How to Save Money When Growing Weed? 2019 Updated
Growing cannabis at home is more popular than it’s ever been! It’s partially due to cannabis’ growing acceptance throughout the world, but it’s also partly due to the availability of specialized growing equipment. There are many helpful tools that can make it a lot easier to grow top-quality bud at home.
However, some “tools” that are supposed to help you grow marijuana end up costing so much time, work and money that you may have been better off without them. Some poorly designed tools could even set you up for failure!
THREE WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION
1. Find the right size for your grow.
This is the by far the most effective way to reduce energy costs. Let’s say a potential grower wants to consume about 30g of bud every month. Just one single autoflowering plant is easily capable of producing this amount of bud in an 8 weeks life cycle. This means a potential harvest of 120g after two months when growing just four small autoflowering plants. This is enough to last for about 4 months in this particular case. This hypothetical weed farmer could grow 2 months, take a break for 2 months, and then continue to grow again.
What has to be taken into consideration is that autoflowering varieties need a light cycle of 18/6, 20/4, or 24/0. This of course lowers their overall energy efficiency because “regular”, or “feminized” cannabis strains, only need 12 hours of artificial light when grown indoors.
2.LIGHTS
Lights are one of the most important variables when growing cannabis. Without light, your plant will not grow, period. LED grow lights will be a great choice if you want to save on electric bills. These, however, will probably be the most expensive option outright.
Fluorescent grow lights, on the other hand, are cheaper. But they’ll consume much more energy and you’ll have to change bulb types when moving from the vegetative cycle to flowering.
HPS grow lights will be your third option. These have a full UV spectrum but don’t last very long. And on top of that, they release a lot of heat. This means you’ll need more fans to cool down your room.
3.Choose a light proof and airtight grow tent
Every grow room absolutely needs to be lightproof. The lightproof cannabis grow tent can make your lighting more efficient and while the number of hours of light is quite important, equally important are the hours of darkness. During the vegetative phase of a marijuana plant, it should be getting 18 hours of light and 6 hours of darkness. During the flowering phase, this should be 12 and 12. During the 12 hours of darkness, the plant must not be exposed to any amount of light at all, or else it could revert back to the vegetative phase. The grow room must also be airtight because you don’t want the strong stench of marijuana to be getting out of your grow room. It could easily reach your neighbors, regardless of what your living situation is. The only air escaping should be going through a carbon filter.
4.GROWING MEDIUM
The growing medium affects every other decision in the grow room and can subtly impact production costs.
Avoid using soil. Soil is costly to purchase and transport. In addition, soil is a one time use growing medium and costs money to dispose of once is has been used. Soil is also a great way to introduce pests and pathogens into a growing environment as they can easily be living in the soil when it arrives at the facility.
Use hydroponics if your grower is experienced enough. Once a hydroponic system is in place, the only recurring expense is the water that runs through the system. However, even this can be minimized by sterilizing water that has been run through the system and reusing it. By doing so, minimal additional input is needed, virtually eliminating the monthly operating costs. However, hydroponics should only be used if grower is experienced enough to handle the advanced system as a mistake could cost the entire crop, thus negating any potential money savings.
Maximize Your Resources
Look at your resources and how you use them. Each of the tips above can help you to reduce the cost of running your grow room. Often, even the smallest tweaks can help reap rewards down the road. These savings can go towards some shiny new equipment, new plants, or even a bigger grow room.
However, some “tools” that are supposed to help you grow marijuana end up costing so much time, work and money that you may have been better off without them. Some poorly designed tools could even set you up for failure!
THREE WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION
1. Find the right size for your grow.
This is the by far the most effective way to reduce energy costs. Let’s say a potential grower wants to consume about 30g of bud every month. Just one single autoflowering plant is easily capable of producing this amount of bud in an 8 weeks life cycle. This means a potential harvest of 120g after two months when growing just four small autoflowering plants. This is enough to last for about 4 months in this particular case. This hypothetical weed farmer could grow 2 months, take a break for 2 months, and then continue to grow again.
What has to be taken into consideration is that autoflowering varieties need a light cycle of 18/6, 20/4, or 24/0. This of course lowers their overall energy efficiency because “regular”, or “feminized” cannabis strains, only need 12 hours of artificial light when grown indoors.
2.LIGHTS
Lights are one of the most important variables when growing cannabis. Without light, your plant will not grow, period. LED grow lights will be a great choice if you want to save on electric bills. These, however, will probably be the most expensive option outright.
Fluorescent grow lights, on the other hand, are cheaper. But they’ll consume much more energy and you’ll have to change bulb types when moving from the vegetative cycle to flowering.
HPS grow lights will be your third option. These have a full UV spectrum but don’t last very long. And on top of that, they release a lot of heat. This means you’ll need more fans to cool down your room.
3.Choose a light proof and airtight grow tent
Every grow room absolutely needs to be lightproof. The lightproof cannabis grow tent can make your lighting more efficient and while the number of hours of light is quite important, equally important are the hours of darkness. During the vegetative phase of a marijuana plant, it should be getting 18 hours of light and 6 hours of darkness. During the flowering phase, this should be 12 and 12. During the 12 hours of darkness, the plant must not be exposed to any amount of light at all, or else it could revert back to the vegetative phase. The grow room must also be airtight because you don’t want the strong stench of marijuana to be getting out of your grow room. It could easily reach your neighbors, regardless of what your living situation is. The only air escaping should be going through a carbon filter.
4.GROWING MEDIUM
The growing medium affects every other decision in the grow room and can subtly impact production costs.
Avoid using soil. Soil is costly to purchase and transport. In addition, soil is a one time use growing medium and costs money to dispose of once is has been used. Soil is also a great way to introduce pests and pathogens into a growing environment as they can easily be living in the soil when it arrives at the facility.
Use hydroponics if your grower is experienced enough. Once a hydroponic system is in place, the only recurring expense is the water that runs through the system. However, even this can be minimized by sterilizing water that has been run through the system and reusing it. By doing so, minimal additional input is needed, virtually eliminating the monthly operating costs. However, hydroponics should only be used if grower is experienced enough to handle the advanced system as a mistake could cost the entire crop, thus negating any potential money savings.
Maximize Your Resources
Look at your resources and how you use them. Each of the tips above can help you to reduce the cost of running your grow room. Often, even the smallest tweaks can help reap rewards down the road. These savings can go towards some shiny new equipment, new plants, or even a bigger grow room.
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