Ask any new or old cannabis farmer what’s the number one question they’ve struggled with and what you’re sure to hear is, “How much bud yield can I expect from my farm?” It’s not easy to accurately answer this question due to the number of variables determining bud yield. As a cannabis farmer, you are the single most essential variable in the entire equation.
But it makes sense if you want to know what to expect before investing time and money in your setup.
Yet, what you need to take note of are the “limiting factors”!
In the cannabis circles, a limiting factor is anything that restricts the overall harvest and slows or prevents higher bud yields. Therefore here are seven factors that will influence the bud yield of your cannabis setup.
7 Factors That Affect Your Bud Yield
Strain
The profit potential of cannabis has resulted in a wide variety of well-tested, high-yielding, and potent strains that farmers and hobbyists worldwide can choose. In other words, if you sample different strains into similar or the sample conditions, they will produce different amounts of buds due to genetic differences.
You can find specific yield amounts from your cannabis seed dealer. However, it’s vital to take their reports with a grain of salt because some of the figures are likely to be overestimated. Therefore, it’s advisable to use them as a guide to help you determine what to expect from each strain.
Grow Environment
The influence of the growing environment is perhaps one of the most crucial determinants of final bud yields. The debate about the immediate environment’s advantages and disadvantages continues to range between outdoor and indoor farmers. However, control and efficiency will always have the last say.
If you’re an outdoor farmer, you’re using the natural elements to increase your production efficiency to get the desired results and yields. On the other hand, indoor farmers have the option to control and protect crops from external elements like unfavorable weather.
The number of buds yielded by your strains can vary depending on the kind of favorable environment you create for it. It also affects the potency, which will reflect in products and extracts, such as shatter and oil, derived from your bud.
Cultivation Technique
In the cannabis community, you can plant your strains in soil or a hydroponics system. Your plant will live and thrive, depending on how favorable the medium you use to cultivate it. In a hydroponic system, you grow your strains in water instead of the usual practice of using fertile soil. According to a study published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments, hydroponic systems enable plants to separate their root tissues easily and facilitate nutrient availability.
However, another increasingly popular practice is the use of air or mist called the aeroponic methods. So you have the choice to build an aeroponic setup or use any of the other two. However, you’ll need to know how each of these affects your final yield.
Nutrients
The popular expression “you’re what you eat” holds, not only with humans. It applies to cannabis farming, too, and the nutrients available to your plants directly impact the amount of yield they produce. Traits such as your plants’ growth rate and potency depend on this factor too.
Some common nutrients such as magnesium, potassium, nitrogen, and calcium play crucial roles in the homeostasis of your plant. They influence a wide range of attributes of your strains ranging from the cannabinoids produced, its aromatic flavor (terpenes), and overall appearance.
Lighting
This is yet another factor of tremendous importance to the number of buds your cannabis strain produces. Ultimately, you would choose the natural light from the sun. It is the option all other sources of light try to emulate. However, depending on the source of artificial light you choose, your plant will receive a varying spectrum of light.
Incorrect or inadequate use of the needed light spectrum has been known to lead to adverse outcomes such as growth deficiencies. In some cases, the wrong lights lead to physical burns. There is published research that supports the effectiveness of LEDs and HPS for cannabis production.
Humidity & Temperature
These two factors are intricately intertwined. Therefore the level of humidity in your cannabis setup will change when the temperature fluctuates. The cannabis plant has different stages of growth, and each stage influences the next. Ultimately, it affects what you get from your farm at the end of the day.
However, the amount of humidity affects each stage during the strain’s life cycle. Improper management of temperature and humidity can lead to contaminating agents such as powdery mildew and mold. These are particularly bad during the flowering cycle, hence affecting the bud yields.
pH Levels And Carbon Dioxide
Like many other plants, cannabis also uses carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Therefore, adding the right amount of CO2 leads to increased yields and better quality buds. Likewise, you can prevent nutrient deficiencies by keeping the pH optimal, preferably acidic.
Conclusion
Even if you can sum up all the details about your setup, it would be difficult to accurately calculate how much buds you’ll harvest from your farm. However, knowing about these factors and their impact on the harvest can help you adjust for the best results.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5091364/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terpene
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6455078/
Disclaimer:
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily WeSay.
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