“Yield” is the amount of cannabis a grower gets from a harvest. Certain strains yield more buds than others, and growing practices and environmental conditions can affect the yield of a cannabis crop.
“This strain is incredible to grow but unfortunately it’s a low yielder.”
“Scrogging weed plants will help increase your yields.”
What is a yield?
A yield refers to how much cannabis a grower gets at harvest. Yields are usually considered in terms of dry weight (dried buds, or finished product) as opposed to wet weight (the entire plant). As buds dry, they lose moisture and become lighter in weight, and a bulk of the plant gets removed during the trimming process, so the yield of dried buds that will be consumed are much lighter than the initial weight of a harvested crop.
Some extraction processes do utilize the full plant, as there are small amounts of trichomes on the stalks, stems, sugar leaves, etc., and buy cannabis from growers in terms of wet weight. For example, live resin extraction uses plants that are fresh frozen, or frozen immediately after getting cut down, with no processing.
How can you increase yields of cannabis plants?
The yield of a cannabis crop depends on many factors, but mainly the strain of plant and the environment they’re grown in. Certain strains will yield more buds than others because of their genetics; low-yielding strains might not produce as much but may make up for it in flavor, taste, potency, or some other trait.
Cannabis plants typically like lots of light and need a good balance of nutrients to grow big, and if they don’t receive those they may grow small to their potential and yield less.
If growing outdoors, many factors can affect this—bad placement of plants (not enough light), cloudy weather for a prolonged amount of time (not enough light), hot, humid weather (not enough water), poor soil (not enough nutrients), and more.
There are many techniques can help increase the yield of any cannabis strain. Two common techniques are scrogging and trellising, which spread out branches to allow more of the plant to receive light, thereby increasing bud size and volume.