I will share my best estimates and guidance to help you understand if growing your own cannabis is for you.
First the positives. If you want clean medicine, in the way that you know everything that went into the plant as far as nutrients, amendments and what was sprayed on the plant.. growing your own will greatly benefit you. If you enjoy gardening. If dispensary cannabis is too expensive in your area.
Negatives.. it can be very trying at times. Rarely do I have a full run go smoothly without issues. You tend to always have to deal with equipment failure, environmental issues, pests, mildews, nutrient deficiencies or lockout. Murphy's law is in full effect when it comes to cannabis growing.
But..if you are a do it yourselfer and don't mind figuring things out than don't be discouraged. I guarantee you will mess a lot of things up but if you can learn from your mistakes ...you will be rewarded with a great harvest.
Let's get started
Equipment needed.
For indoor growing the MINIMUM equipment needed will be a grow space . I prefer a grow tent. Exhaust fan to remove heat from grow lights. Carbon filter to scrub odor. Ducting to connect exhaust fan. Grow lights..so many options, but I will quote what I currently use ,(hlg led grow light) minimum 500 watts for 4x4 space. Trust me don’t go cheap on the lights! Circulating fan for airflow inside the tent. Timer for lights. I myself use soil and 7 gal fabric pots.. so that is what I will quote. Other options are hydroponic media (rockwool, Coco, hydroton) with these systems you will have to factor in additional equipment and costs including nutrients. (I will leave that to you to calculate those costs). Back to soil. I use SoHum living soil because I don't need to amend anything to it. These cost me about $25 a bag locally. Each bag fills 2 pots. I grow 6 strains so I use 3 bags per cycle. If you don’t have a source for a good ready to use soil, there are many great soil recipes you can find online and I have used many of them with great success. Now in my setup I use a constant exhaust that goes back into my grow space. I use this for heat during the winter. But as my room gets too hot I have an additional carbon filter and fan combo that is connected to a temp sensor and that kicks on at 85 degrees and removes heat from my grow room. This is an advanced system and I don't believe you need something like this to start off. As long as you have a system or plan in place to make sure your grow space doesn't get over 90 or under 60. I used to just exhaust straight outside from in the grow tent. This may be your best option to start. Just make sure you have a good carbon filter to scrub the odor. Cannabis likes a 10 degree swing. If lights on are 80 degrees than ideally you would want 70 as lights off temp. I have my flower tent timed to have lights on at night. They turn on at 6p and turn off at 6am. This is just the best system for me to control heat. You will want a temp and humidity sensor that gives you min/max readings so you can track what your grow is doing when your not around.
Other things to consider. You can start with a single tent and pop some seeds or use some clones. As you get more involved you will probably want a perpetual grow. What this means is that you have a separate veg garden and a flower garden. They are both working constantly. With this rotation you veg plants while your flower tent is doing it's thing from 8 to 10 weeks. After you harvest your flower tent then you clean up and prep for next run. You move your veg garden into flower and take clones of all your plants ( this is a whole other skill that you will obsess about). As your flower tent does it's thing than you are transplanting and training your veg garden to replace for the next run. With this system you can grow the same plants over and over without needing to bring in new ones from outside sources.
*if you are doing a perpetual grow you will need an additional tent or space for a Veg light- with the same setup as far as circulating fan, timer (about 16-18 hours of on time), smaller light (approx 270 watt led works great), not light sensitive so you can use a tent or not -depending on your environment.
Some people choose to keep mother plants around to use for clones. But as a home grower with limited plant counts I would recommend just cloning from veg garden prior to flowering. Keeps plant counts in check. I will not include soil price for veg garden because you will do lost in 1 gal containers and transplant into 7 gals when prepping for flower.
Now even soil growers add some things in depending on life cycle of plants. With SoHum I have found that I only add some more soil microbes on a regular basis (recharge for veg and early flower) mammoth p for flower but the per application rates on these are minimal cost so only runs about $5-$10 per cycle.
Time and not money. I spend on average 30 minutes a day in my grow. With more time once a week topping, thinning, training, IPM (integrated pest management) fixing any issues with plant deficiencies. For IPM I like a product called green cleaner. Handles a lot if issues without leaving residuals.
Instruction. You will want to learn as much as you can. Read Jorge Cervantes new Cannabis encyclopedia. Also listen to podcasts like Dude Grows Show as well as Grow from you heart podcast. Rasta Jeff from grow from your heart podcast just did a series of start to finish detailed instructions for new cannabis growers. If you want online instruction check out greenboxgrown.com
I recommend setting up your grow area in advance to make sure you have dialed in all environmental factors and have a min /Max temp and humidity in check. And when you make it to harvest please check out my blog post about drying and curing cannabis. Equipment needed will be trimming scissors, ISO alcohol -to clean the scissors, Smell proof sealed bags or jars, boveda humidity packs.
All prices were shopped on Amazon as of April 2019
Grow tent 4x4 $100
Fan filter combo 4” $105
hlg led grow light
Spectrum king 402 $845
Hlg 550 $891
Non led
600 watt grow light combo $160
(cheaper starter light)
Circulating air fan $40
Light timer $10
Soil $75
Recharge $35 and Mammoth P $100- you use very little maybe weekly and equates to maybe a couple bucks if use during each grow cycle
Fabric pots x6 $15
Temp/humidity sensor $14
Green cleaner 8oz $36
Scissors $10
Iso alcohol $2
Boveda humidity packs $15
If you add a perpetual grow
2nd tent $100
Fan filter combo 4” $105
Led grow light
240 watt led $270
Non led
400 watt grow light combo $120
(cheaper starter light)
Circulating air fan $40
Light timer $10
Temp/humidity sensor $14
hlg led grow light only about 260 watt needed $
1 gal containers $4
Cloning
Clone dome $16
Rooting solution$
Root riot, rockwool $11- $30
Electricity. I have estimated my grow at about $60 a month. That is with about 900 watts of lights, humidifier, exhaust fans, etc.
