tiny yield=EXTREMELY frustrated

I’m at my wits end with my plants and I was hoping to get some advice from some experienced growers.

For the past year I’ve been trying to get a supply built up, but my yield has been extremely low. I’m talking less than ¼ ounce per plant, usually white widow or skunk. I know this isn’t normal because I’ve had much better success in the past. The only difference now is that I had to move the grow room from an attic to a room in the basement.

I have 2 450 watt HPS lamps in an 8 foot by 5 foot growing area. I keep 8 females in there at a time. The walls are covered with mylar tarps to reflect in the light. Although there is no vent, I have a dehumidifier running that keeps the humidity around 40%. This basement has had past issues with radon, but I’m not sure if that would make a difference.

The plant foliage is green and seemingly healthy, with no yellow spots or burned edges. The buds are just very, very small. I’ve bought seeds from different suppliers with the same results.

At this point, I’m just extremely frustrated and would appreciate any insight other growers might have as to what I’m doing wrong!

Thanks!

Soil/Hydro? How far are your lamps/lamp? what kind of nutrients? 40% humidity but what is max and min temp? How long are vegging (with 24/0 or 18/6 light) the plants before switching the light schedule to 12/12? How tall are they when you switch? How tall are they at harvest? I dont know if Radon would hurt... Are you pulling fresh air into the grow area? Are you venting it out as well? Air circulation in the room?

Basements can get cold and stunt growth... lots of other things can contribute. I have 2.5 to 3' plants and yield an ounce minimum a plant...sometimes 2+. I veg under t-8s with 24/0 light till they are about a foot tall and flower on 12/12 under a 400w hps. I use MG grow and bloom nutes for now and flush the last two weeks with molasses. My light is only 12" from the canopy and is not an air cooled hood. I have lots of ventilation and air circulation also. Oh.. when are you harvesting? How many weeks into flower?

I think that plants hate you

You have plenty of light and the environment sounds ideal for growing. Even if you feed it no nutes at all you should see better results that what you have now, especially if you are using good genetics.

Clearly there is a hidden problem that i can not see.

Wish i could be more help.

wow that sux! i have no idea how with such a good and controlled set up how it could go so wrong.

Thanks for the input. I am growing the plants in soil, in 4 quart plastic buckets. I keep the tops of the plants about 6-8 inches from the light. I tried keeping them farther away than that but had stretching problems as a result.

I keep the vegging plants in a separate area and grow them under 24/0 light. I usually put them in the flowering room once they're about 8 inches or so. I've waited till they were larger in the past but it didn't seem to improve yield any.

I'm not exactly sure how cold the temp gets in the flowering room at night without the light on. However, my yield was actually better in the winter so it couldn't have gotten too cold.

I've started trying to air out the room about once a week with fresh air, however, before that I hadn't aired out the room with fresh air for a few months. I can blow fresh air into the room but can't really exhaust it except for with the dehumidifier.

I used to fertilize flowering plants with a 10-60-10 fert but I recently switched to a 10-15-10. They've gotten worse since then.

I don't know how many days I keep them flowering, basically I pull a plant when about 1/2 the little hairs have turned red.

The only other thing is that I am using 2nd generation of seeds that I bought (I let the males fertilize and collected and planted the resulting seeds). However, in the past I've had much better results even with plain sativa seeds.

I'm not sure what else I could be doing wrong. I'm starting to think the plants really do hate me!

SomeGuy said:

Soil/Hydro? How far are your lamps/lamp? what kind of nutrients? 40% humidity but what is max and min temp? How long are vegging (with 24/0 or 18/6 light) the plants before switching the light schedule to 12/12? How tall are they when you switch? How tall are they at harvest? I dont know if Radon would hurt... Are you pulling fresh air into the grow area? Are you venting it out as well? Air circulation in the room?

Basements can get cold and stunt growth... lots of other things can contribute. I have 2.5 to 3' plants and yield an ounce minimum a plant...sometimes 2+. I veg under t-8s with 24/0 light till they are about a foot tall and flower on 12/12 under a 400w hps. I use MG grow and bloom nutes for now and flush the last two weeks with molasses. My light is only 12" from the canopy and is not an air cooled hood. I have lots of ventilation and air circulation also. Oh.. when are you harvesting? How many weeks into flower?

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Your plants need to flower longer. If the hairs are only half red then that maybe your problem.

You need to date what day you put them in there and let them 12/12 for atleast 6 weeks....some strains can go to 11 weeks.

I just did a quick search for white widow and it seems they are standard 7-8 weeks flower.

You need to keep them for about 3 months in flower for them to reach full potential.
You will be shocked at how much wieght it will put on in the last 2 weeks.
And get some good bloom nutes. Try a carb booster for the final 3 weeks.

Thanks- I will try letting them bloom longer.
What type of blooming fert do you suggest?

I dont think your vegging long enough. You start flowering at 8" tall? I did that one time and got really small buds.

You should veg so they have at least 5-6 nodes.

I can say with 95% confidence that you problem lies with you lack of ventilation. It is important , if you wanted to raise a child you wouldnt suffocate it would you? They need to have the stale air removed from around them.

Flower for ten weeks. Buy a jewelers loupe. Check the trichomes , if they milky then harvest if they clear then dont. Buds can double in size in the last two weeks of flowering so u need to be patient. Buy an ounce from somone to keep to tide over till then.

You have to stop checking on your plants and wishing then to finish faster. Let them do thier thing .

Oh and one last thing..Ventilate!!!

as well as what everyone else said, which sounds right on the money....the air/ventilation is bugging me a bit. plants do use a good amount of CO2 to do what they do, if you dont have fresh air coming in then your plants are breathing stale air, without enough co2 to drive the calvin cycle.

you said you can pull fresh air into the room on a regular basis? do that, make sure you've got air coming in. I dont suppose it matters if the air leaves that much...but you have to have CO2.

^^ Just wanted to add that 10 weeks is more for sativa type plants. Indica need less , but sounds like your not doing enough for either. I.e Pure power plant takes ten weeks, according to seed bank, i gave it 11 , buds are like babys arms.

el1 said:

You should veg so they have at least 5-6 nodes.

I can say with 95% confidence that you problem lies with you lack of ventilation.

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haha, damn, beat me to it

I agree with the others that you have a ventilation problem. Plants need fresh air and the stagnant air pulled out. Pretty much constantly. One 500 cfm fan exhausting the room would do it as long as you could get some passive intakes. Be creative. you can hook up the exhaust fan to existing house ducting or expel it through a basement window. Use a carbon filter before your fan to scrub the smell if venting outside. Pull fresh air from somewhere else, even if its from within the home itself. Your plants probably had better ventilation in the attic. Too much heat can also cause stunted growth. Get a temperature gauge that reads current, max and min. They usually do humidity too. no less than 68 at dark and no more than 85 with the lights on to make them happy. Also, you are definitely pulling to early. I start my two week flush when half the hairs are red. The last two weeks use just water with 1tbsp molasseses per gallon only. They will put on more weight.

So there ya go....we now expect 20 lbs from you within 6 months.

heidileigh said:

I am growing the plants in soil, in 4 quart plastic buckets.

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You might wanna get some bigger buckets also.

I was just reading that bucket size and I was waiting to see if anyone else questioned it. Minimum....3 GALLON bucket
Vannette

vps said:

I was just reading that bucket size and I was waiting to see if anyone else questioned it. Minimum....3 GALLON bucket
Vannette

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I doubt pot size is the real problem. I grow 3ft trees in 1 gl pots. I think the pot-size thing is BS.

Bigger pots and longer flowering time.

Only going by your description, it appears you need better ventilation. CO2 is a very important ingrediant and if you are not exchanging your air 2-3 times a minute depending on room size, that would be a big red flag. Once a month seems a bit to long IMHO.