Having troubles increasing my yield

Medicanman said:

I always manage to get between 1300 and 1500 grams per cycle but never any higher.

I'm running 4x1000 watt HPS in cool tubes. My room is 10x12.
I average about 90 grams per plant,
I've tried changing the height of the lights but usually leave them about 12 inches from the plant canopy.

I hear of these people claiming a gram per watt and I'm wondering what world they are living in because its different than mine. I'm not even managing a half gram per watt. I also replace my lamps every 2-3 cycles.

Any ideas of what I can do to boost my production with the lighting and space I have available?

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I had the same problem where i was stuck around 1/2 g per watt the entire time i used 1,000 watt hps in my flood & drain tables , i had 8 seperate 4ft x 8ft tables going at once trying to keep a dispensary supplied so i had to make changes , once i made a few changes in lighting my harvest weights doubled & thats not just big internet talk thats truth , now i harvest between 2 to 3 ounces per plant , 50 plants per 4ft x 8ft flood table with 1,800 watts of hps lighting per table , i pull 5 to 6 lbs per table which puts my gram per watt ratio around 1.5 grams per watt .

I Was getting around 1/2 g per watt doing the SOG system ALBFUCT taught me & had healthy grows but shit for weights so i knew it wasnt something a fertilizer change was gonna correct so i made big changes in one table at the advice of another grower doing SOG.

The changes i made were all in lighting , i replaced the 1,000 watt hps with 600 watt hps after doing a simple light meter test , at 12 inches away from the canopy i measured penetration of the hot ass 1,000's , then measured penetration from the 600's with the canopy from 1/2 inch to touching the glass & shit my pants , being so much cooler & closer to the canopy my light levels went up with the 600's .

I also switched from small focused type reflectors like your cool tubes to very large 30 inch by 34 inch reflectors , this allowed for a much wider light dispersal & also helped cool the 600's where the glass is cool to the touch , each 4ft x 8ft table has 3 large reflector 600 hps which leave every last plant directly underneath a reflector , the plants on the outer edges of the tables are normally the smallest at 2 zips each plant , the plants directly in line with the arc of the bulb are the largest & are between 3 to 3.5 zips each plant .

Having the ENTIRE grow directly underneath reflectors & the increase in light penetration from having the 600's right on the canopy
doubled my 1st harvest using the new lighting method , this method has pulled the same weights for the last several yrs now .

Oh one other thing , i replace all bulbs every other grow & am thinking of starting to replace them after every grow , the 2nd grow on the bulbs is normally a bit smaller .

panhead said:

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Oh one other thing , i replace all bulbs every other grow & am thinking of starting to replace them after every grow , the 2nd grow on the bulbs is normally a bit smaller .

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That seems awfully wasteful and unnecessary

st0wandgrow said:

That seems awfully wasteful and unnecessary

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Not when you do the economics , each table 3 bulbs at $35 each comes out to $ 105 per table & my 2nd grow is usually around a qp lighter than the 1st grow , not a big expense at all for gaining 4 ounces .

panhead said:

Not when you do the economics , each table 3 bulbs at $35 each comes out to $ 105 per table & my 2nd grow is usually around a qp lighter than the 1st grow , not a big expense at all for gaining 4 ounces .

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I don't notice any drop off from my 1'st, 2'nd' 3'rd, etc round.

$35 seems pretty cheap for a bulb. Lower end bulb? Maybe if you invested in a better bulb it would out-produce the lower end bulb and you could use it for longer without any sacrifice in yield..... plus you wouldn't be sending dozens of bulbs to a landfill every year.

st0wandgrow said:

I don't notice any drop off from my 1'st, 2'nd' 3'rd, etc round.

$35 seems pretty cheap for a bulb. Lower end bulb? Maybe if you invested in a better bulb it would out-produce the lower end bulb and you could use it for longer without any sacrifice in yield..... plus you wouldn't be sending dozens of bulbs to a landfill every year.

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I run 8 tables so i buy volume & get discounts , the only thing that counts with a bulb is its lumens , 99% of 600 watt bulbs are 90,000 lumens so spending extra $ on name or market hype is pointless , ive done the fancy $$$ bulb route & multi spectrum bulbs & the only difference was my wallet being alot lighter .

As for noticing differences in weight i take down a table once a week so its easy to see any changes however slight .

Landfill volume isnt my reason for growing so i dont worry to much about that .

panhead said:

I run 8 tables so i buy volume & get discounts , the only thing that counts with a bulb is its lumens , 99% of 600 watt bulbs are 90,000 lumens so spending extra $ on name or market hype is pointless , ive done the fancy $$$ bulb route & multi spectrum bulbs & the only difference was my wallet being alot lighter .

As for noticing differences in weight i take down a table once a week so its easy to see any changes however slight .

Landfill volume isnt my reason for growing so i dont worry to much about that .

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Not to split hairs, but the PAR rating of a bulb is what's important. Lumens are a unit of measurement (to determine the relative brightness from a source of light) relating to the human eye.

Whatever your reason for growing, there is no need to be wasteful. I really hope some noob doesn't read this and thinks it's a good idea to change their lights 50 times a year.

Medicanman said:

I've been wanting to increase my yields for some time now with no luck. I always manage to get between 1300 and 1500 grams per cycle but never any higher.

I'm running 4x1000 watt HPS in cool tubes. My room is 10x12. I am growing in 5 gal pots using Sunshine Mix4 as a medium. I use AN Micro Grow and Bloom, with Big Bud and Overdrive in flower. I mix according to the directions.

I've tried changing the number of plants up and down and it doesn't make a significant difference. I've gone as low as 12 and as high as 18 plants but the numbers stay the same. I guess a function of square footage in relation to lighting? I've tired several different strains including Northern Lights, AK-48, Cotton Candy Kush, Green Crack and Diesel Grapefruit. Strain doesn't seem to matter.

I average about 90 grams per plant, plus or minus. I clone from mothers, once rooted they stay in solo cups till they are about 10" tall, then go into the big pots until they are 24 inches tall before switching to 12/12.

I've tried manicuring, monster cropping and topping. No change in overall weight from when I just leave them alone. I've boosted the nutrient and PPM levels up to where its just starting to burn the tips, and I've also cut it back to half strength. I've played with a lot of the variables. I've tried changing the height of the lights but usually leave them about 12 inches from the plant canopy.

I hear of these people claiming a gram per watt and I'm wondering what world they are living in because its different than mine. I'm not even managing a half gram per watt. I also replace my lamps every 2-3 cycles.

Any ideas of what I can do to boost my production with the lighting and space I have available?

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I'd find away to get rid of the cool tubes....that alone will up the yields...
Yea you will have to work with the heat,but oh well,you know you can work it out..

here's one of the dinafem og's.solid little hard nugz but not much for a donkeydick style but this is my first go through her.You can see my "NO TOP" style This was a test to see how well she did without topping,but I ve topped all of the clones through this strain.

genuity said:

I'd find away to get rid of the cool tubes....that alone will up the yields...
Yea you will have to work with the heat,but oh well,you know you can work it out..

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why get rid of the tubes?

st0wandgrow said:

Not to split hairs, but the PAR rating of a bulb is what's important. Lumens are a unit of measurement (to determine the relative brightness from a source of light) relating to the human eye.

Whatever your reason for growing, there is no need to be wasteful. I really hope some noob doesn't read this and thinks it's a good idea to change their lights 50 times a year.

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Especially the HPS...2 years and still blowing it up!!!kidding 2 years maxx although you could prolly do ok til it blows.

Tis all about the veg in the end, though there is other solid advice given like remove the cool tubes, I don't agree with AN but that is another story and not the problem, anyway, click this link and scroll till ya see a homer bucket then just follow the pics,

https://www.rollitup.org/t/giving-defoliation-during-flower-a-try.839655/page-85

on the next page I posted several pics from the grow because someone didn't believe it. This is a champion tomato grower trick and it does increase veg time (I went 9 weeks) but I pulled a lb from 2 plants under 2 400 watt lights and I was in sunshine mix #4

If you're doing the math grams-per-watt and are using 1,000w bulbs, the math will not work in your favor. Going with 600w with the lights somewhat closer will increase yield slightly...or at least make your gpw better.

Unless I missed it, you didn't provide any pictures of your plants so advice in that regard is tough. Are you buds dense of airy? I'm of the belief that a mixed spectrum of light helps increasing the density of buds and give better weight. I run a 400w MH with a 600w HPS and haven't seen a fluffy bud since.

Look up Uncle Ben's topping technique on here. It's simple and will give you four colas per plant. You can see examples in my linked grow journal.

Strain makes a bit of a difference too......rule of thumb says indica-leaning plants yield better (not always, but often) and finish faster.

The cool tubes are a recent addition as of two cycles ago. I was growing under 2x1000w HPS with 1x1000w MH in the middle to round out the spectrum. I had one "umbrella" hood and two normal wing reflectors. My yield was 1100-1300 grams under that setup. Again, same room, same plant count. So I added the extra light and my yield has risen but not the desired level I feel I should be getting.

I added the cool tubes because the heat pump was working overtime trying to shed the heat and barely keeping up with 3 lights, so 4 would have been a real problem in the summer. Enter the cool tubes.

I agree the cool tube reflectors are not as good as some of the other types, but I still think I should be getting more.

I can't afford to buy new ballasts to run 600s at this stage of the game. We might all be losing our grow licenses up here depending on the outcome of the court case in Feb so this current grow may be my final. Don't want to spend that money if its all going to crash and burn in 12 weeks.

I've been growing both indica and sativa dominant strains. This current crop has 10 of each. I've topped them once before the transplant a few nights ago. Again, yield is roughly the same regardless of strain. One takes a little longer in flower. I think I've mentioned I have topped previous grows and it seems to give me more bigger buds at the price of one huge cola. The weight is largely unchanged.

My top colas are pretty dense. The lower stuff is all airy. Anything from halfway down the plant is airy.

Here is a picture of my old setup vs new setup. I also keep a MH lamp for vegging. I switch it out to the HPS in flowering. Yes, I tried using the MH and the 3 HPS together. Moved them every two nights so everyone got a mix of spectrum. It definitely improved the uniformity from plant to plant but did not increase yield.

My bud quality has certainly improved with my changes and regiment. The big colas are bigger and denser. Much less stretching with buds all scattered up the branch. Again, the yields gains are marginal but a better quality overall.

And here is a picture of my old buds vs my new buds. Again, better overall buds but no big gains in yield, which seems weird because the buds are so much bigger. Its just more concentrated.

In that first pic,I would have went with netting,something like this...

I thought about doing netting but I was moving my plants around and it made it hard for me to get at them for watering. How do you manage that?

Here are two pictures of my current crop. They were transplanted on Sunday. There are 10x Ak48 and 10x Diesel Grapefruit

How many lights/watts are you running over that?

Medicanman said:

How many lights/watts are you running over that?

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2-600 over that space,with 6 plants in 7gal pots..

I use a water wand,when I do not feel like getting down-N-dirty..

And I find running all the same strain,at one time helps for sure...but that's obvious.

Thanks.

With a setup like that, is the goal to trim off all the leaf and buds that aren't directly exposed to the light?

How much would you yield and how long would it take, veg and flower?