the canopy would recieve all of the light and u could grow a larger plant under 1 light.

but it comes down to experience and skill also. as stated above u could just throw a seed in soil and hit an oz, or u could train. u dont need to scrog to get scrog results but u need to train.

the best advice is grow a couple plants as simply as possible and see what results u get. then look to improve on that bench mark. newer growers shouldnt really try advanced grow techniques until they got some idea of how the plant grows naturally.