Plant Yield

I am a first-time grower. I produced a few plants that were of very good quality, but the yield was extremely low. I was able to harvest only between 1/8 and ¼ oz. per plant.

I am preparing to start a new batch consisting of a few dozen plants but I hate to have identical results. These plants have been started from seed and will be transplanted within the next few days. I am looking for suggestions that will help to produce a more reasonable yield per plant. In looking at various sites, I have seen 1 to 1-1/2 oz as the low end of a normal yield per plant.

if you're an indoor grower, go take a peek at the indoor growing section on this forum and read a few threads in there. you can get a lot of growing info and tips by just reading a few thread that catch your eye. you can also ask all your growing questions there, you'll get a ton of responses. welcome to RIU and enjoy the forums

yes reading google.... and when confused ask others. i bet your lighting is not the best. you need so many lumens per sq foot you aslo need different kinds of lights for different cycles of the plants growth... whats your setup? that wud help us better help you

We are using both high-pressure sodium and metal halide. I know that the wattage on at least one of those types is 400 watts, possibly on both. We have about fifty seeds that have already germinated in small pots that we are placing out on shelves tomorrow, with fluorescent lighting. I just started reading information on-line in these past few days, but I want to have as much of my information together, before getting to the critical stages in their development.

One of the types grown was Low Ryder. It looked fantastic, but the quality was only marginal. The skunk and Purple Haze turned out well but still yielded very small.

My first time growin i yielded 1 ounce.

But I was using grasscity for info, riu has helped me alot when it comes to growing big plants.

The biggest problem I am experiencing, at this point, is that almost all of this is brand new to me, so I am overwhelmed with information. Since many of these postings are a random mish-mash of different topics, it is difficult for me to coordinate all of this into a linear format that I can follow through from start to finish. So, it takes a lot of sifting for me to pull out facts that are pertinent to my immediate issues.

either spend a lot of time at your computer reading all info or ask specific ?s in thread form. if you can make a nice looking plant you probably just need info on flowering care and nutes

The information may not be 100% accurate anymore, but one of the biggest things that helped me was reading Jorge Cervantes' grow bible before attempting anything. It will give you an in depth knowledge of how to grow, and has some pretty good pictures to refer to if you're having problems and ways to solve them. Everything else you'll learn as you go. Pick up the book though, its definitely worth having in my opinion.

Do you know if this publication is available on-line, or would a person have to buy a hard copy?

I try to remember the two most frequent issues are over watering and over nuting. Even knowing that, most of my problems have been watering or nutrient related. Another thing to remember starting out is to keep it simple. If your buds aren't filling out and lights are not the issue. A small pot can inhibit root growth reducing yields, as can over/under watering/nuting, also strain (variations) are a big factor. Those would be the most likely I can think of, however there are numerous possibilities. As others have said your best bet is just keep reading as much as you can and keep growing and learning.

I have seen on other sites the warning to not use tap water, because of the chlorine and fluoride additives. Is there a general consensus on this? If that is true, is distilled water the best option? If so, what is the best source for that? If a grower had to purchase gallons and gallons of demineralized water, I would think that would become both expensive and cumbersome to haul.

my biggest advice would be to get the vegging under wraps with nutes and everything like that start and as the plant progresses start reading up on flowering. thats what i did now that my plant is about to get harvested i will read up on that. this way you dont have so much information in your head at once. its makes stuff easier to understand. ask questions for sure is a good thing, but realize that some people will give you the wrong answer if its a lazy question. read first ask after if you really dont understand it. trail and error is a main part of growing.

most say if your using tap water check the ph and adjust it to the right ph. i have filtered water from the fridge that i use and i dont check ph at all or anything and its worked for me. but i only had one plant. when i get more going then i will def get a ph tester and ph adjuster for larger amounts of water.

byte50 said:

I have seen on other sites the warning to not use tap water, because of the chlorine and fluoride additives. Is there a general consensus on this? If that is true, is distilled water the best option? If so, what is the best source for that? If a grower had to purchase gallons and gallons of demineralized water, I would think that would become both expensive and cumbersome to haul.

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I do have a pH tester, but the resources I had read talked about the presence specifically of chlorine and fluoride being detrimental, despite the pH value. That was why I was expressing concern.

byte50 said:

I do have a pH tester, but the resources I had read talked about the presence specifically of chlorine and fluoride being detrimental, despite the pH value. That was why I was expressing concern.

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It is the addditives that interfere with some nutes being available to the plant. If you use tap water, you need to let it bleed off a cpl days before use. I fill two 10 gal containers, add some peroxide and put a small airstone in and let it sit for 2dys.. That way i always have plenty of usable water on hand.. A lot of bottled water especially if its purified by RO lacks a lot of macro-nutrients that if your not running a quality nute will cause def. down the road.

nick88 said:

It is the addditives that interfere with some nutes being available to the plant. If you use tap water, you need to let it bleed off a cpl days before use. I fill two 10 gal containers, add some peroxide and put a small airstone in and let it sit for 2dys.. That way i always have plenty of usable water on hand.. A lot of bottled water especially if its purified by RO lacks a lot of macro-nutrients that if your not running a quality nute will cause def. down the road.

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i have read that pet experts recommend allowing water to sit out for a day or so, to allow the dispersal of chlorine, before putting it down for watering. I figured that the same would probably hold true with plants but I had just recently read about this issue and wanted to get some opinions. I am assuming that the airstone is just to provide oxygenation of the water.

My water comes out of the tap at over 8ph and the only time I ph is when I nute. I have cut back on my calcium additives as it's a hard water containing a lot of calcium.

An idea of how messed up my water is, I do leave it sit out 24hr if I'm using organics. You can likely look up your county water info online, it won't be perfect as it will not read the particulates collected along the way from the station but it will give a fair idea. So you could adjust it accordingly. Edit: also what some people do with bottled water is cut their tap water 50/50 or 1/3-2/3 etc.

If you can drink your tap water then your plants will be fine with it. People grow houseplants all the time and don't worry about leaving water in a bucket for 24 hours because of clorine - stoners worry far too much (and kill their plants through stupidity).

The fact that you adjust the pH when you add nutrients actually brings up another issue that I will be dealing with very shortly. I have placed an order and have seeds on the way, so I will be beginning germination possibly within a week or so.

I have read multiple postings on several websites and have seen potentially conflicting information on the topic of fortifying the water with nutrients, the relative mix and at what stage in the growth cycle that it is appropriate. I went to a lawn and garden store last night, just to see what types of items they had in stock. I saw the dried blood that is a primary source of nitrogen and the bone meal which supplies mainly calcium. When I place these germinated seedlings into their growing medium, is it desirable to provide fertilization at that point? If so, what relative strengths are needed: 5-10-5, 5-10-10?

I realize that some of this is trial and error. I am just trying to rely on the past experiences of other growers to get a general idea of the direction I need to take, until I have the confidence and general knowledge to begin experimentation on my own.