Originally Posted by goobygirl
I'm a newbie and have a couple of different options for starting a medical grow in my home. I have a room that is 8.75' x 7.5' (an office in a mobile home). In that room is a 2 X 4 x 7 closet and a 35" x 52" window.
I live in MI and although it's legal for me to grow as a patient, I've been told to pretend it's not, which means I want to fly under the radar as much as possible. Low heat outputs, not obvious, no smells, and keeping the electrical bills down. I only have one close neighbor across the road. Empty mobile to the left, 1/2 acre of empty lots to the right. Apt complex behind me. Seems to me from the smells of the surrounding area, MJ is well tolerated, however (LOL). The town I'm in has one - two police cruisers. Law enforcement seems to be lackadaisical.
Couple of parameters: as a patient I can grow 12 plants AND have 2.5 oz of useable medicine on me at one time. If I decide to be a caregiver for others, I can have 5 patients, 72 plants, 15 oz. Since I'm a newbie I think I might want to stay within personal medical limits (12 plants/2.5 oz) as I'm learning to see if this is something I can do and like. I'm physically disabled, but able to walk, move some things, but not a lot. Hubby has all the construction/electrical wiring skills but I'd rather not make him have to do this as he has plenty to do right now. So someone is going to have to build this, one way or the other, and I'm going to have to pay them most likely. If I had good plans, hubby might consider doing it, but I really would like him to finish our other projects first.
When I was first aware that this could be a viable option for me, a friend told me to set up the whole room with hydro for 12 plants. Since I don't have an extra room, I can't stagger growing really (to my knowledge) unless I can utilize the closet somehow. So I might have to start with buying clones for a while until I can get an area for vegging.
After learning what goes into turning a whole room over to growing, I thought I'd look around for other options, and was kinda thinking of the grow box option (like BC Northern Lights Bloombox or Producer). They are pricey, but I could do it if the situation allowed me to expand for other patients and it was easy to use. I know it's not idiot proof, but it seemed like a good way for me to get my feet wet and still have space in the room to put some of my personal things.
A Bloombox can give you up to a pound for 9 plants, about 4-8 oz of dried medicine for 5 plants. This way I could put a mother and six clones on the veg side and grow 5 plants at a time and stay with in my plant limits and somewhat close to medicine limits (I know, not exactly close, but what's a girl to do?)
I have stealth concerns and wanted low heat output. I've been reading up on LEDs. Not sure what to think of that yet. I don't have air conditioning in the mobile home but could put an AC unit in the one window that's in the potential room. I could even, if it were worth it, put in a central air unit for about $500. If I decide to go central air, it would give me an opportunity to do some creative duct work.
My mobile home got pretty warm here in the summer, so that's a real issue. I was able to make it through some of the warmer days (damn global warming) but it definitely would be too hot in the summer in the grow room without AC.
So I'm looking at a couple of options: 1. Low investment, start with a couple of plants, add decent lighting, ventilation, etc to a closet and see how I like it and see if it's worth it to grow for personal medical limits; 2. Start out with a more aggressive system like full out hydro grow in the room and commit to producing enough for myself and 5 others; . 3. Start out with a Bloombox or Producer growbox and risk be disappointed possibly with the initial cost, yield, results.
I'm also open to eventually going full out and renting a commercial space to grow and incorporating to protect myself (to some degree) as a caregiver. Commerical rent where I live is fairly reasonable. I could even see myself renting a home with a basement or something to keep the grow offsite from my living arrangements. I really don't want LEO charging into my home/personal space, I really, really don't.
However, I think expanding into another space is not really an issue until I get my feet wet, see how I like it, and get a better grip on the current prosecutorial climate in my area. I especially need a better understanding of how easy it is (or not) to provide patients with medical marijuana and to dispose of excess. (DEA is doing nothing really, but some prosecutors/sheriffs in MI are just stoopid, ya know?) My county prosecutor supports medical marijuana, to my knowledge. So as long as I keep my activities in compliance with the law, I should be ok.
MI law is silent right now on the issue of what to do with excess medicine. A sheriff in a county near Detroit has gone stark raving mad and trying to raid people's homes and compassion clubs. Compassion clubs are where private members meet and get educated. The best clubs don't allow people to smoke on premises or to dispose of excess of premises. I've been told my county club is good, but I'm not able to visit until my registration card/proof of processing is in my hands. (I know that my money order was cashed, but I won't be legal to grow or use medicine until Oct 14).
While I don't live in that crazy county, I was told by a well-known cannabis lawyer to stay low key until things shake out and pretend it's illegal. I think that sucks, to have to act like you're a criminal when you're not. :(
I'm open to suggestions. Assume I have $5k to do a start up and within the current space constraints, what would you do and why? If I had $10k, what would you do and why?
If I invest $5k and it doesn't work out, I will be unhappy. However, I have lots of support from others who are encouraging me to "go for it" and can provide me with "seed money." (LOL)
One hydroponics store owner wanted to sell me the whole grow room scenario for about $4k. He would charge more to set the room up for me (probably $300 or so?) and more for clones. Clones about 6 inches high seem to be going for $20 each which seemed alot from what I was told they go for in CO ($3-$5 for 6 inch clones, $15-$20 for 10 inches, is what I heard).
To me, the cautious thing to do would be to grow in the closet and see how I like it. Not too much money to invest and if I don't like it or can't get the hang of it, I'm not out too much dough. However, I don't know if that type of growing would be enough to show me what is involved or give me the full flavor of growing.
I think I would really enjoy growing for medical patients, but it's hard to say when I haven't ever done it before. I think there are plenty of educational, financial, and personal rewards for having patients and providing quality medicine to them.
So, I'm open to ideas. Feel free to comment.
Thanks!
Goobygirl
