In the following article, I'll be referring to plants grown indoors, hydroponically, with MH / HPS light.
One of the most common questions I hear is, "How long do I need to veg in order to get X ounces?" The direct answer is: It depends on how fast you can grow your plant! No one wants to hear that answer, so I will try to demonstrate / estimate some plant sizes, and how you can guesstimate your yield. In addition, I'll demonstrate vegetative growth rates, as grown in my "simple hydroponics" thread. The TWO top ways to increase yield, are veg time, and light. The brand of nutrients, is about 5th on my list.
In previous posts, I've talked about how doubling veg time (from seed or clone) can triple yield. As a general estimate, adding two weeks of vegetative growth time, will double your yield. This levels off a bit (when we get over a pound), indoors due to height limitations).
In the past, I've grown 1 ounce plants, 2 oz plants, and so on, all the way up all the way to 20oz indoors. I've gotten pretty good at estimating final yield before flower. However, your results will vary, based on grow method, strain, and light. So let's look at one plant:
This plant started from a clone, cut around June 1st. (the one on the right)
After two weeks of rooting time, plus two weeks of vegetative growth time (total one month), we have a little plant with nice growth. At this stage, some growers will go to flower and bunch up 16+ of these under a 1K light and get an ounce per plant.
Picture from 7-1: (Check out where I topped it)
10 days later, we have a plant that is really mature enough to flower. The plant goes into rapid growth here, and in most cases will start to show pistils. When I first started growing, this is where I would go to flower. These are what I call "3 ouncer" plants, and need about 2 sq ft per plant. At this size, you can expect to get 3-3.5 ounces per plant, depending on strain. So, waiting only another 10 days, triples your yield per plant.
Picture from 7-11: (it was topped in a couple more places)
Now we start to get into the big boys league. Just another 11 days later and look at the significant difference. During this time, your plant is growing in all directions. Instead of growing from 10 branches, it's growing from 25+, that's why the size increases exponentially.
Picture from 7-22 (and topped again in about 4 more places)
Here is a photo, demonstrating growth in the last 10 days. Just by vegging for another 10 days to two weeks, will take this from a 3oz to a 8oz plant.
Here is about what you can expect when flowering a plant this large. I got almost 8oz from this plant, in a 3ft x 3 ft SCROG:
Now, let's think about this... we cut our clone (or planted our seed), we've cared for it for close to two months. We could go to flower now. It takes nearly the same work to grow a big plant or a small one (just more time). If you're patient, and you have the space, give it another 10 days and here is what to expect in a 4 x 4 SCROG: (one lb)
The plant in vegetative growth you see above will stay there for another 2 weeks. By letting it veg another two weeks, (just over two months from clone) we will again double that 8oz and this will be another "one pounder", in a 4 x 4ft SCROG. I will check back in a couple weeks and post two more weeks of time lapse pictures so you can see it before it goes to flower.
In all the above photos, plants were vegged under 400w MH, and flowered under 600w hps.
Thanks for reading and get goin "Capn Style".
Jessie
One of the most common questions I hear is, "How long do I need to veg in order to get X ounces?" The direct answer is: It depends on how fast you can grow your plant! No one wants to hear that answer, so I will try to demonstrate / estimate some plant sizes, and how you can guesstimate your yield. In addition, I'll demonstrate vegetative growth rates, as grown in my "simple hydroponics" thread. The TWO top ways to increase yield, are veg time, and light. The brand of nutrients, is about 5th on my list.
In previous posts, I've talked about how doubling veg time (from seed or clone) can triple yield. As a general estimate, adding two weeks of vegetative growth time, will double your yield. This levels off a bit (when we get over a pound), indoors due to height limitations).
In the past, I've grown 1 ounce plants, 2 oz plants, and so on, all the way up all the way to 20oz indoors. I've gotten pretty good at estimating final yield before flower. However, your results will vary, based on grow method, strain, and light. So let's look at one plant:
This plant started from a clone, cut around June 1st. (the one on the right)
After two weeks of rooting time, plus two weeks of vegetative growth time (total one month), we have a little plant with nice growth. At this stage, some growers will go to flower and bunch up 16+ of these under a 1K light and get an ounce per plant.
Picture from 7-1: (Check out where I topped it)
10 days later, we have a plant that is really mature enough to flower. The plant goes into rapid growth here, and in most cases will start to show pistils. When I first started growing, this is where I would go to flower. These are what I call "3 ouncer" plants, and need about 2 sq ft per plant. At this size, you can expect to get 3-3.5 ounces per plant, depending on strain. So, waiting only another 10 days, triples your yield per plant.
Picture from 7-11: (it was topped in a couple more places)
Now we start to get into the big boys league. Just another 11 days later and look at the significant difference. During this time, your plant is growing in all directions. Instead of growing from 10 branches, it's growing from 25+, that's why the size increases exponentially.
Picture from 7-22 (and topped again in about 4 more places)
Here is a photo, demonstrating growth in the last 10 days. Just by vegging for another 10 days to two weeks, will take this from a 3oz to a 8oz plant.
Here is about what you can expect when flowering a plant this large. I got almost 8oz from this plant, in a 3ft x 3 ft SCROG:
Now, let's think about this... we cut our clone (or planted our seed), we've cared for it for close to two months. We could go to flower now. It takes nearly the same work to grow a big plant or a small one (just more time). If you're patient, and you have the space, give it another 10 days and here is what to expect in a 4 x 4 SCROG: (one lb)
The plant in vegetative growth you see above will stay there for another 2 weeks. By letting it veg another two weeks, (just over two months from clone) we will again double that 8oz and this will be another "one pounder", in a 4 x 4ft SCROG. I will check back in a couple weeks and post two more weeks of time lapse pictures so you can see it before it goes to flower.
In all the above photos, plants were vegged under 400w MH, and flowered under 600w hps.
Thanks for reading and get goin "Capn Style".
Jessie
VG