Need Help with Yields

genna_mj

genna_mj

Member
I just finished my first full grow and from 5 plants I'm looking at only about 2ozs. I have lots of little popcorn buds. Here's my setup:

Strain: Nirvana Northern Lights

Veg Room-
Temp: 80s. Humidity: 40-50s
One fan keeping air circulating over top of room plants, little fan on plants

5 plants at once

4X4 T5 overhead plus 4 23w cfls on sides

Happy frog soil, distilled water

Started as clones in red solo cups, transplanted to 1 gal during veg

Veg until 1 ft tall, about 8 weeks old

Flower room:

5 plants
Ocean forest soil, transplanted into 2-3 gallon when put to flower

400w hps - good intake, outtake in room

Distilled water, molasses towards end of flowering every other water.

Temp: 77, humidity 50s - one fan circulating air underneath, one on top of plants

Flowered until saw just a few amber trichromes with a 60x scope. About 8-9 weeks


A friend who grows told me he doesn't use nutrients, so I didn't even though I had originally bought the Fox Farm trio. I had no issues and all plants remained healthy. I had a little yellowing on the bottom leaves right at the end of veg but transferring into the fresh ocean forest at flowering fixed it.

On my two newest girls in Veg I have started the nutrient regime. I'm in my third week of Big Bloom (5 tsp in a gallon) on a 6 week old plant ( age on when it went into solo cup). They seem to like that fine.

Basically I'm looking for suggestions to help out my future yields. The bud I got from the last grow looks and smells beautiful but is so so small. It's really disappointing. Any suggestions about nutrients or supplements, or any tips for my rooms or lighting would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
 
TacoMac

TacoMac

Well-Known Member
2 oz. from 5 plants? You should be getting at least that from just one.

No nutrients at all? That hurts. Bad.

Also, 80's is a bit hot. I don't think that had a whole lot to do with yield, but it certainly didn't help.

Nutrients are a must. That's all there is to it. I mean, you can live on a 800 calorie per day diet, but don't you think you'd be stronger and healthier on a 2000 calorie per day diet or even more?

Could have vegged it a bit longer. 9 or 10 weeks on a few tops would have done you a lot more good. (It's not necessary, but will get you more yield in the end.)

You didn't flower long enough either I don't think. 12 weeks would have been better.

That's all I've got. I think using no nutrients is what did you in the most, but a combination of all of that can steamroll you into a very low yield grow in a quick hurry.
 
genna_mj

genna_mj

Member
I do have a little bit of a heat issue in the veg room and I'm thinking once the summer is over that will get a lot better.

On the two plants I just put into flower, and two I'm going to put into flower in about two week, is it too late to start nutrients?? On my first grow I gave them a little big bloom at the end of veg to help with leaf yellowing and got "the claw" right away.

They started to look unhealthy at the end of veg which is why I wanted to repot with ocean forest and put them to flower at 8 weeks. But maybe that would have been avoided with nutes and I could have left them an extra week or two. I didn't really see any new growth after the 6th week in veg.
 
TacoMac

TacoMac

Well-Known Member
I'm willing to bet the problem is your soil is just about sucked dry of nutrients by the time you get to the flower stage and that's why you're not getting growth. You have to be careful with nutrients. Most people make the mistake of simply adding too much at once and they burn their plants up.

Lower dosages more frequently are much better than huge doses all in one go.

I would start your nutrients going right now. To prevent culture shock, I'd mix a weak mix to start off with and see how they respond, then gradually work your way up to a regular dosage regimen over the next two weeks.
 
genna_mj

genna_mj

Member
Anything I should consider to supplement the fox farm trio?? Also I do tend to go light on the suggested amount in the schedule provided by the company. They want you to do 6 tsps per gallon right from the first weeks of veg and that seems too harsh. Especially when they just been put in brand new soil.

On my plants just put into flower would it be too harsh to throw in the flowering nutes at this point if kept light handed?
 
TacoMac

TacoMac

Well-Known Member
I'm not very familiar with those nutrients, so maybe somebody that is can weigh in on this.

If it's me though, I look at what the schedule says for week one flower and use half that. Next feeding I'd use 3/4 of it. Next feeding go full strength. That way you ease them into it rather than just outright body slamming them.
 
tropicalcannabispatient

tropicalcannabispatient

Well-Known Member
genna_mj said:
I just finished my first full grow and from 5 plants I'm looking at only about 2ozs. I have lots of little popcorn buds. Here's my setup:

Strain: Nirvana Northern Lights

Veg Room-
Temp: 80s. Humidity: 40-50s
One fan keeping air circulating over top of room plants, little fan on plants

5 plants at once

4X4 T5 overhead plus 4 23w cfls on sides

Happy frog soil, distilled water

Started as clones in red solo cups, transplanted to 1 gal during veg

Veg until 1 ft tall, about 8 weeks old

Flower room:

5 plants
Ocean forest soil, transplanted into 2-3 gallon when put to flower

400w hps - good intake, outtake in room

Distilled water, molasses towards end of flowering every other water.

Temp: 77, humidity 50s - one fan circulating air underneath, one on top of plants

Flowered until saw just a few amber trichromes with a 60x scope. About 8-9 weeks


A friend who grows told me he doesn't use nutrients, so I didn't even though I had originally bought the Fox Farm trio. I had no issues and all plants remained healthy. I had a little yellowing on the bottom leaves right at the end of veg but transferring into the fresh ocean forest at flowering fixed it.

On my two newest girls in Veg I have started the nutrient regime. I'm in my third week of Big Bloom (5 tsp in a gallon) on a 6 week old plant ( age on when it went into solo cup). They seem to like that fine.

Basically I'm looking for suggestions to help out my future yields. The bud I got from the last grow looks and smells beautiful but is so so small. It's really disappointing. Any suggestions about nutrients or supplements, or any tips for my rooms or lighting would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
Click to expand...
stop the distilled water use RO or just tap water, also look into scroog , lst ,topping to increase yield 2oz thats about 11-12 grams per plant. And northern lights are known for good yields are u feeding micro nutrients?
 
tropicalcannabispatient

tropicalcannabispatient

Well-Known Member
genna_mj said:
I do have a little bit of a heat issue in the veg room and I'm thinking once the summer is over that will get a lot better.

On the two plants I just put into flower, and two I'm going to put into flower in about two week, is it too late to start nutrients?? On my first grow I gave them a little big bloom at the end of veg to help with leaf yellowing and got "the claw" right away.

They started to look unhealthy at the end of veg which is why I wanted to repot with ocean forest and put them to flower at 8 weeks. But maybe that would have been avoided with nutes and I could have left them an extra week or two. I didn't really see any new growth after the 6th week in veg.
Click to expand...
6 weeks veg sounds good to me., not using nuts was what killed your yield, if u dont want to use nutrients GO ORGANIC buildur own soil... AND TELL YOUR FRIEND THAT HES A RETARD FROM MA PART!! GL with the new girls!!!
 
Colo MMJ

Colo MMJ

Well-Known Member
genna_mj said:
I do use Lst and topping to broaden the tops before flowering.

I don't know what you mean by micro nutrients.
Click to expand...
Micronutrients check out Dr. Earth Bloom sold at home depot in store. $10.98 for 4 gallon bag or Recharge which is more expensive.

Dang - only $7.99 here but shipping might hurt.
https://www.countrymax.com/Dr.-Earth-Bud-Bloom-Fertilizer-4-Lb./?gclid=Cj0KEQjwgJq-BRCFqcLW8_DU9agBEiQAz8KohygOGqkYIkSwOT2WXhcOYNBFDV36WdSudEFMePoZldAaAnmX8P8HAQ

You may need to leave it in a one gallon or so watering bucket overnight because it is not totally water soluble.

It has probiotics, micronutrients - everything you need.
http://drearth.com/products/organic-fertilizers/organic-8-bud-bloom-booster/
 
emepher

emepher

Well-Known Member
Genna, TacoMac is on the money, and his advice about you using nutes is what struck me as the most important thing to increase your yields to normal levels, at least. An average of 11-12 grams per plant is surprisingly low, since you seem to have a grasp on what you are doing otherwise. You need some form of nutes - it could be enriched soil, any sort of highly-engineered (and perhaps highly expensive) big-name product, something cheap but effective like GH Microbloom, or even Miracle Grow - but the plants need food.

Start conservatively and increase the feedings if you need to. Over-doing the nutes can harm or kill your plants, but if you want them to produce the best, biggest buds possible, you have to dial-in the nutes.

And the distilled water is probably inferior to reverse-osmosis or tap water, and more expensive and more hassle. As long the Ph is okay the water should be the least of your concerns though. Unless you meant you were only using it to deliver the molasses, in which case I misinterpreted something but the idea is the same.

You already understand the process and have proven you can grow, so I bet once you get your nutes right you'll be very pleased with your results.

Thanks for the links, Colo. Jack's is good stuff. I wish my local HD had the Dr Earth Bloom - looks like a steal.
 
jonnyquest

jonnyquest

Well-Known Member
If you're only pulling 10 grams per plant with a 400w hps you are fucking up big time. Do you have any pictures of the plants, they must look fucked.

you write as if you have at least read a little and there is nothing wrong with your set-up so I'm having trouble imagining how you could have achieved such a paltry yield. Did your plants have any leaves left by the end?
obviously you needed to feed your plants but this should have been evident from the way they looked. I actually think it would be difficult to yield that little with your set-up are you sure you didn't harvest 6 weeks early?
 
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Colo MMJ

Colo MMJ

Well-Known Member
genna_mj

genna_mj

Member
jonnyquest said:
If you're only pulling 10 grams per plant with a 400w hps you are fucking up big time. Do you have any pictures of the plants, they must look fucked.

you write as if you have at least read a little and there is nothing wrong with your set-up so I'm having trouble imagining how you could have achieved such a paltry yield. Did your plants have any leaves left by the end?
obviously you needed to feed your plants but this should have been evident from the way they looked. I actually think it would be difficult to yield that little with your set-up are you sure you didn't harvest 6 weeks early?
Click to expand...

Like I said above, without nutes I still had really healthy plants. Sugar leaves were all green at harvest and the leaves on the whole plant were yellowing from the bottom just like I read is pretty standard. They did get some enrichment from the fox farm soil. I harvested at about 11 weeks from switching to 12/12 and only once I saw a couple amber trichromes.
 
genna_mj

genna_mj

Member
Re: tap water. Yes the distilled water has been a pain. I do have ph tester but even if that's right on my tap water isn't there a bunch of other harmful junk in there?

A few times during the grow I would notice some yellowing leaves during veg and try and administer a little nutes but even doing 1/3 the recommended dose I would see the claw. I though maybe it was because I wasn't being consistent with using the nutes. So that's what makes me wary about using it on the 3 plants I just put to flower. But I'm still going to try
 
TacoMac

TacoMac

Well-Known Member
Don't get all hung up on the water. People make a much bigger deal of it than it actually is. I personally use RO water, but that's more down to the fact I already had a top end RO unit for making water for my aquariums than anything else.

Fact is, tap water has a lot of minerals in it your plants need: phosphorous, sulfur, iron, and more. About the only down side to tap water is the chlorine levels.

Don't lose any sleep over your water at this stage of the game. Your number one concern is getting your nutrients right. That is an absolute MUST.
 
genna_mj

genna_mj

Member
TacoMac said:
Don't get all hung up on the water. People make a much bigger deal of it than it actually is. I personally use RO water, but that's more down to the fact I already had a top end RO unit for making water for my aquariums than anything else.

Fact is, tap water has a lot of minerals in it your plants need: phosphorous, sulfur, iron, and more. About the only down side to tap water is the chlorine levels.

Don't lose any sleep over your water at this stage of the game. Your number one concern is getting your nutrients right. That is an absolute MUST.
Click to expand...
People keep saying : give your plants what they need when it comes to nutes.

So basically am I just makin sure the leaves stay uniformly green and making sure I don't see deficiencies or any evidence of too many nutes??
I was lucky on my last grow that I didn't have to deal with deficiencies or anything like that and I feel like the introduction of nutes is going to require a lot more fine tuning.

But it seems from what everyone is saying it will pay off in the end
 
TacoMac

TacoMac

Well-Known Member
It will most definitely pay off. Huge.

Nutrient use in soil has just a few basic rules:
  1. Plant in fresh soil with fresh perlite every grow. Never re-use your soil.
  2. Seedlings do not need nutrients.
  3. When you get to about week 2 of veg growth is where you'll want to start your nutrients going and keep your schedule from there.
Now, advance users (especially those in hyrdoponics) will start a nutrient regimen a LOT sooner. But these people are very experienced, have done multiple grows with similar plant strains, and know their plants like the back of their hand. They know what they can and can not take.

DO NOT TRY TO BE THEM AT THIS STAGE OF THE GAME.

You had a successful grow. You're looking to improve on that. You were given the second worse advice possible by some idiot that told you never use nutrients. (Number one being: keep your plant in a plastic bag with no air in a darkened closet and never let it see the light of day.)

Don't go trying to change everything at once. Grow your experience this grow and improve on your success. If you start throwing a lot of different things at it at once, you'll wind up not only with a host of new issues, you'll not know what caused them.

Always err on the side of caution. Start a journal on this grow as well. Take weekly pictures, keep a record. That way as something arises it will be relatively easy based on your journal as to where your problem is:
  • you can tell if you overdid it on a nutrient dose.
  • you can tell if you need to up the nutrients.
That's the experience you need and will get. Just don't worry about everything else right now.
 
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