How to tell which plant yields the largest crop?

 

How to choose the right number of plants?

 

The most frequent question I am asked is about the yield of each strain.

 

This is not easy to answer even though many other seed banks provide a "clear" indication of what you should expect to yield after spending $100 on seeds.

The reason is that Yield of Cannabis Plant is determined not by the genetics alone but by the amount of wattage (Watts) used in growing it and more specifically a cultivation method used to grow it. The yield can not be determined by the size of the plant and strain type. It is a little more complicated that that.
 

Brace yourself.

 

Consider this first:

 

Given 10 seeds growing in 5 Gallon (or 10") pots, and assuming all 10 will be female.

 

A 400W light in a maximum space of 9 square feet is expected to yield from 4 to 8 ounces of dry bud every 2 to 3 months.

 

4 ounces if you grow a Sativa dominant strain and 8 ounces if you grow an Indica dominant strain. 2 months if you start from pre-vegged clones and 3 months if you start from seeds or un-vegged clones.

 

A 600W light in a maximum space of 16 square feet is expected to yield from 8 to 16 ounces of dry bud every 2 to 3 months.

 

A 1000W light in a maximum space of 25 square feet is expected to yield from 16 to 32 ounces of dry bud every 2 to 3 months

 

*No matter which cultivation method you choose

 

*These numbers represent current capacity of indoor lights. It means that if you grow any plant under these lights, that is what you can expect to produce in the end whether you grow a Skunk 69 or White Widow or White, Red, Yellow Russian :-) Everything has its limits.

 

Now Consider this:

 

Indica is a short and stocky plant that grows short and bushy. It is also very resistant to malnutrition and swings in temperatures.

 

It is the favourite plant for indoor growers because its easy to grow and yields best results.

 

The buzz is "stony" and "sleepy" in nature, best consumed before going to bed. Not something you'd want to toke through a days work at a busy Bay Street office.

 

This is the most widely available weed on the streets.

 

Indica would be the plant that produces 8 ounces under 400W, 16 ounces under 600W and 2 lbs under 1000W light.

 

Sativa is a long and stemmy plant (that grows tall). Its a bitchy plant in general, not too good with new growers and tends to react badly to temperature swings and bad light conditions. The buzz, however is "trippy" and "happy".

 

The type of stone medical patients and connoisseurs tent to look for. Sativa is why we all grow weed. This is the so called "good" weed.

 

Note: I know that I may come across as pushing Sativa "brand" however I actually prefer the Indica strains as I like the "stupid-stony-relaxing" feeling only a heavy Indica can give you :-)

 

Sativa would be the plant that produces 4 ounces under 400W, 8 ounces under 600W and 1 lb under 1000W light ..... and its often known to produce far less.

 

The trick is to find a strain that will produce Short, Small and Bushy (like an Indica) plants best for indoor closets and at the same time still get the Sativa quality smoke. That is why people cross-breed different strains of cannabis to obtain this type of plant.

 

Toronto420 Seed Bank describes these crosses with a percentage breakdown like the one on the left.

 

From this picture you can see that this strain (Northern Lights x Buddha) is 80% Indica and 20% Sativa. This means that she will grow bushy and short but will stretch just a bit to accommodate the Sativa genes. The buzz itself will be a mix of 80% Indica and 20% Sativa.

 

This is a compromise that best suits a closet grower. From this picture you can guess that you should expect about 6 to 7 ounces from a 400W, 10 to 12 ounces from a 600W light and a pound or pound and a half from a 1000W light.

 

From the picture on the right, you can see that the yield will be on the lower scale of what is possible but the product will give you a higher percentage of Sativa quality buzz.

 

From this picture you can guess that you should expect about 4 to 5 ounces from a 400W, 8 to 9 ounces from a 600W light and 16 to 17 ounces from a 1000W light.

 

Now Consider the third aspect of yield:

 

There are many methods to grow cannabis indoors but this is what you have to know when choosing your own method to cultivate.

 

Soil or Soil-less methods (plastic pots with Promix instead of dirt)

 

Very Easy. Anyone can do it. However the best you can get from this method is roughly 75% of what is possible to yield from a hydroponics water table. Thus a pure Indica strain grown using Promix as a growing medium, can yield 6 ounces under a 400W light, 12 ounces under a 600W and maybe 25 ounces under a 1000W.

 

This is in fact my favourite method and its also used by the "Motorcycle Clubs" and the Asian growing community..... ah, that is correct, Asian gangs and bikers grow their weed with this methods (at least in Ontario and Quebec)

 

Hydroponics Tables (or so-called flood & drain, rockwool and reservoir of well PH'ed water)

 

This is the method used by professional BC growers. For an advanced grower the table system can be wonderful. It yields the best results. A pure Indica strain would yield 100% of what is possible to get from any particular light.... and more with experience. There is a BIG however ....... the system can be a killer for anyone on less then advanced level.

 

Many people growing with Hydroponics tables kill whole tables worth of weed, because of intermitted reoccurring problems like a water pump broking down, or the PH of the water changed for no apparent reason or the cubes got mold, fungus, rot, roots get too big or too small, or the bugs get in there or the line gets jammed or ...or...or...or.... intermitted and reoccurring.

 

I would strongly reccomend that you stick to what works (which is Promix) and once you understand how the cannabis plant grows, then you can choose a more advanced method.

 

There is also the forth aspect you must consider:

 

As an experienced grower (I hope Health Canada is listening), I can get 1.5 pounds of weed from a 1000W light whether I have 1 or 200 plants. How is this possible?

 

The trick is as follows.

 

With 1 plant available to me I would plant her into the biggest pot (10 Gallons would do it) I could find. I would vegetate the plant to the proper size (i.e. giant) before triggering bloom cycle in order to get 1.5 pounds (in other words grow her big enough to produce this much bud). The vegetative cycle would take approximately 2 months and/or may be longer.

 

If you add 2 months of bloom cycle to the 2 months I spent vegetating this plant we can have 1.5 pound of dry bud after 4 or 4.5 months of total time spent.

 

With 200 plants available to me I could trigger the bloom cycle when all the plants are 3 inches tall. With such a large number of plants I would have to use tiny little pots (or 3 inch rockwool cubes on a bed of Promix or on a Hydroponics Flood & Drain Table). With 200 plants vegged for maybe 2 or 3 days (+ 2 months of bloom cycle) I could still produce 1.5 pound of weed. The total time is 2 months and 3 days.

 

So the lesson here is;

 

It is not just How Many Plants you Have in your closet that will determine the final yield, but it's How you grow them.

 

In general, the more plants you have the quicker the whole growing cycle is.

 

It also means that when the number of plants increase, each plant has to be grown smaller in order not to affect their optimum spacing requirements. In other words, the more plants you have, the smaller they have to be individually, before you start blooming.

 

Vegetating plants should not touch each other until the1st month of bloom. After the 1st month of bloom this space restriction becomes less detrimental to their well being and its ok to let them touch. If you ignore this suggestion and cram as many plants into your closet as you can fit, the plants will stretch instead of grow. Stretching refers to a process when plants get very tall, very quickly, a growth spurt can often be seen overnight if temperatures reach over 35 degrees Celsius in a Summer heat wave OR you put too many plants in a space that's too small for them. Stretched plants will actually yield far less total dry bud in the end.

 

When plants are too close to each other they perceive this as a space issue (lack of space) and start getting as tall as they can in order to out grow the other plants to the available light.

 

What you what is plants that grows at a regular time cycle and concentrate on making internodes (off shoots or branches) at the same time as they naturally grow upwards at a steady rate.

 

Stretching is just as bad when it comes to a plentiful yield as problems with spider mites and/or nutrient overfeeding.

 

In general, the more wattage (power) you have, the more yield you will get.

 

In general, the closer to a pure Indica strain you have, the more yield you will get.

 

And as a final note:

 

All the pictures of bud you see out there on the internet are made using cannabis grown under 1000W light in a 5 x 5 foot space. Any closet with less power then 1000W causes natural stretching of plants.

 

In fact, nature provides 1200W of power for every 4 x 4 foot of any open outdoor space. Unless you use 2 x 600W lights indoors a 4 x 4 foot space, indoor growing will always be a little be stressful for plans.

 

This is why you should bloom your plants before they reach 2 feet in height since they will grow (i.e. stretch) even deep into bloom cycle. This means that a 2 feet tall plant grown under a 400W light will double in size before the bloom cycle is finished. This new growth caused by stretching will not increase yield, but neither will it decrease it.

 

When it comes to avoiding natural stretching of plants, the closer in power you can get to what nature provides outdoors, the better it is for plants which experience less stretching and thus concentrate on bud production and of course you get more yield.