The Costs and Revenues of Growing Marijuana

There are a lot of good reasons to decide, or at least consider, to grow marijuana. Some medical marijuana patients grow it so that they can get the exact quantity, quality, and strain that they need for their medicine. Others get sick of buying it because of expensive prices or low quality. When you grow your own, you know exactly how much time and care was put in.

The good news is that growing marijuana is easy – as long as you really try your best. In this case, trying your best involves dedicating the time and energy to truly care for your plants. It also means planning in advance, being highly consistent, and spending money on good quality seeds.

Growing marijuana is time and cost effective if you’re just growing for yourself and therefore don’t need a huge operation. A basic starter kit can be bought for less than a hundred dollars, so if you’re just looking for a basic and effective growth, that could be a perfect choice. Of course, it won’t make sense for everyone.

Growing outdoors

The least expensive growths are done by growers who are just looking to use the marijuana for themselves or a few select family members or friends. To make things even cheaper, growing outdoors is best. After all, so many of the elements are free: wind, air, light, sometimes nutrients, sometimes rain, and so on.

You might not get the biggest yields this way, but the ease of purchasing a couple seeds, planting them outside, then waiting to see what happens makes it worth it. Marijuana plants are hardy and will surely find a way to succeed. Despite how easy it can be, people like to give their marijuana plants the most perfect conditions possible because that can make the harvest exponentially more successful. So, if you’re going for the best cost-effectiveness, then spending the time and money babying your plants a little bit can really pay off.

Yields

If things go really well during your growing season, your plants could yield 18 ounces of usable weed per plant. This is when all the proper conditions are met: there is plenty of space between plants for ventilation (at least 6 feet between every plant), lots of water and nutrients, and no pest or disease issues.

Some growers like to germinate their plants early indoors, where they have full control of the growing environment. This can ensure a healthy growing season for your outdoor plants since they’ll have a stronger foundation behind them. If you’re growing in a container, use a 15-gallon container.

Growing indoors

Growing indoors doesn’t have to automatically be expensive, especially if you plan it right. You can use regular CFL lights on your plants so they don’t use extra energy (and therefore won’t cost you extra money). The key is to keep your growth operation small since that will take away the necessity of installing a carbon filter (since the smell won’t get out of hand with just a couple plants) and other pieces of equipment.

Altogether it shouldn’t cost you more than about $80 to get CFL lights, a small fan, some pots, soil, and the seeds. Some people especially good at DIY projects could even reduce that cost further. Even if you want to “level up” and use a more professional grow system, it should only cost around $350.

Yields

Of course, everyone wants to know the return they could get from investing their time and money into this project. In the marijuana growing world, this “return” is simply the yield. If you’re spending a lot of effort keeping your plants happy and healthy, how much weed will you get from it?

The main thing (besides the seeds themselves) that you’re going to want to think about is the grow lights. This makes the most significant difference in the yields and growing patterns of your indoor marijuana plants. If you’re an experienced grower, you may be able to expect a gram of weed per every watt of light you are using. So, if you have a 400-watt HPS light, you could get around 400 grams of marijuana (which is about 14 ounces).

If you’re a newer grower, the yields will most likely be a little lower. Still, in a grow closet or cabinet of 3.5 by 1.5 by 6.5 feet, you could get 1.5-2.0 ounces with 200-watt CFL lamps and 3.0-5.0 ounces with 250-watt HPS lamps. In a small grow room (3.5 by 3.5 by 7 feet) with a 400-watt HPS lamp, you could expect 4.5-9.0 ounces. In a “medium” grow room (4 by 4 by 8 feet), you could get between 5.0 and 10 ounces with a 600-watt HPS lamp, and in a larger grow up (5 by 5 by 8 feet) with a 1000-watt HPS lamp you will get between 9.0 and 18 ounces of marijuana.

Are you ready to get the most yield from your plants? Download my free Grow Bible for expert tips and advice.