How can I boost my yields?

[dec0der]

What's up growers?

New grower here needing some advice. This is my first indoor grow, I sowed seeds in ocean forest, 5 gallon fabric pot, 300w led, temps/humidity controlled in a 3x3 39" tent, ph water, always checked ppfd/dli/ and kept light @ 24" during the grow. Thought I did everything right for them to get to this stage, tons of trichomes, but the plants themselves lack yield. I know genetics plays a big role but I thought seeds from Fast Buds would produce bigger yields. These plants are 50 days old and I'm getting closer to harvest. I've never harvested before. After drying, I don't know how many grams i'll get, but from what I'm looking at its definitely not enough for my own consumption. This first grow, i grew only 2 plants. Next round i think I'm going to do 4.

My current watering is 1/2gallon for each plant every 2 days. Do they need more water? I use "recharge" and 1/2 dose of Flower Fuel when I feed., I also use cal-mag. I feed every other watering. So water one day, wait 2 days, then feed, wait 2 days then just water, etc.

How can I boost yields? What do you guys think?

 

[Gator]

Next time top your plants if you plan on doing a scrog,if the plants are photo you should have vegged longer, your tent is only 39" really??

 

[Gingerbeard]

Fast Buds are autos. Topping would cut the harvest in half.

 

[Gator]

Ok, maybe your temperature is too low, other than that I say get some photos and start growing them,then move on to auto flowers, sometimes they can be a bitch to grow

 

[Gingerbeard]

If you are a new grower, you grew some fine-looking dope. Reads like you did things right. But please accept my gentle nudge to your ego that you don't know what to expect other than what you've seen in pictures and had wet dope dreams about.
Next time, maybe play with nutrient dosage. If you grow four plants, you have good opportunity to make adjustments and see what happens.
About your light. A '300w led' tells us it is something like BrandX 300w LED. That does not necessarily mean it is a 300 watt LED grow light. What is the brand, or what does the paperwork/website/ballast/transformer/your personal wall meter say about wattage?
And, yeah. If your light was 24" away from your plants in a 39" tent... maybe 12" tall bag... that's a 3" tall plant!

 

[dec0der]

My temps are 82F during flower, in the day, and 76F at night/lights off. Humidity is always at 40-50%.

Here is the setup i'm using: https://www.mars-hydro.com/fc3000-3x3-grow-tent-kits

• Grow Tent -3.3'x3.3'x5.9' Grow Tent
• Grow LED - FC3000-EVO LED Grow Light

 

[Gator]

I don't grow a lot of auto flowers, but I am running 4 right now and they're doing pretty good, your welcome to stop by my thread and hang out

 

[Gingerbeard]

Hmm. That looks like a legit 300 watt light. Legit setup. Legit price.
Temperatures might be a bit warm, but you do with what you do with. Those are my summer temps. Summer grows are always less.
Might be you hit the nail when you said genetics. Getting a quick harvest with FastBuds is great but a quick growing plant will obviously sacrifice size.
If you do FB's again, can you fill the space with smaller pots? You might be able to fit 9, 3-gallon pots in that footprint. I doubt those plants need all the root space of a 5-gallon pot. Look into Sea of Green.

 

[Cougar672]

Looks like there are still a lot of white pistils, so I expect you have at least a few more weeks for the buds to fatten up. Your first grow looks pretty good to me, and you will enjoy that fine weed even more because you grew it!
I have learned a lot on this forum and there is good advice above.
I have grown many autos and my experience matches Gingerbeard's comments. The quick autos give a small yield. I've grown a few FastBuds strains, and while I was very happy with the quality of the product, there was a small yield. The most I ever got from a single FB auto plant was 61g dry. Additionally, they always took 2-3 weeks longer to get to harvest than FastBuds estimates.
I have had much better yield of excellent weed with autos from Dutch Passion, Twenty20 and Purple Caper, and for only a week or two more.

The first few weeks of an autos growth are very important, and I have found maintaining a VPD appropriate for early veg during this stage yields a larger plant with larger yields. If you had 82 degree temp with 40-50% humidity during this time, that's a VPD around 1.4, which is much too high and I find it stunts autos growth, which don't have time to catch up before they start flowering.

 

[dec0der]

Cougar672 I've been monitoring VPD since seedling stage. Once I hit flowering stage I lowered RH to avoid any mildew or bud rot. I was told when I hit flowering to lower humidity regardless of VPD specs. Being the lights are close to 100% power, they heat up the tent. So I'm stuck around 82F during day. I've got inline fan, and 3 oscillating fans in the tent to avoid hot spots. I'd love to have 60% RH but don't want to risk mold.

 

[dirtymike]

Normal Apical dominat grow. Looks like good smoke. Being Fast Bud it will develop "fast" as Gingerbeard pointed out. . I've grown fast bud genetics twice and they looked about like yours. 24" tall with a yield of 2-3 ozs. I would say genetics is the issue. Try a long running photo period (120 days) once.

 

[Going2fast]

Nice looking plants for your first auto grow. Congrats. They still have a few weeks to go and you will be surprised how much they bulk up. You didn't mention the strain or did I miss it? Fastbuds puts out some awesome stuff but a few duds as well.

 

[dec0der]

Going2fast they're from a fast buds mixed auto pack. From what I can tell, one is a sativa and the smaller one is indica. I figured to take a shot, so I get different strains to try.

 

[paintslinger78]

I’m not familiar with soil but I just finished a grow with a Fast Buds GG and lemon AK in coco under a 150 watt light. I used GH trio nutes and cal mag from start to finish. It was 13 weeks to harvest. The 70 days they give are misleading. The plant on the left looks like it has a while to go. I would suggest not trimming them as much next time and going with a 3 gallon pots. It seems like the less you mess with autos the better they do. Here’s a couple pics of my last fast buds.

 

[dec0der]

Got the USB microscope today. Not easy taking pics holding it by hand.

 

[Gingerbeard]

We aren't talking to you, fella.

 

[dirtymike]

Who was that mask man??

 

[Bluey]

You ask how to boost yields so in order of importance in my head see below.

1. Grow in coco will give you 20% more yield than soil
2. Go full hydro 20% more yield than coco
3. Grow photos and veg longer. Use a bigger pot. Top your photos.
4. Use a taller tent.
5. Temps are too high for flower. Start flower temps around 76⁰F and slowly lower to around 72 end of flower.
6. A 3x3 space should produce a comfortable pound and a bit without too much work.

 

[changeofpace2014]

I grow in a short smurf tent just over 3 ft high and have to train alot - I would stay away from the 5 gal pot or it will be a lot more work to keep them under control IMO - I use 3 gallon fabric pots and usually grow 4 pllants yielding around a pound..

Check out manifolding and super cropping "when you under estimate"plant vigor...