Ok, Finally cropped out, Now how can i get more??

Hows it goin yall! I currently did 10 plants in soil out of a 5x5 1k HPS and got a lil over 11 1/2 ounces. Now as you know that just a qp 4 1/2 ounces away from a pound. Now this time around, I NEED to get a pound in order to keep going with this in terms of expenses and payout. ( keep in mind this is all for medical use, me and my partner are caregivers to 3 elderly patients.) And we have to get enough for our own personal use, as well as filling their needs. So this time around, we are planning on upgrading to hydro drip system. (start off slow and easy) But, I'm afraid that even switching to hydro, might not be enough to hit that 1 lbs. mark. Now what could i possibly do to increase my yield by as much as possible?? Another thing I'm concerned about is that 10 plants was a bit over crowded in that 5x5 area, and was wanting to lower the limit to about 8. But then i start thinking, i got 11 1/2 off 10 of soil, and figured that only putting 8 hydro, would probably yield the same? Please guys! I need your help! Any constructive criticism or advice is much appreciated!

also, one last thing, I know yall might say, add more light, We honestly can't do it... The set up we have is seriously barley makin it, and has already poped the breaker once when there was a bday party that overloaded the power.. So adding more light, is not an option for this particular place were doing this... PLEASE HELP!

A room 5x5 is not going to handle 10 fully developed plants. I average about 1.5-2 sq ft per plant for clones (shorter veggie time) and up to 3 sq ft for seed plants. So to me you're looking at about 4 plants in that space - depending on the strain. I average about 2-3 oz per plant for clones, can go up to 4-5 oz from seed plants. So properly done your 5x5 room might yield 8-10 oz; maybe 1/2 a pound.

I would personally not recommend moving to hydro until you have gained more experience. Unless/until you know what a 'normal' plant does you can chase your tail in hydro and get really awful returns of nasty-tasting junk. The same crop done in soil with natural ferts will be forgiving and productive wven when you mess up. And if $$ is an issue, hydro is obviously going to be more expensive to get started.

Just my opinion...

16-18 ounces seems very doable in that space, six 2.5-3 ounce plants, you need to see why you only averaged an ounce per plant.

Maybe instead of having one, 1000W light you get two 600W or two 400W lights to spread the light more evenly? Two 600W lights would also give you roughly 40k more lumens for only 200W more. Two 400W lights would give you less power consumption with roughly the same amount of lumens as a 1K about 20k under but still reaching 5k lumens per sq ft.

I just finished pulling and drying a harvest of 13oz(dry weight) from 4 plants done in a 5x5 coco/hydro with 2 600wHPS and the room was barely 2/3 full at harvest. Had I ran 6 plants the same way I believe I would have pulled 17-20oz. I wish I had taken some pics of the harvest but I was so fricken tired after trimming for 2 days that I didn't want to look at it for a few days after that. I put it all in my drying cabinet and left it to dry.

I highly recommend doing hydro as it is very easy and straight forward to run. It takes a little setup prepping and thought to lay it out, and some investment in a little equipment but if you are a "hands-on" type of grower, you would enjoy it.

You think a scrog or LST would help yield for him at all hush? Fill up the entire area well with even light distribution.

I wouldn't do a scrog in that space. I would run about 6-8 plants and LST or FIM them (or both) to bush them out and then veg to about 15"-24" before flipping them so that they get the chance to really bush out and create essentially an SOG by the time they finish. But doing them in hydro would make it easier to set up a water/feeding system that would eliminate having to get to the back to water them.

get your environment right and you can pull 2lbs off a 1k light. im about to harvest 9 plants from a 1k HPS and expect close to 2 lbs. top your plants a couple times, increase ventilation and you should be able to do the same

and ive run as many as 18 plants under a 1k light with no space problems, only 2 weeks of vegging from clone though

Damn! So many things i dunno whhich to really focus on lol! Well first off, I know how to grow hydro, and have done it before, just not in this caliber of a grow. I plan on making a DIY Drip system, which i will make a thread as soon as i get it done. As for everything else, I have topped my plants twice my last grow, but did not lst.. There is no way i can afford to buy another 2 400 or 600 watt hps, that would cost me about 600-800 dollars, which i for sure just dont have. Wish i could switch to 2 600's, but i'm stuck with the 1k for now.. Well let me start by asking this, I plan on doing 8, but if i cant fit 8 into my hydro tub within that 5x5 area, then i'll def have to do 6... I'm just scared because if i get less than a pound, I have to shut everything down, and then all this was for nothing except of course some great experiences through the proccess and getting a lil for myself, but over all the investment has to come out ahead in order for me to get my investment as well as fulfilling the needs of the people I am a caregiver for. I plan on using 5 gal. buckets full of hydroton, and just use a drip system. I will def soop up the ventilation a bit more, since last time, i couldnt turn it to high because it started sucking the panda film off the frames and had to keep it at a certain flow. Now this time since theres no plants in it atm, I can industrialize glue it down to the frame and then can adjust the flow according to the temps. Rather than only being able to go so high. Also, how long do yall think i should vegg them for before flipping to maybe help with gettin a pound? Thanks guys!

I would not change to hydro. First of all, you say money is tight--there is no magic--changing to hydro is not going to give you a 33% increase in yield. Get what you are doing down and your yield should increase. A pound from a 1000W is way doable. I think you need to figure out what went wrong with your last grow and correct it rather than believing that a different system is going to make much difference. Unless you had a bad growing medium or did not feed correctly, switching to hydro is going to make little, if any, difference in your yield. Rather than spending money on a new system, spend it on upgrading ventilation, nutes, or lighting.

Well to be honest, my preference is hydro, and im more knowlegable in that field than i am with soil, so i honestly believe my yield will be more even if i kept the same schedule down, but i'm sure i know what happended, some strains needed more or less of str. then the others, but i kept them all the same level of nutes and everything. So this time around I decided to get all 1 type of strain and from there improve my ventilation, because the only thing that could have stunted me is the heat... There were a couple weeks off and on where the temps would go higher than 85... Nothing i could do about it at the time becasue they were already more than 2 months in. but now that the rookm is empty I will def make better arrangements, as for the limit tho, what would you suggest for how many plants I should do in a drip system for the 1kwatt? Stil cant decide

EsC420PoT said:

Well to be honest, my preference is hydro, and im more knowlegable in that field than i am with soil, so i honestly believe my yield will be more even if i kept the same schedule down, but i'm sure i know what happended, some strains needed more or less of str. then the others, but i kept them all the same level of nutes and everything. So this time around I decided to get all 1 type of strain and from there improve my ventilation, because the only thing that could have stunted me is the heat... There were a couple weeks off and on where the temps would go higher than 85... Nothing i could do about it at the time becasue they were already more than 2 months in. but now that the rookm is empty I will def make better arrangements, as for the limit tho, what would you suggest for how many plants I should do in a drip system for the 1kwatt? Stil cant decide

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i would say that would depend on alot of things.

are you growing from seed or clone?
if growing from clone how long do you plan to veg?
what strain will you be growing?

Old_SSSC_Guy said:

A room 5x5 is not going to handle 10 fully developed plants. I average about 1.5-2 sq ft per plant for clones (shorter veggie time) and up to 3 sq ft for seed plants. So to me you're looking at about 4 plants in that space - depending on the strain. I average about 2-3 oz per plant for clones, can go up to 4-5 oz from seed plants. So properly done your 5x5 room might yield 8-10 oz; maybe 1/2 a pound.

I would personally not recommend moving to hydro until you have gained more experience. Unless/until you know what a 'normal' plant does you can chase your tail in hydro and get really awful returns of nasty-tasting junk. The same crop done in soil with natural ferts will be forgiving and productive wven when you mess up. And if $$ is an issue, hydro is obviously going to be more expensive to get started.

Just my opinion...

Click to expand...

I got over half a pound out of 2 plants in a 9sq ft area. Just saying. Think what he wants is doable.

Good i hope so! And Yes, im growing from clones purchased from a very respectable dispensary out here in the Bay Area. So far i figured i'll go with 6, got 6 White Widows, except this particular white widow strain, is an indica dominant. I know weird right? But i wanted indica dom to help out a bit more in the yield area. What yall think? Also, I plan on vegging for at least 30 days. I want to go with 2 weeks of vegg, but since i only got 6 plants, i feel i would have to at least do a 30 day vegg.. What yall think? Keep it 30 or longer??

You could do a half and half, veg 2 or 3 for two weeks then flower them and the other for 30 days and try taking cuttings from those and throw em in the flower room.

Can't do that because I only got one room for them all, wouldn't be possible to flower some ANd veg the others. It's either vegg em all the same amount and or there's probs... Nice idea tho