Am I just dealing with a hater or is it true about yield etc?

[Huntsman]

I have a friend who lives in NorCal and he has been growing mot of his life or well helping growers as a farm hand. He is telling me that even though the strains i am piking state yields of 600-800g that I will be lucky to get 4 oz out of a plant. He says that the setup i have in mind is barely gonna produce enough for me and no way will I have any left to take to a dispensary. For those of you who didn't read the post my setup is gonna be: a 96"x48"x78" grow tent hanging 2 T5 lights in the tent and when it comes time to flower I will swap out the bulbs. A 6" fan and charcoal filter, rope ratchets to raise and lower the lights, and a dual outlet digital light timer to keep my cycles on schedule. Growing 6 plants all big producers. So is he right and I am just putting all this time and money into producing something I can go pick up for a 100 bucks at the dispensary or am I gonna have enough for my need (light smoker) and enough to take to my local dispensary and recoup my power and materials costs?

Huntsman Reviewed by Huntsman on 12-29-2013. Am I just dealing with a hater or is it true about yield etc? I have a friend who lives in NorCal and he has been growing mot of his life or well helping growers as a farm hand. He is telling me that even though the strains i am piking state yields of 600-800g that I will be lucky to get 4 oz out of a plant. He says that the setup i have in mind is barely gonna produce enough for me and no way will I have any left to take to a dispensary. For those of you who didn't read the post my setup is gonna be: a 96"x48"x78" grow tent hanging 2 T5 lights in the Rating: 5

[Huntsman]

Can anyone answer my question about this? Are yields really low in reality (I know there are variables) but when a seed bank states the yield is between 600-800grams is that accurate or are they hyping it way up? Because I was told earlier that no matter what i do I will be lucky to get a 4 ounce harvest off of one plant. That's only about 113 grams, far short of the advertise 600-800 grams. So what is a realistic expectation of yield per average plant? Again I know it varies by strain, by soil, nutes, lighting all these things can make big changes in yield and quality. However if a seed bank stats that a strain produces a yield of 600-800 grams and I do my part reasonably well can I expect a harvest close to the advertised amount or is a few ounces all I will ever see from a single plant? Thank you to anyone who takes the time to answer this for me.

[Shovelhandle]

all other things being good, look at your lights. For a first grow .5 grams per watt is normal. A very good result is 1 gram per watt. I know some pros that can get 2-3 pounds per 1000 watt lamp, so up to 1.5 g/watt.

[Shovelhandle]

unless you veg quite a while, establish a very large root mass and give your plants lots of room you will not see indoor yields close to maximum advertised weight. If you plant in 5 gallon pots, veg a couple of months I'd expect you to harvest 2-3 ounces per plant, tops.

[EvilCartman]

He is telling me that even though the strains i am piking state yields of 600-800g that I will be lucky to get 4 oz out of a plant.

I'd agree with that. With a variety of strains, and a 30-35 day veg period from seed, my average is 4.

He says that the setup i have in mind is barely gonna produce enough for me and no way will I have any left to take to a dispensary. For those of you who didn't read the post my setup is gonna be: a 96"x48"x78" grow tent hanging 2 T5 lights in the tent and when it comes time to flower I will swap out the bulbs. A 6" fan and charcoal filter, rope ratchets to raise and lower the lights, and a dual outlet digital light timer to keep my cycles on schedule. Growing 6 plants all big producers. So is he right and I am just putting all this time and money into producing something I can go pick up for a 100 bucks at the dispensary or am I gonna have enough for my need (light smoker) and enough to take to my local dispensary and recoup my power and materials costs?

You can pull decent bud from T5, but it requires a LOT of intensive training to keep the canopy flat and close to the bulbs. In reality, using the T5's as the main lighting isn't going to give you big numbers. Certainly no where near the inflated numbers some of the breeders put out there. Haha, what do you mean by a "light" smoker?

[Huntsman]

Wow, thats very disappointing. I am starting to wonder why so many people grow when the amount of time and money that goes into it quite possibly makes it a loss of money and a person could in many cases be better off just buying from a dispensary. or am i wrong? Am I missing something (other than the satisfaction growing it yourself) that makes it worthwhile to grow your own? As it stands i am looking at spending roughly 800-1000 bucks in order to produce my own marijuana of about 6 ounces or so if i am lucky when I can purchase an ounce for about 300 bucks and if I have 6 then that's 1900 bucks. I keep an ounce or two for my medicine from this crop and sell the rest making me 1300 bucks, thats about 300 dollars profit not counting my power bill or time involved. Am I missing something here?

[Huntsman]

I consider myself a light smoker meaning an 8th will usually last me 2 week to a month depending on the strain, my mood etc.

I'd agree with that. With a variety of strains, and a 30-35 day veg period from seed, my average is 4.




You can pull decent bud from T5, but it requires a LOT of intensive training to keep the canopy flat and close to the bulbs. In reality, using the T5's as the main lighting isn't going to give you big numbers. Certainly no where near the inflated numbers some of the breeders put out there. Haha, what do you mean by a "light" smoker?

[catbuds]

Get your feet wet first, before you think about mass producing enough for the dispensaries. Your first several grows will be for the learning experience & providing yourself with personal. In the mean time, read all you can get your hands on, especially lighting & yield. But you can supplement your lights with CFLs & make a BIG difference in yield now. Many growers in sm areas use them as their sole light source. Big lumens in a sm package! On indoor grows & grow logs you'll find pics that will help you get the gist of different light set ups.
-- Once you get the hang of it & feel you've gone as far as possible with your current set up, then you can start thinking about upgrading.

It costs to get started, but gets cheaper once you have your supplies & everything in order.

[Huntsman]

Well I am gonna be using to 8 lamp T5's on top, the sides will each have two 4 foot florescent light fixtures running the full length of the tent. I don't know how much more light I can reasonably put in there. I could maybe put 4 4' dual lamp fixtures on the sides but thats about it. the tent will be like a tanning bed.

[EvilCartman]

Wow, thats very disappointing. I am starting to wonder why so many people grow when the amount of time and money that goes into it quite possibly makes it a loss of money and a person could in many cases be better off just buying from a dispensary. or am i wrong? Am I missing something (other than the satisfaction growing it yourself) that makes it worthwhile to grow your own? As it stands i am looking at spending roughly 800-1000 bucks in order to produce my own marijuana of about 6 ounces or so if i am lucky when I can purchase an ounce for about 300 bucks and if I have 6 then that's 1900 bucks. I keep an ounce or two for my medicine from this crop and sell the rest making me 1300 bucks, thats about 300 dollars profit not counting my power bill or time involved. Am I missing something here?

Once you run into folks having to use concentrates, the grow your own thing makes all the sense in the world. If they had to pay dispensary prices, it would be impossible to fill their needs.
Never really broke it down, but when push comes to shove, I know that I have a never-ending supply of top-shelf bud ... without ever having to dole out 3 bills for an OZ.
The start-up costs are amortized over several grows. It's much cheaper in the long run.

I'm in MA, while it's a legal MMJ state, there are no dispensaries here yet. (I can't wait to check out the first one, though!)