(In your opinion)Is growing weed for profit even worth it anymore?

canadacannabis · Jul 13, 2017

Hello my fellow Canucks. I am a longtime lurker of these forums and had an account for many years (since 2005) that I had to delete last year because of security concerns. Feels great to be back posting on here again!

For my whole life, since the age of 11 I have made my living (or at least greatly supplemented my income) by growing gorilla style and also running a small (4, 1000W lights) indoor room.

I have always been super passionate about growing, especially outdoors and have had many super successful past seasons and figured I would be doing it until I was too old for the workload

Not even that long ago (5 years at the most) I always had most of my crop sold before it was even dried (buyers already lined up) and the rest sold very quickly, always fetching at least 2k a pound (I am in Ontario) unless I was selling super bulk but even then, I very rarely would accept less than 1800 and this is for gorilla stye grown weed. Sure, some of it would look real nice but some would look bushy as fuck but it didn't matter, the buyer bought what you had without complaining.

These past years it has turned from being a sellers market to a buyers market. If they don't like your herb, they won't buy it because they can easily find something they do like. Anybody can now walk into a store front or order off an online dispensary without even having a medical card.

It pisses me off that retail prices for small quantities (ounce or less) have actually gone up yet wholesale prices have plummeted like a mother fucker.

Some of my outdoor weed I can easily pass as indoor, but if I do mention its outdoor its automatically worth fuck all. I grow great indoor weed that I used to sell for $3200/lb all day. Now, I'm lucky if someone offers me a little more than 2k and I'm talking for a single pack, not bulk.

Last few outdoor seasons I haven't even bothered to trim my weed, just cut the fan leafs off an turned it all into hash which I had to take a great risk of getting it "down south" to be able to unload it for a fair price. The prices I get offered for my top shelf outdoor are straight up insulting. Like I said, I could (and have) passed it off as indoor but if they know its outdoor I'm not even gonna get 1k/lb for a single pack.

I am on my last run of my 4kw grow room. I am hardly making fuck all and its not a legal operation so the risk is very far from being worth the reward. (I am not at all a shitty grower. Get at least 1.5 pounds a light every run and its always at least AAA quality)

I have the opportunity to invest in a very large greenhouse operation next season but I just don't know if its even worth it. Outdoor packs are very hard to move and impossible to get the price you want for them which means we would be turning most if not all of it into hash and concentrates. We think we will run one light dep green house and hopefully that weed comes out looking like indoor and we can unload it before the flood, the rest will probably be all turned into some type of concentrate.

I am sorry for the massive wall of text, but, if you were me and had the opportunity to invest (not a cheap investment) in a very large scale outdoor greenhouse operation (I am talking over 1000 plants that will yield around a half pound each) would you go for it?

I'd have to live on site in a trailer with very limited comfort (no running water, small gas powered genny for essentials and thats it.)

If this was 5 years ago I'd be so excited to live on site on such a large op, but, now, after running the numbers I just don't even think its worth it.

For any of you cash croppers, are any of you still making a decent living from just growing weed? Or, are you feeling like I am and that very sadly it might be time to try and find a new way to earn a living?

YetiOG · Jul 13, 2017

canadacannabis said:
Hello my fellow Canucks. I am a longtime lurker of these forums and had an account for many years (since 2005) that I had to delete last year because of security concerns. Feels great to be back posting on here again!

For my whole life, since the age of 11 I have made my living (or at least greatly supplemented my income) by growing gorilla style and also running a small (4, 1000W lights) indoor room.

I have always been super passionate about growing, especially outdoors and have had many super successful past seasons and figured I would be doing it until I was too old for the workload

Not even that long ago (5 years at the most) I always had most of my crop sold before it was even dried (buyers already lined up) and the rest sold very quickly, always fetching at least 2k a pound (I am in Ontario) unless I was selling super bulk but even then, I very rarely would accept less than 1800 and this is for gorilla stye grown weed. Sure, some of it would look real nice but some would look bushy as fuck but it didn't matter, the buyer bought what you had without complaining.

These past years it has turned from being a sellers market to a buyers market. If they don't like your herb, they won't buy it because they can easily find something they do like. Anybody can now walk into a store front or order off an online dispensary without even having a medical card.

It pisses me off that retail prices for small quantities (ounce or less) have actually gone up yet wholesale prices have plummeted like a mother fucker.

Some of my outdoor weed I can easily pass as indoor, but if I do mention its outdoor its automatically worth fuck all. I grow great indoor weed that I used to sell for $3200/lb all day. Now, I'm lucky if someone offers me a little more than 2k and I'm talking for a single pack, not bulk.

Last few outdoor seasons I haven't even bothered to trim my weed, just cut the fan leafs off an turned it all into hash which I had to take a great risk of getting it "down south" to be able to unload it for a fair price. The prices I get offered for my top shelf outdoor are straight up insulting. Like I said, I could (and have) passed it off as indoor but if they know its outdoor I'm not even gonna get 1k/lb for a single pack.

I am on my last run of my 4kw grow room. I am hardly making fuck all and its not a legal operation so the risk is very far from being worth the reward. (I am not at all a shitty grower. Get at least 1.5 pounds a light every run and its always at least AAA quality)

I have the opportunity to invest in a very large greenhouse operation next season but I just don't know if its even worth it. Outdoor packs are very hard to move and impossible to get the price you want for them which means we would be turning most if not all of it into hash and concentrates. We think we will run one light dep green house and hopefully that weed comes out looking like indoor and we can unload it before the flood, the rest will probably be all turned into some type of concentrate.

I am sorry for the massive wall of text, but, if you were me and had the opportunity to invest (not a cheap investment) in a very large scale outdoor greenhouse operation (I am talking over 1000 plants that will yield around a half pound each) would you go for it?

I'd have to live on site in a trailer with very limited comfort (no running water, small gas powered genny for essentials and thats it.)

If this was 5 years ago I'd be so excited to live on site on such a large op, but, now, after running the numbers I just don't even think its worth it.

For any of you cash croppers, are any of you still making a decent living from just growing weed? Or, are you feeling like I am and that very sadly it might be time to try and find a new way to earn a living?

The market is changing. You need to as well. Get new strains, and new customers. It sounds like you need to get with the times. Most growers have to catch up these days.

Anyway greenhouse is not outdoor and if you are getting i ro a big op, hopefully they already have a dispensary to deal with. If they do great your problem os solved but if they have no end customer lined up stay away from that.

Growing is less profitable tgese days because of these retards who have 1000 bulb ops amd churn out shit for 1k a pound. If people didnt think weed was worthless we would still be getting what its worth. Everyone has seen less for it these days while dealers charge more. Its because growers dont stand up for ourselves. Also doesnt help others are out undercutting the rest of us. If we told them fuck you the price is 2k per pound and we all said that, then they wouldnt control us we would control them. We hold the goods thats how it shoukd be.

Honestly im getting out of buisness for myself amd starting to work for someone else, and will grow my own amd maybe sell some but theres far easier ways to earn a living these days dude... if i was you i would get a job amd grow for some smoke + vacation money

mushroombrew · Jul 13, 2017

Especially true on the west coast. Had a dispensary offer me 1000/p for some silly bomb Sour D. 12 wks indoor fire... You can guess what I told him.
The problem right now is the OG movement. Lanky lower yielders. I met a big distributer who wants Fire OG for 1500. He won't pay more.
Prices will continue to fall. That's why I have been running R&D for the future. In Oregon power is really cheap. I pay 7 cents/kwh. When we build our big show and go to commercial power it will be closer to 5 cents.
We focus on maximum efficiency today. So we can stay competitive in 5 years. Everybody will have top shelf soon. It's what it costs to produce it that will make the difference. We are at $220 in winter and $300 in summer(AC) per pound. I think you'll find those numbers hard to beat.
If you can't produce top shelf you won't last much longer. And if you can't keep costs down
you will get priced out of the market.
I dumped most of my genetics. I only have a few strains that bring low 2's. Wholesale prices have dropped a good 30% in the last couple years out west.

YetiOG · Jul 13, 2017

mushroombrew said:
Especially true on the west coast. Had a dispensary offer me 1000/p for some silly bomb Sour D. 12 wks indoor fire... You can guess what I told him.
The problem right now is the OG movement. Lanky lower yielders. I met a big distributer who wants Fire OG for 1500. He won't pay more.
Prices will continue to fall. That's why I have been running R&D for the future. In Oregon power is really cheap. I pay 7 cents/kwh. When we build our big show and go to commercial power it will be closer to 5 cents.
We focus on maximum efficiency today. So we can stay competitive in 5 years. Everybody will have top shelf soon. It's what it costs to produce it that will make the difference. We are at $220 in winter and $300 in summer(AC) per pound. I think you'll find those numbers hard to beat.
If you can't produce top shelf you won't last much longer. And if you can't keep costs down
you will get priced out of the market.
I dumped most of my genetics. I only have a few strains that bring low 2's. Wholesale prices have dropped a good 30% in the last couple years out west.

Wow 1k for a pound of sour thats horrible.

The 1500 for fire guy should be shot dead. Im a og grower id probably punch a motherfucker in the face if they said they would give me 1500 for a pound of any og, Suck my dick! OGs are hard to grow and yield like shit. Wow. Fuck that guy. He obviously has no clue about weed just $$$

mushroombrew · Jul 13, 2017

YetiOG said:
Wow 1k for a pound of sour thats horrible.

The 1500 for fire guy should be shot dead. Im a og grower id probably punch a motherfucker in the face if they said they would give me 1500 for a pound of any og, Suck my dick! OGs are hard to grow and yield like shit. Wow. Fuck that guy. He obviously has no clue about weed just $$$

Right what a joke. The guy grabs #100 at a time I guess. Don't know who's dumb enough to go to 15. Somebody. And they are fucking it up for the rest of us.
I got an OG run going. Curious as to yields. Never fucked with them before but it's all people want. If you are growing anything with the word "dream" in it out West you may as well use it for compost. Will not sell period.

gaiusmarius · Jul 13, 2017

interesting thread, full legality should push the prices down even more. soon you won't be able to use grid power to grow with. if not the co2 panic it will be the free market flooded by light dep grown. while hash and concentrates will be produced with sun light only. if you are lucky and it gets only semi legalized, meaning expensive licenses and monopolies, then the price will float over real value due to the danger of growing black market.

YetiOG · Jul 13, 2017

mushroombrew said:
Right what a joke. The guy grabs #100 at a time I guess. Don't know who's dumb enough to go to 15. Somebody. And they are fucking it up for the rest of us.
I got an OG run going. Curious as to yields. Never fucked with them before but it's all people want. If you are growing anything with the word "dream" in it out West you may as well use it for compost. Will not sell period.

Theres a few ogs that yield decently. The best though is probably the headband pheno of yeti you can do 2# a light easy. But yeah if you pack tight and do it right, you can do 1 to 2 per light i average about 1.5 per 600 hps

People cranking out 100 at a time at 1500 a piece are retards. Their greed is making our hard work worthless. Gotta love greed. Thats why im less interested in growing to sell to make money and focusing on making seeds and bud for my own use

mushroombrew · Jul 13, 2017

gaiusmarius said:
soon you won't be able to use grid power to grow with

Why do you think that? Here in OR the power grid is quite happy to provide.

mushroombrew · Jul 13, 2017

YetiOG said:
Theres a few ogs that yield decently. The best though is probably the headband pheno of yeti you can do 2# a light easy. But yeah if you pack tight and do it right, you can do 1 to 2 per light i average about 1.5 per 600 hps

You got that yeti ? I've never seen it.

OldPhart · Jul 13, 2017

I shouldn't even post this... but oh well.

I get a big kick out of growers that want to grow as much as they possibly can, with no risk of LEO involvement, not pay taxes or follow any regulations, and get $3,000/pound in bulk. I personally love it the way it is now, especially since I'm lucky enough to be in a state that has legal home grow on the books. I personally never plan on buying any weed, ever again. I also encourage everyone to grow their own, and will help them if they want to try it. I say let the cash croppers compete against the cost of power. Which I estimate to be around $600-700/pound here due to the high energy costs. Of course there will be the farms of outdoor weed to supply the concentrates market, for next to nothing.

If you want to make money off weed, you need to find a way into the medical market; which is no longer just selling weed to people with a med card. **BTW, I know weed can, and does help a lot of people, but we also know that the majority of product leaving a med shop is for rec. use.**

HiFiGanja · Jul 13, 2017

You can make plenty of money even with 10 lights and $1000/lb. Are you going to be a baller with a new boat, snow machine or dirt bike every season, no but if you got a job that 10 lights can still get you $15-20K every 12 weeks. Subtract even $5k for overhead and you still taking in $10-15K every 3 months. In order to do that any other way you'd have to have a some kind of business that brings in 200-500K in sales per year working full time.

Weird · Jul 13, 2017

lol none of what people say really makes sense

I live in one of the most expensive parts of the country and the electric rates reflect it

at 1 gram per watt and 2 dollars a gram 4000 watts is 8000k per cycle not including any processing of trim to other valuable medicinal

there is no reason your trim can't pay the expense and your nuggets end up profit

32 cash for 4k garden is not bad and that is without maximization or higher resource utilization

other than electric I pay almost nothing to grow

were not close to 2 a gram yet but even then it isn't like a lile work can't still make money

8k isn't that much more work and then that is 64 a year (you need to make 100k a year on the books here) and none of this assumes customer direct for better money or processing into edibles or carts or anything else

something seems off maybe it is me

Limeygreen · Jul 13, 2017

If you are producing around 1 dollar a gramme and you have roughly 450-500 per pound to produce it, at 1500 you would still be making 100% profit. I am not sure what you decern as fair for a price but show me a business that makes 600% (at 3 k a pound) on the regular. 100 percent profit is still good money, if you ran for 1 crop you've paid overhead then everything else is profit you should realistically be able to get down to .75 cents per gramme, for 3 months work you would be getting around 3300 per month at 1000 per pound. Roughly 10 lights running all the time or 20 lbs per quarter would get you 40 grand a year net. If there is no taxes on that, it's a pretty decent wage I would say, especially if it were just a side job.

brown_thumb · Jul 13, 2017

YetiOG said:
Wow 1k for a pound of sour thats horrible.

The 1500 for fire guy should be shot dead. Im a og grower id probably punch a motherfucker in the face if they said they would give me 1500 for a pound of any og, Suck my dick! OGs are hard to grow and yield like shit. Wow. Fuck that guy. He obviously has no clue about weed just $$$

I have a so-called 'friend' who offered to buy my dried/cured buds that others offer $200-300 per ounce for. But he only wanted to pay $25 per ounce. It's outdoor weed but grown in very loose soil and fed with hydro nutrients. In essence, everyone thinks it's hydro.

He does this kind of thing to just about everyone, friend or not, when he sees others are in dire financial need. The SOB is ALWAYS ready to pounce on ANYONE to take advantage of their misfortune. Yeah... friend, indeed. Complete strangers were offering help while my 'friend' only wanted to take advantage. It doesn't matter how often this kind of thing happens, it still hurts a bit.

Most recently, my vehicle was stolen. Its retrieval and repair is very pricey (compared to my meager income). Within hours, this 'friend' was trying relentlessly to cheat me out of my weed, my vehicles, guns, etc. ... everything he could think of that I have... but wanted to pay me ten cents on the dollar for... or LESS!! He offered ZERO help... he just wants a great deal via taking extreme advantage of everyone who lets him.

I don't grow to sell. I grow to self-medicate and share (for FREE). Yet many others are just TAKERS.

Friends... choose wisely... watch your back.

The strains I've grown are Strawberry Kush, Pineapple Haze, Tora Bora, Blueberry, White Widow, and a couple others I can't recall at the moment.

mushroombrew · Jul 13, 2017

I guess it all depends what motivates you.

I have plans for a large scale legal CBD facility. My dad was the president of the worlds largest manufacturer of pharmaceutical drugs, Specifically psychiatric meds.

We did not get along at all. Although I do appreciate the education he could afford.
My motivation is to replace as many drugs as possible with medical grade CBD's. I aspire to be the largest producer in the US within 5 years.

So I am "growing as much as I possibly can" so I can kick big pharma in the nuts sooner!!
Black market cash croppers? I certainly am not.

Jellyfish · Jul 13, 2017

YetiOG said:
If we told them fuck you the price is 2k per pound and we all said that, then they wouldnt control us we would control them. We hold the goods thats how it shoukd be.

Sorry, but that's not right. It's simple supply and demand. You could say 'fuck you' all day, and your buyer would just find it cheaper somewhere else.

Gry · Jul 13, 2017

HiFiGanja · Jul 13, 2017

Limeygreen said:
If you are producing around 1 dollar a gramme and you have roughly 450-500 per pound to produce it, at 1500 you would still be making 100% profit. I am not sure what you decern as fair for a price but show me a business that makes 600% (at 3 k a pound) on the regular. 100 percent profit is still good money, if you ran for 1 crop you've paid overhead then everything else is profit you should realistically be able to get down to .75 cents per gramme, for 3 months work you would be getting around 3300 per month at 1000 per pound. Roughly 10 lights running all the time or 20 lbs per quarter would get you 40 grand a year net. If there is no taxes on that, it's a pretty decent wage I would say, especially if it were just a side job.

What surprises me after all these years working/owning a hydro store is that how very few people used the money when it was $3K per lb to start their own business or properly invest the money ie
not spending it on toys that are worth less a few years down the road. I'm seeing some real stress in my customers in the last few months as the price and being able to even sell their product has hit a tall wall, especially those whose only income is growing.

gaiusmarius · Jul 13, 2017

mushroombrew said:
Why do you think that? Here in OR the power grid is quite happy to provide.

i can't tell the future of course, but in my country the government is talking about achieving a huge co2 output reduction in the next 12 years as per the Paris climate agreement. for my country it means we have to reduce the same amount of co2, as we did in the last 26 years, but only in the next 12 years. now we are already using water power, nuclear, solar wind natural gas, even goethermic, most of our houses are already well insulated. most appliances are quite new. even the legislators are wondering how we can ever achieve what we agreed to under this deal. so yeah, to me it's pretty clear, all the easy fixes to reduce co2 in my country are done, now they will probably start rationing power or at least putting the price right up to slow consumption and maybe use the money to help other nations reduce their co2 foot print( which would be much easier to achieve then reducing our own co2 foot print apparently). so yeah thats my logic for saying what i did, of course if we can find a better light sources that use less power like led's it still might work. but i wouldn't be surprised if power prices for private homes keeps going up and up as they add to the co2 tax we already pay on power.

mushroombrew · Jul 13, 2017

gaiusmarius said:
i can't tell the future of course, but in my country the government is talking about achieving a huge co2 output reduction in the next 12 years as per the Paris climate agreement. for my country it means we have to reduce the same amount of co2, as we did in the last 26 years, but only in the next 12 years. now we are already using water power, nuclear, solar wind natural gas, most of our houses are already well insulated. most appliances are quite new. even the legislators are wondering how we can ever achieve what we agreed to under this deal. so yeah, to me it's pretty clear, all the easy fixes to reduce co2 in my country are done, now they will probably start rationing power or at least putting the price right up to slow consumption and maybe use the money to help other nations reduce their co2 foot print( which would be much easier to achieve then reducing our own co2 foot print apparently). so yeah thats my logic for saying what i did, of course if we can find a better light sources that use less power like led's it still might work. but i wouldn't be surprised if power prices for private homes keeps going up and up as they add to the co2 tax we already pay on power.

OK I see your point. I am blessed to live somewhere with so much power. My property has 1000 Amps. And that is not uncommon in my area. Most homes elsewhere have 100-200 Amps.

(In your opinion)Is growing weed for profit even worth it anymore?

Member

Member

Active member

Member

Active member

me

Member

Active member

Active member

Member

Member

3rd-Eye Jedi

Well-known member

Active member

Active member

Invertebrata Inebriata

Well-known member

Member

me

Active member