The Age old Question of Yield Per Plant

Bangaman

Active Member
The age old question, and the most wrongly answered question all cannabis related questions among growers because it has no answer you can take to the bank and say, "Hey, I'm about to start this grow operation, I got two 1000 Watt hps lamps and twenty seeds, my grow space is .... I'm about to start cranking a gram a Watt (or what ever yield matrix you use) and I need a loan....

The truth is that NO, there are no straight, only approximate answers for yield per plant questions due to too many unknowns and variables.

When an expert, say the seed bank, says 700g/sq Meter, you have to ask, sq Meter of what? The plant in the picture, is an AK47 I named her AK H, is about 1.23 sq foot all around (0.11 square meter), and about 3 feet high (1 Meter). This plant had some depth, But due to LST, all the flower sites had equal exposure to light and during the bolt, all bud sites rose to about same level. So i am left with a perfect discoid surface and not cylindrical with layers of flower sites, or even worse, the xmas tree cone.

The other plant is a pain killer strain, approximate same dimensions as AK47 H, but with slightly bigger buds.

No amount or quality nutes could change this yield. Increasing the bud size on both these plants is nearly impossible without snapping the stems. In other words, I maxed these 3 foot plants out. You can see, even the wacky "popcorn" buds are solid and 2 inches. The buds on the last branches that most people cut off are 3 inches. Both plants under 1000 watts lamps.

This, I can say is advanced growing and both these plants will not yield a pound each dry weight. Maybe 4 ounces each, maybe 2, we will see.

so back to my math, at 4 ounces (113.398 grams) each, my yield is
4 ounces / 1.23 = 3.25 ounces per sq foot
113.4 / 0.11 = 1030.91 gram sq meter

at 2 ounces each
2 ounces / 1.23 = 1.63 ounces per sq foot
56.7 / 0.11 = 515.45 gram sq meter
According to the seed bank,both AK47 and Pain Killer have an indoor yield of 700 or 24.69 ounces grams per sq meter or 2.29 ounces sq foot. Outdoor, Pain Killer 1030 grams grams per sq meter, and AK47 900 grams grams per sq meter.

So, based on this info, I should get:

700 grams/sq meter X 0.11 sq meters (the approximate area of the plant) = 77 grams each. Or 2.29 ounces / sq feet X 1.23 sq feet = 2.82 ounces per plant.

According to this model, because I spread the plants out to about 1+ foot, I should expect a yield (2.82 ounces) as advertised (2.29 ounces / sq feet )


As you can see in my photos, and my calculations, the surface area the seed bank is using for their yield calculation is the area exposed to light. I am able to achieve the advertised yield because of LST, and quality lights, not organic or expensive nutes, peat moss, a dash of Borax 3 week into flower, and Miracle grow 15-30-15 every 2 weeks during flower, photo finish with compost tea and molasses last 4 weeks.

To give you a better understanding why out door yield can be double indoor I have posted a picture of an out door leaf stem of a 4 week plant close to 2 feet. The leaf stalks are the size of a pencil. You can see in the picture, this is also the size of the stump left by Pain 2 the plant in the picture with side buds almost the size of a coffee mug and main cola the size of a 1 liter seltzer bottle. These out door plants will grow to be twice the size of 2 - 4 ounce yielders hence twice the yield.

To answer the question of yield, here is my take Your yield is a game of the following MAJOR limiting factors,They all revolve around Space

  1. Plant size, because bigger plants can have, and hold bigger, and more flowers.
  2. Pot size because big plants need big root systems to feed it.
  3. Flower site exposure to good light because if you depend solely on the size of your terminal buds to get you to a 1 pound Moby Dick plant, give up now. With LST, I not only get 1-2-3 and even 4 inch buds up and down every stem, I get water spouts the size of stems with colas, i.e. my colas have colas. You need to make space for more light penetration into the canopy. With LST building Menorahs, you eliminate the need to trim because you space out branches so all flower sites get prime real estate, front row seats to the light. No trimming also means more "cooks" more growth.
Good Nutrients do nothing but complement the above imperatives. As you can see in the pics, a good grow medium, good atmospheric conditions and a balanced diet is all this plant needs. Nutes can quickly become a snake oil cure.

Go by the seed bank yields, remember it is the surface area exposed to direct light that matters, size matters. And above all, be realistic folks, this is dry weight we talking here, 25% trimmed weight. in order to get 16 ounces dry weight, you will need 16 X 4 = 64 ounces trimmed wight.

Lets put this yield thing into perspective, AK47 H and Pain 2 in the pictures will yield 2.5 to 3 ounces of dry weight. Imagine the size of a plant that will yield 16 ounces or 6.4 to 5.3 times more than the plants in the picture.

The seed bank says, 700 g/sq m or 2.29 Ounces a sq foot. In order to get 16 ounces in my case where my plants are about 1 sq foot spread, I would have to pretty much change the genetics of the plant.
 

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Dalek Supreme

Well-Known Member
The best thing about doing a perpetual harvest for yourself is? When pheno hunting you chuck the heavy yielders in favor of better smoke from the under average yielders of the same strain. Not that the heavy yielders are crap, but that biological energy sometimes goes to something special.
 

Bangaman

Active Member
Should get a pound
A pound would be awesome, but a doubt I will get it with AK47 H or pain 2. I am working on Moby Dick, current lowest side branch which I will "train to be my base radius is 16 inches, so the plant will span 16 inches on either side and all around, making a disc area of 5.56 sq feet. That one will get me close to a pound for sure

Outdoor growing is so much fun, I wish the experience on y'all if you can
 

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