How to get a bigger yield.

I just finished my first grow and my yield wasn't very big. I'm posting here because if I posted in the newb forum I would only receive criticism on cfls. I could have had more light I suppose but I’m not sure if that’s quite the problem. I am just looking for advice on things to get a larger yield. more light, nutes, molasses. Any tips from pros using cfls. I’m simply not gonna go for hps or mh yet. I am just beginning after all

LSTing (Low Stress Training) or Topping the plant thts what i do i only top like 3 or 4 times max

IF you insist on CFL then try running a 18-12 cycle for your bloom, takes longer to finish, but better buds, less popcorn. Don't forget to start blooming with good sized plants, that too will increase yields.

Then its nutes, nutes, nutes, and maintain your pH. Figure out a recipe that works well for your strains. Pick strains that are bigger yields and easier to grow, see what people review strains and use their results to see if its worthwhile to run that yourself. Lucas formula + hobby level feeding programs from either advanced, GH, fox farms, etc will be a good base to start off from and figure out the 3-4 major parts of the blooming cycle.

My problem is I'm pretty lost when it comes to nutes. I did top my plants and i got 4 colas just they were sooooo small a nice sized nug but definatly not a fatty cola like I should've been getting

Just get some
A+B bloom formula
Open Sesame, Budzilla, Cha-Ching combo pack I think it is, is a basic 3 step in addition to the A + B to make each part of the bloom cycle yield. If you can afford it, liquid light is something great that also works really well, but is expensive to always use. Does work really well for making CFL work better. Also make sure your CFLs are 3500k for blooming, they don't need the blue spectrum as much as the warm spectrum.

ill try and keep this basic but this is what i do, nutes are organic chiicken shit for veging and bone meal for flowering easily accesible from local garden centre. for a bigger yield what i do is to harvest in 3 stages, top middle then bottom leavin about 10/14 days after each cutting.
so cut the first harvest leave for 10/14 days then cut the middle out etc you get the picture, i was getting 1 ounze per plant dry eight after doing this i got nearly 2 ounces. or you could try supercropping. pinching and training.
p.s ive also tried this method outside and works even better. much better in fact. also its worth mentioning cannabis plants dont like there leaves touching foreign objects and like loads of space, if growing indoors use tice the size bucket you have now.

i just switched from two and a half gallon pots to five gallon pots and that is all, and i can't believe the difference in yeild that i am going to get by making this one lil adjustment to my grow.. roots love room to grow and expand..

kackerot said:

Just get some
A+B bloom formula
Open Sesame, Budzilla, Cha-Ching combo pack I think it is, is a basic 3 step in addition to the A + B to make each part of the bloom cycle yield. If you can afford it, liquid light is something great that also works really well, but is expensive to always use. Does work really well for making CFL work better. Also make sure your CFLs are 3500k for blooming, they don't need the blue spectrum as much as the warm spectrum.

Click to expand...

2700K is what I've been reading from...everyone, just saying. I read that the plant doesn't use too much or rather, uses too little of the light from this spectrum (3500k).

Good environment...... good genetics,learn the strain until mastered.......

kackerot said:

Just get some
A+B bloom formula
Open Sesame, Budzilla, Cha-Ching combo pack I think it is, is a basic 3 step in addition to the A + B to make each part of the bloom cycle yield. If you can afford it, liquid light is something great that also works really well, but is expensive to always use. Does work really well for making CFL work better. Also make sure your CFLs are 3500k for blooming, they don't need the blue spectrum as much as the warm spectrum.

Click to expand...

Word, cept for the spectrum part, cfl goes to 2700, way better performance

racerboy71 said:

i just switched from two and a half gallon pots to five gallon pots and that is all, and i can't believe the difference in yeild that i am going to get by making this one lil adjustment to my grow.. roots love room to grow and expand..

Click to expand...

This is great advice racerboy.

However more light always means more yield. The more cfl's you can pack into your grow space the more you will yield, plain & simple. CO2 will increase yield. So will good genetics.

kackerot said:

IF you insist on CFL then try running a 18-12 cycle for your bloom, takes longer to finish, but better buds, less popcorn. Don't forget to start blooming with good sized plants, that too will increase yields.

Then its nutes, nutes, nutes, and maintain your pH. Figure out a recipe that works well for your strains. Pick strains that are bigger yields and easier to grow, see what people review strains and use their results to see if its worthwhile to run that yourself. Lucas formula + hobby level feeding programs from either advanced, GH, fox farms, etc will be a good base to start off from and figure out the 3-4 major parts of the blooming cycle.

Click to expand...

18/12? Where did you get that? And you dont want huge plants when your using CFLs because you don't have the light to reach all the way to bottom of the canopy.

to OP:Stick with a 12/12 when you flower. When you grow with CFLs you are always going to get less yield than someone growing with HPS but there are little things that you can do that increase it. Like everyone said in this post you need good nutes and of course toping/LST help. But if you get some nice CFL and get good coverage around the plant you can get a nice looking harvest. I will personally attest to the bigger pot theory. I have some plants in 5 gal bags right now and they are loving it.

robbzilla said:

18/12? Where did you get that? And you dont want huge plants when your using CFLs because you don't have the light to reach all the way to bottom of the canopy.

to OP:Stick with a 12/12 when you flower. When you grow with CFLs you are always going to get less yield than someone growing with HPS but there are little things that you can do that increase it. Like everyone said in this post you need good nutes and of course toping/LST help. But if you get some nice CFL and get good coverage around the plant you can get a nice looking harvest. I will personally attest to the bigger pot theory. I have some plants in 5 gal bags right now and they are loving it.

Click to expand...

...Who said you are limited to a 24 hour day, just because that's how our earth spins?18/12 is something advanced where you run 5 days (to the plants) for 7 actual calendar days. Plant doesn't know you slowed the rotation of the earth down (sealed room anyway right?)This allows for a 50% increase in the amount of light they get. You can increase the length of the day up to 24 hours of light and 14 of night (for some strains) and work around 38 hour day.

As long as you DO NOT BREAK the 12 hour night, you are fine, but you have to be religious about either changing your dial timer or just get a 7 day timer, and find a thread on this forum about which times are best. This is the same concept employed on a different note by light deprivation growers who have to induce 12 hour nights to get their crops to yield outdoors without caring about the season.


You are correct in saying larger root mass = larger yield, but there are other ways to achieve not only a larger yield, but a better quality one. But if you said and I will requote you :

And you dont want huge plants when your using CFLs because you don't have the light to reach all the way to bottom of the canopy.

Click to expand...

IF you said that, then what's the larger pot gonna do? More root mass = more stems and leafs that his light can't get to. End of the day is he needs to strip everything that's more than 3 inches below any level of canopy

$.02...

To be honest with you adding more light is the only way in my experience. CFL's do a fine job, but if you want better yields it starts with good genetics and using HID lamps. Also fine tuning enviroment helps along with previous growing experience.

And yes training the hell out of the plants using topping and LST with scrog will help.

kackerot said:

...Who said you are limited to a 24 hour day, just because that's how our earth spins?18/12 is something advanced where you run 5 days (to the plants) for 7 actual calendar days. Plant doesn't know you slowed the rotation of the earth down (sealed room anyway right?)This allows for a 50% increase in the amount of light they get. You can increase the length of the day up to 24 hours of light and 14 of night (for some strains) and work around 38 hour day.

As long as you DO NOT BREAK the 12 hour night, you are fine, but you have to be religious about either changing your dial timer or just get a 7 day timer, and find a thread on this forum about which times are best. This is the same concept employed on a different note by light deprivation growers who have to induce 12 hour nights to get their crops to yield outdoors without caring about the season.


You are correct in saying larger root mass = larger yield, but there are other ways to achieve not only a larger yield, but a better quality one. But if you said and I will requote you :



IF you said that, then what's the larger pot gonna do? More root mass = more stems and leafs that his light can't get to. End of the day is he needs to strip everything that's more than 3 inches below any level of canopy

$.02...

Click to expand...

Why would he need to strip everything more than 3 inches below? If you top/LST the plant just a little you can easly spread the canopy out. Really big pots don't mean you need to have huge plants at all. I use 5 gal bags but my plants are only 2-3 ft tall.

When you think about, it probably better to vegetate the plant until the plant is big enough. Then you top it, let it veg for another week and kick the 12/12 in.

asdf1, if ya do not want to give us much info or some pictures about your 1st grow then you are only going to get bone basic info on what is common for increasing yields! Any pictures of the grow, buds, anything?

asdf1 said:

I could have had more light I suppose but I’m not sure if that’s quite the problem.

Click to expand...

if your not sure about the problem, are you sure there is one? If ya need a idea about how/what to list as good info then look through the CFL sub-forum an browse the grow threads. Notice how most people input their grow set-ups, lights(time on/off), soil/nutes, water(just tap??), PH, etc.!

The info that most have already stated is good common things that can lead to larger grows/yields. Proper light saturation to me is the biggest tid bit of info I could provide, CFL Proximity To Foliage by Garden Knowm... it is even up in the sticky section in this very CFL sub-forum...


Have ya heard about the 7 P's ?

7 P's:
Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance!
Learn It Live It Love It!!!


btw... i know this is very common now, but if some people would use the sponge between them ears then they could of found that:

Advanced Search Criteria: "Increase Yield"
Search took 0.01 seconds.With a result of "39"!!!

Now I bet you could of found your info easily out of the 39 possibilities!

Good Luck with your future yields.

robbzilla said:

Why would he need to strip everything more than 3 inches below? If you top/LST the plant just a little you can easly spread the canopy out. Really big pots don't mean you need to have huge plants at all. I use 5 gal bags but my plants are only 2-3 ft tall.

Click to expand...

Do you use CFL? Do you understand anything about light penetration?

Quick refresher would show us why top growers will strip a lot off the bottoms of plants to get optimum growth without the popcorn that forms closer to the bottoms.

tommi002 said:

Do you use CFL? Do you understand anything about light penetration?

Quick refresher would show us why top growers will strip a lot off the bottoms of plants to get optimum growth without the popcorn that forms closer to the bottoms.

Click to expand...

No I just like to put cfl grows in my sig for fun. I really don't use CFLs, I use HPS bulbs and disguise them as CFLs. Come on man if you been around for longer than a min you know I troll the CFL forum because I GROW WITH CFLS.

Thats a nice little graph you have there and yes you are right. But your "quick refresher" assumes that our only light source is from the top. If maybe you did somemore research and reading my friend you would know if you grow with CFLs you must have....now say it with me......SIDE LIGHTING. Maybe if you took a min and looked at my grow in my journal, or many other CFL grow journals, maybe you would understand a little more about how to obtain optimum growth.