Quote Originally Posted by madeline
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.
lol, you DEFINITELY do not live in california.