How Much Does it Cost to Grow Pot?

There are many ways to grow pot, many different situations, and they influence how much it costs to grow pot.

Please find time to watch the videos in this article–they give you tons of information on different types of marijuana grow rooms and cultivation equipment.

In our series on how to grow pot, mostly targeted to newbies and beginners, we focus on small grow ops.

The sample grow op that I’ll price out for you will produce 1.5-3 pounds of dried bud every 4-5 months, depending on what you grow and how well you grow it.

It requires the following equipment:

Lighting: A 1000-watt high intensity discharge (HID) grow light kit, including reflector and ballast and two HID bulbs (one metal halide, one high pressure sodium).

Alternatively, and I recommend this lighting option more than I recommend HID: one Lush Lighting LED unit.

Aeration: One large oscillating fan.

Grow pot and grow media: 15 three-gallon smart pots or similar cloth pot. 15 seven-gallon smart pots. Soilless mix or coco coir.

Reverse Osmosis Water system.

One light stand.

One 20-amp power strip.

Grow tent, or a spare room outfitted with Mylar or white poly plastic on the walls (for reflectivity). The much less expensive option is to use an existing room rather than buying a grow tent.

Good grow tents cost several hundred dollars and obligate you to spend money on an exhaust fan.

Hydroponics nutrients made specifically for marijuana plants.

Pruning shears and manicuring shears.

One tarp to cover floor and prevent water damage.

Hygrometer/thermometer.

Hydroponics measuring cup.

Timer for lighting.

Premium cannabis genetics, preferably non-feminized marijuana seeds instead of clones so you can do your own breeding.

These are bare minimums of equipment and supplies when you grow pot.

If you’re growing indoors, which I highly recommend for beginners, you figure in the cost of rent or mortgage for whatever dwelling you grow in.

You need a reliable air conditioner, plumbing, and electrical wiring.

If you have to retrofit these basics of your dwelling so you can grow pot, it of course adds a lot to your start-up costs.

Installing a 3-ton air conditioning system with new returns, ducting, air handler can cost $6000 or more.

So a long as you start with a dwelling that needs no major structure upgrades and all you have to do is purchase grow lights and other marijuana growing equipment, your costs are as follows:

If you go with an HID grow light, your start-up costs to purchase what you need to grow pot will be in the range of $1500.

If you go with the LED grow light, your start-up cost is around $2200 because quality LED grow lights cost more than HID.

However, LED grow lights use far less electricity and last much longer than HID, so LED pays for itself after you’ve grown with it a year or two.

So for your first grow op, you’ll spend $1500-2200 for start-up, just to get the basics of what you need to grow pot.

You also have ongoing costs, mostly for water, electricity, root zone media, and nutrients.

Average ongoing monthly costs for this basic grow room are about $160 but can vary widely depending on local costs of electricity and water.

Now let’s calculate for a four-month season, growing from cannabis seeds in a grow room rather than a grow tent, which equals $600 total ongoing costs.

Your combined start-up and ongoing costs (depending on your lighting choice) for your first season are $2100-2700.

That sounds like a lot, but if you harvest two pounds of dried bud, it’s worth at least $3300 wholesale.

If you buy your bud from dispensaries or a dealer for $250 an ounce, your first harvest is worth $8000 retail.

If you sell some of your bud at $250 an ounce, you pay for your entire cost of starting-up and your four month grow season by selling only 11 ounces of your 32-ounce harvest.

You quickly earn back the money you spend to grow pot.

The grow op described above is obviously generic.

You could spend a few hundred dollars less, or a lot more.

For example, you could save money by getting a 400-watt HID instead of 1000-watt.

You could get a hydroponics deep water culture system instead of smart pots.

In general, the smaller your grow op, and the less wattage of your grow lights, the lower your start-up and ongoing costs.

But of course, the lower your wattage and the smaller your grow op, the lower your harvest weight.

The main thing to know is growing your own marijuana gives you way better marijuana at a much lower cost than you can get by buying marijuana from others.

Watch the videos in our articles for more information that helps you grow your best and biggest cannabis harvests.