Most indoor cannabis plants yield 1 to 4 ounces of dried, trimmed flower per plant per harvest. A first grow under a modest light usually finishes between 0.5 and 1.5 ounces. A tuned room with strong LEDs, a trained canopy, and stable climate control commonly lands at 4 to 8 ounces per plant. Above 8 ounces per plant indoors points to a long veg, a large container, and high light intensity all working together.
Every figure here means dried and cured flower, not wet weight, and not trim.
What the number counts
- Weight comes after drying and curing, when about 75 percent of the fresh harvest weight is gone.
- Only trimmed flower counts. Sugar leaf, stems, and trim get weighed on their own.
- The figure is per plant per cycle, not per year. A perpetual room with several harvests a year adds up fast.
- One ounce equals 28 grams dry.
Yield benchmarks by setup
- Small tent, 100 to 150 W LED, 2 to 3 gallon pot: 0.5 to 1.5 oz per plant.
- 2x4 tent, 200 to 300 W LED, 3 to 5 gallon pot, light training: 2 to 4 oz per plant.
- 4x4 space, 400 to 600 W LED, 5 to 7 gallon pot, screen-trained canopy: 4 to 8 oz per plant.
- Sealed room with CO2, high PPFD, and tight VPD control: 8 oz and up per plant, though plant count and floor space still cap the total.
What moves the number most
- Light: flowering cannabis wants roughly 800 to 1,000 PPFD at the canopy without CO2, and a daily light integral near 35 to 45 mol/m2.
- Veg time: 3 weeks of veg gives a small plant, 6 weeks gives a plant that can fill a 2x2 footprint.
- Container size: root volume sets how much plant the pot can carry through flower.
- Genetics: cultivar and phenotype set the ceiling. Two seeds from one pack can finish an ounce apart.
- Canopy shape: a flat, even canopy uses light better than one tall cola with shaded lower branches.
- Climate: heat stress and low humidity during flower cut weight and quality.
How to measure your own yield
- Cut the plant at the base and hang it whole, or in branches, in a dark space.
- Hold the drying room at about 60 F and 55 to 60 percent relative humidity for 7 to 14 days.
- Trim over a tray and weigh flower only, never stems or fan leaf.
- Record the wet weight at harvest as well, then compare. Expect roughly 20 to 25 percent to remain after dry-down.
- Cure the flower in jars for 2 to 4 weeks, burping daily, then take the final weight.
- Divide the final weight by plant count, and again by the wattage of your light, to get grams per watt for the room.
Steps to reach the top of the range
- Pick a cultivar that fits your ceiling height and finish time.
- Run veg at 18 hours of light until the canopy covers about 70 percent of the grow space.
- Train branches flat with a screen or ties so bud sites sit at one height.
- Set flowering light intensity at 800 to 1,000 PPFD and check it with a meter at canopy level.
- Keep temperature near 75 to 80 F in the day and humidity near 55 to 65 percent through stretch.
- Remove lower growth that receives little light at day 14 and day 28 of flower.
- Harvest when trichomes are mostly cloudy with a few amber, not before.
- Dry slow and cure long. Fast drying costs more weight and aroma than any nutrient choice.
Why a plant finishes under an ounce
- Flower started at 12/12 with a seedling-sized plant and no veg.
- A weak or distant light, so the plant never received more than a few hundred PPFD.
- A pot under 2 gallons that dried out daily and stalled growth.
- High heat in late flower, which foxtails buds and lowers density.
- Harvesting early or drying too fast, which leaves the crop light and grassy.
Track three runs before you trust a number
Single-harvest weights swing a lot. Log cultivar, pot size, veg days, light wattage, final dry weight, and grams per watt for three cycles. Patterns show up by the third run, and from there you can predict a harvest within an ounce or so instead of guessing.
Cannabis cultivation is regulated at the state and local level. Check the rules for plant count and home growing where you live before you plan a room.