How Much Does Your Bud Cost To Grow?

[Muttt]

Ok,

So I may have smoked just a little too much already this morning and I am bored ...... so ......

The going rate around my area is 10 per gram (which is actually close to what I paid in highschool thirty some years ago). That's for Mid's ..... the top shelf stuff can go for 15-20 a gram depending on where you go. But even the schwagg around here is still really good. So, now that I am growing my own ...... for me. I started to think about how much I have invested in my weed. Is it actaully cheaper than 10 bucks a gram. Or, am I paying premium price (growing costs) for my own home grown stuff.

So far, I have 400 or so invested in light and fan. 130 to build the box. Another 200 or so for pots, screen, dirt, nutes etc ....... probably into setup about 600 bucks.

But, until I get my first harvest and can divide my cost by my yeild ..... I'll have no idea how much my own bud is actually costing me. (not that it really matters ..... un-Kiefed, organic, home grown is always gonna smoke better .... regardless of my cost). I'm only growing three plants right now. But, my grow box has room for 6-8 at a time. For me, my cost of equipment ..... and my available growing area may be a little off. Since, I wanted to and need to keep it small. I could have gone bigger for more plant per equipment cost. But, bigger in my case isn't neccessarily better. Plus, I'm in WA state and I'm legal to grow 15 ..... and want to keep it that way. So if I grow 6 at a time and keep 6-8 clones getting ready for the next batch, it keeps me inside my legal limits. Which takes "getting busted" out of the mix ..... which keeps my wife happy.

Anyway, I was just wondering what it's costing others to grow thier own. By cost .... I mean per ounce or gram ..... or something like that. Just wondering if anyone else has bothered to do the math (not my strong suite).

So, lets say I get an ounce each from these three plants (which would make me so happy). If I were to get an ounce from a dispencery, it would cost me 300-350. So, for the 600 I have invested in my setup, the first two ounces would pay for itself. The third ounce, would basically be free ..... and every ounce after that. With the exception of electricity, water and nutes.

Does that sound about right ????

Anway, sorry for the long rambling. The Maui Wowie I used to wake and bake has really kicked in. Now, I'm up and chasing random thoughts, bored and trying to start some conversation ..... LOL.

Somebody please chime in here so I can stop typing ...... LOL

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Thats a good question !

1. I looked at cost of meds/smoke over a month at first to give a rough figue.

2. Total cost of hard perminate equipment required.

3. Expandable equipment such as starter cubes/compost, nutrients, bulbs, carbon filter due to life span, usage rate etc etc.

4. Electric cost.

Equals total yield of harvest !


You may break even first grow ? but more than likely second or third grow before savings occur...


After hard equipment is covered cost wise by savings, you really got to work out cost of expendable equipment over a period of time plus electric cost to work out cost per gram depending on yield of harvest !


This is often less than the cost of an Oz of MJ on average, by my rough calculations if grown for personal use/meds.

 

[Muttt]

That's what I was thinking. Don't really have enough history built up yet to figure out what the electric costs are. But, if I can break even on the first grow .... for the initial cash I had to lay out for equipment. Then, the second grow should save me enough money (that I would normally spend at a dispensery) to pay for the electricity for the rest of the year.

 

[Lester Freeman]

I produced a quarter-pound while only investing 225$ into soil/nutes/pots.

The great outdoors...

 

[jammie]

seeds, electric, nutes, prorated bulbs, pumps, fans- probably about $20-30/oz, but i only do 1 grow yearly for personal use. if i grew year round for profit and took clones and had perfect dial in, probably $10/oz

 

[Muttt]

Growing it instead of buying it just seems to make so much more sense to me.

 

[ChesterC]

I bought $475 worth of Advanced LED lights for my last grow. It produced nearly 3 oz valued conservatively at $900 in this area. My next grow starting in 2 weeks will be free except for the cost of electric, a little dirt and some seeds. I expect to produce approx. 4 oz over a 10 week period (Autos). I only grow for my wife and I to smoke and vape and cook w/. Along w/ drastically slashing the cost of smoking, growing, as we all know is a great hobby. Electric costs about $7 a month to run the 220 watts of LEDs.

 

[oldrthandirt]

When I had to buy I was paying $225 per oz so I use that as base.

I started small. 2 plants(bagseed) 4 cfls/$10, 4 light fixtures/$32, Soil/free, my own compost, 2 pots/ free, stole from mom in law, Electric/no difference in electric bill. Total harvest was 1 oz.

Second grow- I built grow box for $100, added 10cfls/$26, made light fixture with reflector/ $12, 4pots/ stole 2 more from mom in law, Bought soil but mixed in own compost/$22, Still used bagseed, Electric/raised electric by $2 per month, bought nutes/$32. Total harvest was 5.5oz.

By the 3rd grow it is costing me approximately $18 per oz

 

[Muttt]

Too Cool .....


This thread is turning out pretty cool ..... considering it was just a wake and bake rambling when I started it ... LOL

 

[Muttt]

Just bumping this thread. Trying to get it back up where people can see it. I was really enjoying the posts about how much other people are saving. Keep the posts coming.

 

[voucher]

Lets see here.
250 for the ballast, hood and bulbs (el-cheepo from the bay)
120 for a tent from our sponsors
250 (about) for nutes and soil FF line
160 for the fan & filter also from our sponsors
100 for everything else (pots, timers, hangers, etc...)
50 for 6 clones

930 is my total investment in to my current set up so far. With 5 surviving clones, I'm hoping to harvest at least 2oz from each of them. Last year, I started with an open room, a 250w hps bulb & ballast, tried with CFL's when the weather got too hot, switched back to the hps and vegged for 2 months. MG nutes, kellogs soil, 2 plants, lots of problems (thank you for everyone here who helped), flowered under the 600 watt light (still had heat issues, open room, booster fan and home made filter wasn't cutting it), I still got about 30 grams from each plant.

Access Hydroponic - Grow Lights, Grow Tents, Indoor Garden Supplies, Hydroponic Systems Used these guys for everything I could. Great people with fast shipping and good prices.

 

[Muttt]

An ounce a plant is pretty good.

 

[tk86high]

Ur electric bill is gonna increase around $25-35 per month no more then $40, So after ur first harvest of 3-4 plants u paid for the extra electric bill costs and ur setup costs. For a 400W setup with fans and carbon filter . There is charts online that can help you calculate it to the penny, as long as u know what going rate is per KW/H.

Water , really ? and extra $2-3 lol

Now the part I see lots of people waste money on is Nutes , which Ive found to be a waste of money , the basic nutes from ur local garden shop that is made for veggies will work great, same as any $50 "bloom kit" . I spend $5 on my nuts lasts me 2 full harvest of 6 or so plants.

So After the first harvest u have paid for ur setup , you are looking at around $1 a G. but of course that Still depends on ur end yield amount.

 

[Muttt]

I'm getting ready to try BPN. I like the price ..... 75 bucks for the 7 part kit.

Any and all nutes at the local hydro store are all 50 bucks or more per gallon.

 

[Amsterdam28]

Muttt, I really enjoy this thread as well. I have spent about $1K on supplies and have only grown about an oz so far (let's say value of $300), so I'm definitely way behind at the moment. However, after a few months of harvesting every month I will quickly be on the other side of that coin. Not to mention the enjoyment I have gotten out of simply growing. This is my new favorite hobby and one that I can even partake in regardless of the seasons...and I can't put a value on that.

 

[TanR]

I'd like to bump this thread to get it back up top to solicite additional responses also. I really enjoyed reading about others cost to grow.

 

[KarlJay]

This is really an interesting thread, so I'll chime in too. I don't have any output numbers, this is my 1st grow and I'm still in veg.

1st off, I'm a hardcore DIY guy. I restore cars, build engine, and have a bunch of metal fab stuff. I also hate to buy retail.

Equipment:
T5's overdriven (1 ballast / bulb vs 1 ballast / 2 bulbs) 10 units @ $11 = $110
26 100w CFLs @ $2.50 = $65.00
2 300W CFLs @ $16 = $32.00
Sockets/splitters: $32.00
Total for lights: $239.00

Fans: $20.00 from 2nd hand store
11 Clones: $100.00
Dr Script: $50.00
Buckets/Soil/Nutes: $87.00
Clone machine: $30.00
Misc power cords/string/PH tester/ humidity / etc...: $80.00
Booster fan with ducting: $50

Insulation/lumber for shed grow (2nd grow site): $130



Total so far: $780.00
Still need an HPS for flowering (probably $200)

1st grow (not counting energy cost, gas, etc...) about $980.00

No clue what the output would be for 11 plants, but the next run the costs would be greatly reduced.

Note: I already had 2 spare A/C units, table, shelves, fan, a few lights...

Before I started, someone told me it would cost about $1,500.00 ... I thought he was crazy... ends up, he was pretty close

 

[oldman60]

Equipment has long been paid for, so my only costs are usually only food and electricity. My guess is 200 or less per run.

 

[Amsterdam28]

I'm glad this thread got bumped because I really enjoyed it the first time I responded back in November 2012. Here is a little more detail now that I'm further along:

Seeds ~ $65
Lights ~ $400
Fans, carbon filter ~ $350
Soil ~ $150
Nutes ~ $80
Ozone generators and odor control gel ~ $360
Pots ~ $150
Vaporizer ~ $250
Microscope, scale, timers, extension cords, humidifier dome, capsule machine, glass jars, rock wool cubes, smoke buddy carbon filters, cloning gels, and anything else related to this project ~ $200


Total ~ $2,000

My ongoing costs are about $25/month in electricity, soil, and odor control gel. So pretty minimal. Almost all of my cost was from the initial investment and I don't really use many nutes any more except for my mother plant.

Since I started growing I have harvested between 3-4 oz and currently output about 1 oz per month. So at current estimates I have spent $2000, earned back between $900-1200 worth of good bud, and based on my monthly harvest will break even in 3-4 months based on an average price of $300/oz. Not exactly the ROI that I have seen from some others on here, but I will still be in the positive by the time I reach the one year anniversary of starting this whole hobby and I am content with that.

Too bad I can't put a price on how much happier this has made me on a nightly basis.

 

[KarlJay]

It's pretty clear that the startup costs are pretty high, it's really the on going costs which are pretty low. Even a modest harvest after the equipment is paid off, is pretty good.

This is probably what keeps some out of growing, it looks like $1000 is cheap for a fair sized grow. I thought I was being cheap and I'm pretty much at $1000 myself.