The number to plan around is 50 to 100 grams of dried flower per indoor plant in a normal hobby setup, and 200 to 500 grams per plant for a full season outdoor plant grown in the ground. Those benchmarks are the top picks here because they match what most growers report at each scale, not the best single harvest posted online. The criteria used to rank the options below: usable light on the canopy, root volume, days of vegetative growth, plants per square foot, and whether the genetics fit the space.
cannabis yield per plant autoflower
Cannabis yield per plant in grams: benchmarks by grow style
These ranges come from grower reports and variety trials, and they describe dried, trimmed flower. Wet weight runs about four to five times higher, so never compare a wet number against a dry one.
cannabis yield per plant outdoor
- Indoor soil or organic mix: 30 to 100 g per plant
- Indoor hydroponics or coco: 100 to 300 g per plant
- Indoor screen of green with CO2: 300 to 600 g per plant
- Outdoor photoperiod, full season: 200 to 500 g per plant
- Outdoor large plant, long season: 500 to 1000 g per plant
- Autoflowering: 30 to 90 g per plant
Indoor soil and organic potting mixes
Soil is the slowest route to a big single plant, and it is also the most forgiving. Root volume caps the ceiling: a 5 gallon pot holds a plant that can finish in the 30 to 100 g range, while a 15 gallon bed can double that with a longer vegetative period.
cannabis yield per plant tips
- Pros: buffers pH and feeding mistakes, low startup cost, no pumps or reservoirs to fail, good terpene expression reported by many growers
- Pros: easy to run organic amendments and water only schedules
- Cons: slower growth than hydro, lower yield ceiling per plant, heavy pots to move, soil can harbor fungus gnats
- Cons: harder to correct a deficiency once it shows
Best for: first grows, small tents, and anyone who checks plants a few times a week rather than daily.
Indoor hydroponics, coco, and rockwool
Hydro and coco push more oxygen to the roots and let you steer nutrient strength within a day. In a 2x2 to 3x3 footprint with 30 to 40 watts of LED per square foot, 100 to 300 g per plant is a realistic target, and a long veg plus a trained canopy can push past it.
- Pros: fast vegetative growth, precise control of pH and EC, high yield per square foot, easier to flush before harvest
- Pros: reusable media in some systems
- Cons: needs meters, reservoir upkeep, and cool water temperatures
- Cons: a pump or timer failure can kill plants within hours, higher startup cost
Best for: growers who can look in on the reservoir every day and want the most grams per square foot indoors.
Outdoor photoperiod plants, full season
Sunlight and unlimited root space are why outdoor plants beat indoor plants on grams per plant. A plant started in late spring and finished in autumn commonly lands between 200 and 500 g, and a large plant in a long season with good sun can pass 1000 g.
- Pros: free light, huge root zone, biggest yields per plant, low electricity cost
- Pros: natural pest predators and airflow when spaced well
- Cons: one harvest per year, weather risk, mold and bud rot in humid falls, deer and theft
- Cons: plant count limits and privacy rules vary by state
Best for: growers with a private yard, a long growing season, and patience for a single big harvest.
Autoflowering plants
Autoflowers ignore the light schedule and finish in roughly 70 to 100 days from seed. Per plant yields are lower, usually 30 to 90 g, but staggered planting spreads the work and the risk.
- Pros: no light change needed, fast turnaround, works on a balcony or in a short season
- Pros: fits small tents and lets you harvest every few weeks
- Cons: less forgiving of transplant shock and stress, shorter veg means less time to recover
- Cons: smaller plants, so grams per plant stay modest unless you run more of them
Best for: small spaces, northern climates, and growers who want a steady supply instead of one large crop.
Plant density: sea of green and screen of green
Plant count changes the per plant number more than any nutrient or additive. Sea of green runs many small plants with little veg time, and each one finishes around 15 to 30 g while the tent as a whole produces well. Screen of green runs fewer plants with a long veg and a flat canopy, which raises grams per plant and keeps grams per square foot about the same.
- Sea of green pros: short cycle, uniform canopy, less training work
- Sea of green cons: small per plant numbers, more clones or seeds needed
- Screen of green pros: fewer plants needed, better light penetration, higher per plant figures
- Screen of green cons: longer veg time, more hands on training, harder to inspect the back of the tent
Best for: sea of green when plant count is legal and space is tight, screen of green when you are limited to a few plants.
Why grams per watt and grams per square foot beat grams per plant
Grams per plant hides time and space. A 300 g plant that took five months in a 4x4 is a worse use of a room than two 150 g plants finished in three months. Track three numbers together: grams per plant, grams per square foot of canopy, and grams per watt of light. For indoor LED grows, 0.5 to 1 g per watt is a solid hobby result, and 1 to 1.5 g per watt is what a dialed room with CO2 can reach. For canopy area, 30 to 60 g per square foot is a reasonable indoor target.
Practical steps that raise yield per plant
- Give the canopy enough light. Aim for 30 to 40 watts of modern LED per square foot in flower.
- Keep the canopy flat so lower buds get light instead of being shaded out.
- Extend veg only when the space can fill in. Extra weeks cost money and rarely pay back on a small plant.
- Hold temperature and humidity in a range that suits flower, since bud rot and heat stress cut weight fast.
- Harvest at peak ripeness, dry slowly, and weigh after trimming to 58 to 62 percent humidity so the number is honest.
One last caution: a store shelf number is not a garden number. Seed sellers list potential yields under ideal conditions, and those figures assume a dialed room, a long veg, and a skilled grower. Treat them as a ceiling, compare your own runs against each other, and the grams per plant figure becomes useful instead of decorative.