Costs of Growing Bud Compared To Buying Commercial Prices

Crispi has about 2500.00 including walls , paint , mudd - everything . 2000w on a 6ft. lightrail , odor control , 3 -6in. hurricanes , dehumidifier , -n- fans . Costs about 180.00 extra a mo. to run on average . Prob. be hard pressed to use 100.00 wortha nutes per grow .
48 oz. in 4 mos. x 350.00 an oz. for killer = $16800.00 in meds. saved per year . Minus the start up cost / and cost of first grow of $3320.00 , I'm still $13480.00 ahead in only 4 mos. time . And i can't buy anything as pretty on the street .
Peace Crispi:jointsmile:

Intresting.....

Well then theres me, 250 for rent a month, spend 4$ on soil, 3$ on perlite 3$ on nutes, maybe 6$ on lights.... 1.50$ on an emergency blanket

Granted this is a CFL grow so I won't get a huge yeild... but even if i get half O, even 3 grams... I've already technically saved myself money and had something to keep me busy in my other wise. Best part is I"m hoping to maybe be done curing my harvest by 4-20... money saved already! We hiked up to the bluffs in my city and took bong hits last year...

Even if it is cheaper to buy weed I just don't like the idea of it. I do buy because right now that's my only option but you're going to have to pay for your electricity anyways. Bills are one thing, but spending that same amount on an ounce of some high grade weed is another. That house should last you for as long as you can maintain it but that bud you paid for will be gone eventually. It's as simple as that. Everyone that enjoys weed like me should be growing it IMO.

I spend about $40/month for my 300W of CFL & ventilation. My hardware is mostly slalvage, bulbs were donated by a stoner buddy at Home Depot, and I've spent mebbe $$75 on soil, mylar, and worms. I get about 1.5 - 2 oz/plant. One or 2 plants per run. So for me, it defo pays for itself.

And I know I"m going to have to start changing out some of the older bulbs in the next grow or 2. (A CFL is good for about 5 grows)

Only costs about $20-$30 a month for 2 400w bulbs plus all the flouros and fans. Nutes about $50 with enough for my next cycle(only 7 plants). Cubes, pH testers, thermometers, fans, I would say I've spent about $500 total. Plus an ounce and a half per month is $250.
I can sell $200 an ounce, at least and ounce per plant gives me $1400 minus 2 ounces personalis $1000, plus the $500 I would have paid for weed before, which covers my setup expenses and leaves $1000 profit. More if my plants produce more. I wish I knew how much to expect.

Electricity is expensive as hell here in the south bay (california) I went over some math with my room mate last night, and I was just amazed and how little I am actually saving right now.

I do realize this is only my first run through, and things should get better every single time, but it looks like I should probably get 1.5 pounds for this time (though I've had friends who have been doing this alot longer that two is def. possible, I am going to short change myself a bit and say 1.5) That's about 5000-5300 worth of herb if I was buying that at commercial prices.


Now, we figured out that I put in about 2400-2500 per cycle with my investment which is a ton! It's about 46%. Some would say, "Well, then wow, you are saving 54% of your money every single time you harvest!" Well, I didn't mention the $3000 I dumped on equip before anything got started up, *or* the three months I didn't grow in there to make sure my new land lord was mellow and would never come to the house. If you factor that stuff in, I won't even be getting my initial investment back until my third run!! Yikes!

I do realize that I will be getting better and better at this, and hell, I am going to be smoking some very high quality dank for the next few months. Not to mention the absolute pride and beauty I feel when I walk into my grow room, only to see all my ladies doing just fine... looking happy and healthy. That of course is something you can't put a number on.

As I've already stated I am a medical patient, and am licensed by the state of California to grow cannabis, I am also allowed to *legally* sell some to some other medical patients if I need to do so to cover bills. I suppose I will do a bit of this, but I won't be asking for near to market value as I will be selling it to my best of friends if anyone.

For these reasons, I am considering throwing in another 1000 watt lamp. It won't increase my rent at all obviously, electricity should go up about a hundred, nutes probably not even $50. Money wise, it's a great investment and I think it's something I need to do. Unfortunately I don't have room for it in there without pushing my plants against a wall. :(

I really enjoy being able to walk around the perimeter of my garden, so I can carefully inspect all the plants for bugs, mold, etc. It also makes watering easier but I will use a drip system next time. What are the drawbacks to having your plants against a wall? I would assume increased chances of mold. Probably a good thing about having them against a wall is you get reflection from your mylar. Anyhow, let's keep this conversation going, it's an interesting topic.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by razzapiggy

Interested to hear what you guys have to say about this topic. I began growing bud about 2.5 months ago, and I am now a half of a week from finish. I started in the first place to make my habit cheaper, and I am curious to hear what you guys think is put into growing (in way of nutrients. electricity, etc) compared to the commercial value of cannabis? I realize this is a relative question because prices differ in different regions...but let's assume I can get ounces of good herb for $220 dollars? I figure I put about 30% of that into growing an ounce of high quality cannabis myself. Do you guys find this number to be true?

-I figure I use about $250-300 worth of electricity every month from the grow room.
-I put in about $150-$200 dollars worth of nutes every cycle. So after 10.5 weeks, that comes out to ~ 680 put towards electricity every cycle and $200 worth of nutes. Curious to hear if you guys have ever thought about it in this way, and what your numbers told you

---

I think your cost estimates might be off as I know of no one who spends even $100 on ferts and nutes a year, let alone on one grow. And I use the more expensive stuff (FoxFarm and American Hydro products) and spent 50 bucks on 3 bottles that will last for many grows, indoor and out for the next couple of years, at least! Your elec bill sounds a bit high too. I run a total of 3040W of grow lights (2 1kw's, 2 400's and a bank of flouro's totalling 240W) and combined with the house use the bill is still under 200/mo. Of course I cut way back on the "nonessential" electrical uses like keeping the rest of the house warm and puters off when not in use and the like or else it could be a lot worse. I also can't see all of this getting done in only 10.5 weeks as some strains take that long just in flower and the average length of time in flower is 8 weeks...leaving only 2 and a half weeks for vegging. I veg until sexually matured or until females show which takes 6-8 weeks. This allows for only the minimum potential of yield which can be as low as only 7-10 grams/plant on average. So I usually take them an extra month indoors for a total of 5 months from seed to harvest. Cloning makes this a whole different story and greatly increases yield while maintaining the costs.

But it's definitely not a cheap hobby. I don't keep close track of weight after the harvests as I don't sell but for a grow of about a dozen female plants grown from seed over 5 months to harvest, I figure roughly:

$100-150...seeds
50...soil
50...ferts/nutes
500 total at 100/mo...elec
100...misc supplies
or maybe figure $1000 total just to round things off.

I'll harvest appx 1oz/plant or 12 oz's total from the 12 f's and going by the street rates around here (Phoenix area) those oz's of strains such as White Russian, AK47, Blueberry, you know...only the top grade stuff would cost around 350-400. Bringing the gross to around $4,000+ for a net profit, based on expenses alone of $3000++. I would not use so much electricity for 12 plants so that could be cut by half. But this does not allow for space and most of all, the time involved...not to mention wear and tear on the nerves.

you really need a space for vegging clones that is efficient in electricity so you only have to run the 1000 watters on 12/12, might consider flouros or a small mh it would help alot if your not running a 1000 for 18 hours a day and you will also be ready with new clones to throw into flowering after you have harvested.
you can have great results and not spend alot on nutes there is alot of brands some expensive, some not, would probably be trying some different nutes as 150-200 seems kinda high to just get 29 plants through harvest.

Madeline ~ Yeah, I use clones so I will be vegging for like two weeks max once put into the big room.

Bejay ~ very good point. I need to set up a vegging room, and use CFL's only in there, this way I will save some cash on electricity. This would bring down my bill quite a bit I think. How big of an area do you need for a vegging chamber if you are growing 50 plants per cycle? I was thinking of converting a dresser (not inside grow room) into a veg room, and just throw some CFL's up in there, and bam! Should do the trick.

With reguards to nutes, yeah you are probably right. My blooming nute is only 99 dollars for a huge thing, and then I use Hygrozime (33 a bottle, probably will use two on each cycle) and then also a high Phos product which can be expensive or super cheap. MOAB is ten bucks a bottle and can get you through an entire cycle. However, I recently bought this stuff called "Shooting Powder" which comes with five sacks filled with powder. Shit runs $65 bones! One sac is used per 20 gallons of water, and it's used for the last three weeks of flower. So throw in another $30 for the Shooting Powder. That brings the nutes total to $60 for Hygrozime/Shooting Powder, and then who knows for my regular bloom/veg nutes (probably nto much more than 30 bones though) $90 total on nutes... you were right.

you really dont need alot of space depend how long you veg for though but have even seen shelves used if space is an issue and you only veg for a few weeks with 4 ft flouros over them it takes up very little space, using small pots you can fit alot of plants in not a whole lot of space would estimate about 4 plants per sq ft if your only veg for a 3-4 weeks in a pot just large enough to carry them through the veg cycle.