Yield Calculator for Upgraders
Create Your Before & After Scenarios
- In the Current Growing Scenario form, please enter the scenario's Average
Crop Yield (from 29 to 20,000 grams).
Finish with this form, then ReCalc before moving on to your upgrade scenario.
The following apply to both scenarios....
- Enter any combination of HPS and/or MH lumens (up to 6 digits per box). The combined total must be at least 4970
lumens (the smallest HID lamp). You can click the links provided in the boxes if you don't know your lumens.
- Enter any light intensity between 3000 and 16000 lumens per square foot. Light intensity and canopy space work hand
in hand. To match your canopy space, tweak the light intensity setting.
- If you don't use a hydroponic growing medium, uncheck the box.
Numbers must be within the ranges mentioned above or you will be asked to re-enter when you ReCalc. Anytime changes are made to a scenario you will need to ReCalc its results. If both scenarios have been completed and then you make changes to the first one, you will need to ReCalc both of them - ReCalc the Current scenario first and the Upgrade last.
For sample scenarios, click this button (details are found below the forms).
About the Sample Data
The upgrade is from a two lamp system (600w HPS & 400w MH) which produced an average crop yield of 800 grams from
20 square feet, as opposed to the 715 grams normally projected for this scenario. This is a +11.9% deviation from the
715 gram norm (displayed as 111.9%), which the grower finds satisfactory. His upgrade to a single 1000w HPS lamp is primarily
meant to eliminate clutter in the grow room and simplify lamp-related chores. However, having no more space to work with,
and being aware of something called the point of diminishing return, he is curious
about gains from increased light intensity, and how the absence of the MH could affect yield.
About the Upgrade Calculator
Standard yield calculators on this site ask you to choose a level of experience from 0 to 10, the highest level being
for those who've grown a minimum of just 2 crops. However, a grower's first few crops are accompanied by a steep learning
curve that usually insures erratic results and unpredictable yields. As a result, many growers require several more
crops before they've learned to take full advantage of their garden's potential, a point at which crops become reasonably
consistent and yields level off to become more predictable. How many crops it takes to have garden resources live up
their potential really depends on the grower's needs, some simply don't need to push their gardens to produce, while
other do. But regardless of the number of crops it takes to reach his own potential, once there, a grower
is much better prepared to then question his resources' potential. For those who've learned to push resources
to the limit, but still can't manage to achieve self-sufficient yields, the dim reality may be that you've overestimated
the potential of your light and space resources when you first set up your garden. After all, even the best of us can't
force blood from a stone, and sometimes the only recourse is to upgrade resources.
The Calculator for Upgraders assumes the learning curve's unpredictability has been dealt with several crops ago, and that gaining more experience offers less yield potential now than upgrading resources. Because it understands an upgrader would already have at least two crops under his belt, this calculator doesn't offer the experience scale found in standard versions. Instead, it defaults to the highest two-crop level and lets you pick up the slack by entering your actual experience as grams. As an upgrader, you now have a valuable personal crop history to draw from, and the reality of hindsight held in the grams of your crop history will represent your new scenario's immediate potential more realistically. Such personalized information reflects your true experience with using indoor gardening resources, and allows the upgrade calculator to use your direct experience with current resources to estimate your potential from different resources.
Here's how it works. First use your own crop history to find the average crop yield for your current scenario, then input your average together with the scenario. This generates and adjustment based on your existing garden's actual historic performance and resources, which is then carried forward and applied to your upgrade. For example, if you have consistently produced yields that average 10% higher than your current scenario's normal projection, you would likely also produce 10% more from another scenario's normal projection (your upgrade scenario). This +10% deviation from the norm is the relative success you've gained from experience using garden resources. And though in some cases the deviation could be negative (-10%), at least you'll have a more realistic idea of what to expect and are less likely to overestimate results.
