What's your cost per grow?

[3rd base]

I haven't found a thread like this here and thought it would be interesting...

In CNBC's Marijuana Inc. Trish Regan states it costs an estimated $400 to grow one pound of weed. I believe she was referring to Mendocino county in N Cali.

Whether you're large scale or a closet grower, how much does it cost you to grow?

For the sake of clarification, omit your one-time equipment costs and consider only your time (labor) and recurring costs, i.e. consumables like nutrients, electricity, CO2, rent, repairs, etc.

To help keep things in perspective, tell us your method. Indicate if you're indoor or outdoor, hydro or soil/coco, whether you reuse your medium or not, organic or synthetic, etc. Include a general idea of your locale, mid-west, south east, etc., if you don't mind.

Also use whatever units work for you, be it grams, ounces, etc.

I haven't figured this out yet for myself, but I think it would be an interesting number to be aware of...

 

[funkervogt]

Minus setup, just soil, nutes and electricity, I'd say my grow costs about $200 for a 3-month grow using a 250W bulb and exhaust. That will get me about a half-pound of bud, so that $400 is pretty accurate number for me.

But also include your time and energy. Granted, for people like me it's a hobby, but... Let's say a grow costs you 15 minutes a day (me) every day. That's about 7 hours a month of my time, probably about 12 hours if I was doing a pound. Multiply that by your hourly wage (plus or minus given your tacit knowledge) and you've got the true cost, which should more than double it to about $800 of material and people resources to produce a pound.

EDIT: Trish Regan's boobs are weird.

 

[KMK0420]

$150 (electricity/coco)

roughly 50/month

harvested ~10oz

 

[Lazyman]

Hmm, electricity (heavily discounted) at $400 a month, nutes/supplies/soil/bulbs averages out to about $400 a month, clones works out to a (heavily discounted) $150 a month, so multiplied by 3 let's say $2850 per crop costs (not including labor.) Though my last couple harvests were experiments in how small a yield 8KW is capable of, I typically get 1.4-1.6 # per light, so at 1.4 my costs work out to about $254 per pound. This doesn't factor in the original equipment purchase (or repairs) or my considerable time though, so it's not a figure worth a damn thing in my opinion.

 

[3rd base]

Yes, funkervogt, thank you! I totally meant to include time!! I'll edit my post...

Sorry folks... blame it on the weed!

EDIT:
My fault for omitting time and labor Lazyman, but repairs are considered recurring costs.

 

[CherChezLaGhost]

Monthly #'s:
Electricity: $ 80
Nutes: $ 30
Soil and Airstones: $ 50
Smoking Dank that I cultivated: PRICELESS!!!!!

 

[Lazyman]

Ok, repairs I would add another $100 a month, or $300 per grow.

Labor, I usually figure about 15 minutes per light a day for handwatered gardens, but I spend about an hour a day on average in mine. Sometimes it's 30 hrs a week, but sometimes it's an hour a week. I think $40 an hour for my time is fair, considering I make more than that at my day job, and although technical, is far easier than growing.

So, labor works out to $1200 a month, 3600 a grow (clone to packaging.) With the other
numbers, I'm at $6750 per grow cost, or $602.67 a pound.

Recognize that at that cost, a 2 pound harvest probably costs you more money/time than you spent. Over two pounds just to break even! I remember when I'd never even seen an entire pound of weed, lol. I will admit to being pretty excited over my first 9.5# run though, still makes me giggle.

By the by, if this is an elaborate plan to demonize grower profit I will be seriously pissed. Though I work very hard to mitigate risks, this is a dangerous business, and guys get robbed, shot, and killed every day over crops and large amounts of weed/cash. I do believe I am helping my patients by supplying them with good medicine, but many look down on commercial growers as being simply greedy. I've seen it on other sites and promptly left, and now choose to call IC Mag home for their support of the staff and the other growers here.

 

[3rd base]

I don't look down on commercial growers or anybody, for that matter. I'm a med user first and I'm grateful there are folks like you Lazyman who do what you do.

I'm still relatively new to growing and also to weed in general. I'm just genuinely curious to know where I fit in with other growers with respect to this detail.

Much thanks to everyone for taking the time...

 

[CANNACO-OP]

Great thread idea, I did not see another one either and was going to do my calcuations and see what everyone else is using...

 

[mpd]

I end up around $35 per ounce; nutes, electricity, water, repairs and whatnot. Obviously, the most expensive element is the Klondike Flaking & Curing process, but as everyone knows that is to be expected with connoisseur strains.

 

[headiez247]

A shitload.

Electric per month alone is $2,000
Water is about $50 a month just for RO unit
Nutes/Rockwool/Hydro Store Supplies is about $400 a month
C02 Refills is $80 a month (50 pound tank)
Medical Scripts for the collective are $2800 a year so for the sake of argument lets call it $230 a month even though it doesn't really work out that way most of the time.

Labor I don't calculate because that gets reimbursed (to say the least), every crop.

That's just off the top of my head.

 

[ResinKing]

A shitload.

Electric per month alone is $2,000
.

Damn thats a nasty bill , woah I taught mine was bad , you just cheered me right up.

 

[humble1]

Damn thats a nasty bill , woah I taught mine was bad , you just cheered me right up.

you either need to do some research on how to properly exploit the loopholes in your local utility provider or...... YOU HAVE BIG BALLS!
nota bene: my bill would probably be similar if I weren't eligible for numerous PG&E discounts. And I thought Lazyman was being brave for posting up his electric numbers!

 

[FunkBomb]

For my tent it's $50-75 each grow at the most. A good majority of that is the cost of the extra electricity. Sure as hell is worth it having a nice stash around.

-Funk

 

[RagnorokYoshi]

135 bux. im taking away the seeds cost and my oops with my res.

my new cab is currently costing me 30 -35 bux. i just bought the wood and my dresser was free nintey nine

 

[geopolitical]

Discounting setup costs, probably $1400 a year, that's including everything I have to consume (bulbs, nutes, perlite, electricity, etc). I'm at a much smaller scale and our electric rates finally went down now that we're off diesel.

 

[JamieShoes]

well its free isnt it?.. its offset by herb that I dont have to buy

honest answer is that my lekky bill went DOWN when I started growing (I think because I also became super lekky concious at that time) and so I added another light and have to wait n see... my guess is 50 euros lekky per month, 20 euros nutes and 30-50 in clones

 

[medi-useA]

Obviously, the most expensive element is the Klondike Flaking & Curing process, but as everyone knows that is to be expected with connoisseur strains.

WTF?...OK, Now I'm curious....

What is it?


muA

 

[HerbGlaze]

Outdoors I have invested ZERO time and NO money and gotten a few oz's!

 

[Yes4Prop215]

me and my roomate dropped about 800 each into our first grow. it was (3) 400s HPS for flowering and another 400mh for veg, and then another 150watt closet. after about 500 in power costs, we yeiled almost two Ps. not the biggest money making venture but it helped pay the rent and bills and it was the learning that counts.


current grow i am running two closets with two 150s. spent 130 for both closets from IKEA, 60 for each light, 20 in pots and organic soil, and 160 in clones to fill em up. each closet should yeild a QP so thats 1700 dollars worth of weed for three months and about 500 dollars after power, etc.....and thats just initial costs. costs per run after that will average about 200 per 3months grow!