Thatoneguyyouknow_
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im just running two 32x32 tents with a couple 65-95w pannels each. And a couple 5000k shop light fixtures for veg.Agreed, costs are minimal after initial set up.
I'm poor and had to piece shit together for
over at least a year before starting up from
scratch after all these years. (I could have
started much sooner & cheaper with soil
and smaller everything, but I knew the hydro
setup I wanted & waited until I had it mostly
together) I believe tho that a grow is never
truly 100% complete.
I'd say my costs are higher than that, I'll have
to get a couple cycles in to see.
Pretty sure all of my lights and tents/hvac equipment for the three setups, as it sits, was $300 or so.
But i also spent a long time buying lots of different stuff, using lots of different grow methods, and learning from a commercial growing world that i didnt have to spend money to experience, they actually payed me to be there lol.
I also have the pratical knowledge and hans on skills to repair and servce all of my own equipment, analog or digital either one. And that free's up a whole world of cheap stuff i can reliably operate with.
The only real difference between a cheap ebay panel thats $80 and has samsung diodes at 2.8umol and a high end brand with the same diodes and wattage output, is just the quality of things like the filter capacitors and rectifier bridge in the driver, which is just a small arrangement of diodes. Quality caps cost like $3, and quality diodes cost like 25 cents. Beyond that really the only difference is feature set not performance.
Whn you stack a bunch of things like that on top of each other in regard to all subject matter that meet each other in relation to "growing cannabis" you can save absurd amounts of money across the board. Even things like running your veg light cycle mostly at night can benefit your electricity consumption in all aspects of your home power draw not just growing.
I mix my own soils by screening cheap potting soils that cost like $5-8 for several cubic foot to remove the junk, then ill cut it 50/50 with coir or peat ( usually coir that costs like $3 per 5 gallon bucket full) and then just treat with perlite or fine pumice til im satisficed with its field capacity of water retention. Google "soil field capacity" for a rabbit hole of learning btw.
The soil in tent two (if it was all my usual mix, some is hand me down unused ocean forest from a friend), under about 180w of light, cost me about $12-13 for 10-12 gallons. Expecting close to a lb. Have used about $10-12 of dry nutrients.
i can go on and on about where i save money growing cannabis. For outdoors, i get to know the nearest farms with goats. No one has yet refused the shoveling of some pens for some free fertilizer. I source natural flood plame loam from natural streams and collect it myself lol. I use fine pumice stone over perlite outdoors so i can screen it and keep it after the grow and use it following season. Ill use light soil acidifiers to release naturally accumulated silicates and calcium from the clays and shells already there if its present instead of going through 3 bottles of some formula through a season. etc etc.
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im afraid to be using to much of the fishy smelly stuff because of the bears! 