When growing cannabis, one of the most important metrics for both commercial and home growers is yield. Getting as much bud as you can from your plants brings with it both delicious flower and a sense of accomplishment.
But the amount of bud you can yield from any given crop depends on a variety of factors, including temperature, lights, nutrients, humidity, space, and more. Genetics also heavily influence the potential yield of a cultivar.
Below, find out how cannabis yields are measured, what you can expect from indoor and outdoor yields, tips to improve your yield, and some high-yielding strains for home growing.
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What is considered a high-yield strain?
“A high-yielding cultivar is one that has been bred for production of flower mass and quality," said Colin Decker, owner and founder of Sensei Growth Consulting.
According to Decker, this results in identifiable physical traits on the plants themselves, including a high calyx-to-leaf ratio and tight internodal spacing, both of which equate to more and bigger buds. “A high calyx-to-leaf ratio means the plant will produce more calyxes (or flower) then it will leaves," he explained. “A short internodal spacing means the flower sites will be closer together, giving you more flower and not a spindly plant."
Aside from the genetics and resulting physical characteristics of high-yielding strains, an important factor to consider is indoor versus outdoor grows.
Cannabis yield: indoor versus outdoor grows
Both indoor and outdoor grows have advantages and disadvantages, and they're total output differs.
While this is not universal, indoor plants are often constricted to a set space and limited in the size they can achieve. Specific training methods are commonly used to optimize the canopy's light exposure, maximize flower production, and keep the crop size contained to the available space. Outdoor yields tend to be bigger since plants typically have more space and are allowed to grow to much larger sizes — plus they're harnessing the power of the sun.
Measuring methods
Indoor and outdoor yields are usually measured in different ways:
- Indoors: Yields are typically measured in grams per meter squared, though you might also see yields based on wattage. A good indoor yield is generally 300 - 500 g/m2 or one gram per watt of light.
- Outdoors: Yields are typically reported per plant, with good yields starting at 500 grams per plant, though outdoor yields can exceed 1,000 grams per plant.
When it comes to indoor growing using hydroponics, experienced growers often report higher yields as compared to indoor soil growing — with estimates ranging from 20 - 50% higher yields using hydro.
Wet versus dry yield
When you see advertised yields for specific seeds or cultivars, these numbers reflect the dry yield, which is when you weigh your yield after it's dried and cured.
If you weigh your yield before it's dried and cured — called the wet yield — you'll see it's significantly higher than your dry yield since the plant contains about 75 - 80% more water before drying and curing.
12 high-yielding strains for home growers
Chosen for the home-growing enthusiast, this list contains selections that are both relatively easy to grow and known for being able to achieve higher-than-average yields.
High-CBD strains often yield less than THC-dominant strains, and just because a strain can achieve high yields doesn't mean it will achieve high yields. Environment and growing techniques are just as important as genetics.
Below, check out our list of strains chosen for their genetic potential in delivering big yields.
High-yielding indoor strains
Indoor cannabis cultivation is an art and craft that has been practiced and refined over decades, giving the grower ultimate control over environmental factors in order to coax the most out of carefully bred genetics.
Super Silver Haze
Super Silver Haze is a sativa-dominant hybrid and multi-award winning strain that earned three successive 1st Place Awards at the High Times' Cannabis Cup: 1st Hydro in 1998 and 1st Place overall in 1998 and 1999.
This strain is of moderate difficulty to grow, preferring a warm and humid climate. When grown indoors, its long branches make it a good candidate for the Screen of Green (ScrOG) or low-stress training (LST) techniques to optimize yields. It's also considered a good candidate for hydroponic growing indoors. Outdoors, you'll need tropical or equatorial climates for plants to thrive.
- Lineage: Skunk x Northern Lights x Haze
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Sativa-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 20 - 26%
- Average CBD: >1%
- Flowering time: 10 - 11 weeks
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 800 gr/m2, 1,500 gr/plant
Bubba Kush
Bubba Kush is a great candidate for indoor growing since its indica genetics keep plants relatively short and compact. It can be coaxed into higher yields by growing hydroponically and/or with training techniques such as Sea of Green (SoG).
It's relatively easy to grow, but be sure to keep humidity levels in check as it prefers drier climates. It's also known to be a heavy feeder that requires proper nutrient support while in the vegetative state.
- Lineage: Afghani x OG Kush
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Indica-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 17 - 25%
- Average CBD: >1%
- Flowering time: 8 - 9 weeks
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 500 gr/m2, 600 gr/plant
Big Bud
Big Bud is a Sensi Seeds strain aptly named for its big and fragrant flowers. With its big buds, these plants might need more advanced growing techniques to support branches and protect them from snapping under the added weight.
Indoors, Big Bud benefits from training methods such as Sea of Green (SoG). Outdoors, you can expect plants to freely reach heights of 5 - 7 feet. A generally resilient cultivar, it can thrive indoors or out and excels in a warm climate with plenty of light.
- Lineage: Afghani x Northern Lights x Skunk #1
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Indica-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 18 - 25%
- Average CBD: >1%
- Flowering time: 7 - 9 weeks
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 600 g/m2, 700 g/plant
Peach Puree CBD
Also known simply as Peach Puree, this easy-to-grow strain from G13 Labs is appreciated for its relatively high CBD content, generally offering a 2:1 CBD:THC ratio and making it an excellent choice for medicinal use.
Whether indoors or out, these sativa-dominant plants will grow long side branches that make it suitable for ScrOG, topping, and regular defoliation. If left unchecked outdoors, the plants can surpass six feet in height, and offer a relatively quick flowering time for a sativa-dominant cultivar.
- Lineage: Sweet Diesel x California Orange
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Sativa-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 5%
- Average CBD: 10%
- Flowering time: 8 - 9 weeks
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 500 gr/m2, 1,000 gr/plant
High-yielding outdoor strains
Some plants will thrive in an outdoor growing environment, but yields will often depend on how long your plant spends in its vegetative stage before flowering, so get your plants in the ground as soon as you're able.
Super Skunk
A descendant of the famous Skunk #1, this multi-award winning strain is easy to grow and very resilient to environmental changes and pests, making it a good outdoor option.
While Super Skunk might be an easy choice for newer growers, experienced cultivators will enjoy the ability to coax more yield out of these plants with extra care and optimized nutrients.
- Lineage: Skunk #1 x Afghani
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Indica-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 16 - 20%
- Average CBD: <1%
- Flowering time: 8 - 9 weeks
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 500 gr/m2, 600 gr/plant
Chocolope
Chocolope is a well-loved and award-winning strain that offers heavy sativa genetics with a relatively short flowering time. Many prefer to grow this strain indoors, but it's known for reaching massive heights and will do well outdoors in a dry and warm climate.
Easy to grow and providing above-average yields, Chocolope is a great strain for beginners.
- Lineage: OG Chocolate Thai x Cannalope Haze
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Sativa-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 18 - 22%
- Average CBD: >1%
- Flowering time: 8 - 9 weeks
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 600 gr/m2, 800 gr/plant
Blue Dream
Blue Dream is a reliable, classic strain, and it's appreciated by growers for being a generally hardy plant that is easy to grow. Outdoors, these plants generally like consistently warm climates, but are hardy enough to withstand occasional bouts of cooler weather. If left untrained outdoors, plants can grow very tall.
- Lineage: Blueberry x Haze
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Sativa-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 15 - 27%
- Average CBD: 2%
- Flowering time: 9 - 10 weeks
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 600 g/m2, 600 g/plant
Medical Mass
While its short stature makes it a candidate for indoor grows, this strain does well outside and will reach heights up to five feet. Ideal for locations with shorter summers, Medical Mass is ready to harvest in late September.
Its high CBD content and honey-like flavor make it an excellent and well-loved entry into the medicinal strain library.
- Lineage: Critical Mass x Juanita La Lagrimosa
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Indica-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 6 - 10%
- Average CBD: 9 - 11%
- Flowering time: 10 - 11 weeks
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 500 g/m2, 550 g/plant
High-yielding autoflower strains
In contrast to photoperiod cultivars, autoflower varieties do not need a change in light to trigger flowering. Instead, they will go into flower on their own no matter the light situation.
Autoflowers were first developed by crossing cannabis with its wild Ruderalis cousins, which caused the automatic flowering traits based on their native climates in Eastern Europe and Russia. They're usually smaller with lower yields than typical cannabis strains, but even within autoflower cultivars, there are high-performers.
Auto White Widow
Why not take hall-of-famer genetics from White Widow and make them into a zippy and easy-to-grow autoflower variety?
White Widow Auto can be grown indoors or out in dry environments with plenty of light, though it's hardy enough to withstand changes and generally resistant to pests and diseases.
- Lineage: White Widow x Ruderalis genetics
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Balanced hybrid
- Average THC: 15 - 20%
- Average CBD: >1%
- Flowering time: 10 - 12 weeks from seed to harvest
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 450 g/m2, 200 g/plant
Auto Mazar
By combining Mazar's popular genetics with the benefits of autoflowering, Auto Mazar is an easy-to-grow strain that offers better-than-average yields over many autoflowering varieties. It's resistant to pests and diseases, and is known to offer up quality that's on par with the traditional Mazar strain, just faster.
- Lineage: Mazar x Ruderalis genetics
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Indica-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 10-15%
- Average CBD: >1%
- Flowering time: 10-12 weeks from seed to harvest
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 100 g/m2, 200 g/plant
Auto Night Queen
This autoflower variety harnesses the genetics of Night Queen, a potent indica strain that's known for its thick and sticky resin production. By crossing Night Queen with an autoflower Mazar-i-Shariff from its seed bank, Dutch Passion has produced a beautiful plant that can express purple or brown leaves about midway through the growing cycle.
Auto Night Queen is tolerant to growing mistakes and suitable for both indoor and outdoor setups.
- Lineage: (Night Queen x Mazar i Sharif) x Auto Mazar
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Indica-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 18-22%
- Average CBD: >1%
- Flowering time: 10 weeks from seed to harvest
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 500g/m2, 150 g/plant
Auto CBD Lemon
This 1:1 THC:CBD strain offers high medicinal and recreational value with a balanced array of effects.
A very hardy strain for outdoor growing, CBD Lemon Auto can also do quite well indoors and reaches a height of about three feet. This strain is known to be a heavy feeder during flower — be sure to harvest before trichomes turn amber for optimal CBD content.
- Lineage: Lemon Kush x CBD
- Indica/sativa/hybrid: Indica-dominant hybrid
- Average THC: 15 - 20%
- Average CBD: 15 - 20%
- Flowering time: 10 - 11 weeks from seed to harvest
- Average yield (indoor, outdoor): 500g/m2, 100 g/plant
Tips for increasing the yield of your home grow
If you're a beginner or novice grower looking to improve your yields, here are a few tips that can help solidify the fundamentals and improve the overall quality of your grow:
- Research genetics: Aside from choosing genetics that are known to produce bountiful harvests, it's important to note that genetics provide the backbone for a plant's potential beyond just yield. Research the genetics of any strain you're interested in to understand its other traits and to compare breeders offering those genetics.
- Optimize light: When outdoors, you have the advantage of harnessing the plant's natural light source. Indoors, you can optimize your lighting setup in a number of ways to help improve yields.
- Use training techniques: Training refers to a variety of techniques aimed at manipulating the shape of the plant to optimize growth and increase yields. These techniques can be used indoors and out and are effective, low-cost ways to encourage the plant to increase bud production.
- Dial in nutrients: Whether indoors or out, in a highly controlled hydro setup or simply the dirt in your garden, feeding your cannabis plants is a skill that takes time and practice. Each cultivar, and even each plant, will have unique needs, and each growing medium offers different capabilities for delivery.
- Veg time: The more time a plant spends in its vegetative state, the more time it has to bulk up for flower production. With photoperiod plants, it's important not to rush the vegetative phase.
Bottom line
Achieving high yields when growing cannabis is a delicate balance that starts with the right genetics. While achieving high yields is both an art and a science, some cultivars have been bred to produce high yields.
There are plenty of high-yielding strains that are great for home growers and myriad ways you can maximize yield through optimizing environmental factors like light, training techniques, nutrients, and fertilization.
