What Strain Has Highest Yield

Doobius1

Well-Known Member
I had a Black Widow that pulled 550 grams from a 600 watt. Scrog, rdwc, co2, sealed room. My biggest yield so far from one plant. Real potent stuff. Too bad it smelled like my neighbours cat pissed in the bag.
 

Jogro

Well-Known Member
Grams per watt is only a constant if everyone is using thowies. Lots of people here use 600s or even 400s. G per sq foot is different with different wattage lights. Sure, there are still other variables unaccounted for, but IMO G per watt has less variance than g per sq foot.

Of course we could just say G per sq foot with 1k watt light/grow time. But that's too easy.
All of this comes down to what exactly you're trying to measure or compare and why.

If you're trying to directly compare yield between strains, the fairest and simplest way to do it is to grow both sequentially in the same setup and just compare the yields per unit time. Again, with constant wattage and area, both these variable drop out of the equation.

If "huge bud" yields 30% more than "JoGro kush" per unit time, that should generalize across ANY setup regardless of the specific light, wattage, or area in question. That said, maybe some strains are a little more "light efficient" than others, to the point where increasing the light doesn't proportionately increase the yield.

If you want to be a little more specific so that someone NOT using your exact setup can know what to expect, then you could use yield per watt per unit time. That's probably better for internet dick measuring, since it controls for both the size of a grow and the flowering time. If you have to have only one measure, this one is probably the most useful, since it provides some sort of benchmark for yield for someone wanting to grow a given strain.

On grams/watt, of course larger lights are typically more efficient, but there are a lot of other factors that come into play, including (and especially) grower skill and grower style. Just knowing grams/watt isn't all that helpful unless you h

An expert grower with a 400 is still going to blow away a novice under a 1000 in terms of grams/watt (and perhaps even in overall yield), even though the 1000 watter is more energy efficient. Someone running a vertical SCROG setup might very well put up highly impressive gram/watt numbers or even gram/watt-time numbers, though this style of growing simply may not be practical for a commercial grower for any number of reasons. Likewise, someone running 4 or 5 different strains at once under one light simply can't expect to have them all optimized, the way someone running a perfect canopy of clones under the same light might.

On watts vs area, I agree that watts are probably a little better as a basis for comparison. Still, ideally, everyone growing under a 1000W is using roughly the same area, and people growing under smaller lights are using roughly the same amount of watts/unit area. So assuming constant/optimized lighting per unit area, yield/unit area and yield/watts "should" be proportionate.
 

Jogro

Well-Known Member
I've yet to experience a high yielding strain with intense potency or flavor and they usually lack one or both
Williams Wonder.

Pretty sure this won't "out potent" the elite OGs, but its definitely potent, and I think it will outyield them. There's a reason this used to be a top cash-cropper back in the day (and even still today):

 

Jogro

Well-Known Member
Right, because measuring the sun's wattage would be problematic.
I think sunlight is roughly equivalent to 500W PAR/square meter.

Obviously, its not appropriate to compare plants grown in three months cycles indoors under artificial light to ones grown outdoors for 10 months under sunlight.

Yes, its possible to pull multiple kilos of buds off of gigantic 20+ foot high sativa "trees". . .the issue is that very few people have the ability to grow plants like that outdoors.
 

ROLLING12

Well-Known Member
wouldn't also the light set up be an important factor? A light that can hit a plant from various angles and distances due to the plant's reflective surrounding can play a big difference in yield too, right? For example, if a plant is surrounded by a mylar sheet versus the plant's sides being obstructed by other plants... also whether a plant has been topped versus one that has never been, that can change the results dramaticallly also... And how close would you have the stems grow and flower from each other, would you want to make a tight bouquet or would you spread them apart as much as the light can get into the plant? What's the optimum ratio there?? They are so many variables that would need to be defined in order to really get to the truth... so far we have the time of the cycles, the wattage, the type of bulbs, the angles and distances of light projections/penetrations, the maintenance of the plant from fertilizers to trimming/topping/training, its air and water temps, the type of growing system like soil, hydro or aero and whether its a vertical, scrog or sog set up...or even a mix of these attributes; the altitude of the grow, and finally the phenotype of the plant if the strain has more than one. I think that's the answer but where can we get that information so we can ratio it all up together??? grow journals? independent study by help of subsidies maybe? ...Also, did any one experience and would like to share their thoughts on the liberty haze, tangerine dream and pineapple chunk from barney's farm, the zombie rasta from hero seeds, or the 818 headband aka sour og from cali connection? Are they really as dope as its marketing portrays them to be??? Thanks a bunch! Peace, love and harmony!
 

ROLLING12

Well-Known Member
Actually for indoors, i think what's lacking amongst breeders is a commonly agreeable set of standards used when divulging their strain data which would allow consumers to know what X g/m² actually means. We could say that based on a commonly agreed upon standards of practice, X g/m² means that a single plant has grown untouched at sea level (give or take 1000 ft), under 400W HPS/MH bulbs with 1 month in the veg state and flowered to maturity (we'll define maturity as when the first flower or bud of the plant has trichomes that have attained over 90% of its amber color) in a hydroponic system with basic fertilizers but no additives/nutrients added and no additional CO2 supplied. The EC and Ph levels during the grow should also be given with their X g/m² data. That should be the basis. Any other data should be an addition to this one. For example, if instead of using 400W, they used 600W bulbs, they should divulge their data specifying that they used a 600W bulb and that all else followed the common practice of set standards. All alterations from the commonly agreed upon standards of practice should be mentioned. All breeders adhering to these standards should have a defined logo that would make them easily identifyable as a trusted source of information about their particular strain(s). Here are some logo examples that I made which would do just that: TRUSTED STRAIN DATA.png safa data.pngSAFA DATA LEAVES.png
 

jessica d

Well-Known Member
ya i was thinkn that at first but i read it both ways so maybe he can elaborate on pheno and seed source and stuff.
 

Natural Gas

Active Member
wouldn't also the light set up be an important factor? A light that can hit a plant from various angles and distances due to the plant's reflective surrounding can play a big difference in yield too, right? For example, if a plant is surrounded by a mylar sheet versus the plant's sides being obstructed by other plants... also whether a plant has been topped versus one that has never been, that can change the results dramaticallly also... And how close would you have the stems grow and flower from each other, would you want to make a tight bouquet or would you spread them apart as much as the light can get into the plant? What's the optimum ratio there?? They are so many variables that would need to be defined in order to really get to the truth... so far we have the time of the cycles, the wattage, the type of bulbs, the angles and distances of light projections/penetrations, the maintenance of the plant from fertilizers to trimming/topping/training, its air and water temps, the type of growing system like soil, hydro or aero and whether its a vertical, scrog or sog set up...or even a mix of these attributes; the altitude of the grow, and finally the phenotype of the plant if the strain has more than one. I think that's the answer but where can we get that information so we can ratio it all up together??? grow journals? independent study by help of subsidies maybe? ...Also, did any one experience and would like to share their thoughts on the liberty haze, tangerine dream and pineapple chunk from barney's farm, the zombie rasta from hero seeds, or the 818 headband aka sour og from cali connection? Are they really as dope as its marketing portrays them to be??? Thanks a bunch! Peace, love and harmony!
Hey Dan Kone & ROLLING12, I need some yield calculation help...117 manicured, dry weight, grams, dried for ten days (55% Relative Humidity), placed in one quart mason jars this morning (for final cure) from one Medical S33ds Y Griega vegged eight weeks under one 150 watt Kessil Blue LED, 20/4; flowered in a seven gallon smartie sitting in a sixteen inch "Green Premium Saucer" under a 150 watt Kissel Magenta LED for eighty seven days, 12/12...So how do I measure yield?
 

Sir.Ganga

New Member
I need some yield calculation help...117 manicured grams, dried ten days, placed in one quart mason jars this morning from one Medical S33ds Y Griega vegged eight weeks under one 150 watt Kessil Blue LED, 20/4; flowered in a seven gallon smartie sitting in a sixteen inch "Green Premium Saucer" under a 150 watt Kissel Magenta LED for eighty seven days, 12/12...So how do I measure yield?
Divide you wet manicured buds weight by 5, this will give your dry weight at 20%
 

ROLLING12

Well-Known Member
I assumed that your grow area was 16 squared inches and that a 'smartie' is a jar, pot or jug of some sort. The g/W/m² calculations are based on your standards which are 2 wks in vegetative state under a 150W Blue LEDs for 20 hours a day and 12.4 wks in the flowering stage under a 150W Red LED for 12 hours a day, your yield is equal to 117g/150W*(1500 inches/256 inches)=117g/150W*5.859375=0.78*5.859375=4.57g/W/m² for the 14,4 wks of growth in a 7 gallon smartie. So that means that if you had kept the same environment for your plant (ie, light spread, light penetration, light reflection/angles, CO2 concentration, Ph and EC levels, nutrients/fertilisers, etc) grown in a 1 squared meter area, it would give you 685g of dry weight instead. Now you could add in the time unit also, the 14.4 wks of growth, to give you the g/W/m²/day. That would give you 4.57g/W/m²/(14.4*7 days)=4.57g/W/m²/100.8 days= 0.0453g/W/m²/day grown in a 7 gallon smartie. The relationship from veg time to flower time is still in the works however, I would need more data to provide a solid ratio for the latter answer. Having said that, this is the best of my calculations so far based on your grow standards. What do you think bro? You don't mind if I call you bro?
 

Natural Gas

Active Member
I assumed that your grow area was 16 squared inches and that a 'smartie' is a jar, pot or jug of some sort. The g/W/m² calculations are based on your standards which are 2 wks in vegetative state under a 150W Blue LEDs for 20 hours a day and 12.4 wks in the flowering stage under a 150W Red LED for 12 hours a day, your yield is equal to 117g/150W*(1500 inches/256 inches)=117g/150W*5.859375=0.78*5.859375=4.57g/W/m² for the 14,4 wks of growth in a 7 gallon smartie. So that means that if you had kept the same environment for your plant (ie, light spread, light penetration, light reflection/angles, CO2 concentration, Ph and EC levels, nutrients/fertilisers, etc) grown in a 1 squared meter area, it would give you 685g of dry weight instead. Now you could add in the time unit also, the 14.4 wks of growth, to give you the g/W/m²/day. That would give you 4.57g/W/m²/(14.4*7 days)=4.57g/W/m²/100.8 days= 0.0453g/W/m²/day grown in a 7 gallon smartie. The relationship from veg time to flower time is still in the works however, I would need more data to provide a solid ratio for the latter answer. Having said that, this is the best of my calculations so far based on your grow standards. What do you think bro? You don't mind if I call you bro?
Hey Rolling, I would be pleased for you to call me "bro". Wow, lots and lots of math..How long do you anticipate it will take the US Department of Agriculture and the cannabis industry to adopt Dan's (?) and your crop yield calculations as the new yield standard? FWIW

BTW...Since I am using LEDs don't you need some kinda PAR conversion factor to adjust for HPS utilization???
 

Jogro

Well-Known Member
Hey Dan Kone & ROLLING12, I need some yield calculation help...117 manicured, dry weight, grams, dried for ten days (55% Relative Humidity), placed in one quart mason jars this morning (for final cure) from one Medical S33ds Y Griega vegged eight weeks under one 150 watt Kessil Blue LED, 20/4; flowered in a seven gallon smartie sitting in a sixteen inch "Green Premium Saucer" under a 150 watt Kissel Magenta LED for eighty seven days, 12/12...So how do I measure yield?
LOL. Who is buried in Grant's tomb?

If your final manicured dry weight is 117g, then your yield is 117g (or 4.1 ounces).

That's pretty straightforward, I think.

If you want a ROUGH measure of energy efficiency you have 117g net harvest weight/150W grow energy for 0.78g/W.

This is how the internet horde does it, and at first glance roughly 0.8g/W is excellent efficiency for a small-scale home grow.

The problem with this "quick and dirty" measurement is that it doesn't count extra wattage for timer, cooling, or other systems you may have going, and more important, it also doesn't consider that you had really long flowering and veg times. Consider that in the roughly 5 months this one grow took you, you might have been able to do fully three runs of a fast strain from clone (EG green crack). Also consider that NOMINAL power draw of LED lamps is typically NOT the ACTUAL power draw. I don't know exactly what the TRUE draw is of your 150W LED lamps, but my guess is its NOT actually 150W.

The "Kessil H150" supposedly only draws 36 actual watts. If THIS is what you're using, and you managed to grow 117g, then you have a pretty amazing yield of 3.25g/W.

Can you clarify which model light you're using? Because if you are getting anywhere near that output with only 36W draw, I well may switch lighting systems!

If we want a better normalizing measure, in this particular case, the yield required a total calendar grow time of 143 days (56 days veg + 87 days flower).

Doing the quick math you had 56 days x 20 hours x 150W energy use for veg. That's 168 kilowatt hours of total energy for veg.
You had 87 days x 12 hours x 150W energy use for flower. That's 156 more kilowatt hours of energy for flower.

Total energy use for your grow was 324 kilowatt hours. So your best measure of grow efficiency is 117g/324KWH, or 0.36g/kwh.

I don't know how that stacks up compared to most grows, but that's really irrelevant. Its not fair to compare the efficiency of large commercial type pro grows with small "closet" or "cupboard" home grows where yield isn't the main consideration and where, in many cases, efficiency of grow has to be compromised for ease of construction and stealth. If you have the convienence you want, with easy temperature control, etc, and getting the yield and quality you want, this is great.

In terms of area, you didn't mention what your growing area size is, so its impossible to make any observations about it.

Dan Kone.
You can't compare LED yields to hps yields. With LED's you might yield 3 g's per watt, but still get half a pound off a 4x8
Why not?

If all you're interested in energy efficiency, or just to get a ballpark estimate of relative performance, I think its perfectly fair to compare yields of one lighting system against another.

Again, though, if you're going to do this, you really need to compare ACTUAL power draws of the ENTIRE system. EG a 400W hps typically ACTUALLY draws 440-460W due to extra energy use from the ballast. The Kessil H150 LED lamps supposedly draw an ACTUAL 36W, and there is no good correlation between LED lamp names and their actual draw.

But as you suggest, there is a lot more to it than simple g/w. Yield is not even close to the only important measure. Bud QUALITY matters do, and by most accounts you just don't get the same sort of bud density/bag appeal with LED as you do with HPS. Startup and maintenance costs are imporant: HPS systems are much more simple and inexpensive as an upfront investment, plus unlike LEDs they're user serviceable with ballasts and bulbs cheap and readily available. In many/most cases, the limiting factor to grow size isn't energy, its SPACE. So even if HID lights are less efficient than LED, if they can put out more yield/sq-ft, they may be a better choice.

In other words, if you can double your yield going from say a 100W LED to a 400W HPS in the same space, it will probably be worth it. . .even though the HPS draws four times as much power!
 

Jogro

Well-Known Member
Hey Rolling, I would be pleased for you to call me "bro". Wow, lots and lots of math..How long do you anticipate it will take the US Department of Agriculture and the cannabis industry to adopt Dan's (?) and your crop yield calculations as the new yield standard? FWIW

BTW...Since I am using LEDs don't you need some kinda PAR conversion factor to adjust for HPS utilization???
Again, LOL.

I "get" what you're doing here.

Seriously, can you tell me exactly which lamp you're using? How big was your plant when you were done with it, and roughly what is the size of your grow space?
 
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