You may be wondering, “How much marijuana can one plant produce?“
Unfortunately, you can’t expect yields that are spot on.
Growing weed is the same as growing any other plant. You can’t expect an exact quantity in terms of yield due to many factors that dictate its growth and production.
However, we’ll help you get the most out of your weed plants and have a close estimate for their yield.
How Much Weed Does a Marijuana Plant Yield?
Yield is the amount of weed from a cannabis plant harvest. It is made up of buds only without its stems. The measurement is in its dried and trimmed form, and it comes in grams, ounces, and pounds.
When it comes to growing a marijuana plant, light is important. Proper lighting can manage the uncertainty of yields better. You can even get a better yield per plant if you grow a smaller number of plants per lamp.
The magic number for you to start from is four. Needless to say, four plants are easier to manage than, say, sixteen plants.
If you have a 600-watt high-pressure sodium vapor (HPS) lamp for four plants, you can expect a maximum of 5 oz of yield per plant.
If you have the same lamp for sixteen plants, you can expect only up to 1.25 oz per plant.
Whether you have 4 or 16 cannabis plants, you’ll still end up with 20 oz.
We recommend that you go for quality over quantity in terms of growing your plants. A huge plant could yield as much as a pound.
Practically, having only four plants in your name is better than having sixteen when (knocking on wood) the authorities come checking your grow room.
Scientifically speaking, vegetative growth lasts longer with four plants. You can perform force flowering when the tips of the leaves start to touch as a workaround.
Average Marijuana Plant Yield Indoors Per Plant
If you’re asking, “how much weed does one plant produce indoors?” keep in mind that an indoor plant does not enjoy the same space as those outdoors.
Growing indoors is highly dependent on the grow tent capacity and light wattage.
You can expect around 3.5 to 4 oz of average yield per plant with indoor cultivation.
With proper lighting and care, you can get around 0.035 oz average yield per watt of light. This yield is per plant, regardless of the number of plants in your grow room.
We recommend investing in a brighter lamp for your grow tent if you want to maximize the yield of your plants. A 1,200-watt lamp can produce up to 42 oz of smokable buds!
Average Outdoor Marijuana Plant Yield Per Plant
Marijuana plants are naturally outdoor plants. They thrive outdoors because of the free space, abundant sunshine, and hydrating rain. However, remember that these are factors you cannot exactly control.
How much weed does one plant produce outdoors? If you have suitable weather conditions, you can enjoy up to 17.5 oz of succulent buds as your average yield per plant.
Growing marijuana on your balcony can have some of the benefits of growing outdoors, but the ideal space is at least two meters.
If you plant outdoors, you can grow more plants in a wide space. This will allow you to maximize the weed plant’s yield.
To increase the yield from your outdoor plants, you can germinate your marijuana seeds indoors prior. Seedlings need controlled humidity levels. Advance germination before springtime makes the most out of the better weather conditions.
Wet vs. Dry Yield in Weed Plants
Keep in mind that wet and dry cannabis does NOT weigh the same.
Freshly harvested cannabis, which is your wet yield, is heavier. 75% to 80% of its weight is water.
Once your cannabis harvest is dried and cured, it becomes your dry yield. Losing water from your yield means losing weight as well.
PRO TIP: Your dry yield is usually only 25% of the weight of your wet yield.
To produce your dry yield, you should dry your weed slowly. This must take around 10 to 14 days in a dry place with a controlled temperature of around 64 degrees Fahrenheit.
This constant temperature is your key to getting more weed in terms of weight. Getting more out of your harvest would mean getting a very good profit from it.
How much weed does one plant produce? To give you an idea, the final yield from a well-cultivated Sativa will be around 20% to 22% dry weed. An Indica can produce around 22% to 25% dry weed.
Factors That Affect Cannabis Plant Yield
You can estimate the final yield of your cannabis plants, but we’re talking about healthy plants here.
Many factors contribute to the health, growth, and, therefore the harvest quality of your plants:
Light
Brighter lights encourage more growth, which results in bigger buds. Too little light can hinder the budding of flowers. Too much light may also burn your plants.
Outdoors, you cannot exactly control how much direct sunlight hits your plants aside from positioning your plants and providing shade. It is best to have at least 10 to 12 hours of direct sunlight for your plants to thrive.
It is easier to control certain variables if you grow indoors. One of them is light. The amount of light you provide should correspond to the number of your plants and their pot sizes. It can help determine how much weed one plant can produce.
If you plant indoors, you can easily control the light intensity and time exposure for your plants. The ideal light level can give you healthy plants with superior quality marijuana plant yields.
Weather
Weather is another environmental factor you should consider.
Weather is usually intermittent. Weather forecasts can only do so much. There’s nothing much you can do to control this if you grow your plants outdoors.
On the other hand, if you grow your plants indoors, you can control certain weather-related factors. These are temperature and humidity.
Temperature
Temperature plays an important role in both the growing and drying of your marijuana. At the right temperature levels, you can make the most out of one plant in terms of quality and weight.
The daytime temperature range of 72 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal during the vegetative growth stage of a cannabis plant. When it is dark, it should drop to at most 10 degrees to simulate evenings. These levels are for the quality of your yield.
When you dry and cure your marijuana yield for more than a week, your temperature should be at around 64 degrees Fahrenheit throughout. This temperature will allow you to produce a heavier dry yield in terms of weight.
TAKE NOTE: The ideal temperatures vary depending on the strain. It is best to check the ideal temperature for what you’re growing.
Humidity
Humidity is another factor that may vary depending on the strain. Some strains thrive more in low humidity, while some in higher humidity levels.
A good base range is 45% to 55% humidity. Reduce your relative humidity level a little during the last two weeks of the flowering stage.
A humidity level that is too low can result in a nutrient burn. A humidity level that is too high can cause rotting and mold growth.
Genetics
The ideal amount of certain factors depends on the cannabis strain. Yield itself also depends on the cannabis strain. The specific genes of these strains determine their size, height, and production.
A low-yielding strain has its limitations. No matter how much light, space, and growing expertise you use, how much marijuana you get from one plant will more or less be the same.
The genes of auto-flowering marijuana seeds also limit how much weed you get from one plant. These strains give you less, but their fast growth cycles give you more frequent harvests.
Nutrition
Cannabis plants are living things. They need nutrients, too. Good nutrition for plants translates to the quality of their yield! In the case of cannabis plants, it’s their buds.
Nutrients found in fertilizer help your plants protect themselves from diseases. However, too much fertilizer could also block the uptake of water and other nutrients. Start little by little and see how your plant responds.
The pH level of your soil is also important. Anywhere between 5.5 and 6.5 will help the roots absorb the right amount of nutrients. Organic fertilizer can help maintain a balanced pH level.
Length of Vegetation
The vegetative stage of the growth of a plant affects its final size.
As soon as it flowers, its growth goes from upwards to sidewards for bud production. A longer vegetation time can result in more final yield. Bigger plants will give you bigger harvests.
Grow Medium
Soil and hydro are the two most common grow mediums. Each one has its benefits and requirements in terms of expertise and budget:
- Soil growing is the oldest and more natural method of cultivation. It is beginner-friendly and affordable. It is more popular because of its simplicity.
- Hydroponic growing requires another level of expertise. Its setup and maintenance take more time, experience, and budget.
Choosing the grow medium that you can handle better affects the health of your marijuana plants.
Location
You can grow your marijuana plants either indoors or outdoors. Like the grow medium you choose, the location you can maintain better will affect the health of your plants:
- Outdoor cultivation is popular, especially for beginners. You have more space and a natural light source, making it easier and more budget-friendly. However, it is highly dependent on the changing seasons and susceptible to pests and mold.
- Indoor cultivation is better for experienced growers. Firstly, it is safer as it is hidden from neighbors. More importantly, you can control lighting, temperature, humidity, and odor. The downside of growing indoors includes its setup, which can be costly and complex.
The Grower
At the end of the day, your cannabis plant yield would depend on YOU.
If you simply let your plant be, you cannot expect much from it. With the right level of expertise, you’ll find your way through your growing journey.
Experienced growers often control the different growth variables of cannabis plants better to get the most weed out of one plant. They also know their way around problems like nutrient deficiencies and infestations.
How to Calculate the Average Yield of Your Marijuana Plants
You can find lots of cannabis yield calculators online. To provide an estimate of your actual yield, these calculators ask for specific details.
These include your type of light, its light intensity or lumen, your experience level, and your growing medium.
Keep in mind that they cannot adjust for the strain of your weed plant. It usually computes for wet yield and not dry yield.
Calculating Indoor Yield Estimates
The indoor yield of your marijuana plant highly depends on your lighting. Its intensity is a determinant of the yield per plant.
- If you have 250-watt lighting in a 1 x 0.5 x 2-meter space, its approximate yield is 3 to 9 ounces of weed.
- If you have 400-watt lighting in a 1 x 1 x 2.5-meter space, its approximate yield is 4 to 14 ounces of weed.
- If you have 600-watt lighting in a 1.3 x 1.3 x 2.5-meter space, its approximate yield is 5 to 21 ounces of weed.
- If you have 1,000-watt lighting in a 1.5 x 1.5 x 2.5-meter space, its approximate yield is 9 to 36 ounces of weed.
Experienced growers often get more yield than beginners. Space, nutrients, and strain type have a say in the actual yield. Other factors that we’ve enumerated above also increase or decrease yield.
Calculating Outdoor Yield Estimates
Estimating your average marijuana plant yield for growing outdoors isn’t as straightforward as your indoor yield. You cannot control many variables like lighting and weather.
- If you use five-gallon pots, you can get around 3.5 ounces of dry bud per plant.
- Some strain types can produce as much as 59 ounces per plant.
It ultimately depends on the genes of your marijuana plant and how well you can take care of it.
How to Maximize the Yield of Your Cannabis Plants
It’s difficult to have a spot-on estimate for your cannabis plant yield. But that does not mean you cannot do anything to enhance the potential yield of your plant.
Here are the many things you can do to maximize your cannabis yield:
#1 Prepare
Maximizing your yield starts even before you start growing your plants.
The quality of your yield stems from the quality of your seed. Make sure that you use high-quality marijuana seeds to produce high-quality yields.
Do your seed germination indoors to get faster and stronger growth of seedlings. When they’re ready to plant, prepare your lighting, ventilation, nutrients, and training techniques.
#2 Have Fewer Plants
How many plants you grow isn’t directly correlated to how many harvests you’ll have. Less is more when you grow marijuana.
Each cannabis plant has its light requirement. More plants only equate to more lighting.
You get more marijuana yield from a few plants and more light. You get less from having more plants and less light.
#3 Increase Lighting
With that said, you can increase marijuana plant yield if you increase lighting. Use high-intensity discharge lights to maximize your potential cannabis yield per plant.
A lux meter is a helpful tool to measure brightness and adjust it in areas of your grow room that lack lighting.
With a fixed light intensity wattage, you don’t necessarily have to add more light to your grow room. You can make the most out of your light if you place bulbs closer together. Make sure to prune bushy foliage to minimize light blockage.
#4 Set Up Ventilation
In line with lighting, you’ll need to set up ventilation as well. Just like any other plant, a marijuana plant needs carbon dioxide to convert light to energy. Ventilation further enhances the effect of increasing your light.
Carbon dioxide is ever-present in the air around us, and ventilation directs it to your plants.
Ventilation is not an option in indoor growing but a NECESSITY.
It helps with both the temperature control and pest control of your grow room. It plays an important role in the health and productivity of your plants.
#5 Train Your Plants
Plant training techniques physically reshape plants for them to produce more bud sites. You measure marijuana yield using their buds. Therefore, training techniques can increase your final yield.
Training is common for indoor growers to increase how much weed they get per plant. You can use some training methods such as trellising, and low-stress training (LST) for outdoor yields.
#6 Have a Hydroponic Setup
Hydroponic growing is often for more experienced growers, but it can increase your yield up to 20%.
The hydroponic setup is complex, yet it provides the most efficiency in feeding plants. Instead of the plants taking in nutrients from the soil, the grower provides it all. Because of this, you, as the grower, have to know what, when, and how much to feed your cannabis plants.
For example, fertilizers have different amounts of NPK or nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Fertilizers with more nitrogen are ideal for the vegetative phase of a cannabis plant. Those richer in potassium are better for their flowering phase.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What Indoor Strain Yields the Most?
Watermelon Zkittlez is an indoor growing marijuana strain with a high yield. It is a medium-sized plant that can grow both indoors and outdoors.
It is an Indica-dominant strain that has large growth patterns and remarkable production. Experienced growers achieve a yield of more than 1 kg per plant.
The plant maximizes its growing space as it produces large bud colas.
Watermelon Zkittlez gets its name from its fruity watermelon and sweet candy flavor. It has an upbeat yet calming effect with up to 26% THC.
What Yields More, Indica or Sativa?
Indica strains yield more buds than most Sativa strains. They are shorter and bushier. They grow faster and more easily than Sativas. An Indica plant usually reaches full growth as early as 8 weeks, making it faster to harvest from.
Indica yields are a little chunkier. You can get 22% to 25% dry yield from its wet yield.
Sativa strains appear taller than bushy Indicas. Its yields contain more air than Indica yields. You can get around 20% to 22% dry yield from its wet yield.
Does Topping Increase Yield?
Yes, topping increases marijuana plant yield.
Topping is the process of cutting off the main stalk of marijuana plants above their nodes. This allows their two axillary buds below the cut to grow into two new branches. These branches grow out one or two more nodes that can be topped again.
This plant training technique results in bushier plants with more buds. It allows you to increase surface area to maximize light and airflow.
How Can I Have High Yields in a Small Grow Space?
Having a small grow space does not mean you cannot increase your yield. Here are our tips for you to still get high yields in a small area:
- Let there be (LED) lights. LED lights are a more compact type of lighting with built-in reflectors. You can achieve results as good as HPS lights while you save space and electricity.
- Make room to micro grow. If you can’t have a few plants, try having micro plants. You can use the same techniques as indoor growing but with a smaller space. Even your kitchen cabinet is enough space to micro-grow. Light, water, and nutrients are your keys to success.
- Go up if you can’t go sideways. Make use of vertical space if you don’t have a wide area. Say, for example, a closet. Some cannabis strains thrive better vertically instead of horizontally.
- Avoid clogging with Scrogging. The ScrOG method is another plant training technique to grow in a tight space. It prevents clogging out space by keeping your branches from growing out of hand and blocking each other.
- Contain to maintain. Maintain your space by choosing the right container for your marijuana plants. Go for taller and thinner containers if you’re growing in a vertical space. Go for lower and wider containers if you’re growing under a low ceiling.
- Germinate before it’s too late. Germinate your seeds early. This allows your plants to grow large. Germinating indoors allows you to regulate growing conditions to result in stronger and healthier seedlings.
- Make sure your strain isn’t a pain. Choose to grow the right strain for your space. Indicas grow short and closer to the ground. Sativas can grow in tight spaces but may not produce quality yields.
Final Words
You cannot exactly predict how much weed your marijuana plant would yield due to many factors affecting its growth. Indoor growing is the easiest way to control growth factors, but it requires time and resources.
However, there are many ways to maximize your marijuana plant yields, such as improving your setup and applying the right growing techniques.
We hope that your yields be high!
