One way to look at it. Which is all I was trying to create conversation about. There will certainly be extremes on both ends. A pc cabinet grow with a few watts of led’s would certainly take up the least amount of space for the least amount of money, but lack in yeild. I guess my purpose is to sew if we can find a way to get that guy or gal more yeild. As opposed to someone pulling a ton of weed from a huge space, maybe we can find a way for that person to save a little cash. Both should be looked at as an increase in efficiency.
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I just figure out my expenses for the grow. Electricity, nutes, supplies, soil, seeds, (but not my time in labor lol) vs yield then figure out my cost per ounce. Of course you have your initial start up equipment costs and I dollar cost average those expenses. Say you have a $1000 in lights that have a 50k hour life span and you average 15 hours per day…that is 9 years with 3 grows per year is 27 grows. That comes to $37 per grow just for the light fixtures.
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So then, we need to define what we want to be more efficient on first and probably calculate for the different things you can use efficiently: money, time, and space.
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Also decline in value? Or is that a preference? If we condsider home grows more valuable than dispensary then…
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That’s good stuff and something I think you could work with. You could use that as a baseline then benchmark off of it.
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Maybe just convert all your bills to grams…
FE: A 260 dollar electric bill will need to be paid by 25 grams
Or about 3 grams 
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Ironically that’s exactly how I determined what I needed to get for a first harvest in order to cover my costs. 
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Let’s see, first no I do not live in a legal state. Second I live outside of town, I have 3 neighbors far from me, one neighbors brother is the Sheriff, I own my home so I don’t worry about a landlord and I’m extremely inconspicuous, to look at me you would never even think that I smoked or grew other than the most beautiful tulips and an amazing summer vegetable garden, except this year. The po po are the least of my worries. Answering your question why so many, I would like to try to build a bong Appetit weed pantry.
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Right on, I was just curious, I grow indoors also and am not in a legal state. I fielded 14 plants at one time and was ready to pull my hair out. If that was my full time job it may have not been so stressful but I have to goto work also. That led me to trying to take just one or two and train them/her to fill all the same ft2 that the many plants filled previously. My yields also increased this way off just a couple of plants! The drawback - you don’t have that flavor variety of many plants!
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You increased your yield per square foot, or your yield per plant?
In my experience more plants in the same square footage will yield more than a single plant in the same square footage provided other variables remain the same. In my example a 3x3 sog outgrew a 3x3 scrog by almost 30 grams, and was done a month sooner. Percentage wise, it was a very small difference. But you can’t always buy into one method yielding more than another.
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Yield/ft2
Like I said tending to one plant is simple.
If I have a bunch of plants and one gets sickly, I lose him in my ft2, or If one is a slow grower compared to his mates and I’m losing light on the ground because he doesn’t fill his area completely, I can expect one plant to be consistent and when I want my largest possible yield there is nothing that I want more than consistency and when you have consistency everything else falls into place.
I’m thinking 3-4 plants each of a unique strain at a time.
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That would give you some good variety!
Turnaround time is quicker in a sea of green setup because allot of the ft2 is taken up at the onset and your not trying to grow monsters, I don’t get the same weight per harvest in sea of green as compared to 1 or 2 larger plants, however, I harvest sooner!
Personally I just don’t like all the extra work, makes me tired tending so many plants
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And if we are talking about efficiency, and I know you meant monetarily, but I personally don’t feel efficient as a grower with a bunch of plants.
I dig your set-up there btw
I’m allowed 6 so I simply have a perpetual grow going. In cases like that a SCROG beats a SOG every time.
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Lol, I used to have a perpetual grow also. Nice thing about cannabis is there are so many different techniques to accommodate all the different setups that everyone has out there.
I eventually gave up the perpetual grow also. I operate out of three small 2x4 tents. I grow 1 plant per tent and sometimes I don’t even use all 3 tents.
Just started another grow, only using two tents this grow so I only have 2 plants but I’m shooting for a pound between the two. I might not reach it but I’ll be close. This amount will take me to the next harvest.
If I was to rank my efficiency, I would have to guess that it’s probably pretty poor, reason being, I don’t take allot of expenses into account, if I need something, like electricity, I just use it. I’m not the greatest carbon foot print example.
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Interesting. Other than mixing up a little more water and leaning in a foot or two to water, I thought it was about the same amount or even less work.
You still water and feed either way. You still trim below canopy either way. It may be a little less convenient to water more pots, but you don’t have to deal with the net and tucking either. Unless you physically have a hard time doing it, it’s pretty much the same. Or could possibly be argued that sog is even less work.
When each method is done properly, they actually have very few differences. Plant count, and the methods limiting factor. In a true sog, the limiting factor is pot size. They’ll only allow so much root growth before it stalls and plant growth will do the same. In a scrog, it’s the amount energy the plant can put towards photosynthesis. That’s why every different top or cola you produce will continue to get smaller as more are created.
I’m sure everyone’s experiences are a little different, and different methods will suit others in different ways. But your yield per area shouldn’t be too much different when using one method properly vs the other properly. I consider them the same other than trading plant count for veg time.
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