Calling all veterans and experienced growers

[Greenlivin]

Good morning everyone. Hope you had a nice weekend.

I just completed my 2nd grow, and have found a new appreciation for some of you guys and gals who can produce hundreds of grams per plant indoors.

When I started this hobby last year, I did the same thing I always do with new interests- I dive in head first and learn as much as I can. I learned a lot from research and getting the first grow under my belt. I was hopeful that my second run would yield far greater weight than it did. I finished with one oz of dried flower off of one of the plants.

With that said, I’m really curious as to what veterans think is the most important when it comes to getting large yields. Take a moment, and let us rookies know what you feel is the biggest factor in getting your high yields:

[Gingerbeard]

Genetics. Growing seeds from the same plant will give you different plants. Maybe a slacker and a monster. A strain that isn't supposed to grow big and buddy, won't. The others are super important. Mainlining will increase yield beyond what the plant was meant to produce. Then figure autos v femmed v regular. Autos are pretty much set for size. Femmed and regular you can veg and train for months before flipping.

Second is lights. I'm comparing a 350watt LED to the sun. 8 hours of sun is like everything else combined for growing. The 350 works for my old space but wouldn't work for my new. Without the sun I wouldn't have much.

Third is nutes. People grow in different media without much or any nutes. Online, I see DWC growers growing a single plant and getting several ounces. And dirt farmers who grow amazing plants in simple soil. An acquaintance grows in Miracle-Gro with some sort of water beads. Never a lick of fertilizer. Machine water between 7.5 and 8.5 pH. His bagseed grows to 6' - plus.

[Korn]

I agree with Gingerbeard 100%.

[Jordann]

Agreed, this is what I would of said had he not said it already.

[Texasbob]

I think that all of that comes into play with every grow so I can't vote on one answer. That to me is the art of what we do, finding a combination of the things you mentioned plus things that aren't and using the ebb and flow of experience to take a journey with every grow.

[bboyfromwayback]

I agree with Texasbob. Genetics is probably the single most important factor but you need to get everything ‘tuned in’ to get consistent, quality yields and each plant is different. When I used to grow from random seeds I’d have some good grows but mostly I had disappointing ones. It wasn’t until I found a couple quality mothers to clone from that I started being consistent. My advice is to sprout a bunch of seeds (the more the merrier) and as they grow get rid of the weak, slow plants. You want to keep the resilient ones who can take a beating, top it today and it’s already recovered by tomorrow. If you top a plant and it’s stunned for a couple days, toss it! You’ll likely only have a fraction of the plants you started with once it’s time to start flowering. Take your clones from each plant and grow them 2wks then switch to 12/12 to flower. At this point hope and pray that your favorite plants turn out to be females that produce good bud. If not, rinse and repeat Eventually you’ll get good mothers who produce pretty much the same buds every grow. The only time my results vary anymore is because I either f’d something up or decided to tinker with my setup.

[Greenlivin]

Good advice. Space is my big issue-Using a 2x2. Once I upgrade I’ll definitely try out finding a good mother.

[Obi-Wan]

I voted other. IMO the top three are
Genetics
Lighting
Training

You can get away with good genetics and good lighting and do fairly well but you’re leaving bud in the tent if you don’t train.

You can can good results with good genetics and good training but you’re leaving bud in the tent without good lighting.

You can get good results with good lighting and good training but you’re leaving bud in the tent without good genetics.

You need all three to get maximum results, 1 without the other 2 will leave you wanting more.

[Greenlivin]

Love it.

[Obi-Wan]

Another thing to consider is to change your thinking away from yield per plant and instead focus on yield in your space. I run 4 plants in a 3x3 and generally yield between 9-12 oz. in the space. That’s 2.25-3 oz. per plant and it’s nothing special but 9-12 oz. every 70 days is nothing to sneeze at either. It’s more about maximizing your space and growing what you need at the lowest possible cost IMO. I can veg a single plant for 90 days in my 3x3 and I’m fairly confident that I could pull 12-16 oz. on that 1 plant but I still won’t yield as much after a year as I do now because my plants would be spending too much time in Veg.

[Greenlivin]

That’s a good point. I come from the world of sales where KPI’s are tracked. So I started thinking that way with growing, and thought about judging a good grow on grams per watt. Space is my biggest issue, and it sounds like fixing that can benefit in a lot of ways.

[alltatup]

Thing is, you can't sacrifice any one of these factors if you wanna grow top shelf bud: air circulation, temp/humid, nutes, lights, genetics. Training will produce larger harvest, but I consider that a separate issue.

[bboyfromwayback]

I have two 2x4x5 tents, one for the mothers and the other to grow the clones. I keep them small, usually start flowering after they veg for 1-2wks after growing roots. I’m only growing for personal use for me and my wife. Depending on what your goals are, you may not need much space.

[SoOrbudgal]

He's just taking stock of what others think is helping with their healthy hearty grows. They are just thoughts bboyfromwayback. FYI mi familial ?

[HighDesertRat]

You can have the best genetics, fancy lights, super soil, or whatever, and still get low yields if you're not giving the plant it's basic, balanced needs to begin with.
so many factors work together to determine final outcome...and any of those factors can hurt you. Not enough light, too much light, too close, not close enough, too much food, not enough food....you get the idea.
There's no magic. There's no secret.
Those monster plants and yields all start with a tiny life the same size as every other plant...if their basic requirements aren't met, they struggle.

This is probably the biggest "mistake" myself and other new growers make...getting the basics correct. Of those basic needs, overfeeding and overwatering are the issues I see the most..and the most often...
"Get the basics right and they will reward you."

Over time you learn to read your plants and treat them accordingly....it's definitely a learning curve....

[Eliot Pryor]

Genetics determines yield and quality. Of coarse you have to be able to grow the plant. Your goals your grow. Hydroponics was an eye opening experience for me. Easy, repeatable results and speed. Its a great hobby and you found the right place to learn. Some of these guys really are professionals with lots of experience and they share it. Have a great grow !!

[Greenlivin]

Great feedback. Thanks everyone. One thing I see over and over is these huge fat colas with HPS lights. It seems like HPS always produces fatter buds compared to your average blurple led.

[SoOrbudgal]

Maybe so about the HPS but boy are these newer quantum boards and COBs really gaining a good reputation and with much less cost.

[Greenlivin]

You’re absolutely right about that. I’m intrigued by these cob style lights.

[bboyfromwayback]

SoOrbudgal what’s a good LED? I’ve thought about trying one but there’s too many to choose from. I’m still growing under a old Sun Systems light I bought almost 20yrs ago. It has a 150W HPS on each end with 2 T5’s along both sides for a total of 516W’s along with a lot of heat to vent out. It does great but it would be nice to grow cooler with less watts and still get good bud.

[alltatup]

That's what I have in my grow boxes for the last 1.5 years, and I love them compared to the HID. No changing bulbs, they have a dimmer, the room stays much cooler.

https://www.bcnorthernlights.com/led-lights/

[alltatup]

I had to buy a whole new ceiling for my old grow box, which I switched from HID, but I don't know how much the bulbs are. They are built for the BCNL grow boxes specifically, you'd have to call them and see how much the cobs are.

[bboyfromwayback]

I’ve never heard of these grow boxes but they look badass! How much do they run? When the site says ‘call for pricing’ I can’t help but assume it’s way more than I want to pay 🤷🏻♂️

[alltatup]

They are expensive, but I got a great deal on my second one. I bought five years ago; I don't know what the run now. Call them and let us know!!! I had some inheritance money and I needed an enclosed stealth system, so this was the way I went. If I lived somewhere legal, I'd love to have more room, but the two boxes are good for now.

[bboyfromwayback]

They definitely look sweet and stealthy! I built a hidden room in the corner of my basement years ago that I have two 2x4 tents in, one for the mom’s and the other to flower. If something like this was around then I would’ve went that route. Especially since doing everything myself to be incognito also meant carrying all the supplies in by myself. It was a pain in the butt at the time but it’s been well worth it.

[alltatup]

Your hidden rooms sound awesome!!! When I started researching what to buy, I knew absolutely nothing about putting together a grow room. I have mad respect for everyone who builds their own, but in 2015 I was 62, working full-time and not a builder. I was fortunate to have the $ to buy the boxes.

The first one was HID, and of course I'd have to unscrew the top and switch bulbs. The second one I got with the LED Cobs, 13 year bulb life, that made me happy. I liked it so much I replaced the HID ballast with the same thing and sold the old ballast and bulbs. Not having to fk with bulb switching was one thing that made my life as a Cannabis cultivator easier.

How long you been growing?

[bboyfromwayback]

Over 15yrs now. When our daughter was born I told my wife I didn’t want to ruin our lives buying a bag of weed so I decided to start growing my own. I ordered the light online and had it shipped to my parents house and still waited a few months to begin because I was afraid of the cops showing up lol. Some things do change for the better! Once the kids got older I built the room in the back of a large storage closet in our basement. It’s not airtight or anything so I grow in tents for easier climate and smell control but nobody knows it’s there except the wifey and myself. Looking back, I really wish I would have put a sink and a drain in so I could switch to hydro but oh well, nothing is perfect. How long have you been homegrown?

[alltatup]

It will be four years in July, and man oh man has my herb game changed from the 1960s!!! There is nothing in the universe like home grown, I worship it!!!! Yeah, the sink and drain nearby are indispensible for hydro, which I dearly love.

[bboyfromwayback]

Yep! What’s funny is I was doing LST and manifolds before I knew they had a name😂