Getting 3+ Pounds of Dried Buds Per 1000-Watt Light in Your Marijuana Garden

This is the second of two articles about getting 3+ pounds of dried buds per 1000-watt light from your indoor marijuana garden.

In the first article (read here), hydroponics nutrients manufacturer and long-time professional grower Michael Straumietis of Advanced Nutrients shared the following advice to maximize your marijuana garden yields:

• Add C02 to 1200 parts per million when lights are on. Analyze whether you want to use natural gas or propane for your C02 generator, versus tank C02. Get reliable C02 controllers.
• Use double-ended bulbs and highly-reflective hoods and reflectors.
• Use deep water culture, aeroponics, or other true hydroponics systems.
• Grow strains known for high-yield.
• Carefully control grow room temperature, humidity, air exchange, and air movement to create optimum conditions. High humidity and high temperatures work against high yields.
• Use a sealed grow room.
• Use pH Perfect nutrients made for marijuana that automatically balance pH and are integrated into a yield and THC boosting feed program.
• Top, trim, and train plants for maximum bud growth and plant structural strength.

In today’s article, we’re providing more tips from Straumietis, who has been studying grow sites where 3+ pounds of dried bud per light are routinely obtained.

Take a look at what Straumietis advises:

• After germinating cannabis seeds or rooting clones, transplant into 7-gallon pots and go up from there. “Bigger roots equals bigger yields, no doubt about that,” Straumietis says. “Some people like to do incremental transplanting to upgrade pot size every few weeks. I say start big and go bigger if you need to.”
• Feminized seeds, and clones from tired motherplants, decrease yield.
• Use high quality air filtration so plants can breathe most easily. Straumietis likes CAN filters.
• Use top-end dehumidifiers to keep grow room relative humidity between 54-58%. Straumietis recommends Ideal Air dehumidifiers.
• If you’re using pure hydroponics such as deep water culture, aeroponics, ebb and flow or drip irrigation with rockwool, grow rocks, or coco coir, use constant agitation of reservoir water, and a chiller and/or heater to keep water temperature at 68F. “Watch out for roots growing super fast and large in pure hydroponics. They can clog your system and may have to be root pruned unless you give them larger buckets,” Straumietis says.
• Put the pump on the OUTSIDE of your reservoir feed tank to avoid adding heat to the water.
• Put your grow systems on trays so you can move them back and forth under your lights. This also helps with trimming, monitoring, and harvesting.
• If you can’t move your plants, move your lights by using a ceiling-mounted light mover.
• Have side-lighting, such as plasma or T-5 high-output.
• Consider having floor drainage.
• Mitsubishi mini-split air conditioning systems are popular with double-ended bulb growers. Double-ended bulbs create more heat than regular high-intensity discharge (HID) grow lighting.
• Use EZ cloners with 100 sites per unit.
• Feed beneficial microbes to roots, along with booster food for beneficial microbes. In the Advanced Nutrients line, which is the only line of hydroponics nutrients made for marijuana, this means: Voodoo Juice, Piranha, Tarantula, Microbial Munch, Bud Candy.
• Use automated, wireless controllers and data loggers to micro-manage every aspect of your feed program, light intensity, air management, and grow room environment.

Straumietis says growers following the protocols outlined in both these articles are now pushing towards FOUR POUNDS of dried bud per light.

“I’ve seen gardens nearing four pounds per light with AK-47, Dark Star, New York Purple Diesel, and some TGA strains,” Straumietis said. “The bigger-yield revolution comes from our nutrients, combined with double-ended bulbs and hydroponics growing. Harvest size and profits per crop are tremendous!”