How to plan plant size appropriately for personal consumption

[GolfWeedGuy]

After my first grow I’m realizing that my monster plant is going to yield way too much and I will need to get rid of a bunch of the yield. It’s totally out of control. I have the monster in a 10 gallon pot.

I bought a couple mix packs and would like to have a little of each seed type. (I have 6 types of seeds) But I think I need to learn how to control the total size and yield of each plant before I try my next grow.

I’m guessing I need to have very small pots in the future. What size pot would be best in order to have variety of strains for personal use?

3 inch? 4 inch? 1 gallon? Etc…?

[mikes]

i would say 3 gallon, alot of people would love to have way too much, , i make extracts with my surplus… I would wait till harvest to see how much flower you end up with, but you can grow a plant as small as you like, many people grow several different strains with smaller plants. Im glad your having success at least with your 10 gal monster, you can also keep your buds good for quite a while with proper storage if you dont like concentrates like hash or wax…

[Mrb53004 (Mike)]

There is never surplus…by the time you figure out your grow schedule, size of tent/grow area, season to grow…when it is cured in Jars, easily lasts a year

[GolfWeedGuy]

Thanks Mike S, no clue about extracts, I do seem to like old school pot instead of wax or oil,. Don’t no how to make hash.

[GolfWeedGuy]

Hi Mike, maybe your right, looks like I’ll be buying a ton of mason jars and store as much as I can. That is once I figure out how to do the whole harvest, cure, dry thing.

[Mrb53004 (Mike)]

Drying: If the buds are thick, wet trim off the BIG fan leaves and some of the larger sugar leaves. If they are smaller and airy, either trim after they are dry or trim just the larger fans leaves.
A cardboard box will work…hang the plant or cut the branches and hang them upside down…usually on a hanger or string
Place the box in a cool spot, have a small fan operating in it. Best temps are around 65°f and 50-65Rh
I add frozen milk jugs to keep the temps down…water containers for Rh…even wet towels
a good dry takes like 7-12 days…make sure thy get air movement so no mold
after dry (dry is not crumbly dry but you can feel a little moisture in the buds). Trim the buds into quart size mason jars. Add Bovida Rh62% packs (the 8gr size), 1 to a jar. close. Open daily for an hour, jiggle around / shake a little, close jar. Continue process for a week. By then, buds should be dry but you will feel a certain amount of moisture…Then burp (open, shake) every few days, then once a week for about a month…then they are cured

[GolfWeedGuy]

Wow, awesome “Drying for Dummies” description @Mrb53004 . I will follow those instructions when the times comes.

[Bushdoc (Bruce Ishikawa)]

If you are in a legal state, you could always bag up some eighths, take them down to your local dispensary and give them away to customers in the parking lot. Sharing is the best thing to do with weed!

I am on my way back from my 50th high school reunion in a non-legal state with a bunch of addresses to send to after harvest.

[CurrDogg420]

I wise pothead once told me, “too much is always enough”.

It’s a very open ended question, depends on what your goals are and what your grow setup is. If you’re all outdoor, larger plants will allow you to stock up for the off season. If you’re looking for more variety, start more seeds. If you want the plant size more manageable, you can start your seeds a bit later, maybe around June.

My plan for next summer is to do 2 harvests. I’m going to start some Autoflowers in spring, and get them outside after we’re up to 14+ hours of daylight. Then around June I’ll start some photoperiod and get those outside by July/August when the days are back down to 14 hours.

Just trying to put some ideas out there.

[GolfWeedGuy]

That wise man sounds very wise indeed.

I like your thoughts here in terms of when to start growing things. I’m gonna try to practice that thought.

In fact, growing one huge plant of your favorite strain starting in apr/may and then 5 other strains for variety sake, starting in july/Aug, sounds like a great idea to me.

Break out the Mason Jars!!!

[Adcrag]

I like your plan. I’m hope to finish my 2 outdoor autos by Sept ? Then will start DWC 4 plant grow. Excited

[Mrb53004 (Mike)]

it is time to build the “CALENDAR”…
average 11 weeks for autos and min 6 weeks veg, 7 weeks flower for photos. The veg stage can be shortened or lengthened. Figure how many containers you can fit, grow time, harvest time, dry time, cure time and map it out so you have a steady input to match or outweigh your output. Nothing wrong with having SURPLUS for times of need / friends / disaster. Something almost always goes wrong. Do not forget to adjust for tent / indoor lighting unless you have two or more tents, then each can have its own schedule. Figure the 18/6 for the 6 / 7 weeks of veg and autos will prosper in that environment. When you get to flip time and adjust to 12/12, autos survive but ROI is reduced…a little, not really worth worrying about since they are such small returns anyway. They are for variety and quickness. With 7 weeks of 18/6, they usually only have a few weeks left anyway and that is not much of a difference. Work backwards (hint)

[GolfWeedGuy]

Great advice Mike, next grow I will definitely make a calendar. It’s a total guessing game for me right, I should have kept better track. I’m growing outdoors though so maybe it doesn’t apply, but I’m thinking over the winter I’ll do some variety indoors.

[Mrb53004 (Mike)]

I grow in and out…I have a tent outdoors…on my porch. I live in the SW desert (Vegas) so I get a full year grow. My struggle time is summer where we exceed 115°f for almost 2 months. I try to have everything FINISH by late June but this year the heat came early. I also plant sativa in the spring as they handle the HOT better…buds are airy / thin but potent. It is a good time for me to “seed”. I started my fall crop NOW indoors…My autos should finish up by Halloween and my photo’s by Thanksgiving. I will continue to germinate a “pair” of autos a week, a photo too. On the photo’s, I use REG so I have to do 2x due to sexing…males come with reg seeds, I do not like to feminize except for particular strains I truly enjoy (Acapulco Gold, BubbaK, GDP)…I like the variety of autoflowers and even do a SCROG of 1 gal cloth bags…like a dozen…My tent is 8x4 so I easily fit 24 1 gal on 1 side, 4 5gal and a 3/4 gal in the middle on the other side. I run 4 lights…a 640w, 2 vipers and a burple along with “blue” and IR/UV for terpes. Plan for killing off, losing x amount of plants and concern yourself on HEALTHY survivors. Too many growers overdo it (in the head department)…I like to harvest like half oz a week (if possible) from autos, 3-6 oz from photo…The wife can puff off half an Oz a week easily…pothead

[GolfWeedGuy]

Awesome description!!!

“Pot head”

I think I might order a couple autos and see what they do. I guess I’ll be buying a tent at some point and learn all about indoor growing. Who knew it would be so much fun to start growing stuff, lots to learn.

[DollarBill]

@GolfWeedGuy try this

[Northcountryguy]

Oh yeah, the thread we all needed until we figured this out.

It’s a balancing act, with a bunch of variables on the supply side, and personal habits on the other.

I really couldn’t honestly answer how much flower I use, because until I began indoor farming, it always depended upon supply availability and whether I wanted to use it up or not.

Nowadays I’m using more, but love NOT having to really pay attention. After fifty years of dealing with shady clandestine supply, it’s way different.

I’m almost ready to harvest my third crop, and even with some giveaways, I’m thinking one well pampered plant is all I need, and two plants Might Not mean twice the yield due to crowding. I’m thinking one well fed plant under good light with some nutes, it’s gotta be hard to run out of weed by yourself.

My vision, after a few grow cycles to get it stable, would be whatever a couple of quart jars of bud amounts to on hand when the next crop is dried and aged at least a few weeks. If I were to reach that level, where one fat ass indoor auto half grown on the stump, another couple of quarts minimum in cure, and one I’m working out of, I’d be set with enough cushion to cover a lost or skipped crop. I’m not trying to have five year old product hanging around. I bought and tried out once a silicone decarb box and oven thermometer. “Surplus” weed aging out (lol, such a concept) decarbed and extracted using alcohol, and concentrated to a potent extract or pure concentrate can be stored in dark dropper bottles indefinitely.

[Noddykitty]

Outdoor you want to roughly aim for a pound. It should get you thru the year.

52 weeks a year so:

16oz to a pound. 8/8th to the ounce.

160z x 8 (eighths) = 128 (weeks)

Then 128 weeks/52 weeks per year = 2.46 or about 2.5 eighths of weed per week for the year.

Adjust for generosity or if you burn thru more than that.

Maybe an extra oz for the holidays.

[NottwoodFarms (Nikki)]

This is the best kind of math ever!