1 g/watt theory

TrippleDip said:

Maybe space, square footage could be a proxy for time, like g/watt/sq. ft. Reason is, you could grow one big plant in a long time, but many small plants in a short time. You would have very different numbers then, all other things being equal - yield, watts. Then again, maybe you are on the right track with something like grams per watt-hour, where efficiency is (pot out / electricity in).

Do experienced growers count their popcorn buds in the g/watt total? Been at 0.6 for a while (only counting good bud, maybe a little bit over 1 with the stuff that gets made into edibles), and not getting to that 1g/watt standard feels bad.

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Depends on how desperately they need the approval of strangers on the interwebs that day

SnidleyBluntash said:

The problem with the gram/watt theory is that it does not mention TIME. With out time being factored in, it becomes useless.

Eg 1) veg for 3 month and say you got 2000g from ONLY a 600w light.

Eg 2) veg for 2 weeks and only get 500g from a 600w light.
Arbitrary numbers.


We need a Standard amount of time that we all agree on, for this to work. I today here and now suggest 4 weeks as the standard amount of time to veg, to make claims with g/w WHOS WITH ME

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Theres a thread about how long to veg a (healthy) plant in relation to yield. It's not gospel, but a good idea

Tannerwilliams919 said:

Also, I'm growing DWC in 5 gallon buckets with 2 air stones in each bucket.

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Oh geez, don’t mention air stones, might get your hands slapped. Check out the shit a air pump pumps into your buckets. This will play a role in yield even when your ph is in a life of wack if you are not careful on single buckets.

Tannerwilliams919 said:

Is this per light or per plant? For example, I have a 300L HGL RSPEC that is 270 watts. I want to grow 4 plants in a 3x3x6. Should I expect 270g total? Or 270g per plant?

I'm a new grower. Don't beat me up too badly. I know a lot of things have to go right to get the 1g/watt number.

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It used to be used as a metric from the point at which the grower put the lights onto 12on/12off to induce flowering. Some literature used to suggest that new/beginner growers could expect 0.5grams/watt/30days. So for a 8 week strain, 1g/w. That would be a conservative estimate.

Try not to kill your plants with love, and you will likely get more.

T macc said:

Theres a thread about how long to veg a (healthy) plant in relation to yield. It's not gospel, but a good idea

How vegetative growth time exponentially affects yield

In the following article, I'll be referring to plants grown indoors, hydroponically, with MH / HPS light. One of the most common questions I hear is, "How long do I need to veg in order to get X ounces?" The direct answer is: It depends on how fast you can grow your plant! No one wants to...

www.420magazine.com

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We must not confuse veg time, with gram per watts. The term, "grams per watt" originally applied to the flowering period.

Example on this forum of a 600w grow. Rooted clones put under 12/12 with minimal veg time. 42oz yield. 2g/w of 12/12.

Same guy has tree grows on this forum. 4 weeks of veg time. 1.15 g/w of 12/12 @ 1800w.

Plant count defines grow style, and so nowdays we have a new norm. Seems growers try to find a balance between vegging and turnover.

Tannerwilliams919 said:

Thanks. In that case, am I better off just growing 2 instead of 4?

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That’s complicated.... if you want buds fast then more plants with less veg time but that won’t yield as much overall as a lower plant count that has been properly trained out to fill every square inch of available grow space.
Yield has a lot to do with your own level of patience. When you already have several jars full of dank on stand by it becomes easier to allow for longer veg time. LST and/or monster cropping can double the bud mass. That is if you have the space and lighting to grow these big ass plants. Even before flip the plants must be fully mature and had time to develop multiple colas.

TrippleDip said:

Maybe space, square footage could be a proxy for time, like g/watt/sq. ft. Reason is, you could grow one big plant in a long time, but many small plants in a short time. In the end though the space is filled, doesn't matter how you got there. Then again, maybe you are on the right track with something like grams per watt-hour, where efficiency is (pot out / electricity in), which sounds attractive as a raw efficiency number. Is it really as simple as electricity = pot + heat?

Do experienced growers count their popcorn buds in the g/watt total? Been at 0.6 for a while (only counting good bud, maybe a little bit over 1 with the stuff that gets made into edibles), and not getting to that 1g/watt standard feels bad.

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That’s the other thing. No matter how big you grow the plants only the top 9” or so of cola buds will be dense enough to bother curing into nuggets. The rest is larfy popcorn better suited for hash or edibles than smoke unless you step harvest which is hardly worth the trouble imho. I’m guessing though that as a matter of gauging grow efficiency you would count every bud as total yield. Nobody has come up with an accurate formula for yield because there’s way too many variables. So 1g per watt is like the only standard to sort of see where you are, yield wise.

I did this with 1800w of 561c diodes and 6 plants.
This is my 3rd harvest. Im no expert, still getting things dialed in.
This was a strain I had been looking for, the bud mass was pretty bad but it smokes amazing. I would not grow this strain if I was looking for weight.

Have you heard of the inch Theory? Maybe you're from a sane country so lets talk meter theory.

Richard Drysift said:

That’s the other thing. No matter how big you grow the plants only the top 9” or so of cola buds will be dense enough to bother curing into nuggets. The rest is larfy popcorn better suited for hash or edibles than smoke unless you step harvest which is hardly worth the trouble imho. I’m guessing though that as a matter of gauging grow efficiency you would count every bud as total yield. Nobody has come up with an accurate formula for yield because there’s way too many variables. So 1g per watt is like the only standard to sort of see where you are, yield wise.

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I would challenge this a tiny bit. Switching to QBs run super soft with goal of even coverage as possible (also possible with bars and strips) has resulted in top to bottom being rock hard nugs for me. I do strip bottom growth before flower and around week 2 of flower but have 3 foot tall plants with nice buds top to bottom. The only thing that didnt go into jars the last 2 rounds was my dry trim. I dont sell my herb so I am fine with them not all being huge colas but larf is completely gone and everything goes in the jar. I just posted some pics in the HLG DIY thread if you want proof

Tannerwilliams919 said:

But why couldn't I do 2 plants and get 135g off of each? (again, in theory, assuming everything went perfectly and I somehow got to 1g/watt) Is there a max out on wattage per square foot a plant can handle?

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It's definitely possible.
I like to allow each plant to occupy a 2x2 area and typically yield 10-20 oz dried flower/plant.