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.