How Commercial Cannabis Cultivators Can Increase Their Yields

The one question the team at Rx Green Technologies gets nearly every week is, “How do I increase my harvest yields?” Every commercial cannabis cultivator is continuously looking for new and better ways to maximize their harvest’s potential weight because every gram that they grow delivers economic value. Even marginal increases in total yield can equate to much-needed additional revenue that operators can deploy towards scaling the business, hiring needed staff, and other facility upgrades. 

A Ph.D. in plant science isn’t required to make major improvements to the standard operating procedures in the garden. Even implementing a handful of smaller changes can make a significant difference over the course of a couple of harvests. In this exclusive Rx Green Technologies blog, we’ll explain the techniques top cultivators employ in this extremely competitive market to ensure they’re getting the most out of every cycle – so that any grow team can do the same.

Selecting The Right Cannabis Strains for Yield

First and foremost, yields start with genetics. It sounds simple, but at the cultivation business level, the reality is more complicated. With an almost limitless number of potential strain options to choose from, cannabis growers have a critical decision to make. Picking the right strains for each operation to cultivate is mission-critical to overall success. Ideally, strains should align with the facility’s features and capabilities, brand ethos, market trends, and overall company goals – in addition to whether they yield well. 

However, yield isn’t everything. Some plants that are underwhelming in the yield department can still have other valuable characteristics, such as high extraction potential or top-dollar terpene profiles. It’s always important to make sure that whichever cuts get put into rotation, they – at a minimum – check all of the following boxes:

1. Is the lower yield offset by higher demand and prices people are willing to pay?
2. Were the test yields of the phenotype that is intended to be run satisfactory?
3. Does it have acceptable resistance to mold and pests?
4. Is the harvest team able to trim and process it efficiently with the tools they have?

Keep in mind that just because a particular strain might yield prolifically once a winning phenotype has been found doesn’t guarantee it will be a commercially successful product in all stores. In mature markets, especially, dispensaries are always after new flavors and crosses that can help set them apart from their competitors, so offering the same menu quarter after quarter isn’t a recipe for success, even if the harvested numbers look great in a spreadsheet. 

The other side of the coin, when it comes to genetics, is potency. Finding strains to keep in rotation that yield well and offer noteworthy potency is essential. Although connoisseurs tend to care less about THC percentages, the average dry flower purchaser is typically looking for 20% THC or more on the label. Factoring in potency and terpene profile in addition to yield potential is the best way to find winning strains that produce enough to more than justify running rooms for many cycles to come. The most elite strains, however, will check every box.

A cultivation expert reviewing different phenotypes

Dialing in Lighting, CO2, and Environmentals for Better Yields

Lights, environmental controllers, CO2, and all kinds of other cultivation solution providers try to claim that their products alone are going to make plants yield more. This is not usually accurate, but in some cases, it can be if there is a major missing variable or severely outdated equipment. Case in point, proper environmental controllers to keep everything balanced and consistent are also a must-have.

For example, even in rooms that are not enriched with supplemental CO2, growers can leave as much as 15% end weight or more on the table if their lighting is strong enough to support it (typically in 700+ photosynthetic photon flux density range, here on out referred to as PPFD). Plants that are in the vegetative stage need slightly less CO2 than in flowering, so making sure there is the right amount at each stage of the plant’s lifecycle is also helpful. Around 900 ppm during veg and upwards of 1,400 during flower is suggested. Fun fact: if you aren’t sure what CO2 level to use, numerically match the ppm to the room’s PPFD.

If the lighting being used is old and isn’t generating enough PPFD to the tune of 800-1,200+, supplemental CO2 won’t do much due to the lack of light. Evenly distributed lighting is also essential for great yields, because having hot and cold spots – not just in temperature – but when lighting the canopy can make plants growing right next to one another differ wildly in their final weight.

On the flipside, if plants are getting blasted by too much light without CO2, it can stress them out unnecessarily, which will actually decrease yields. There is relative parity between most higher-end modern LED lighting solutions, although many growers swear by certain brands or styles. 

Temperature and humidity also play very important roles in final yields because applying the right amount of stress and creating the optimal environmental conditions is how professional cultivators get consistently profitable results. Higher CO2 levels allow you to run at a higher temperature, which is especially handy with LED lights, where a few degrees warmer is preferred. 

The important acronym here that grow teams need to be measuring and adjusting for is “VPD,” or “vapor pressure deficit,” which is affected by heat and available moisture. If they aren’t talking about it regularly, there’s likely a problem, and maximum yield potential is not going to be met without controlling for it. The best way to determine heat levels is by measuring leaf surface temperature.

Working to determinethe right levels for every variable in the garden is a core principle of crop steering, which we’ll get into later in the article. Each one of these topics has volumes written about them in highly scientific language, so it’s strongly encouraged to do more research if anything here seems to be a missing piece of the puzzle in the garden. Still looking for answers at your facility? Contact us to talk to Sean, our Head of Product, to get actual hands-on help.

Cannabis plants in early flowering within trellises for structural stability

Using the Right Nutrients and Substrates Equals Better Yield Potential

Cannabis plants can’t grow to their full potential without proper feeding regimens and the right environment for their roots to call home. As with everything else in the cannabis cultivation space, there are almost too many options to choose from. Thankfully, that’s where Rx Green has focused exclusively to simplify choices for both fertilizers and substrates that can help increase yields. In addition, Rx Green fertilizer has fewer parts and allows you to push EC to higher levels to optimize your crop.

Planting in the right growing medium is a bigger decision than it may seem…and not all mediums are created equal. The time it takes to deploy and how difficult it is to keep both pH and EC levels in their optimal ranges are all factors. Some of the most popular options for substrates include coco coir, rockwool, peat moss, hydroton clay, and even organic soil mixes in select cases. 

Each has its own pros and cons, but the most popular medium by far at commercial grow facilities is coco. It provides the right amount of root oxygenation, is straightforward to feed plants in, and has easily managed EC and pH levels. However, growers have to be very careful with the coco they choose, as not all of it is buffered or cleaned properly ahead of time, so asking for COAs before a purchase order is even placed is a great first step to ensure high-quality coco lands in your garden. Thankfully, Rx Green Technologies’ OMRI-certified coco checks all of those boxes.

Compressed coco coir is another common choice due to its small size and low storage space requirements. A more popular alternative to compressed coco is pre-hydrated RTU coco bags. In a study Rx Green Technologies conducted, its Ready-To-Use coco coir grow bags were put to the test against rockwool cubes, and the results speak for themselves – up to 40% higher yields and 60% less water used. For cultivators who are sold on coco but haven’t tried RTUs, they’d be wise to get trial units shipped so they can compare and see how much finished weight they’re missing out on. 

When it comes to nutrients, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always work unless the feeding regimen can be easily tailored to hungrier strains when they’re being run. Rx Green also offers a full lineup of easy-to-use feeding solutions that are carefully tailored to the needs of high-performing cannabis plants. Cultivators need to decide first whether they want pre-mixed liquid nutrients, which are easier to deploy but more costly due to weight, or dry fertilizers, which are more affordable but require proper mixing and solution testing. 

Cannabis plants in the vegetative stage need different NPK ratios than during flowering, so having a nutrient lineup that carefully reflects those subtle shifts in the plant’s needs during each stage of life can increase yields fairly significantly. That’s why Rx Green has completely custom-tailored both its dry and liquid solutions to each stage for optimal resin production and terpene output. Both lineups can be mixed for higher or lower strength depending on each strain’s requirements, making it very simple to switch even mid-cycle if an incumbent product isn’t delivering the desired results.  

Premium coco coir being sampled from an Rx Green RTU grow bag

The Final Frontier in Achieving Better Yields: Crop Steering

Crop steering is the way that most advanced cannabis growing facilities track, manage, and optimize their plants. This technique enables cultivators to direct their plant’s energy where it matters most, at the exact right times at scale, during each stage of the growing lifecycle. What it means in practice is the deliberate and careful manipulation of irrigation, drybacks, nutrient concentration, plus other micro environmental factors to promote rigorous vegetative growth and heavy resin production.

Crop steering is conducted by targeted feed inputs in conjunction with drybacks, and paying very careful attention to the data coming out of the grow: nutrient EC runoff levels, plant growth characteristics, environmental data such as VPD, and so on. If an operator isn’t tracking these metrics closely, it makes future optimizations more difficult, or even impossible. Taking uneducated guesses as to what each strain wants is slow and inefficient.  

Why do commercial cannabis growers go through all of the trouble instead of just “feeling it out” in the garden? The answer is that well-managed crop steering increases both yields and product quality by giving plants what they need, when they need it. It also increases predictability and consistency of outputs since cultivators know what to expect when all of the important variables each strain needs are dialed in across a handful of previous runs. Ask us about customizing your feed schedules based on your conditions!

This helps everyone from the C-suite on down. Higher yields through crop steering means more intelligent allocation of resources, and labor, as well as more predictable resulting revenue from harvests. The level of attention to detail that is demanded from the facility to fully execute crop steering is significant, but so are the rewards, which more than make up for it. 

Finding the Right Partner for Your Garden

While there are all kinds of other tweaks to make and levers to pull to increase yields at a cannabis grow facility, one of the easiest ways to expedite the process is to work with a trusted partner like Rx Green Technologies. At Rx Green, our commercial cultivation substrates, nutrients, and supplements are engineered to make plants healthy from day one. Healthier plants throughout each stage mean the best shot at yield potential plus enhanced terpene production. 

Seeing results in action speaks volumes, so that’s why Rx Green offers free trials to commercial growers on its top coco and nutrient products. Top-tier customer support also comes as a part of every purchase, so contact us today and get started with one of our science-backed product lines.