How Much Pot Can You Get From 4 Plants?

If you are inquiring about how much pot you can get from 4 marijuana plants I think it is safe to guess you are a resident of Canada. I am saying this because Growing cannabis at a Canadian residence became legal on Oct 17^th 2018. Legally each residence may grow up to 4 plants. Isn’t that awesome? To find out more about Marijuana laws in Canada see the end of this article.

So How Much Pot Can You Get From 4 Plants?

If you grow 4 plants at a time you can get quite a bit of marijuana. Nobody can give you an exact amount you will harvest from all 4 of your plants. However there is a rule of thumb that 1 watt of light will grow 1 gram of marijuana which we will dive in deeper further on in this article. We will also look at how much bud you could potentially get from the plants and what you can do to increase your chances at having a larger harvest from 4 pot plants.  

How Much Pot Does an Indoor Plant Yield?

How much yield per plant is going to be affected by the factors and methods I have listed below however having grown many plants we can take a somewhat educated guess on what you could potentially expect with your pot plants. It might take you a few grows to keep improving your yield results but that’s just part of the process.

A great way to experiment with seeing how much you can yield from a specific variety of pot plant is to make clones from a mother plant and keep using that same variety tweaking your process. If this interests you I recommend you go read my article on how to make your own clones after you finish this article.

1. The amount of plants you have under each light will affect how much pot they will produce. Let’s imagine a licensed grower who is growing hundreds of plants and trying to use the minimum amount of lighting. The plants that are not directly under the lights will not produce as much as the ones right under the lights. Thankfully for you, you won’t be growing that many plants. Whether you are in Canada and can grow up to 4 plants at a time or somewhere else where the legal amount to grow is different chances are the amount of plants you’re going to grow will fit right under your lights for maximum growth.
2. The rule of thumb for how much pot an indoor plant will yield is for each watt of lighting your plant will grow a gram of bud. This isn’t an exact science but just a rule of thumb for you to be able to set some expectations. So this means you do not need to have massive lighting to achieve a fairly good crop. Although that will depend on how often you smoke marijuana. If you are strictly a recreational smoker and only partake once in a while than you can obviously get by with a lot less.
3. Considering the rule of thumb above if you have a 50 watt grow light and only grow one plant at a time you could expect to yield over an ounce of pot from that one plant. I don’t know about you but an ounce will last me quite a while. If you staggered growing your pot plants you could be harvesting an ounce of pot every two to three months.

Factors / Methods Affecting How Much Pot you Can Get from 4 Plants

If you want to maximize how many buds you grow you want good lighting. Check out my article on 1000-watt grow lights.

1. Depending on whether you are growing from seeds or clones might not matter as much as what variety you are growing. Even though all marijuana plants will produce good results when the growing conditions are just right, the type of plant you are growing might genetically just grow more bud than other types or possibly less. You could try looking for marijuana mutations that are genetically modified to grow extra-large buds, although a bit of extra research and you will find some varieties that grow large buds naturally. We can do some things though to help maximize the results.
2. The Lighting you end up using will affect the production of the plants. HID lights will give you maximum results. The power of these lights will penetrate the plants canopy so you will find buds growing not only at the top but just under the canopy of lights as well. HID lights draw a lot of power though and get quite hot. If either of those are of concern for you then selecting either of the next two options are for you. CFL Grow lights have been around quite a while and prove to be efficient at getting the job done. CFL grow lights might not penetrate the canopy as well as HID lighting however if you trim the plants of fan leaves as well as train your plants to expose lower branches then you will get more buds popping up.CFL are not too terrible on the power bill and do not through much heat. CFL grow lights are probably the most affordable options of the 3 types of lighting mentioned. LED lighting is becoming more popular as the price of the LED lights come down and the grow light spectrums improve in the lighting. Still not super cheap but LED are my choice for growing marijuana at home. LED are super bright and will shine through the canopy as long as you invest in a light that is strong enough. These lights do not generate any heat (or next to none) and will last longer than any of the other lights. That makes them the most cost effective if you plan on growing pot on an ongoing basis. Some brands of LED lights are able to switch from the best light spectrum for vegetative (growth) stage to the flowering stage so you don’t need to switch out bulbs.
3. Using fertilizer will affect how much bud you get from the plants. Fertilizing is important during both the vegetative stage and especially in the flowering or budding stage. Fertilizing through the vegetative stage gives your plants the growth and strength they need to have a strong foundation for when you switch your lighting over to the flowering stage. When fertilizing during the flowering stage if given the appropriate fertilizer (which will be different than the vegetative stage) your plants will produce the biggest stickiest buds they can for you.
4. Grow media (soil or other product like coco coir) will make a bit of a difference especially if you are new to the marijuana growing hobby. Some growing media’s like coco coir allow more aeration around the roots as well dry up quicker than a soil that might be packed down too much. For information on what the best soils and growing media’s are to grow pot with check out my article on the subject. What soil should you grow marijuana with?
   1. The size of pot(s) you choose to grow in will also make a difference on how much bud you can grow. Just remember the saying more roots more shoots. It makes sense that a smaller pot will limit the growth you get above ground including the size of the buds you’re going to want to smoke. The larger the pot the better. Of course you will be limited to budget and size of grow area however a 5 gallon pot can grow a very bushy plant with plenty of buds.
5. Depending on how you let the plants grow can determine the plants yield as well. If you let the plant grow naturally you will get buds mostly from the upper portion of the plant. You could trim off excess branches and leaves to allow more light to reach lower areas of the plant.
   1. Another option is to learn about scrogging and training the plants to increase the amount of buds. Explaining these processes is more appropriate for its own article. I will tell you though that what you end up doing is tying down your plants as they grow instead of letting them grow straight up. By doing this you are encouraging the plants to produces growth for buds throughout the whole plant and not just the upper areas. Keep in mind when doing this that you should be more interested in how many buds start growing versus how big the plant eventually gets.
6. The grow rooms temperature and humidity play into how much your plants yield as well. If your room is too cool and not humid your plants will suffer and growth will be inhibited. Keep the room’s temperature in the upper 70’s and your humidity should be higher than the rest of your home. Your plants will love you and produce for you if you do both of these things.

Marijuana Plant Yields for Popular Sized Grow Lights

I thought I would expand the example of how much pot you would get from a couple of the more popular sized grow lights.

If you used a 1000 watt grow light and grew 4 plants at a time and the plants could genetically grow over 30 ounces then that is what your potential yield would be. Realistically though that’s probably not going to happen so you can see why you don’t really need to purchase the most expensive and powerful grow lights for such a small amount of plants.

If you chose to purchase a 600 watt grow light for 4 plants then the potential yield would be approximately 20 ounces. That is more realistic than the 30 ounce and 1000 watt example. It is still a lot to expect 5 ounces per plant. Some varieties can grow that much though. If you train your plants by tying them down as they grow you can maximize the amount of buds growing. I would start with experimenting by letting your plants grow naturally and use clones of the same varieties if at all possible. By using clones you will become more familiar with the plants you’re growing and will be able to effectively produce more and more buds every time.

Continued from the Beginning of this Article.

Growing over 4 plants at the same time is not legal and you risk being charged and could potentially be looking at jail time. I am not a lawyer and I definitely want you to do things legally when growing marijuana. So if you are not sure on what is legal and what is not in Canada then please go check out this Government of Canada department of Justice Website for the information.

If you do not live in Canada I encourage you to find out what the laws are where you live before starting to grow any pot plants.