Newbies advice please!! Grow or not to grow?

Hello there, guys, I'm new to this and I've asking around to know the benefits of actually growing. I thought I may save some stuff and get good produce but now it seems to be harder and maybe more expensive? Could you tell me the pros/cons?

its addictive even fun with some great profit at the end of that huge learning curve,
besides you can move onto chilles - peppers and carrots if you want too

vostok said:

its addictive even fun with some great profit at the end of that huge learning curve,
besides you can move onto chilles - peppers and carrots if you want too

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I'm moving on to hot peppers next. Very excited!

its nice to eat what you grow and its a good hobby to have too. fun to pass the time and learn about plants as well. small cost to eat fresh and learn imo

My 1st run paid for the entire grow, just in what I saved from not shopping the street. It is pricey to get started but you have to spend money to make money! Plus, as stated before, it is an addictive and fun hobby.

It's like anything else out there you have an interest in, man...you can have low budget hobbies, luxury hobbies and anything in between. You either want to do it or you don't. You either want to invest the time energy and money or you don't.

It doesn't take a ton of money to grow weed. Sure you can buy fancy expensive lights and all kinds of other doodads. I got my entire setup for under $500 and that includes 2 tents, a 600 watt HPS light, fan, filter and other odds and ends like timers. I've pulled well over a pound out of a 4 x 4 tent. More than enough to last me an entire year and I'm still doing 3 indoor grows a year. So plenty of weed without breaking the bank. And I've been using the same equipment for about 4 years.

I try and save money not spend it. You can upgrade constantly as new stuff comes out or you can reuse the same equipment until it stops working which is what I do. You can spend a ton of money but if you're just growing for personal smoke it doesn't make any sense to dump a bunch of money on equipment. I haven't bought weed in over 20 years. My $500 purchase 4 years ago has kept me in more weed than I need and I end up giving most of it away.

Many are of the mindset that you have to spend a bunch of money. You don't. And since you have not grown before it makes absolutely no sense to go out and buy the most expensive stuff out there. You might decide that growing isn't for you. I suggest you spend the bare minimum to grow a few plants first. I see too many people that spent 4-5 times what I spent only to end up with dismal results. You can spend all the money you want but if you can't grow a plant it's just wasted money.

Good luck if you decide to grow.

Let's see, you can continue to pay someone like $200 a zip just for some mids, or you can grow your own kick-ass shit for like $10 a zip! Sure, there is much work involved, but it's so worth it, in so many different ways!

I haven't spent ANY money in the dispensaries in close to 8 months. My wife and I were dropping $300-$400 a month and I spend no where near that on my grow. Now being it set up, I've spent close to a grand and I'm still improving, my wife loves/dislikes the tents.

twentyeight.threefive said:

I'm moving on to hot peppers next. Very excited!

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Same here. Already grew out a few jalapeño trees. Now researching what peppers to grow next!

There's a steep learning curve. Expect it to take a year to learn how to grow. After that there's some savings, but it's still fairly expensive if you have to run air conditioners, expensive lighting, fans and dehumidifiers. Kinda depends on how much you smoke. In my case I spent a fortune the first year trying to save money but it really started paying out the second year. But still much less than I was spending on weed. What I didn't realize is that once you learn how to grow, you can actually grow weed that's better than most of the shit you find in the dispensary and that's worth it right there. I can barely smoke a lot of that crispy chemical dispensary weed now. I really prefer my own stuff. And there's a lot of satisfaction in that.

twentyeight.threefive said:

I'm moving on to hot peppers next. Very excited!

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I've knocked off the reaper last year is still in the frezzer but only a little wing left

Before home growing, my use of cannabis cost me $ 2,027/yr. After an initial $1,600 investment I now do 3 grows a year @ $110/grow.
I've been growing for 7 years. Cost without growing $14,189. Cost growing my own for 7 yrs., $3910, including initial investment.
Savings $10,270. Satisfaction, fun and quality - Priceless.

Build yourself a light using qb120's, get a couple sip planters, an exhaust fan/carbon filter , couple fans to move air inside the tent, 2x4 tent, get good genetics, and grow some dank Save money, know what you're smoking, and grow what you like.

HLG qb120 boards $90 + shipping with riu10 discount code

Meanwell Driver $81.70 + shipping

2x4 Tent $94

Carbon Fan / Filter $100

Circulation Fans $50 (2)

SIP Planter $70 (2)

Soil $40 - 3 Bags @ 1.5 cu ft each

Dr Earth Flower Girl $12

Basalt $17

Earth Worm Castings $8


Wire, plug, light frame, timer, ratchet hangers $100

Pack of good seeds $100

For $800 you can start growing some killer smoke

Do it right or don't do it at all! Don't be afraid to spend between $300 and $400 for a decent light. Your light will play a big part in overall quality and yield. Get a Tent on Amazon a 3x3 is a decent size and most lights in the price range mentioned will veg and flower that size. A 2x4 tent is ok, but coverage will suffer on the ends if you skimp on the light. As a newbie a 2x2 may not give you the yield to make it worth the investment. a decent 3x3 on Amazon should set you back $75 to $100.

Tent and Light budget $375 to $500!

Now you need to think about privacy. If you don't want other people to smell what's going on then measure the room the tent is in and clean the air in the room as apposed to filtering just inside the tent. You want to get hot air out of the tent, but keep the room itself odor free too. From my experience I wish I had went with a 6" inline with a medium or tall boy carbon filter, rather than a 4" inline fan with small carbon filter. At a minimum $150 for a 4" inline fan with Tall boy filter or my choice is $230 for a 6" online with XXL carbon filter. A fan speed controller will set you back $30, don't forget it.

Fan & Filter budget $180 to $260

Now you want to set up your environment as a newster soil is a no brainer. Soil is most forgiving of errors. In a 3x3 go wit 4- 5 gallon buckets and two bags of soil in 1.5 cubic foot bags should run you about $30/40. The buckets shouldn't be more than $5 each. Fox Farm Ocean Forest is a decent starter brand because you really wont have to worry about adding any nutrients for the first 4 weeks. Nutrients, keep it simple many people will tell you many different ways, but your budget tells you best. A good set of nutes to start with may be a GH starter kit, it will have everything you need for a full grow and runs about $45. I personally liked Natures Pride veg and bloom soil amendment's one teaspoon per gallon of soil per week and forget it. natures pride will set you back $45. That's all you really need, but you will want more if things are looking good. So now figure on a bloom booster of some kind, you can grab a small bottle of floralicious for about $4 and Molasses for $3. If your budget is still good splurge on a 8 0unce bag of recharge it will help stabilize PH and encourage strong overall plant growth. Recharge will set you back $30 and you wont regret it.

budget for grow supplies $132 to $142

The last two things you need are water and seeds. For water a Pur filter on your tap runs $30 and works fine for a soil grow. You can go more elaborate, but think of it like your first car. Your first car is cheap cause if you crash you don't have much unto it and it cost less overall to maintain. As for seed look around a bit you can get good seeds from places like north atlantic seed co for under $70 shipped to your door. They also ship fast.

Budget $100

Lastly you can turn your lights off and on with a timer for $15, or if you have a google home or Alexa you can buy a $10 smart plug and set your lights up on smart schedule. Also you'll have a lot of small stuff to buy like temp/humidity monitor $15, depending on the tent you may need to buy flanges to connect the fan and ducting. If you buy a 4" fan you may need to buy a 6" take off and 6" to 4" coupler together they run around $30 plus you need the ducting to connect to the fan $15 for about a 12' run, then grab some tape to seal it all up $4. Pipettes and or syringes for measuring $5 tops. Anything else you may want or need is probably laying around the house already, like 6 outlet power strips. Oh one more thing always act like you have bugs even if you don't see any. Keep some Neem oil around just in case $10 better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. A circulation fan you can grab at Home Depot for $15 each.

Budget for miscellaneous shit $115

Whole set up $902 to $1117

Yes there is a thousand ways to skin a cat! With all the member on this site you will see both cheaper and more expensive suggestions and you will see both better and worse suggestions. I don't know your budget or experience so I'm basing my opinion on what is working for me in my environment. I'm in the northern mid east, U.S.A.. I use LED so I don't get too hot in the summer but I plan to switch to a 400 or 600 watt MH/HPS for the winter so I don't have to add a heater to my grow room.

If you use 1.5 ounces a month then the cost is about $900 in 4 months at $150 an ounce. $1200 in 4 months at $200 an ounce, so your first crop will pay for itself and more. With the help of the good guys and girls on this forum you will get better every cycle and your yield and quality will improve every cycle. You will also feel better knowing what's in or on your medication

Just for giggles check out HTG Supply, for under $600 you can get this 3x3 tent kit CGK-HTGOLSGTK-B. This kit has most of what you need to get started. Light, tent, nutrients, soil, fan, ducting and more. My way is more customized to my personal taste with what I think is a better light and carbon filter/fan setup.

Searching this forum is free and you will find a lot of links for sites that teach you everything you need to know to be a better grower. growweedeasy.com is one of those places.

I hope I helped, good luck

If you weekly spend more than 25 bucks on weed, you're better off growing.

If you have a yard you can always just grow a couple plants in some pots outside. It's not too late to get some autoflowers started outdoors. That would get you into growing without requiring a bunch of money. A couple pots, a couple bags of decent soil, a couple seeds, under $100. I have friends that only grow outdoors. All you pay for is some soil. They grow enough weed to keep them supplied for an entire year.

I don't get all the people saying it's difficult with a steep learning curve or that you need to spend $1000. Maybe some struggled to learn how to grow and maybe others spent a bunch of money but many others have success from their first grow and didn't spend more than the cost of some seeds and soil.

If you approach growing cannabis like it's a plant and ignore all the cannabis broscience it's easy. If you get caught up believing it requires a bunch of special products to grow you can end up going down a rabbit hole.

First thing is to realize that most of the cannabis specific product marketing claims are usually bullshit. And many people make growing cannabis harder than it is because they overcomplicate it and allowed themselves to get caught up in all the cannabis nonsense. Put a seed in some soil, give it water, watch it grow, harvest it when it's ready. It really is that simple and that's all many successful growers do.

xtsho said:

It doesn't take a ton of money to grow weed. Sure you can buy fancy expensive lights and all kinds of other doodads. I got my entire setup for under $500 and that includes 2 tents, a 600 watt HPS light, fan, filter and other odds and ends like timers. I've pulled well over a pound out of a 4 x 4 tent. More than enough to last me an entire year and I'm still doing 3 indoor grows a year. So plenty of weed without breaking the bank. And I've been using the same equipment for about 4 years.

I try and save money not spend it. You can upgrade constantly as new stuff comes out or you can reuse the same equipment until it stops working which is what I do. You can spend a ton of money but if you're just growing for personal smoke it doesn't make any sense to dump a bunch of money on equipment. I haven't bought weed in over 20 years. My $500 purchase 4 years ago has kept me in more weed than I need and I end up giving most of it away.

Many are of the mindset that you have to spend a bunch of money. You don't. And since you have not grown before it makes absolutely no sense to go out and buy the most expensive stuff out there. You might decide that growing isn't for you. I suggest you spend the bare minimum to grow a few plants first. I see too many people that spent 4-5 times what I spent only to end up with dismal results. You can spend all the money you want but if you can't grow a plant it's just wasted money.

Good luck if you decide to grow.

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That is exactly my dream.
As a guy who just got bankrupt, I want free weed on my own. 20 years without bothering with dealers/dispensaries, just wow!

Do you go a little cheaper and do a budget run only to realize you enjoy it and can do better and end up replacing most everything or do you drop a grip on more expensive loot to start with and realize this shit ain't for you.

Thankfully it's just money, either way you're gonna waste it lol...tough call for sure, everyone is different.

Too bad growing outside or using hot lamps just isn't an option for me...would have been much cheaper.

There are 2 or 3 important considerations:

1. Health. Most street weed has mold or similar, not grown or cured properly. I went to dispensaries for a while and it eliminated that. Then I grew my own and it was still way better health wise. Total control.

2. Commitment. It is not hard to grow. But it is not easy to grow great weed. I had a great result from my first run because I obsessed about it before and during the run. I still obsess, because I like being good at things I do. I have friends who talk about growing. I point them to a growing site and say, read this basic outline for an hour. Come see me or call me afterwards, we will get you setup.

You know how many have done that? None. Commitment is required.

3. Cost. It can be done cheap and well. It can be done expensive and well. It can also be done poorly and be cheap or expensive. BUT if done correctly, you will save a fortune.

Lol $2k a year (earlier poster) I wish that was all I used to spend. I have saved thousands and helped many friends.

So...are you willing to spend an hour reading the basic outline on GWE or elsewhere to show commitment? Have you already done this? Be honest about it and you will have your answer.