As we shared before, increasing the yield of cannabis is not an impossible thing. There are always some ways to help you increase the yield. For example, strain choice has a significant effect on yields, so it helps to choose a strain that naturally makes big buds. In the meantime, match the number of plants to your space and grow light. Often you’ll get bigger yields/faster harvests with many smaller plants as opposed to a few big ones. Besides, choose the right container type and size for your setup, so plants grow as fast and big as possible. Today’s blog will lead you to find out more ways to increase cannabis yield indoors!
4.) Use Coco or Hydro
Soil-grown plants typically grow slower than plants grown in coco or hydroponics because their roots have to work to pull the nutrients from the soil (as opposed to getting easily-absorbed nutrients delivered directly in the water). If you want to maximize the number of harvests each year, you should aim for the fastest-growing plants you can. More harvests mean more buds for you!
It’s possible to get high-speed growth in soil, but it takes extra skill and care. Some of our clients love how, in coco or hydro, your plants almost always grow fast as long as you keep plants healthy. As long as you avoid root rot, plants in hydro typically grow faster than in any other grow medium. Hydro can be a bit tricky to get started with, but coco may be the easiest cannabis grow medium to use. We highly recommend first-time growers start with coco if they’re not drawn to any particular grow medium. You almost can’t kill your plants in coco as long as you remember to water them.
5.) Manipulate How Plants Grow
Plant training in the vegetative stage is an effective and free way to increase yields. But how does it work? Without training, cannabis plants typically grow in a Christmas tree shape with one central bud. While your plants are still in the vegetative stage, train them to become wide and flat. Each growing tip at the top of the plant will turn into a big bud in the flowering stage, with more total buds, trained plants typically yield significantly more than untrained plants.
6.) Choose Good Nutrients and Supplements
You’ll get the best results if you choose cannabis-specific nutrients. Most importantly, make sure to give low amounts of Nitrogen and plenty of Phosphorus and Potassium once plants start making buds. Luckily, most nutrients come with a schedule, so it’s simple to provide the right nutrients at the right time. If you get a good brand and look at their schedule, you won’t have to worry about nutrient ratios at all.
When it comes to nutrients, sometimes less is more! It’s easy to go overboard, especially with certain strains. In general, it’s a good idea to start any new nutrients at half strength and only increase the concentration if plants look pale. If you give the right nutrients at the right time, plants explode with growth!
Tip: Try to get all your nutrients and supplements from the same company. This helps prevent unexpected interactions!
7.) Grow Plants to Most Efficient Size
It causes issues when plants are too big or too small. You can maximize yields by growing plants to the right size.
- Too-big plants cause significant problems – Plants can grow into the light, and you may not have any room to raise it further. When buds are too close to a grow light, they can get bleached and grow airy with foxtails. The lack of density in your top bud can hurt your overall yields. If plants are too tall, it also means you likely spent unnecessary extra time in the vegetative stage or didn’t train plants to grow flat and wide.
- Too-small plants have small yields – When a plant is too small for a specific space, it won’t have the structure to support huge buds.
How to grow photoperiod plants as big as your space can support, without letting them get too big:
- On average, cannabis plants double in size after the switch to a 12/12 light schedule
- Therefore, it’s a good rule of thumb to change to a 12/12 light schedule when vegetative plants reach half the final desired size
To be continued…