How Much medicinal plants Can You Really Produce Per Plant?
There’s no question that the goal of cultivating medicinal plants outdoors or in indoor grow tents is to obtain the biggest yield possible. Whether you’re growing THC-rich buds to procure a stash that will get you stoned for months to come, or plants that produce flowers loaded with CBD to keep yourself grounded and chilled, the end goal is the same. But how does a cultivator go about ensuring a max yield? And furthermore, how much medicinal plant is one plant even capable of producing?
medicinal plants Yield: What’s On The Scale?
There’s no general rule on how much any given medicinal plant can yield. The amount of medicinal plants that an indoor grower in a Colorado warehouse gets per plant will never be the same as an outdoor grower in the northern California sun. In fact, these growers can even grow the exact same strains of medicinal plants and see completely different results in how much medicinal plants they get per plant. Several factors can affect plant yields – and not all of them are positive. However, if you can identify these factors, it can lead to a better understanding of how they affect the total weight of a medicinal plants. Seasoned growers know how to use these variables to grow massive buds.
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Factors that determine the harvest of a strain
Genetics
Arguably the most crucial factor that determines final yield are genetics. And just like there are some strains that taste better than others, there are also those that produce better harvests than others.
Remember that medicinal plants strains have been bred to meet the demands of growers and consumers. And with yield being so important, there are countless strains out there that have been purposefully bred to produce numerous bud sites and develop bigger, heavier flowers. Make sure to check out some of our XL strains if you’re looking to really rake in the buds.
Growing Medium
The growing medium can also change how much medicinal plants one plant will produce. There are two main types of growing media: soil and hydroponic. Growing in soil is fairly self-explanatory – each plant grows in dirt. With hydroponics, the plants are set into a water-based growing medium. Each technique has its own factors to consider:
Soil
Easier – plant take root in soil, which buffers them against possible issues.
Lower yields compared to hydroponic setups.
Hydroponics
Less forgiving than growing in soil – there’s no room for errors. Susceptible to issues in temperature, pH and TDS.
Higher yields – hydroponic grows can increase yields by up to 20%.
Indoor VS Outdoor
Whether you grow indoors or outdoors will have a big impact on your plants.
Indoor growers generally have less space to work with, which means they’ll usually grow fewer, smaller plants than someone growing outdoors. However, indoor growers also have much more control over their plants’ environment. Hence, they can play around with things like lighting, temperature, and humidity to fine-tune their growing conditions and optimise yield.
Outdoor growers, on the other hand, usually have much more space to work with than indoor growers, meaning they’ll be able to grow more plants in a single season than indoor growers. Plus, outdoor growers also have the benefit of growing under the best possible light source in the world—the sun. However, outdoor growers don’t have the same level of control over their environment, meaning their yield is subject to the season, which, depending on where you live, may be unpredictable.
Light
The yield from an indoor-grown medicinal plant largely depends on how much light the plant is receiving. When using indoor grow lights, for example, an experienced grower can expect to harvest a gram of medicinal plants from each watt of HPS light provided to the plant. This means that if the light is a 400-watt HPS bulb, then 400 grams of medicinal plants could potentially be harvested. However, this isn’t the only variable at play; other factors could lower the yield even though you had plenty of light.
The Temperature
Temperature also plays a big role in the quality and weight of the yield that you harvest from each plant. While the ideal temperature range could vary from one strain to another, generally speaking, a daytime temperature range of 72-78°F is best. This temperature should drop by up to 10 degrees in the evenings (when it is dark). These numbers can vary based on strain, so be sure to check for your ideal temperatures before you grow.
Relative Humidity
The relative humidity is also a factor for optimizing the yield from each plant. Some strains do better in locations with low humidity, whereas others may prefer higher humidity levels. A good range is 45-55 percent.
It is a good idea to reduce the relative humidity a bit during the last two weeks of the flowering stage. This helps protect the buds from the problems that result from high humidity, such as mold growth.
Nutrients
One of the more obvious ways to affect how much you can get from one plant is by using nutrients. There are three main macronutrients that every medicinal plants requires: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
Nitrogen is one of the basic building blocks of all plants. It’s important in the early stages of a plant’s lifecycle and causes its stems to stretch. Potassium and phosphorus are both important to late-stage plants. These determine how many flowers your plant grows and their size, weight and density. Understanding how these nutrients affect a plant’s growth is essential for any medicinal plants grower.
Tips for Maximizing Yield
Grow Fewer Plants
Sometimes less is more, and that is the case when growing medicinal plants. This is mainly because of the amount of light the plants need to produce viable buds. When there are too many plants per light, the plants won’t produce as much and it could be a waste of resources.
Manipulate How the Plants Grow
Medicinal plants produce their biggest buds at the top of the plant, or the canopy. Growers can increase how many stems reach the canopy by manipulating them as they grow. There are a variety of methods to maximize the canopy, including pruning and using a screen to force the canopy of the plants to grow flat, called a “screen of green” (SCROG).
Final Thoughts
So many factors affect how much a person can yield from a medicinal plants that it is difficult to calculate what to expect. However, there are proven methods growers can use to increase how much medicinal plants they got from each plant.
