I need advice on maximizing yield.

marijuana.john.doe

Well-Known Member
I was also just peaking at this other post about Bushmaster and Gravity. Any idea what happens when you use them during the first weeks of flowering when plants are supposed to be stretching vertically?
 

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
Hey Jon Doe,
ebb and flow rocks and I love it but its hard to run perpetual in there as all the plants get the same nutrients. I guess you could kind of do it by just keeping a nice even bloom nute concentration. The better way would to be have several small trays. I built my own ebb/flow tables and it was stupid easy. plywood, 2 x 4,s , a harbor freight tarp, and a couple of the drainage fittings. You can built it to whatever size/shape you need. Smaller tables also mean small rez which is a little easier in terms of switching out, etc.
 

dlively11

Well-Known Member
Hey man thank you so much for the taking the time to respond to my post. For now I will certainly be shortening up those plants and try to get about 4 colas from each. Will continue lollipopping but judging from what you say I should just go ahead and chop anything that's not going to produce larger buds (my current plants are about to receive more bottom branch chopping, correct me if i'm wrong). As you can see by my new clone area i'm moving in the direction of hydro, less back breaking work for sure. I'll be doing some more research into Ebb and Flo but am currently going to stick with soil, need to use up what i've got.

So here are my concerns. I've got a number of strains and jacking them all into a single system seems like a risky move with height and what not. I also run a perpetual garden chopping about 15 plants a month. Can I run perpetually with a hydro set up like this? Can I just pick up a plant from it's slot in the veg tent and drop it right into an opening in the flower room? If I could DRAG AND DROP that would make me change over tomorrow. Ok last question. So you're saying it's ok to top these girls within the first three weeks of flower? So I put them in, they stretch, and I top as they stretch to create more shoots and keep them low? Either way thanks for the free education + rep for being a pimp!
No problem and happy to help give you some ideas. Yes you can drag and drop from veg to bloom in hydro. I do anyway. I use 5 inch pots. Wait do you mean for the nutrients ? So you have 15 plants finishing at a time every 4 weeks but have about 30 plants in bloom. What is your total bloom area? You could go with a couple smalle trays if space is limited , they make a nice 2X4 tray and you could use two of them allowing you to change your nutes as needed. For the topping I dont do any topping at all. I chop side branches and larger leaves to keep the plants more uniform and to produce large colas. Kind of like making a Bonzi tree. If you space permits more colas then either go with more plants or you could top them very early on in veg to create multiple colas as you mentioned. Having larger colas leaves a lot less small buds that arent very useful.
 

dlively11

Well-Known Member
I was also just peaking at this other post about Bushmaster and Gravity. Any idea what happens when you use them during the first weeks of flowering when plants are supposed to be stretching vertically?
Sorry you had to see some of that. Gravity is for later bloom to help pack on weight. Bushmaster will stop the stretch dead in its tracks. I love the stuff. Even im hydro if you have some plants bigger then others which you always do, you can just dip the tall plants in a gallon bucket mix of the stuff so you dont treat all the plants but rather the ones you want . I just did 4X8 tray 4 weeks ago with the stuff for almost a week at a low dose and man they totally stopped stretching. All my very stretchy strains only grew a another 1-2 inches in the next couple weeks. Plants also went to bloom faster and seems to have knocked a good week of the whole cycle. Really amazing stuff IMO. Little goes a very long way.

PS, imagine never having to buy soil again .... Hydroton is sweet. I just started playing with putting a couple bags of hydroton in the flood tray. I drileld out a bunch more small holes in my 5 inch containers so the roots could really get into the bed. The layer is only 2-3 inches deep but really helps. The roots shoot right in and just helps to give you a larger root mass for plants they may be able to use it.
 

maps84

Well-Known Member
First thing to maximize yield is to give your plants the very best environment possible. 1.3 oz per plant for a SOG is a really good goal if flowering from clones. You could benefit from improving the environment like upping the humidity from the current 30%, also by shortening your vegetation period to 2 weeks and make a more effective rotation, at the end you save nutes, time and get more bud. Given you've already mastered cloning which is a must, you could take cuttings from a flowering plant up to the start of the 4th week and set another flowering room without the need of mother plants meaning more harvest per year. If plant count is a factor then SCROGing instead of SOG would be your best choice. Additives like Voodoo Juice or Liquid Karma which increase root mass are excellent too.

First thing to do is having a stable grow medium and temperatures for night and daytime right. They love it at 28°C and 50% RH during day and 19-22°C @ 60 RH at night for much strains.
- If you ought'a train them then make sure the pressure points never rest in the plant especially after week 4 of Flowering.
- MJ also likes lots of air and the first goal to accomplish is having all leaves moving and controlling the humidity under the canopy.
- if not using CO2 air enrichment your exhaust should be able to exchange the air in the room every 5 minutes. If not you can run it sealed and exhaust 4 times a day or even less depending on how good is the air flow in your garden.
- MJ is proven to grow efficiently under a wide range of nutrients, so what really translates into more yield is how close can we get to replicate its natural growing environment
- Pest control, Regular Feeding schedule and a clean grow room is necessary. If you're lazy, you're plants will be too.
- Finally you have to bypass natural selection and find the best candidate. Breading techniques are not only fun to mess with but render a lot of experience to the artisan grower.

This may seem like newbie quotes, but in reality to "keep it simple" is the hard thing while trying to recreate or even enhance the way this plants grows in the wild-

Hope this somehow helps
 

marijuana.john.doe

Well-Known Member
No problem and happy to help give you some ideas. Yes you can drag and drop from veg to bloom in hydro. I do anyway. I use 5 inch pots. Wait do you mean for the nutrients ? So you have 15 plants finishing at a time every 4 weeks but have about 30 plants in bloom. What is your total bloom area? You could go with a couple smalle trays if space is limited , they make a nice 2X4 tray and you could use two of them allowing you to change your nutes as needed. For the topping I dont do any topping at all. I chop side branches and larger leaves to keep the plants more uniform and to produce large colas. Kind of like making a Bonzi tree. If you space permits more colas then either go with more plants or you could top them very early on in veg to create multiple colas as you mentioned. Having larger colas leaves a lot less small buds that arent very useful.
Total bloom area is about 6 ft by 8 ft... 5 plants x 6 plants, in 3 gallon smart pots. 2 light rails each with a 600 watt hortilux super hps. Adjust a wing mediums with super spreader (I like to get the light right on top of those buds just outside the burn zone). I've been researching all day and have come to the conclusion that I will get two more 600's and begin Low Stress Training. I think everyone needs to see what this guy is doing. https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/369528-low-stress-training-lst-guide-23.html . I'm also going to give bushmaster a try to keep those unruly plants under control. Thanks again man
 

marijuana.john.doe

Well-Known Member
First thing to maximize yield is to give your plants the very best environment possible. 1.3 oz per plant for a SOG is a really good goal if flowering from clones. You could benefit from improving the environment like upping the humidity from the current 30%, also by shortening your vegetation period to 2 weeks and make a more effective rotation, at the end you save nutes, time and get more bud. Given you've already mastered cloning which is a must, you could take cuttings from a flowering plant up to the start of the 4th week and set another flowering room without the need of mother plants meaning more harvest per year. If plant count is a factor then SCROGing instead of SOG would be your best choice. Additives like Voodoo Juice or Liquid Karma which increase root mass are excellent too.

First thing to do is having a stable grow medium and temperatures for night and daytime right. They love it at 28°C and 50% RH during day and 19-22°C @ 60 RH at night for much strains.
- If you ought'a train them then make sure the pressure points never rest in the plant especially after week 4 of Flowering.
- MJ also likes lots of air and the first goal to accomplish is having all leaves moving and controlling the humidity under the canopy.
- if not using CO2 air enrichment your exhaust should be able to exchange the air in the room every 5 minutes. If not you can run it sealed and exhaust 4 times a day or even less depending on how good is the air flow in your garden.
- MJ is proven to grow efficiently under a wide range of nutrients, so what really translates into more yield is how close can we get to replicate its natural growing environment
- Pest control, Regular Feeding schedule and a clean grow room is necessary. If you're lazy, you're plants will be too.
- Finally you have to bypass natural selection and find the best candidate. Breading techniques are not only fun to mess with but render a lot of experience to the artisan grower.

This may seem like newbie quotes, but in reality to "keep it simple" is the hard thing while trying to recreate or even enhance the way this plants grows in the wild-

Hope this somehow helps
Ok I got you, nice information. Just a couple questions in response. Why is it important that the leaves be moving at all times and scientifically speaking why would I get a larger yield from upping the humidity?
 

maps84

Well-Known Member
The relative humidity of your grow room affects the rate of the plant's transpiration. With high humidity, water evaporates from the leaves more slowly thus transpiration slows, and growth slows also. With low humidity, water evaporates too quickly and the plant may not be able to absorb water fast enough to maintain an equilibrium and will protect itself from dehydration by closing its stomata. This slows the transpiration rate and growth also slows. Nothing wrong with 30%, you're asking ways to maximize so I threw in the idea Although there actually is a noticeable slowing of growth because of humidity only when the it stays at an extreme level like less then 20 percent or over 90 percent.
 

maps84

Well-Known Member
All the leaves moving indicates great air flow which is a key factor. Just by adding a 2 more blowers to my room I doubled my past yield, so was I ready to start thinking about Co2, not likely.
 

maps84

Well-Known Member
Total bloom area is about 6 ft by 8 ft... 5 plants x 6 plants, in 3 gallon smart pots. 2 light rails each with a 600 watt hortilux super hps. Adjust a wing mediums with super spreader (I like to get the light right on top of those buds just outside the burn zone). I've been researching all day and have come to the conclusion that I will get two more 600's and begin Low Stress Training. I think everyone needs to see what this guy is doing. https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/369528-low-stress-training-lst-guide-23.html . I'm also going to give bushmaster a try to keep those unruly plants under control. Thanks again man
If that's how you wanna roll it's an excellent choice, although there's a lot to consider, for example Heath Flooded tubes grow deserves a full read, it gives you lots of good ideas to push everything to the edge.
 

dlively11

Well-Known Member
LTS has its place and would work well for you I am sure. Personally I like having the plants being smaller and easy to work on. Easier to get yields with a SOG as well. LTS you need to veg a lot more and just isnt as efficient. I think you will get the highest yields the fastest with a SOG. Not saying you wont do well the other route but it will be harder and take longer to get what you are looking for IMO. Good luck either way
 

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
LTS has its place and would work well for you I am sure. Personally I like having the plants being smaller and easy to work on. Easier to get yields with a SOG as well. LTS you need to veg a lot more and just isnt as efficient. I think you will get the highest yields the fastest with a SOG. Not saying you wont do well the other route but it will be harder and take longer to get what you are looking for IMO. Good luck either way
High yields for sure with SOG, and really isn't an option for number limited medical growers. But one thing to think about is that flowering takes 2 months. Now my flower room is money and highly controlled but I can veg the next crop in a tent outside the grow room during those 2 months. Two month old hydro plants are BIG but it does allow for lots of trimming, training to get the just how you want them when they get their time in the flower room.
 

marijuana.john.doe

Well-Known Member
LTS has its place and would work well for you I am sure. Personally I like having the plants being smaller and easy to work on. Easier to get yields with a SOG as well. LTS you need to veg a lot more and just isnt as efficient. I think you will get the highest yields the fastest with a SOG. Not saying you wont do well the other route but it will be harder and take longer to get what you are looking for IMO. Good luck either way
I definitely agree with what you're saying. Just want to clarify why I've chosen this method, please point out anything that may seem off. I am sticking with SOG but going to make it a SOG of LST'd plants. My current operation works well in that by the time I pull a plant from the flower room another is ready to be placed in. The plants that are ready to be placed in are generally 2 ft tall. (This is why I end up with plants 3-6 ft tall) I can't put them in the flower chamber any earlier because the space just isn't there. So instead of vegging plants to be tall in the same amount of time I should be able to train them to be short and bushy (although unproven because I just implemented this yesterday). I have to stay at 72 plants or under but always keep it at no less than 60. So 15 plants in the cloner, 15 plants being low stress trained in a 2 ft X 4 ft Growlab clone tent with 6 lamp 4 ft t5ho. 30 + LST'd plants under 4 600 watt Super HPS on two light rails, 2 hoods per 6 ft rail in 3 gallon cloth pots. Make sense?
 

marijuana.john.doe

Well-Known Member
Do you think I could yield more and faster if I had like 40 + plants under the 4 600's and the rest vegging to about 6-8 inches? So lower yields but high density buds and cutting probably two weeks off the veg time? So grow in the cloner, root them in soil under the t5 then transplant straight to flower? Cloner to solo cups to 3 gal cloth pots. Or keep the current time scheduling just LST instead of letting them grow tall, only problem I see here is if plants get to bushy in the tent (this is the area with the most concern about space)... sorry to be reiterating this just trying get my thoughts out there.
 

dlively11

Well-Known Member
Do you think I could yield more and faster if I had like 40 + plants under the 4 600's and the rest vegging to about 6-8 inches? So lower yields but high density buds and cutting probably two weeks off the veg time? So grow in the cloner, root them in soil under the t5 then transplant straight to flower? Cloner to solo cups to 3 gal cloth pots. Or keep the current time scheduling just LST instead of letting them grow tall, only problem I see here is if plants get to bushy in the tent (this is the area with the most concern about space)... sorry to be reiterating this just trying get my thoughts out there.

Youd actually get higher yields most likely. LSTing to get max yield takes time to get good at. I think the SOG would be easier for you to get the higher yields you want. I went from bigger pants and LST to the smaller plants in SOG. If you have 40 plants all you have to do is get an ounce a plant for 2.5 lbs or 2 ounces for 5 lbs. unce a plant is easy with no training. I recomended this mainly for the yield and because you want to keep a lot of strains. With a higher number of plants and having them large LST or not you just wont be able to get the kind of yields you want IMO plus you will get a LOT more tiny popcorn buds.Take a look at that pic I posted in previous page which hass about 60 plants in it with nothing but huge colas sticking up. That is what you want to get no matter how you are growing whethers its SCROG, SOG or LST. That even canopoy of bud will get you the most output.
 

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
I would love not to train my plants. But I can only legally have 12 of them :( I typically shoot for 6oz per plant in scrog.
 
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