In this article, grow expert, Stoney Tark, reveals the 5 ways to increase indoor grow yields. Growing Cannabis plants indoors, it can be challenging to produce the huge weed yields often seen in magazines and on social media. Nothing is more of a confidence breaker than producing a small yield after months of hard work.
1. Using plant training to boost indoor weed grow yields
Training your Cannabis plants whilst in the vegetative stage (18/6) can have serious advantages when it comes to the final number of flowering sites. Not all styles of training will be best suited to your grow room, so it is a good idea to research each, and discover how the particular cannabis cultivar you are growing may benefit.
Low Stress Training: This requires tying the tallest points of the plants down, then allowing them to grow back to the original height. This causes a shift in hormones and will encourage the plants to grow a bushy top heavy canopy.
Screen of Green: The use of a screen (SCROG) to train your plants through will allow for a much more established canopy, with pruning performed after 5 nodes. The plants will divert all of their energy to the growth above the screen adding additional support also to your Cannabis plants (while the smaller branches under pruning level can be taken out).
Topping / Pinching: The removal of the top shoots to disrupt the distribution of Auxin, which leads and responds to the natural apical dominance in Cannabis plants. Not only can this technique reduce plant height, it also encourages a bushy plant with long side branches.
2. Using carbon dioxide to grow big buds
It is important to have a balance of intense lighting, nutrients, and carbon dioxide, in order for a Cannabis plant to photosynthesize. Outside of a grow room the levels of CO2 detected are around 400 parts per million. Plants can utilize levels as high as 1200-1500ppm with no problems resulting in a much higher big bud yield (but recommended not to overpass the 1000-1200 for not causing too much stress) . When supplementing Cannabis plants with carbon dioxide it is important to remember the following:
- The growing space must be completely closed off.
- The in/out air extraction must be stopped while CO2 is diffused.
- Light needs to be 600W/M2 minimum.
- Temperature can be up to 30° but you need to keep an eye on the humidity level as if it increases too much the transpiration of the plants will stop air extraction.
- Stomata that absorb CO2 will open 1 hour after the lights are on. Plants only use CO2 in the day.
- Carbon dioxide is a heavy gas, so should be administered from above the plants.
- It is better to use CO2 during the earlier part of 18/6 and early into 12/12.
3. Feeding soil with carbs to boost the indoor weed grow yield
Cannabis plants are very similar to people and will pack on weight. Sugar based plant feeds will provide a rich carbon tonic that the beneficial bacteria and fungi present will use. Using unsulfured black strap molasses is the easiest way to maintain your soil food web and allow the plants to easier consume the NPK and micronutrients present in the soil and they need to grow those fat and frosty big buds.
4. Want a huge indoor grow weed yield? Buy a big harvest cannabis strain
Thanks to the diversity of the Cannabis plant, we are able to select genetics that are either indica, sativa or hybrid dominant. This essentially means a grower is able to choose a strain based on structure, height, yield, and flowering time. Typically indica plants will stay shorter and produce golf ball size buds. Sativas on the other hand are long, tall and challenging plants to work with, whilst hybrids will reflect the most desirable traits from these two. For cannabis growers looking for a high-yielding cannabis cultivar to give them the upper hand, it is well recommended to research high yielding feminized cannabis seeds.
5. Different weed grow systems can produce bigger yields
If it seems that no matter what you do with your organic grow, you are never able to fill a curing jar then perhaps hydroponics is for you. Consider the following hydroponic systems options:
N.F.T Systems: These require no growing medium apart from a rockwool cube jiffy or coco plug or whatever you start your seed or clone in (depending on the system you use) . The roots will then grow onto a closed table or pipes that is constantly saturated with a fine film of nutrient solution
D.W.C Systems: The roots will sit in an aerated nutrient solution, suspended in a net pot and hydroton. These systems can produce huge plants with enormous yields once mastered.
Dripper Systems: The entry-level system for anyone who is making the switch from organic to hydroponics, without becoming completely overwhelmed. The dripper can be set to feed the plants several times per day, according to the needs of the plants, which changes through the grow phases. the rule is : always humid-never dry (like in soil).
Aeroponics: Similar to deep water culture systems, the roots are suspended into a chamber which uses either a high or low-pressure spray nozzle (higher pressure creates mist). Between the roots becoming wet and then exposed to air, the rate of growth can be very fast and impressive yields.
For more information about hydroponics systems, check out our All You Need To Know About Cannabis Hydroponics article by Stoney Tark.