Man hours per pound to harvest?

Has anyone done the math? I'm trying to put together an estimate for the cost of labor for harvesting and prepping for the drying room at a proposed farm. We have our target yield based on our known methods, best practices, and numbers of lights/canopy area.

If anyone has done the math for this please include some details about your particular method. Most people put their own twist on things. I'll be breaking plants down to single branch hangers and big leafing down to nothing but the usable frosty trim so the hash materials will get the same dry and cure as the bud.

OG type of plant - 15 minutes per ounce
Leafy plant - 20 to 30 minutes per ounce

I cut the nugs close one branch at a time. If a branch is too big I will cut it in half to make it easier.

Hotwired said:

OG type of plant - 15 minutes per ounce
Leafy plant - 20 to 30 minutes per ounce

I cut the nugs close one branch at a time. If a branch is too big I will cut it in half to make it easier.

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I think you're talking about trimming. We'll be doing a dry trim separately.

SchmoeJoe said:

I think you're talking about trimming. WellW be doing a dry trim separately.

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You would be correct. I sometimes read things and something else pops into my head. GL to you

Hotwired said:

You would be correct. I sometimes read things and something else pops into my head. GL to you

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No ideas on the harvest labor? I think I can ballpark it but I'm hoping to "crowdsource" some numbers.

SchmoeJoe said:

No ideas on the harvest labor? I think I can ballpark it but I'm hoping to "crowdsource" some numbers.

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To harvest and prep one pound? That's like clearing out a decently done 4 x 4 tent with a 600 watt hps. Depends on how many plants you went with. I'm sure anywhere from 4 to 16 plants would get you a pound if done right. Let's say you have 16 one ounce plants with 4 branches each. 6 to 8 big leaves every branch so you would pull off about 28 to 30 leaves on average........5 minutes for all 4 branches. Cutting the branches off and hanging them up another 5 minutes.

10 minutes per plant times 16 plants gives you 160 minutes per pound without a full trim. Since everything is dry when you trim and all the big leaves are already off it should only take a few minutes for each branch after that. Maybe 3 minutes per branch if that much. 64 branches times 3 minutes each 192 minutes.

192 plus 160 = 352 minutes. So a good estimated total hours = 6 hours

Is this what you were looking for?

SchmoeJoe said:

No ideas on the harvest labor? I think I can ballpark it but I'm hoping to "crowdsource" some numbers.

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It takes roughly 8 hours for 2 girls and 1 guy to split the room, hang lines, hang a T-5 (to see), chop to 16-18 inch branches removing only big fans and tipping just some, move pots out the room, and set up the fans. Roughly in that order. 20x20 canopy

I try to grow small plants as I smoke little and the cops did find some of my bigger plants last year. I have 1-4 ounce plants for the most part. Hiking in, chopping, bucking it down to manageable lengths, hiking out to my drying spot all adds up. I would guess around 10 hours per pound for me.

I don't even want to think about how many hours I have in the growing. #cheapertobuy

So it seems that I could have included a little more info. The question is just for cutting and processing the plants. The work area for processing will be a permanent dedicated space and turning the flowering room around is also a separate matter. They'll be permanent raised no-till beds so cut the old stock out and replant.

To recap, the question is just for the time to cut, buck down, de-leaf, and hang single branches. The time for setting up a work space or turning the flower room around not included.

too larry said:

I try to grow small plants as I smoke little and the cops did find some of my bigger plants last year. I have 1-4 ounce plants for the most part. Hiking in, chopping, bucking it down to manageable lengths, hiking out to my drying spot all adds up. I would guess around 10 hours per pound for me.

I don't even want to think about how many hours I have in the growing. #cheapertobuy

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Yeah, I've never done the guerilla thing. This for a shop space with dedicated work areas set up for smooth work flow and minimal down time. I can only imagine having to hike in and out and handle a chunk of the processing in the backwoods.

I average a couple lbs and can cut branches down and buck large leaf in a couple hours easy.

charface said:

I average a couple lbs and can cut branches down and buck large leaf in a couple hours easy.

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This sounds a bit closer. The most I've cropped is about twenty pounds from a greenhouse but I've never kept records to check the math. I've got a decent idea but no hard numbers. If you're doing your own thing and averaging two pounds a crop and two hours to process you probably have pretty accurate numbers without the need to keep records.

SchmoeJoe said:

This sounds a bit closer. The most I've cropped is about twenty pounds from a greenhouse but I've never kept records to check the math. I've got a decent idea but no hard numbers. If you're doing your own thing and averaging two pounds a crop and two hours to process you probably have pretty accurate numbers without the need to keep records.

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Yeah, I never tracked it but I just cropped a few weeks ago so its fresh in my mind.

Also I've done it several times so
If you are hiring it out please don't beat up the greenhorns, they will learn. Lol

Trimming is the hardest work. By myself I once harvested, trimmed and hung what turned out to be 9 zips of dry flower off 1 plant. Shit took me two days. I was in my early 20's then though. I never touch the flower just the stem. Meticulous but tedious work.... drives me nuts.

charface said:

Also I've done it several times so
If you are hiring it out please don't beat up the greenhorns, they will learn. Lol

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Oh, I know. I've hired quite a few crews to process my crops (just never kept records). The one problem I have with new people is the ones that say that they're experienced and know what they're doing and obviously don't.

Lol, i can wet trim an lb in a day but it sucks, lots of breaks to stretch and coffee

SchmoeJoe said:

Oh, I know. I've hired quite a few crews to process my crops (just never kept records). The one problem I have with new people is the ones that say that they're experienced and know what they're doing and obviously don't.

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Yeah, as you know different plants require a different approach to trimming. So they might think they know until they discover they don't.

RetiredGuerilla said:

Trimming is the hardest work. I once harvested and trimmed 9 zips of dry flower off 1 plant shit took me two days. I was in my early 20's then though. I never touch the flower just the stem. Meticulous but tedious work.... drives me nuts.

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The trim work is the biggest pain but it's the easiest to do the math on since the work is paid by weight. The harvest work is a whole other thing.

charface said:

Yeah, as you know different plants require a different approach to trimming. So they might think they know until they discover they don't.

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But the question was about harvesting and not trimming.