Max Yield Equation

Nice Ledcfl ^^^^. I knew all my reading might turn up something useful one of these days. However, I didn't like the expected motor life of 1000 hours on the Vickerman stand. Any heavy duty motors out there in your research?

RickWhite said:

I'm thinking that given a set number of plants, one should grow these plants to fill as much square footage as possible since it will be the square footage of canopy that determines yield.

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I agree whole heartedly.

So after briefly looking at all these posts I decided to post my setup. I have a "5x5" tent with a 1000 jibbawatt light. I run 36 clones in 3 gallon buckets which fits perfectly. I lollipop and FIM. 4 weeks veg and 8 in flower and I use Supernatuala grow Tera for veg and bloom terra for flower Also use Mykos and PH Down and maybe one or two other nutes depending on what they require. I pulled 40+ ounces of blue mazar out of the last and expect to be at close to 60 ounces of trainwreck on this one. Best I have ever done was 52 ounces I am always improving my yeild (mostly) I would be curious to see if anyone else is archiving similar results anywhere and what strains.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^nice

RickWhite said:

OK, it seems like I'm not doing a great job of getting my point across.

I don't care how many g/W I'm getting and I don't care how many lights I run. This thread isn't about that.

The only question that we are concerned with here is how to get max yield from a given number of plants. My answer to this question is to grow the plants as wide as possible and use as much space as possible.

My reasoning is that bigger plants give larger yields and that the most productive phase is vegetation. See, if one is illegally growing, that person wants to keep electrical use low and maximize yield by Watt and/or by growing area. To do that you grow many small plants.

If one is doing a legal grow and needs to stay with say 24 plants, the game changes. What I am considering is a 2'X2' area per plant - so 12 plants would take up a 4'X12' area. The plants would be topped so they don't get too tall and they would be illuminated by 2 X 600W HPS on light rails. I love the light rails because if you turn the reflector perpendicular to the rail you get massive canopy penetration from the infinitely changing angle of the light.

Anyway, this method will give a 48 sq ft canopy as opposed to say a 12 sq ft canopy for small plants. That is 4 times the yield from the same number of plants. In exchange, this will cost about 3 X the electrical (given the larger veg light). And we will not lengthen our growing time either, because when on plant restrictions one must wait to take clones.

So, in the end, you get 4 times the yield, burn 3 times as much electricity, and you get rid of 3 weeks of down time. The only thing you need is a very large growing area and the ability to burn through a decent amount of electricity.

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I feel that doing a large 6 ft vertical scrog and giving each plant 3×6 ft with vertical lighting will maximize production from each plant. I am in process of building a shop so I can have raised ceilings and this will be my setup 8-9 week veg strain dependent.

I completely agree with the whole idea of canopy has a lot to do with yeild. That's what its been about for me since the beginning. I've been experimenting over the last few months with all sorts of different grows. I scrogged some flood trays. I grew in soil,dwc buckets,straight ebb and flow table. Now I've got a 4 site undercurrent and a flood tray going. Always under 600's I've had 8 oz plants 1. Oz plants. The results were always good but can always be better too.
My long winded poiont is that the biggest factors that changed were 2 things. I fiund the method and nutrients that works for me and my schedule. And most of all my skills have dramatically improved. There's no one way. Try them all until you find what works best for you. If you are serious then you'll figure it out. Don't limit you're self buy equiptment. With practice you can definately pull 1lb+ with a 600 hps.my goal is 2.

RickWhite said:

In MI you are limited to 12 plants per card and 5 cards per care giver. Plus, if you have a card your self it comes to 72 plants. We have no other restrictions but must grow under lock and key - no outdoor grows. Also, electricity is about $0.09 per KWH so it is relativly cheap.

But anyway, I am interested in hearing opinions about this formula for max yield. Again, I do believe that if one can grow as many plants as they wish, small plants wall to wall gives the best yield. But if you are limited to 72 you will want to make 36 as big as you can with the other 36 on deck.

What do you think?

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Michigan's laws on plant count are awesome but you're forgetting to mention what ruins it all, the 2.5oz. only of dry material. How does that work? I can have a gazillion plants growing and i'm all good but as soon as i'm trimming 3 or 4 oz. i'm illegal? It doesn't make sense. They need to change that.

That is section 4. In section 8 it says that you can have an uninterrupted supply.

Drascious420 said:

I completely agree with the whole idea of canopy has a lot to do with yeild.

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This is true but sea of green is the best because the entire canopy is terminal bud. HygroHybrid is pretty much as good as you're gonna get with a 5x5 scrog. Unicloner smashes his yield with that sog setup above but that plant count is too scary for most people.

Magnetar said:

I don't know which way is the best, but I know my way works best for me.
Genetics is the key, without that you won't yield very much compared to me.
We searched for decades to find the super females and we found them.
We clone the best of the best and keep only the fastest growing and most potent and tastiest clones.
Your strain must finish at 8 weeks of flower so the next crop can rotate through the flower room on time.
Hydroponics grows 3 times as fast as soil and CO2 adds another 30% more to that.
The strain you grow has to be able to take massive doses of nutrients without burning.
Your lighting has to be the right kind and very intense.
Your clones must be able to take the heat without burning.
90% of the plants out there would fry if I tried to do what I do to these plants.

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You said you searched for decades and found the super females....Would you mind sharing your findings?

skoobie dew said:

Sorry I meant to say California State Guidelines. In some places you can have more than the 6 or 12 rule http://www.canorml.org/prop/local215policies.html


Expect to get one lb per 1000watt light per eight weeks in flower on a good grow(this doesn't count energy used in veg). You can get 2+ lb per light if you are lucky or have a lot of experience, but it's unlikely. IMHO you need about 1/4 the number of lights vegging as you do flowering. I don't personally know anyone who gets 3lbs per 1000 watt light, even using no glass on a vertical grow. It might be possible, but I don't believe it is practical, at least not on an eight week strain non perpetual garden.

What you can do is grow really big plants in soil! Your only limitation will be height. Just grow your plants to 1/2 to 1/3 final size (depending on strain and conditions) and use lateral lighting from vertical lights between plants. It's really going old school.

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You can't get 3 lbs with 1000w but you CAN with 1500w vertical. I have seen it done with my own eyes and it may not be my preferred way to do things the proof was in the pudding and I was shocked.

Thecouchlock said:

You can't get 3 lbs with 1000w but you CAN with 1500w vertical. I have seen it done with my own eyes and it may not be my preferred way to do things the proof was in the pudding and I was shocked.

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you can get three lbs with one 1000w light, it just takes a little know how and a constant eye. i have pulled 3+ myself before and dont average far off from that now in a 5x5. call it BS if u like but im for real

That's quite a yield sounds like you have it going on ! Any tips for the rest of us ?

Native Humboldt said:

That's quite a yield sounds like you have it going on ! Any tips for the rest of us ?

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Absolutly my friend. First i will say that my teqnique has been adopted and modified from a close friend who has done it by trial and error for many years and i have added a few tricks to my arsenal via the same method. I am slowly working on a start to finish grow journal to show exactly how i do it. I would say the biggest factors are your light, the strain, figuring out what your girls can and cant take for nutrients and how much time you take to max out the potential of the combination. I used to top them out but my last couple i have FIM'ed and have been seeing great results. i start in 1 gallon pots and at two weeks of veg i transplant into 3 gal pots and use MYKOS between the new soil and existing roots. i also losen the roots with my hands .I only fill the 3 gallon pots about 75% full and about 5 days before i cut the light back i lift the plant out of the bucket and add more soil and MYKOS to the bottom and place the plant back in the container(now the 3 gal pot is full) i use a sunsysytem hood with a magnetic switchable ballast and a Hortilux super HPS LU1000B/HTL/EN 1000 watt light to flower and M1000B/U/BT37/HTL/ES Metal Halide for veg. best bulbs ever and they make all the diffrence. I use several diffrent types of nutrients as well and mostly just the supernatural brand. i try to keep it simple with Gro Terra and Bloom Terra and superthrive and superbloom, and i also make sure my water ph is 6.5 by using PHDown. I clean off any small undergrowth to promote the top growth, i am using a 5x5 tent with 36 plants and a 30 day veg and a 60 day flower these are from my last pull which was 40+ ounces and was with 32 plants that were not a huge producer to begin with. i am on the constant hunt to produce metter qualitty and quantity

View attachment 2927103View attachment 2927104pics from today

Thats the same thought process ive had for a while. im in michigan with one patient plus my self so i can have 24 total. I run 12 in flower and 12 in veg at all times. I run 9 week cycles. so it ends up being i harvest 2 plants one week 1 the next 1 the week after that then the cycle repeats. 211211211 i break it down to early mid and late veg/bloom. the extra veg time allows me to build a nice even canopy for each plant with plenty of lolloping going on the whole time after i take clones from the plants i need.

In my area in cali we can run 99 plants and 4000 watts per card. The most that I have pulled is a little over 2lbs per light which is plenty to get through those rainy days. How are the medical laws in Maine? I like your set up UC looks really good!!

I just pulled one pound with 24plants about a 18inches under two 600 in a room 4x8 believe there in 2gallon pots in perlite hydro drip feed recycle system I Bella messed up some how I've done 24plantssoil I believe under 2000w and got almost 3pounds with co2 wonder where I fucked up !!!!

See

locs14 said:

I just pulled one pound with 24plants about a 18inches under two 600 in a room 4x8 believe there in 2gallon pots in perlite hydro drip feed recycle system I Bella messed up some how I've done 24plantssoil I believe under 2000w and got almost 3pounds with co2 wonder where I fucked up !!!!

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sounds pretty reasonable to me......pics look 'bout right to me.I've never honestly achieved big numbers either.I blame it on the strain.