Help with Yield

1konaking

Member
Aloha to all who read this

I need help with my yield! My last grow was just 1.25 lbs from 2k worth of lights with 13 plants. With a lot of LARF!

With that being said whoever feels like they can confidently supply their opinion is more than welcome to weigh in. I know that gardening is a complex and multifaceted aspect. I also know that experience is the best teacher. The purpose of my post is for others to review my details and see if they can offer any advice, or suggestions based on personal experience that will help me achieve my goal of reaping the best medicine for those in need.
I have four grows under my belt but the magic number of 1 gram per watt still seems elusive. I have purchased, read, and memorized most of the literature out there. Jorge Cervantes, Ed Rosenthal, Mel Thomas, Greg Green to name a few. I have had my knowledge grow in leaps and bounds as well as the size and quality of my harvests. But, my usual harvest still weighs in at about .3 - .5 grams per watt, with a fair amount of LARF (light airy fluffy buds) even my large colas never seem to get very big 6 to 8 inches dry at the largest. Im not opposed to spending money (I love to spend it... when it pays me back.) I believe I have grasped the basics but the object here for me is to find the “best” way to go from a intermediate grower to an expert. The only way (I believe) to do that is through knowledge and experience. I would like to find that knowledge so I can tweak my experience.
I may have gone a little overboard in this post but I am hoping that by looking at the micro picture of everything it will help you, help me, make decisions about the macro picture of my garden. I rarely smoke and am working for a medical garden in California that helps retired veterans receive their medicine at a reasonable rate. By helping me you can contribute to the way medicine can help those in need. Thank you in advance to everyone who can share their competent opinion and offer their suggestions. Hopefully this thread will help others seeking the same knowledge. So, without further ado here is my setup.

Room:
10x10 room with 8ft ceilings and panda plastic attached to the walls. Closed loop system window a/c, dehumidifier, and Sentinel room controller. Exhausted at night through a 6” carbon filter (changed every 12 months) and a 6” vortex fan.
Temp during veg is 84 constant.
During flowering it is kept between 83-86 during the day 70-80 at night
Humidity is kept at 55.
Three 18” wall mount and pedestal fans provide circulation two on the canopy at opposing angles and one on the ground going throughout the bases. There is also an industrial fan circulating all the air in the top of the room.

Lights, Ballast:
Two 1000 watt air cooled lights with 6” insulated flexible ducting
#1 Radiant A/C
#2 Silverstar A/C
Super Hps Hortilux Bulbs (new every six to eight months or when light degrades)
Lights are kept at about 12” to 18” away from tops of the canopy (lower than 12” seems to make my light pattern to small)
Exhausted with a 6” vortex fan pulling and a 6” can fan pushing
Galaxy wall mounted digital ballasts
They are also selectable but you can choose either 400,600,1000, or 1100. I run it on 1100
During Veg: Silverstar with MH 1000watt

Co2:
Co2 Injection through a loop leak system (see the black ring in the pic) by a 50lb aluminum tank
Co2 set at 1400 ppm through veg and flower automated with Sentinel ppm controller.

Soil, Nutrients, and Watering:
Soil is botanicare ready gro aeration mix, (basically a coco, perilite, soil mix) Ph is 5.9 to 6.1. PPM around 900.
Cutting Edge solutions full line up including a small amount of Superthrive and wetting agent in the soil feedings. Cutting edge solutions full line up of foliar feeding solutions.
OverDrive, and Bud Candy by Advanced Nutrients and Final Phase as a flush
A small amount of floralicious and fish emulsion used as a foliar and soil feed in veg.

Water
is filtered through a tallboy filter clorine filter and into a reservoir tank with aeration stones that aerate the water for at least 12 hours before watering. A Mondovi sub pump then pushes it through a garden hose into the aeration wand. The ph hovers right around 6.0 and usually my ppms after nutrients is:
early veg 600
full veg about 800
late veg to flower 1,000 to 1,200
Full flower 1,400 or less.
Foliar feeding is twice a week on, non watering days at night just after the lights go off. Soil feeding is done first thing in the morning.

Strain: Twelve (six per light) AK-47 in 5 gallon smart pots with Botanicare aeration formula. Last grow was previously using fox farm ocean forest mixed with sunshine mix #4 in black plastic containers. Usually veg in MH for about four weeks then flower in HPS for two months.

Trimming Prunning:
Only very top flowering sites cut once in veg about two weeks before flower. Tiny and small branches trimmed from the lower ¼ two weeks before flower and two weeks after flower. The branches get very heavy and I then stake and tie them beginning in veg then throughout flower.

Any other questions, comments or concerns please feel free to post.

Best Regards,
DaKineGuy PICT2777.jpgPICT2782.jpgPICT2776.jpgPICT2774.jpgPICT2779.jpgPICT2775.jpgPICT2781.jpg
 

dudeoflife

Well-Known Member
Genetics and lumens play a huge role in yield.

Your nute regimen appears reasonable, and your setup looks nice.

Best of luck!
 

1konaking

Member
Thanks for the quick replies and encouraging words. Realstyles how long should I veg for. Till they are 2ft high or taller? They are 18 inches now.
 

REALSTYLES

Well-Known Member
You have air cooled hoods so you can keep the light 6-8 inches away from plants. The reason you have LARF is because you have the lights too far from the flowers.
 

dudeoflife

Well-Known Member
Oh- and the best advice I can give to increase your yield:

Pick 2-4 of the biggest shoots early in veg. Wait til about the third node or so. Cut off everything else, and keep just these shoots. Any new growth, remove it, up until the first week of flowering or so.



You will never see another popcorn bud again.

My buddy taught me this a long time ago, and I never looked back. The lesson was painful to watch though, because it looked as if there was nothing left. Three weeks into flowering, though, it looked as if nothing had been removed. And the bud sites were ridiculously plentiful.

This is how the two-liter size colas are made.


I can expand on this, or if you don't believe me, pick one plant and try it. It's worth a try.
 

dudeoflife

Well-Known Member
"also stop using CO2 after the 4th week in flower."

Are you serious? If there's ever a time the plant could use C02 supplementation, it's the 4th week.
 

1konaking

Member
When you mean "pick the biggest shoots early in veg" do you mean pinching, or FIM, or something different. I usually FIM then cut the lower 1/3. Yes Ive used co2 since my first grow.
 

1konaking

Member
I use co2 from veg till the last couple days of flowering. Realstyles why do you stop, and dude why do you continue? Once again thanks again for the attention
 

1konaking

Member
Realystyles so after reaching 2ft I supercrop them down to 18 inches then let them grow to 2ft again... Then throw the light to 12/12? Thanks for your advice, VERY appreciated.
 
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