Yield is the amount of harvestable product, by convention the dry weight of trimmed flower. It is reported per plant (g/plant), per area of canopy (g/m² or g/ft²) or per unit of electrical light (g/W). For comparison between grows, per-area figures are the most meaningful, because per-plant numbers depend heavily on spacing.
In practice
Indoor yields are driven mostly by light: across trials, flower yield rose roughly linearly with photosynthetic photon flux up to very high intensities. Genetics, plant density, veg time, root-zone management and climate set the rest. A meta-analysis of cannabis yield studies identified light intensity, plant density and nutrient supply among the strongest factors.
Indicative ranges: home grows commonly report 300-600 g/m²being reviewed; dialled-in high-light rooms report more. Wet weight is roughly four to five times dry weight.
- g/m² = total dry grams / canopy area in m² (1 m² = 10.76 ft²; 1 oz = 28.35 g).
- g/W = total dry grams / light wattage drawn at the wall.
Don't confuse with
- Potency: cannabinoid percentage; high yield and high potency are separate traits.
- Wet weight: weight before drying.
The weight of cannabis after drying (and usually trimming), the basis growers use for yield; it is typically about 20-25% of trimmed wet weight.Photosynthetic photon flux: the total number of PAR photons a light fixture emits each second, in µmol/s, regardless of where they land.Plant density is the number of plants per unit of canopy area; more plants raise yield per area up to a point but shorten veg and reduce uniformity.Veg time is how long a photoperiod plant is kept in vegetative growth under long days before being flipped to flower, which largely sets its final size.Home grow is growing cannabis for personal use at your residence, permitted in some jurisdictions within plant-count, location and security limits.The weight of cannabis freshly cut, before drying; buds typically lose about 70-80% of it, so dry weight is roughly a quarter of wet.The canopy is the top layer of foliage and buds across a grow, the surface that intercepts most of the light and where yield is mostly made.A cannabinoid is any compound that binds the body's cannabinoid receptors or shares the typical cannabis terpenophenolic structure; the plant-made ones are phytocannabinoids such as THCA and CBDA.Grams per watt (g/W) is dry flower yield divided by the electrical wattage of the grow lights, a rough measure of how efficiently a grow turns power into product.Photosynthetic photon flux density: the number of PAR photons landing on one square metre each second, in µmol/m²/s; the standard measure of light intensity at the canopy.Pot size is the volume of medium a plant roots into; bigger pots give bigger plants within reason, but feeding frequency can let small pots punch well above their size.
