Growing Cannabis at Home! Why Those With a Green Thumb Should Ditch the Dispensary

Want to learn how an at home grower can produce 1+ pound of high quality bud for less than $50 an ounce!!

LET'S START!!

Growing Cannabis / Hemp at home is without a doubt one of the crowning achievements of many aspiring cannapreneurs like myself. Think of it as a new age of science! The ability to grow your own cannabis (medicine) offers a plethora of advantages rather than going to the nearest dispensary! No, not everyone should grow their own without researching and realizing the time and effort that can go into growing for yourself.

There are many different levels and types of grow operations you can dive into. Some people plop a seed into a pot outside with good soil and let nature do its work. Remember, it's called weed for a reason! Being roughly my 4th year of growing, I'm still a long away from being a pro by industry standards, but my green thumb has been in overdrive lately!

On our Youtube Channel , We'll have more grow guides and "how to" videos on growing your own cannabis. Let's take a look below at the equipment you'll need!

BUT FIRST!! LEGALITY!!

Don't do it if it's illegal where you live, pretty simple. Legal here in Michigan for up to 12 plants to grow at home, other than that the laws are in such gray areas that nobody really knows what the hell the problem is. Unless you think Marijuana should be illegal then you're the problem.

SETTING UP YOUR GROW TENT

For now, let's discuss setting up a beginner's grow tent! One that takes minimal time and effort put into it to get yourself the proper results!

I've started with multiple grow tents / setups like this over the years. Expanding and upgrading the equipment along the way to almost create a fully autonomous growing solution.

EQUIPMENT FOR BEGINNERS TO LOOK AT

Remembering that your soil / water / seed quality are going to be likely the top three lead factors to the success of your grow! You can buy a $500 grow tent or a $100 tent , but if your seeds are from a poor breeder.... you're S.O.L.

A budget grow to get your start is never a bad option, we all have to start somewhere, and learning and upgrading along the way is a good way to go in my opinion. So, let's look at the basics of equipment from what I'd say is most important to least. **time and patience is equally valuable to having the proper equipment.

Most Important

Cannabis Seeds (autoflower for beginners)

Growing Medium / Soil

Water / nutrients being feed

Light Source

Fabric Pot

Grow Tents

Extra Items

Least Important

CANNABIS SEEDS (Let's go with AUTOFLOWERING)

Our favorite location online to purchase seeds from has been Seedsman. They've always provided some of the best quality and best deals from different breeders around the world! Remember, they do have their own versions of strains

Use our affiliate link below for the deals! CLICK THE PICTURE

Here, you're able to get either autoflower or photoperiod seeds (research them) I like autoflowers for their simplicity, but photoperiods have been able to produce better and more bud in roughly similar time frames based on our experience! We'll have guides on growing both, but for now we won't go too in depth and assume we purchase Autoflower seeds!

BEST THING ABOUT SEEDSMAN IS THE AMOUT OF FREE SEEDS YOU WILL GET!

and now the shipping is twice as fast! Before I'd be waiting on all my seeds to ship from overseas in Spain, but now they have locations in the United States!

LET'S LOOK AT SOME OF THEIR DEALS!!

Here we have OG Kush Auto Feminized Seeds

So that means Auto Flowering, and they should be female which is bud producing. If you want to bread different strains or grow stronger genetics than don't get feminized seeds.

5 seeds equal to around $40 , plus you will be getting freebies included with the purchase over $X Amount - Insurance and shipping is also extremely cheap and recommended from us.

ADD IT TO THE CART!!

As you can see::

8 autoflower seeds for roughly $45 plus reward points earned with Seedsman

$5 to $6 per seed

Experienced growers know that an autoflower plant when properly taken care of can yield over an ounce easily within 3 months of planting. We've gotten as much as 4 ounces per plant on blueberry dream before.

You can find other small sellers and breeders online to get your seeds too, Just make sure to purchase quality over quantity. Make sure REVIEWS from other good growers on the site are in order too. Easy to grow once you get the basics down.

POTTING SOIL / GROWING MEDIUM

REFERRENCE THIS CHART FOR YOUR FABRIC POTS AND SOIL BAG SIZES

Does Size Really Matter??

When growing Autoflowers, we've always succeeded using something like a 3 or a 5 gallon fabric pot. The roots have flourished and no major issues regarding root rot came into question especially with it being a fabric pot (better airflow). With that in mind, look at the chart above.

Let's use a 5 gallon fabric pot - this means we'll need at least a 1.5 cubic foot bag of soil to fill 2 of these types of pots! Checking online, we see that a top quality line from Fox Farm Soil runs about $25 for 1.5 cubic feet. This means each seed requires about $12.50 in premium soil blend (any additives can be used but we've found great results with great soil right at the beginning).

Chungies will be carrying our own cannabis super soil blends in the future once we've finished our test results on our current grows! Will document and video our own blends for teaching purposes.

Water / Feeding Nutrients

Liquid Nutrients (not really needed, but can help if used properly)

PH Balance (VITAL TO YOUR WATER)

having a PH range of 5.8 to 6.2 for most strains is needed to keep the plant healthy and thriving! PH Balances can cause all sorts of issues down the line for growers. Properly watering your plants no matter what kind they are is big!

CAL-MAG+

best for hydroponic growing, but we've found it doesn't hurt adding a bit if required with your growing. Making sure the leaves/buds/roots are healthy while adding nutrients is key! Look at the below chart for the leaves to help make proper nutrient feeding decisions.

CHECK THESE OUT AND LEARN ABOUT THEM!!

Lighting Source

Light Should Cover Size of Grow Tent / Area

Here we will use a standard starter size tent at 3 foot by 3 foot which most light sizes start off covering before going to 5x5 and further!

There will be a monthly running cost for running the lights / fans / other potential accessories and the cost is based on YOUR electrical billing. Here, the cost to run one single light on a near 24 hour cycle is about $15 per month. Other added items like a fan and humidity gauge can bring it to around $25 per month.

ALSO, You should be able to grow 2 or 3 autoflower plants in an area this size if you train them properly (for a further discussion) so the cost will be spread out in reality but not for this example.

We have a variety of lights we've used and still use from Vivosun to Spider Farmer to Mars Hydro. All work very similar to one another, and I'm not going to pretend like I'm a master in the tech behind grow lights. However, a light covering that 3x3 area is going to run you around $100 to $150 but let's put it at $125 . Differing Spectrums of Lights work better for certain strains too.

Contacting the manufactures over seas and getting your own branded lights in bulk for super cheap to resell that work the exact same as these is also an option some smaller companies take!

Fabric Pots

Cheap and reusable but please please clean them out after each grow. Larger the pot there's more room for the roots to expand out. On our photoperiods we utilize the 30 gallon to 50 gallon pots as the root structure has more time to expand by some 5+ months.

Growing Tent / Rooms

Let's go with a good old 3 foot by 3 foot grow tent! Hmmmm, they do look pretty cheap here and yes they are. Chungies uses both entire grow rooms in addition to a large amount of grow tents for microgreens, canna, and mushrooms!

They shouldn't run you more than really $100 though! starting with good name brand around $60+ is our recommendation.

Other / Extra items Recommended

Extra items may include things like a fan for airflow which should be an extra $15 to $30.

If you have extremely dry or humid conditions than it's recommended to get a (de)humidifier to resolve the issue and get it to premium ranges while growing. Varies for strains but between 30% and 70% for different stages of growth is recommended.

A HEPA filter or air cleansing system can be utilized too if you don't have the cleanest of grow areas. Definitely recommended in much larger setups!

Sometimes these can be expensive for the size of your area but will be worth it longer term for the quality you'll get out of your product. We have a few air filters that are $70 and a few that run $150 in total. Larger systems for an entire grow room operation can cost around $500. But something simple like a Levoit Air Cleanser should work well.

TOTAL COSTS???

Let's Look at it in 2 parts

startup costs and running costs

One time buys will include the light, tent, fabric pots, fans, dehumidifiers, etc.;

Running Costs go with each grow cycle like the seed, soil, cost to run lights and electricity, nutrients being feed to each plant, etc.;

ONE TIME COSTS::

TENT: $75

GROW LIGHTS: $125 ($15 a month) * 3 months grow time

FABRIC POTS: $1.50 per plant reusable if cleaned

OTHER/EXTRA: $225 (not 100% needed for each grower)

(dehumidifier, scissors, tie strings, fan, auto timer for lights)

RUNNING COSTS EACH GROW::

SEEDS: $5 per autoflower seed

Premium POTTING SOIL: $12.50 per seed/plant

NUTRIENTS(won't use all purchased): $10 per plant

ELECTRICITY for ALL: $25 per month (3 months)

TOTAL COST?? growing just 1 autoflower here

Assuming it takes us 3 months from planting to harvest, we can see our running costs in total over those three months will be equal to(5+12.50+10+(25*3)) = $102.50 to grow 1 plant . This may seem high and that's assuming you're only growing one plant in the tent which is okay. What's the YIELD THOUGH!! for $100 you can get a cheap ounce from the dispensary, right?

Here in Michigan, it's looking like most prices run from $120 to $200 for your standard ounce if not on sale. Maybe around $100. Premium bud though can still run well over $300 an ounce in certain locations and this is prior to an and all taxes that can get tossed on by the state. So does $100 to grow your own plant sound good?

GROW MORE THAN 1 OUNCE PER PLANT AND YOU'RE IN GOOD STANDING. Like we said, we've grown certain plants with 3, 4, and even a monster that hit almost 7 ounces on its journey. Meaning that one plant created bud that a dispo may charge $100 an ounce for that you grew yourself for $15 an ounce saving you big money! Plus the amount of fun it can be if you enjoy gardening as is can not be beat!

Getting the right seeds and taking the time and effort to grow your autoflowers on a proper schedule can get you well over an ounce! And there are plenty of growers and researchers out there who can easily prove it! We'll be working on our own growing series to showcase this as well, but we may use photoperiod seeds instead for our usual harvest amounts. Those we've been yielding 1+ pounds over an 8 month grow time with the added costs though so remember that! Something we'll go into more detail about in the video series.

Knowing the strains and quality of them is important, but to a lot of people weed is weed. And paying $30 for an eighth is crazy for a few.

Want to learn how an at home grower can produce 1+ pound of dispensary quality bud for less than $50 an ounce!!