How many colas per square foot?

I have a few questions which I hope will make me a better grower.

The first is the one in the title. How many colas should I be shooting for per square foot of tent? I use strips with wall to wall coverage.

The second is, how many colas should I try for per gallon size of pot? Is there a balance between bud load and pot size? I’m guilty of leaving too many bud sites which end up not doing much and seem to take away from the primary ones. Also it seems that if there is too heavy a bud load with a smaller pot the plant starts to self destruct heavily late in flowering.

Finally what is your yield in grams per square foot of tent?

Colas per square foot is going to depend on how you train it. Personally, I like 8 main colas. 4 gets to tall and any more takes away from the mains. 8 colas in a 2x2 print.

Pot size has little to do with the number of colas in my opinion. A big plant needs a big pot, a small plant can use a smaller pot. Overall time spent in a pot is what's going to get you root bound.

Grams per square foot is also a tricky thing. It's heavily dependent on medium, genetics (golf ball vs donkey dick buds), and lighting. I usually get around 14oz-18oz out of a 4x4 with a 2 month veg using my own breed of seeds.

Last indoor run I was building my house in the pic, so they got no attention and I still got 12oz between the pair.

This has aprox 60 bud sites in a 3x3

I have lollipoped and thinned it out too. It was so thick. Gave it a solid trim job and it’s loving life.

4

Which one will do better and by how much?
Winner will receive brand new big bud 5l bottle

Bookush34 said:

This has aprox 60 bud sites in a 3x3

I have lollipoped and thinned it out too. It was so thick. Gave it a solid trim job and it’s loving life.
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Very impressive book

P0para73 said:

Which one will do better and by how much?
Winner will receive brand new big bud 5l bottle

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It's not the same plant?
The non defoliated will yield about 14 grams more including larf. Just throwing out a guesstimate lol. You can donate the bottle to runner up

I can get close to a pound on average in a 4 x 4 with a 600 HPS light if I'm growing for quantity and the right strain.

T macc said:

It's not the same plant?
The non defoliated will yield about 14 grams more including larf. Just throwing out a guesstimate lol. You can donate the bottle to runner up

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Thanks for your guestimate

xtsho said:

I can get close to a pound on average in a 4 x 4 with a 600 HPS light if I'm growing for quantity and the right strain.

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True thanks

In my experience, make sure each cola has room between each other so they can get light and air movement through each individual cola.

Thanks everyone for the replies. So I guess a good target is an ounce per square foot. Looking in the tents I’m at like 2-3 per sf. But there are a bunch of lower side branches with buds on them that I couldn’t bring myself to cut out at the time. I think I’ll start being more aggressive with trimming out those secondary branches. They are producing but they’re not pretty and to be honest I hate trimming them after harvest. I’m wondering If I had cut them out would the yield be the same.

Merlin1147 said:

Thanks everyone for the replies. So I guess a good target is an ounce per square foot. Looking in the tents I’m at like 2-3 per sf. But there are a bunch of lower side branches with buds on them that I couldn’t bring myself to cut out at the time. I think I’ll start being more aggressive with trimming out those secondary branches. They are producing but they’re not pretty and to be honest I hate trimming them after harvest. I’m wondering If I had cut them out would the yield be the same.

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From my experience if you cut them out, your overall yield will be less but better quality, your head buds will yield a little more but not as much weight as you will get if you left the secondary branches on. If low down branches are in 100% shade then most probably.