Many discussions are being had these days between growers, consultants, CEOs and investors alike about yield numbers. One of the issues that comes to the foreground is that everyone speaks to these numbers from their own experience and background.
Some use pounds/light, grams/Watt, grams/plant and grams/square foot. Let’s look at why grams/square foot is the only true measure that can be used to compare yields.
I mentioned above that people speak through the lenses of their own experience and that is never more clear then when it comes to growers. Our mind set is (and right fully so) cemented in how we grow our crops. One has to be committed to their strategy to execute it properly.
Let’s look at the pitfalls of some of the measures.
Pounds/light
15-20 years ago most people where growing similar styles under a 600W light. So yield comparisons when speaking to your personal experience made sense. Now with 1000W HPS, 315W CMH, 630W LED’s, 550W LED’s, 1000W LED’s the comparisons go astray quickly.
Grams/Watt
Similarly to the example above the different lights carry different wattages and therefor are not a fair comparison.
Grams/plant
Here’s where a lot of people get tripped up on yield numbers and compare apples to oranges.
Your strategy determines how many plants per square foot you plant. Your veg time determines how tall your plants are going to get.
In hearing two growers talk about their yields per plant it could appear like one grower is massively ahead of the other grower. However when one is growing large plants on a 6x6 grid and the other is growing a SoG in that same grid, the yield numbers per plant are going to be vastly different, however the yield per square foot may not be to far off.
Grams/square foot
The only true measure of success is yield per net square footage of your growing area. This means if you are an indoor grower your bench square footage. In a greenhouse it means you actual growing space square footage not including your walkway.
When growing several strains within a grow space make sure to record the actual area used for that strain.
Measuring yield in grams/square foot is the only true comparative measure regardless of your plant strategy, lights used, whether you are growing on the ground, in the ground or on benches.
As an emerging industry we must speak the same language.
For more information:
CannabiDol Consulting & Design
John Dol
207-266-1320
Cannabidol420@yahoo.com