Dry yield from wet weight: a reliable estimate

Immediately after separating the buds from the main leaves and stems, you'll find that ~15% of the wet weight is indicative of dry yield, with ~3% variability.

Source: Green House Seed Co's Grow DVDs

Recently a certain seed company have provided several comprehensive grow videos of their strains, and took the trouble of weighing each harvest immediately after separating the buds from the main leaves and stems, and after drying for 2-3 weeks in a controlled environment. I was surprised to notice the lack of variability in terms of dry weight percentages from harvest to harvest.

Unfortunately you can't skip to the end of their videos where the weighing takes place so I took the time to watch them all and collect the data. Here are the results.

[TABLE="width: 500"]
[TR]
[TD]Strain
[/TD]
[TD]Wet Weight
[/TD]
[TD]Dry Weight
[/TD]
[TD]Percentage
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]White Widow[/TD]
[TD]370g
460g[/TD]
[TD]56g
67g[/TD]
[TD]15.14%
14.57%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Alaskan Ice[/TD]
[TD]1355g[/TD]
[TD]220g[/TD]
[TD]16.24%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Damn Sour[/TD]
[TD]910g[/TD]
[TD]137g[/TD]
[TD]15.05%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Diamond Girl[/TD]
[TD]1325g[/TD]
[TD]163g[/TD]
[TD]12.30%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Jack Herer[/TD]
[TD]1555g
420g[/TD]
[TD]234g
63g[/TD]
[TD]15.05%
15%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]A.M.S.[/TD]
[TD]1020g[/TD]
[TD]153g[/TD]
[TD]15%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Big Bang[/TD]
[TD]795g
250g[/TD]
[TD]110g
34g[/TD]
[TD]13.84%
13.6%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Arjan's Ultra Haze 2[/TD]
[TD]1315g[/TD]
[TD]236g[/TD]
[TD]17.95%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Average Percentage[/TD]
[TD]14.89% ± 3.06[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

I don't believe anyone can say they're overdried buds while considering the collective expertise of the company. I believe the popular guide of ≥20% needs re-evaluating.

GHSC's Drying and Curing method:

Dry the buds for 2-3 weeks in a humidity controlled environment, then cure in paper bags or cardboard boxes at 7-10C for 2-5 months, for connoisseur quality bud.

Click to expand...

To see whether this is accurate, I'm using a recently freshly cut cola (Big Bang!) that's been drying in my room for a few days (original wet weight of 149g):



I'll be reporting its weight loss over time and show you guys pictures of how it grinds at 20% wet weight (29.8g), 17.5% (26g) and 15% (22.35g). Thought this might help out first time growers (like me).

Cheers.

nice pic man...I never understood why people even weigh wet bud..it is what it is when it is dry, ya know?..I try to handle as little as possible before it is jarred or bagged.

Yeah me too, Corso. I felt compelled to look into it after trying to grind what I thought was bone dry weed. It turned out to need another 3-4 days .

For larger scale growers: a pretty convenient method of weighing might involve a digital hanging scale hooked up to a drying net. An idea worth sharing? I'll leave it up to the readers

EconomySleven said:

Yeah me too, Corso. I felt compelled to look into it after trying to grind what I thought was bone dry weed. It turned out to need another 3-4 days .

For larger scale growers: a pretty convenient method of weighing might involve a digital hanging scale hooked up to a drying net. An idea worth sharing? I'll leave it up to the readers

View attachment 2225089View attachment 2225092

Click to expand...

​and for the 2nd time...... i like, better than how i do it....... +rep