Contrary to popular belief, growing weed doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby. With the right attention and a little bit of extra elbow grease, you can grow cannabis on a very lean budget. Although there are some things you shouldn’t cut corners on, many of the expenses are superfluous. If you want to grow weed and don’t want to damage the wallet, this article is for you!
After doing some research online, it seems like it can cost hundreds, maybe even thousands to set up your grow operation. In truth, there are some financial shortcuts you can take that don’t affect your final product too much. If you’re growing weed for the first time, it might make more sense to work on a budget until you have the confidence to build a more efficient system. It might mean that you have to dedicate a little more time to building things or maintaining things, but this will ensure a good product on a tight budget.
The idea is not to damage your harvest while trying to save money, because this could completely repulse you from the idea of growing again – which is not what you want. You are going to have to invest some time, money and energy. However, it doesn’t have to be very expensive and it doesn’t have to be very difficult. While we’ve compiled a list of all the things you’ll need when you’re going to grow indoors, in this specific article we’ll focus on where exactly you can cut down on costs.
Let’s begin with cheap cannabis seeds
We’re known for the fact that our seeds are dirt cheap without compromising on quality. The seed is where it all begins, and while it’s possible to ruin a harvest that started with a good seed – it’s impossible to get a good harvest from a crappy seed.
There are seeds that we recommend for beginners: Our beginner cannabis strains have been selected because they’re easy to grow, robust enough to bounce back from the most common novice gardening mistakes, require less effort than some of our other strains, and of course they’re super cheap.
Other options are our feminized seeds, which enable you to have more control over the sex of your garden while high yielding strains can give you a fat yield the very first time. We also sell autoflowering seeds, which take some of the gardening work away that can be difficult for beginners. Choose the right seed for you – you will thank yourself for it!
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Grow outdoors
One easy way to avoid the costs associated with growing is to grow your cannabis outdoors. For those whose weather and neighbourhood permit them to grow outdoors, there’s really no cheaper way to grow. When you grow outdoors, your costs are entirely invested into seeds, soil and nutrients (as well as miscellaneous things such as pots). Mother nature looks after the rest.
Grow indoors: Improvise with your grow space
Although there are many high-tech boxes and grow spaces you can buy on the market, they are overall unnecessary for producing a good harvest. You can make-do with a cupboard that you aren’t using. You don’t need something fancy in which to grow your cannabis, it just needs to do the trick. If you know anything about carpentry, you can even build a space that’s exactly the size that you want it to be. The space needs to fit just your plants, a light bulb and fans. While growing without intake and extractor fans isn’t ideal, if you’re on a really tight budget you could simply drill some holes for ventilation, and voila! You have a grow space!
Indoor grow space will usually have a light reflective material inside, but these can be expensive to purchase. Painting the inside of the space white will already help a lot though, and you can pick up white paint pretty cheap! Also, there is the possibility of buying emergency blankets that are very cheap and extremely reflective. You just need to buy enough of them to cover your grow space. If you are going to use blankets, you will definitely need some fans to keep the temperature down. And please, don’t think you’re smart by starting a fire and asking those handsome firefighters for some free blankets 😉
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Low-budget ventilation options
Okay, exhaust fans can be expensive, but every indoor cannabis grow operation needs one. In fact, it will fail without it, so try not to be too stingy with getting a good fan with the settings that you need. You can purchase these second hand, and if it’s a good quality one it will work for years. You can build your own carbon filter to keep the smell of your grow operation under control.
Temperature and humidity control are imperative to a good grow system, so it is also important to have a decent thermo-hygrometer. This is the device that allows you to measure the temperature and humidity in your grow space so that you can keep it under control.
Low-cost lighting options
You can build light fixtures yourself if you’re a handy kind of person, and if not, they can be purchased for second hand much cheaper than new. The same is true of reflectors, and it’s more important just to have a reflector rather than having none at all. Don’t use any used light bulbs as they are not as powerful after being used. Even if you’re on a budget, use new light bulbs.
You will be growing in soil
If you’re growing for the first time, don’t expect to be growing with a hydroponic system. This also applies if you’re working on a budget. Soil is the cheapest medium to grow weed in and probably the easiest to look after. It is also cheap to purchase. If you choose to purchase better soil, you can save money on nutrients in the initial stages of the plant’s growth.
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Plant nutrition
If you have gone for the option of using high quality soil, you can get away without using nutrition for the most part. This would produce something quite natural, and it is entirely possible to do it this way. If you decide to go with good soil, your plant will begin to show signs that it is malnourished, and you will be able to find out which nutrients it needs at the time.
Although some probably wouldn’t recommend it, it is possible to use nutrients you can buy at your local garden store. However, make sure your purchase something that is made for edible plants to ensure they don’t contain any chemicals that you don’t want to put into your body. The most important thing about your nutrients is that they are rich in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous.
Alternatively, there are nutrient mixes you can buy specifically for cannabis, but they can be costly. They also contain many special supplements that aren’t entirely necessary and for which you can home-make great alternatives.
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Your imagination is the limit!
When it comes to miscellaneous things, be creative. You can dry your buds on racks from the kitchen, you can cure in any small glass container lying around in your house, and you can use any old fan lying around for some extra air movement. Before you go buying anything new, make a list of all the things you need, and see where you can be creative with what is around you or what you can borrow from friends. They will be very happy to smoke with you after lending you some equipment.
