Good Yield Per Plant for Experienced Growers: The Short Answer
For an experienced grower with a stable room, a good yield is 1 to 1.5 grams of dried flower per watt of light, or about 40 to 65 grams per square foot of canopy. In a 4-plant, 4 by 4 foot tent, that works out to 140 to 260 grams per plant. Outdoors, a well-managed photoperiod plant in the ground or a 30-gallon pot should finish at 500 to 1,000 grams, and large plants in long-season climates can pass 1,500 grams. Anything below 0.8 grams per watt indoors or 300 grams per plant outdoors points to a fixable limit in light, environment, or canopy management.
Indoor Benchmarks by Light Type
- HPS, 600 W: 500 to 700 g per square meter, about 0.8 to 1.1 g/W.
- LED, 300 to 500 W: 450 to 750 g per square meter, about 1.0 to 1.5 g/W.
- LED, 600 W or more with CO2: 700 to 1,000 g per square meter, 1.2 to 1.7 g/W.
- Per plant in a 4-plant, 1.2 square meter canopy: 110 to 250 g dried.
Outdoor Benchmarks by Plant Size
- 10-gallon pot, short season: 150 to 400 g per plant.
- 30-gallon pot, full season: 500 to 900 g per plant.
- In-ground, 6 to 8 foot plant: 900 g to 2 kg per plant.
Prerequisites Before You Chase Top Yields
- Stable genetics with a known yield history in your room.
- Light meter or PAR meter to set daily light integral.
- pH and EC meters, calibrated.
- Temperature and humidity control with a 10 to 15 F day-night swing.
- Drain to waste or recirculating system that holds steady EC.
- Scale that reads to 0.1 g for dry weights.
Steps to Push Yield Into the Top Range
- Pick one high-yield cultivar and run clones so every plant starts equal.
- Set canopy daily light integral to 30 to 40 mol/m2/day in veg and 40 to 45 in flower.
- Hold VPD at 0.8 to 1.0 kPa in veg and 1.0 to 1.2 kPa in flower.
- Top or train plants once to create 8 to 12 even colas per plant before flip.
- Defoliate the lower third at day 14 and day 28 of flower.
- Feed to a steady EC of 1.8 to 2.4 with a complete nutrient profile.
- Harvest at 60 to 70 percent amber trichomes on the calyxes.
- Dry at 60 F and 60 percent humidity for 10 to 14 days, then weigh.
Common Yield Killers
- Light too far from the canopy, dropping DLI below 30 mol/m2/day.
- Root zone temperature above 75 F, which stalls nutrient uptake.
- High humidity in late flower causing bud rot and lost tops.
- Overfeeding in weeks 5 to 7, which burns sugar leaves and shrinks flower.
- Counting wet weight. Wet to dry loss runs 70 to 80 percent.
How to Measure Yield
Weigh dried flower only, after a full dry and a 2-week cure. Record grams per watt and grams per square foot for every run. Compare runs by the same cultivar and the same veg time, or the numbers mean nothing. A good yield per plant for an experienced grower is repeatable, not a one-off.