Horrible yields

Wow, after waiting almost 6 months, 4 feminized death star plants in 7 gallon containers I ended up with almost 5 ounces. That totally sucks. It wasn’t worth it in my opinion and certainly won’t do that again. It’s good stuff but Im actually thinking do I even want to put the work and expense in it again. I was hoping I’d get 12-15 ounces. Everything was looking good, no issues at all.

Worth it imo. 5ozs of weed you know is good. Dispen price would be what 1500 or so. You made the investment so each grow will get cheaper assuming you are indoors. A lot of factors come into play especially with lights. My first gow yielded around 6oz and I was happy with that on 5 plants. Currently growing 2 Grape Apes and hope for 3oz.

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@Marijuana_dan Try using bigger pots.
I grow small on purpose, I don’t go through pot very fast. Some people do though. There are cultivars that are genetically meant to give bigger harvests, like Big Bud. There are others.
Good luck and enjoy.

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Agree… 1.25 per auto would be disappointing let alone a fem. But who knows what factors involved. Make some adjustments and do it again.

Definitely a waste of media in 7gal pots. I grow 3 at a time in 5gal fabric and that is more than sufficient to harvest a pound of flower in a 2x4 tent if trained.

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Exactly!! I feel like it was a waste. Not happy with 6 months of time and money growing it!!

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Never count your chickens before they hatch!. Lots of factors come into play when we are talking yields!, Quality of lights, Water, Air…,etc., Yet I guarantee you have learned from this…:sunglasses:

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@Marijuana_dan how did you grow it?

Autos are finicky about how they like their water and soil.

You can grow a pretty big auto in large or small pots but if you don’t have the aeration and loose soil they like along with bottom watering and cycling wet to dry they will not yield very much at all.

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I see so many brag about yields on these forums. I have yet to understand why one would need a pound at each harvest. How much does one need to consume daily?

I got 1000 into my grows for equipment. First grow cost about 166 per oz. Now the only cost I have in it is seed 10 bucks and soil 25 bucks. Electric 30. As far as time I may spend 10 minutes a day on busy days. Usually less. So even if all I get is 2 ozs it is only 32 bucks an oz. That makes it worth it. 40 years ago weed was running 40 to 60 an oz and usually included a lot of seeds.

Is it worth it? I think so. As I age I have lower expectations in life and take what it gives me and never wanting more than I need. Life is so much more simple that way. Stress is never good.

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@Lynyrdsky sometimes it’s just fun to grow a big plant and a lot of us like variety as well. I’m personally a quality over quantity guy but I still enjoy pulling a lb or more from a tent after a good grow. Then again I also grow for myself, my lady, and often give a lot to my other family and friends so I like having a lot around.

It can be pretty disappointing for a new grower to not yield anything close to what is expected which is understandable. Especially starting out with high hopes. Hell. My first indoor grow after they made outdoor illegal in my county was a shit show until I learned to dial things in. I think I barely got 2 Oz from some spindly stressed out plant and almost threw in the towel myself.

As you stated though, if you compare the cost of the grow with the current cost of cannabis even if you don’t yield what you expect you’re still saving money in the end most of the time.

Like here in my state and county it’s $300 an oz for decent bud. That’s not even the top shelf stuff that is going for $500-$600 which I think is ludicrous. Some shops even honey pot you. They have you smell and look at some display bud in a jar that’s pretty dank then sell you a sealed jar that’s just bunk. Getting over on you however they can.

It makes sense to grow as much as you can yourself because high yields can help cut costs too in the end. If you can grow a plant that gives you a lb and your average plant only gives you 2-4 Oz that’s a few less plants you’ll have to grow that year.

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Well spoken, I sure miss the 70s life was different

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If you go through an ounce a week, you need about a lb a cycle. Some people smoke once in a while. Stoners smoke an eighth a day. To buy top shelf bud in shop would cost me 1200/mo. If I can get 10-16oz off three plants I fell that is a good harvest. In some states like mine, you can only flower 3 plants at a time per adult. We have to maximize our yields if we want to stay legal and have enough stash till the next harvest. Anyone who invests in good genetics, proper supplies/equipment and that takes a little time to research and follow instructions can yield 100 gram per plant easy. There are so many good vids out there now about anyone can grow if they want. Its not like growing up in ashland Oregon in the 80s dropping bag seeds into moms potting soil and wondering why its not growing.

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You’re right. How are you measuring pH? A couple of years ago I was using a pH meter that had seemed to work the previous grow so I used it again and partly because I was inexperienced I hadn’t recalibrated it. Anyway I started growing in coco after that and went with General Hydroponics pH drip test kit and growing in 3 gallon pots got 11.2 from 5 girls. Very happy and I may be doing better on this years fingers crossed. Hell it’s a challenge like playing a musical instrument or learning to hit a tennis ball, the more you do it the better you get at it. But even when I sucked I liked what I had done, some smokable homegrown.

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I have a good quality meter, 7 gallon pots. The leaves looked good throughout. I used Puravida throughout the process like my growing store guy told me. That may have been an issue. I used recharge here and there and Cal/mag on most every watering because I used well water. Here’s a picture in the late flowering process and a cool pic of a bud that grew

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I spent $70 on seeds and it said I should’ve yield approx 11-15 ounces in a small tent. 6 months to grow, set up a scrog net, money in electric usage, lots of work put into it. I was going to give some to many friends, so yep it sucked and it wasn’t worth the 6 months and money I put into it. The growing process seemed like it was going well, that’s what I don’t understand. Oh well.

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@Marijuana_dan I see your issue. If using well water you don’t need to add calmag and those pura vida nutrients you used have plenty of micros. Seems like you kept your substrate ph more on the alkaline side and your plants weren’t accessing enough nitrogen and phosphorus to branch and yield a lot.

A quick tip for organic growing especially when using liquid nutrients is to only use liquid calmag when you have a visible deficiency so it recovers quicker before you top dress or amend to address it. Otherwise don’t ever use the liquid calmag every watering and feeding because it can increase soil alkalinity and slow the uptake of nitrogen and phosphorus or even lock it out in more extreme cases.

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Thanks, question for you though. I kept my ph at about 6.3 every watering. So, after adding cal/mag I would adjust the ph. You’re saying I should not have used it, even adjusting my ph afterwards?

@Marijuana_dan I’m saying you shouldn’t have used it even adjusting your pH. In organic growing the plants will usually only use what they need and the rest will stay in the soil and can cause pH issues if there is an abundance. Calcium and magnesium will increase soil alkalinity even if your watering and feeding is phd properly. Your well water will naturally be higher in micronutrients like calmag because it’s a natural water source and your Pura Vida nutrients have plenty of micros in them too.

Also, checking substrate and soil pH here and there is beneficial too. Water/feed pH isn’t as important as long as it’s in range because organic soil will buffer and regulate itself because it’s an advanced living ecosystem. Run off pH is just asking to chase your tail in organic soil grows so I never test runoff pH because it won’t accurately tell you what’s happening in the soil. To check soil/substrate ph you should use a good soil meter or do a slurry test and use a good ph pen.

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@Marijuana_dan it’s also beneficial to let the soil pH swing around in the healthy ranges. I try to maintain 6.5 myself but as long as I’m between 6.2 and 6.8 I don’t worry about adjusting it. If it drops under 6 though or raises over 7 I adjust it immediately to stay in healthy uptake ranges.

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Excellent advice! My God there’s so much to learn!!! Ok now I wanna try again lol. So what I’ll do is stick with using Puravida, no more Cal/mag unless there’s big problems. I’ll keep the ph in 6.5 range. It sounds like using Puravida throughout the whole growing process is ok?

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@Marijuana_dan I wouldn’t use the Pura Vida until you use up the nutrients in your base soil to avoid possible issues. So maybe don’t start using it until about week 4 to 6 from seed and just use it as directed. I looked into them and they seem like decent nutrients but I’ve never personally used them so I can’t confirm 100%.

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