Ask A Grower :: Can I Grow Medical Marijuana In An Apartment?
Growing medical marijuana in an apartment isn't without its advantages.
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Keep things modular and easy to take apart. 
I want to grow in my apartment. My friends say it’s pretty risky and that I should save up and eventually try to rent a house. What are your thoughts?
Sincerely,
Aaron (Los Angeles, CA)
Great question actually! Finding the right spot for your hydroponic medical marijuana grow room tends to get rather tricky. If you're on a limited budget, it's a helluva lot trickier. Growing in an apartment does have many unique challenges. However, it also has many benefits over a larger stand-alone building like a house or industrial property.
People sometimes complain that apartment buildings are impersonal, that neighbors give each other no more than a nod in the hallways and human contact is kept to a bare minimum. For us growers, this is a huge advantage! Whether you're growing in a cabinet or taking over an entire bedroom, so long as you've been careful to control smell and noise from your fans and ballasts, there is really not much to alert the outside world of what you're doing.
You'll often have neighbors on both sides, as well as above and below you, so your margin for error is much smaller than with a house. Investing in good quality carbon filters and changing them out every 3-6 months is essential. De-oderizing products such as the ones made from ONA brand are also a must in case power outages turn your fans off for long enough for smells to seep out of your room.
The location of your apartment within the building can also be helpful. For any garden of significant size, the ground floor should be avoided like the plague. The ideal location for your garden, if possible, is the top floor on the corner of the building. This way you have nobody above you and usually minimal shared walls.
Smelly air tends to rise, and on the top floor you're far less likely to have anybody catching a whiff. If you can, try to pick a concrete building rather than a wood-framed low rise since the thicker walls prevent transmission of both sounds and odors.
Technological advancements in recent years have made the life of an apartment grower much easier. Currently, a peep hole camera and motion detection software can be purchased for well under $100, allowing you to review the foot traffic outside of your apartment during the day and alerting you to possible interest people may have been taking to your suite. A valuable investment for peace of mind.
Keep things modular and easy to take apart. Some cities require the local fire department to inspect all suites once a year to test alarms, some insurance companies also require apartment owners to periodically check the suites for damage.
A business model I used early in my career involved multiple apartments. I would build a room within a room using wood framing and plastic film in order to house my garden. The entire garden could be disassembled in a matter of several hours and stored neatly in to a closet whenever unexpected visits would occur. Having multiple apartments allowed me to recover from any losses associated with dismantling my garden and having to start over whenever I had to give somebody access to the apartment. This can often be a cost effective and relatively hassle free way of entering the business.
So feel free to setup in an Apartment, but be prepared!
Globetrotting commercial grower Sergei Isakov has seen it all and is here to answer your questions. E-mail him at askagrower@bigbudsmag.com.
Even a small cabinet can be used to grow inside your apartment.
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Monday, 13 February 2012
