coloradchad
New Member
How much is too much to invest into growing equipment for a first time grow?
Initial setup costs
- Thread starter coloradchad
- Start date
PopAndSonGrows
Well-Known Member
I mean. . . ... Anywhere from 1 to 1 billion dollars.
What size u lookin to do? Indoor? Outdoor? Tent? Room? etc etc etc?
What size u lookin to do? Indoor? Outdoor? Tent? Room? etc etc etc?
MickFoster
Well-Known Member
Didn't you like the responses you got on GC?
PopAndSonGrows
Well-Known Member
I'll humor this post. . ...
OK so let's say you have an extra bedroom closet. A 2x4 tent will fit it, a decent tent is about 80 bux.
A good introductory light would be Mars Hydro TSL 2000 for that space, direct from Mars about 220 for the light.
Cheap but decent 4" inline fan, filter and ducting, another 50.
Vornado Flippi V6 oscillating fan, about 19 to 25 bux, get one or two.
6" clip fans, like 8 bux apiece at Walmart. Grab like 2 or 3.
Fabric pots, coco or soil, seeds n water is all you need from there. And drip trays. And a watering can. And nutrients. And pest mgmt product(s).
OK so let's say you have an extra bedroom closet. A 2x4 tent will fit it, a decent tent is about 80 bux.
A good introductory light would be Mars Hydro TSL 2000 for that space, direct from Mars about 220 for the light.
Cheap but decent 4" inline fan, filter and ducting, another 50.
Vornado Flippi V6 oscillating fan, about 19 to 25 bux, get one or two.
6" clip fans, like 8 bux apiece at Walmart. Grab like 2 or 3.
Fabric pots, coco or soil, seeds n water is all you need from there. And drip trays. And a watering can. And nutrients. And pest mgmt product(s).
xtsho
Well-Known Member
You can get a 600 watt HID setup for $150. Another $75 for soil, pots, and some fertilizer. $50-$100 for seeds. So $250-$300 to be able to grow a pound of weed. After that all you pay for is electricity.
That's a bare bones grow but people grow that way and it provides them with all the cannabis they need. You can spend much more if you want. It's not required.
Or if you grow outside all you need is some seeds. I know people that just plant directly in the ground after adding some compost and give a few feeds of just Alaska Fish Fertilizer and get great harvests.
That's a bare bones grow but people grow that way and it provides them with all the cannabis they need. You can spend much more if you want. It's not required.
Or if you grow outside all you need is some seeds. I know people that just plant directly in the ground after adding some compost and give a few feeds of just Alaska Fish Fertilizer and get great harvests.
LeastExpectedGrower
Well-Known Member
Depends. You can totally go cheap then rebuy stuff for you next grow when you decide the first one kind of sucked or a few down the line. Or you can buy once and spend more but have stuff you feel good about. If you figure the price per oz. for your locality and multiply it out, your break even would probably be a grow or two at most.
m4s73r
Well-Known Member
Here's a Organic No till set up with some options between a 3x3 or a 4x4 bed set up.
Chilled Growcraft x5 DIY $850 (The x4 is 100 cheaper, the x6 is 100 more, take your pick)
5x5 tent $120-300 or 4x4 tent $100-300 (Bottom line, almost all tents are made in china. I got Zazzy Tents and love mine.)
4x4 bed $85 3x3 bed $75
Soil to fill bed 4x4 $3-500 3x3 $200-300 (This is mixing your own 100-180 gallons of soil. buying craft blend, saponin, big 6, rootwise, worms, cover crop seed. Fill half the bed with year old wood and save a good chunk of money. if you got 3x3 BuildASoil Take and Bake is a good option as well.)
Box fan $15
Mechanical Timer. $10
Ac infinity fan filter and controller 67 (for tents) $200.
Humidifier and controller $75
If you have nothing at all. figure in a couple hundred for odds and ends. Propagation equipment, dust filters, some seed, ect ect.
Total cost is around $1500-2500. This set up requires just water from start to finish. You can replant in it over and over. Annual Maintenance cost/nutrients is around $50-100. The BAS stuff can be sourced other places to save money, but they have it all in one spot, and most items have free shipping.
With this bed with 4 females vegged 30 days in bed produces between 1.5-2.25 lbs per harvest on average. I just harvested a 5 plant run that netted just over 2. You can get 3 harvest per year. This style does require a couple weeks rest between harvest and replanting. Thankfully this coincides with the amount of time it takes to also dry. I dry right in the room. Hang from the lights. I do whole plants with some bungies.
Chilled Growcraft x5 DIY $850 (The x4 is 100 cheaper, the x6 is 100 more, take your pick)
5x5 tent $120-300 or 4x4 tent $100-300 (Bottom line, almost all tents are made in china. I got Zazzy Tents and love mine.)
4x4 bed $85 3x3 bed $75
Soil to fill bed 4x4 $3-500 3x3 $200-300 (This is mixing your own 100-180 gallons of soil. buying craft blend, saponin, big 6, rootwise, worms, cover crop seed. Fill half the bed with year old wood and save a good chunk of money. if you got 3x3 BuildASoil Take and Bake is a good option as well.)
Box fan $15
Mechanical Timer. $10
Ac infinity fan filter and controller 67 (for tents) $200.
Humidifier and controller $75
If you have nothing at all. figure in a couple hundred for odds and ends. Propagation equipment, dust filters, some seed, ect ect.
Total cost is around $1500-2500. This set up requires just water from start to finish. You can replant in it over and over. Annual Maintenance cost/nutrients is around $50-100. The BAS stuff can be sourced other places to save money, but they have it all in one spot, and most items have free shipping.
With this bed with 4 females vegged 30 days in bed produces between 1.5-2.25 lbs per harvest on average. I just harvested a 5 plant run that netted just over 2. You can get 3 harvest per year. This style does require a couple weeks rest between harvest and replanting. Thankfully this coincides with the amount of time it takes to also dry. I dry right in the room. Hang from the lights. I do whole plants with some bungies.
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
I am setting up a fresh grow space.
My tent is a 4x4x6, it cost £95 ($12
My new lights are 4x150w DIY Quantum boards, built by a friend, £300 ($405).
My extractor fan is a 6" RVK, in a kit with a 5m insulated duct., it costs about £90 ($121)
I haven't bought a carbon filter yet, but I have budgeted around £50 ($67)
Pots, I am upping my pot size to 3 Imp Gallons. I am buying 8 @ £17.60. But I already have hundreds of smaller pots for seeds, clones and early veg. I also already have loads of trip trays too.
I have given up on "Cannabis Nutes" they are mostly overpriced and overhyped. I use generic stuff from the local garden centre, works really well and costs next to nothing.
My medium is locally sourced compost and rotted farm manure and costs next to nothing, but I was paying £30 ($40) a run for the fancy pants stuff.
Seeds is up to you. Read reviews and decide for yourself. I tend to go for better known vendors and tried and tested strains. You save a bomb if you take clones from sown plants and run them many times.
I'd say have $1000 spare and you'll have a nice setup that will pay you back many, many times for a few years.
My tent is a 4x4x6, it cost £95 ($12
My new lights are 4x150w DIY Quantum boards, built by a friend, £300 ($405).
My extractor fan is a 6" RVK, in a kit with a 5m insulated duct., it costs about £90 ($121)
I haven't bought a carbon filter yet, but I have budgeted around £50 ($67)
Pots, I am upping my pot size to 3 Imp Gallons. I am buying 8 @ £17.60. But I already have hundreds of smaller pots for seeds, clones and early veg. I also already have loads of trip trays too.
I have given up on "Cannabis Nutes" they are mostly overpriced and overhyped. I use generic stuff from the local garden centre, works really well and costs next to nothing.
My medium is locally sourced compost and rotted farm manure and costs next to nothing, but I was paying £30 ($40) a run for the fancy pants stuff.
Seeds is up to you. Read reviews and decide for yourself. I tend to go for better known vendors and tried and tested strains. You save a bomb if you take clones from sown plants and run them many times.
I'd say have $1000 spare and you'll have a nice setup that will pay you back many, many times for a few years.
Drop That Sound
Well-Known Member
Always have a backup for each piece of equipment that could possibly fail. Timers, ballasts, bulbs, pumps, fans, etc.
Sounds redundant I know.. but you'll thank me later
For most new growers, I would say the first setup actually becomes the backup parts eventually.
Sounds redundant I know.. but you'll thank me later
For most new growers, I would say the first setup actually becomes the backup parts eventually.
sdboltdude
Well-Known Member
Lots of black friday deals out right now
Buy a whole tent setup
#MarsHydrofactory
You can save some $$$ buying kit
Buy a whole tent setup
#MarsHydrofactory
You can save some $$$ buying kit
LeastExpectedGrower
Well-Known Member
I am setting up a fresh grow space.
My tent is a 4x4x6, it cost £95 ($12
My new lights are 4x150w DIY Quantum boards, built by a friend, £300 ($405).
My extractor fan is a 6" RVK, in a kit with a 5m insulated duct., it costs about £90 ($121)
I haven't bought a carbon filter yet, but I have budgeted around £50 ($67)
Pots, I am upping my pot size to 3 Imp Gallons. I am buying 8 @ £17.60. But I already have hundreds of smaller pots for seeds, clones and early veg. I also already have loads of trip trays too.
I have given up on "Cannabis Nutes" they are mostly overpriced and overhyped. I use generic stuff from the local garden centre, works really well and costs next to nothing.
My medium is locally sourced compost and rotted farm manure and costs next to nothing, but I was paying £30 ($40) a run for the fancy pants stuff.
Seeds is up to you. Read reviews and decide for yourself. I tend to go for better known vendors and tried and tested strains. You save a bomb if you take clones from sown plants and run them many times.
I'd say have $1000 spare and you'll have a nice setup that will pay you back many, many times for a few years.
I'd also suggest that anyone setting up a tent for the first time factor in some of the errant stuff that you just need along the way...There's a lot of it.
For me that was:
-yellow sticky traps, Mosquito Bits
-Watering cans (I actually got a couple, and like one over the other),
-good extension cords/power strip
-Timer
-big bag of zip-ties
-extra ratchet ropes or straps
-Fans for circulation
-small gardening snips/shears
-Grow Bags, good quality saucers/trays, lifters to keep the bags raised
-smaller syringes (measuring nutrients, applying pH up & Down)
-big syringes (good for sucking up some of the runoff w/o moving plants
-Wifi/BT thermometer/hygrometer
-Small humidifier (distilled water to go in it)
-Controller for humidifier
-digital pH tester
-digital TDS tester
-cheap USB microscope (or a loupe)
- quart canning jars
- pile of little digital hygrometers for the jars
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speedwell68
Well-Known Member
Yeah I missed off small fans for circulating air, good point. At the moment I am happy with my 5 20 year old clip ons.
I have been growing for a while, so I already have a load of stuff. I actually have a full set of HPS lights, 2 x 600w and 2 x 400w, sitting in a box doing nothing. I have hundreds of ratchet hangers. Spare cob lights and SMD panels. I have loads of spare sonoff switches for timers too. I haven't included the two small veg tents I have, or the lights and fans for them. Or my pressure sprayers for feeding. I am also planning to install a Blumat self watering system, that'll easily be another $200. I reckon my wiring install was probably $100, at least.
You could easily add another $500 on top of my conservative estimate.
My last grow yielded me around 11oz, that is more than enough for me. In fact when my current crop finishes I will have a surplus. That 11oz would have cost me $4,400 at local street prices. That was with crappy Amazon kit I bought during the first covid lockdown. With my new kit and the things I have learned in the last 12 months I am hoping for a good deal more than that. So it is all well worth the investment.
LeastExpectedGrower
Well-Known Member
My first grow was just over 8oz. for four little autos...and I feel pretty good about that given the abuse. I started with a single HLG225 but added two more at the very end...but the idea of 1 gram per watt ended up being dead on. I was convinced I'd probably get about 1oz per plant and ended up north of that.
I hesitate to add up all the 'small stuff' and the big stuff to get a number. Because it ain't cheap, but I try not to do anything half way. My experience is to buy better the first time around. Also, my next round will cost me much much less now that I've got a setup that's solid. There will be some new expenses (I'm going to upgrade my pH meter, etc.) and I've got new soil, etc. but overall the big outlay is hopefully done.
I hesitate to add up all the 'small stuff' and the big stuff to get a number. Because it ain't cheap, but I try not to do anything half way. My experience is to buy better the first time around. Also, my next round will cost me much much less now that I've got a setup that's solid. There will be some new expenses (I'm going to upgrade my pH meter, etc.) and I've got new soil, etc. but overall the big outlay is hopefully done.
sdboltdude
Well-Known Member
Great list
LeastExpectedGrower
Well-Known Member
I'm sure there's a bit more...but that's a good start. That's the 'hidden cost' of starting to grow. You can only borrow stuff from your other household uses so much before you just need to buy dedicated stuff. Like circulation fans...you may have some, but if you want 'em in your tent 24/7 you're re-buying for the house anyway, etc.
I didn't include stuff like the additional chemistry or soil related:
pH Up/Down
pH Calibration set
nutrients or fertilizers
Soil/additives (perlite, vermiculite, lime, etc)
seed starter mix
So anyone starting up should factor those things, but not let them stop you...because you don't need to rebuy most things for each grow...
Also, don't buy huge quantities of stuff your first time around for any of the expendables. What you buy the first time won't be what you probably will want the second or third time. As you grow and learn, you'll realize the error of some of your ways. And have new ideas of what you want to move on to.