Low Yield Issues

Troubleshooting
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Hi there! Thank you for all your answers to my question about weight of yield. I figured I oughta start a new thread here to give my grow details for troubleshooting purposes. As I said in the other post, my highest yield to date has been 7 grams dried weight from a single plant. The others were like 5 or 6 grams dry weight per plant.
I found a questionnaire this morning here on the forums and I hope it’s OK with the author that I am using it as a template to tell my grow details. Here goes:

Indoor or outdoor? - size of grow? Nothing growing at the moment but soon 3 plants, starting indoors then transferring outside when the weather is right.

Origin of seeds? ILGM

Regular, feminized, or autoflower? Blue Dream Auto this time. Last 3 grows were G13, Jack Herer, and Super Lemon Haze. All Auto.

Origin of water. PH, EC/TDS of source water? Tap water left out to rid it of chlorine. Other details unknown. In the summer just straight hose water.

PH and TDS/EC of if mixed solution? Unknown.

Grow method? Three plants in a five-gallon pot, started indoors. Start new batch in a separate pot when flowering visible. Put outside when hardy enough. Repeat for whole growing season. That’s the theory anyways.

Nutrients or fertilizer system used? Coast Of Maine Stonington Blend Organic Grower’s Mix for the soil - pH 6.3. Coast Of Maine Stonington Blend Organic Plant Food 5-2-4 for fertilizer.

What type of lighting are you using? It’s complicated and MacGyvered. In a 3x4x6 basement closet: Four Agrobrite 26w compact fluorescent screw-in bulbs. Each are: 6400K, 1700 lumens, 130w equivalent. Also two fluorescent tubes Phillips F40T12 40w each, says for plants and aquariums. For the upcoming grow I will be adding four LED screw-in grow light bulbs. Each are: 1000 lumens, 11w, full spectrum, 25 micromoles per second. I have the timer set for 18/6 by the way.

What are the temps in your grow space? Day / Night? In the upper 70s lights on, 70 to low 70s lights off, outside depends on weather.

What is the RH = relative humidity in your grow space? Day / Night? About 50 generally.

AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier? No. Small desk heater if needed and small desk fan.

Do you have a Ventilation system? Size? None.

Co2 Yes / No? No.

How long have you been growing? Two years. Almost time to start my 4th grow.

What budget have you set in order to grow successfully? Way more than I though it would be for electricity alone. Might as well buy from the local weed store just based on the cost of electricity vs. yield. I am leery of investing in all this newfangled lighting and equipment I see everyone using because it’s expensive to buy (yes it’s an investment I know but still…) and I am easily confused by the numbers and equations I see thrown around. At my age I don’t want to have to think about math I just want to grow a plant or three with a cost-effective yield.

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Thanks for the detailed support ticket info and welcome to the forum.

You are going to need better lighting to have a good yield. Screw in bulbs and fluorescent lighting aren’t going to get the job done as they are not intense enough and have very limited red spectrum.

If they are young and going outdoors soon, then you should be okay. If growing indoors I would suggest a light built with Samsung LM301 diodes.

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From what I’m seeing your problems are due to lighting if you invest in good lighting you should get better yields and probably save on electricity

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If you are growing 3 plants in a single five gallon pot that may be part of the problem as well

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What would I have to get for lighting, I mean LED is what I see people use nowadays but what brand do people trust and how big? I’m on a tight budget so gotta take that into consideration plus I’m no good with numbers so no measureing gamma radiation or stuff like that. I want to stay away from buying all that sensors and meters stuff. Just something to get the most I can out of three plants at a time while keeping the electricity to a bare minimum.

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Yeah I was thinking maybe putting each plant in its own pot. Save space and save my back too! I’ll look around the forum and see what people say for pot size per Auto plant.

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How much can you afford for lighting,you maybe able to pay one off in installments?
That is what I have done, I know how it is with money and it it is getting worse.
I am on one meal a day now.

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HLG 350 R will fix you low yield issue. My second tent has junk lights and may not be worth the electricity, if growing bud. I will mine for Kief, so they can be slow a growing and ugly.
700-1000 watts will grow a 4x4, nicely. Your 3x4x6 will love the 350R at half power MAX.

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Autoflowers do ok in 3 gallon pots, some people use 5.

Photoperiod plants do better in 5 gallon and bigger.

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As @DEEPDIVERDAVE suggested a HLG 350 would be a good choice they do have refurbished lights that can save you money. There are other brands like spider farmer and Mars hydro as @MidwestGuy said look for Samsung diodes 301B or H Amazon is a mine field of crappie lights with fantastic claims

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I’m rolling with a 400 and a 1000 this year for veg. Not LED. For me this is an ok option and works great. In our area you can find a used 1000 ready to go for about $100.

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1983-4 Lived with HPS light.
Not unreasonable, especially for winter growing.
Good growing to you

Now, my tent (4x4) with non-efficient LEDs doing 700meterwatts, runs 50Klux, at 25 inches
Outdoor sun in good sunlight, today, 75Klux.
UT-383-BT measured.
My android app, max 33K on both.

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I think you will get a better harvest if each plant gets its own 3 to 5 gallon container. I have heard that autos are sensitive to root space and also transplanting.

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