Everything you need to start a legal Warehouse grow in CA?

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Surfandgrow

Surfandgrow

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It was back in 2005 and it was brick weed with lots of stems and seeds. Is there a market to grow down there? Whats the scene like in CR? Whats the law like? I love my country but hate its government and corporations. Id love to move down there and make it happen. Thanks about the setup. I had to work with what I had in the warehouse but after the owner makes his money back and then some we are going to revamp it. As for the home brew Im switching to mothers, clone, veg for two weeks then transplant to flower room and put in coco beds 9 per tray.
 
Billyboat

Billyboat

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It was back in 2005 and it was brick weed with lots of stems and seeds. Is there a market to grow down there? Whats the scene like in CR? Whats the law like? I love my country but hate its government and corporations. Id love to move down there and make it happen. Thanks about the setup. I had to work with what I had in the warehouse but after the owner makes his money back and then some we are going to revamp it. As for the home brew Im switching to mothers, clone, veg for two weeks then transplant to flower room and put in coco beds 9 per tray.

Pics speak a 1000 words! Looking good! Best of luck to ya! Just don't forget a 50 lighter is a different animal then a 30 lighter! Keep ur head up!

Cheers
 
DO IT

DO IT

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It's a super tough market if your not from here. I also love the US but am not so fond of the out of control Govt. I'm with billy also on the 50k beast. It will be easier that you have ran a 30k setup, but it still ain't easy being cheesy;)
 
Owlfarm

Owlfarm

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If you're interested in the herb scene in costa rica, read a book called ''south of normal''. Guarantee you won't be interested in it anymore... Stick to surfing there, not growing
 
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moredankbuds

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To answer the OP question, this is my experience as a grower in the greater los angeles area.

There is no "legal" grow option here. Even if you grow on site at a preICO dispensary, you risk police coming in and ripping everything down. The best you can hope for is thats all they do. The worst is arrest or they start investigating you.

Warehouse: Not many landlords are willing to let a grower in. The ones that do, their buildings are usually hard to rent or they will charge you more than $1 / sq ft. If you can find a landlord willing to play ball, expect rent to be $1 to $1.5 / sq ft, 3-6 months of security deposit depending on credit.

Fire inspection: Dont register with the city, dont get a business permit, try to stay under the radar as possible. If it does happen, you will have to tear it down.

Lawyer: waste of money, if the police come, he's not going to be able to stop the shut down of your grow. Best case scenario, you have already paid for legal representation if they decide to go after you

Operations: try to limit your time on site. if you are busted on site, they will arrest you. i have heard of smaller grow ops being busted and only being issued an arrest and released. dont hedge your plans on that. If you run a smaller op (<20 lights) cops probably wont investigate. if you run a larger op, and/or stealing power, and/or part of some other crazy investigation, you will probably have to take a long vacation

Manpower: depends on style of grow, mainly, how many plants per light. You can do 100 flower + 10 veg with 2 people only. However, keep in mind, the more you grow, trimming becomes an issue. With what i mentioned, you need 1 full time trimmer.

Lights: almost everyone in the commercial grow arena is doing 1k watt lights. if this is a question for you, you might not be ready.

AC: in southern ca, you need good ac units. at least 4 months out of the year, they will be running full blast 24/7. 5 tons per 12 lights is a good calculation. look into mini splits, cheaper to install, easier to run, less foot print. All acs are not meant to be run the way we run them. Maintenance them twice a year, expect to replace every 3 years.

Robbery: ive heard of it, never experienced it. All stories i know of, its an inside job. Rarely are people going to be kicking in random warehouse doors to see whats inside. if you can run it with 1 person, do it. if you are going to "hire" a guy, pay him 2k a month and then you suddenly get robbed? thats your fault.

This is based on many years of experience, I got specific stories or experience that has led to the above tidbits of info. Any questions, ask away.
 
Surfandgrow

Surfandgrow

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Thank you @moredankbuds All this information is great stuff. I guess the ultimate question for me now is it worth it to run the 50 lighter or spend the money on a ranch and fill up 5 storage containers with AC and plants. Seems like it would a lot safer with the ranch. Ill have to use less lights and plants but the cost to set up is about half. Plus Ill own a house. Any opinions on best choice to grow? Everyone keeps hitting me up for the 600 thing. Man I swear I know the difference but the science is out on light spread. Your plants always do better in between the lights not right under them. Im just saying the same amount of wattage spread around more evenly has proven to yield better results. This has been proven time and time again on smaller ops so I was just wondering if anyone has tried this on a larger scale. Im actually getting more into vertical growing and might scrap the original build idea in favor or 4 vert rooms. Any opinions on that. I got the skills, trusted friends and capital to make this happen I just need space. Thanks to everyone so far that has participated. We have a great community of revolutionaries her. Keep fighting the good fight! We will end prohibition together!
 
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moredankbuds

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50k in lights in a warehouse all inclusive cost will run you upfront 80k-150k on the highend. Biggest cost will be lease + security deposit. Save 3 months of rent + utility + on going nutes/materials. So probably 100-175k.

From what you posted in re: to the loan terms, I think you want to clarify with them. It sounds like they want to recuperate their loan first then you make the monthly payment. I am not aware of anyone willing to have such a bad return on investment especially in this business. You can plan on breaking even and self sustaining in 6-7 months.

Buying a ranch poses it's own problems. If you are planning on using electricity to power lights, locations far from dense areas have shitty power. 50k lights will require 400 amps 3 phase. Residentials can be as low as 100 amps single phase. Getting them to upgrade the power is costly and maybe impossible due to distance. Even if you have the power, that much power usage in residential location will draw a lot of attention. Residential is not made to handle that much.

If you are using sunlight, you are basically doing an gh/od grow. The best run greenhouse can do 3 harvests a year, most are around 2. Even then, if you don't know how to do an outdoor grow, it's not exactly as simple as taking existing knowledge and moving it outside. Expect 1 year leaning curve.

Ranch grow might be safer, but I know of a pre ico dispensary that owned 2 gh grows had their plants cut down. When the sheriff was confronted, his response was "take it up with the court"

The biggest problem I have seen in your situation is you might be biting more than you can chew. Many smalle growers think they can jump to 50 lights with no problem. That's not true. Cultivation does not have many economies of scale, bigger ops do not save more time. Everything becomes more work. You might want to start smaller, like 24 then go up.

Re: 600 vs 1k. I've read about it, commercial growers move more slowly. Tbh, you are better off using the new double ended 1k shit than 600 watt magnetics. More promise in that, but you are trading off time tested reliability on 1k magnetics.
 
QLTYlab

QLTYlab

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Set up the discrete ranch, build cash reserves and then blow up a warehouse right when legal clarification comes in a couple years. Many ranches can be found in mixed use areas so commercial power wouldn't be suspicious. Get some tools and cover it as workshops.
 
Owlfarm

Owlfarm

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600 vs. 1000 is a fun discussion to get into with people. It's a pretty polarizing argument. I made the switch a year or two ago to all 600's, but my rooms aren't more than 15 lights with 9' ceilings. It seems like most alot of guys running 50 plus lights have 1000's, but I've heard of plenty guys with 50 1000's switching them out for 600's. I think 600's are bigger in europe? I like the quality I get from 600's more. It's a bigger upfront cost, plus you're replacing way more bulbs every year.
I'm testing out double ended 1000's because everyones going nuts over them. The new gavita 600/750 flex looks interesting.
Lets see if theres any big warehouse guys out there that have 100 600's and wanna tell us about it!
I'm super curious about what moredankbuds said about cultivation not having many economies of scale and bigger grow ops don't save much more time. Think this will keep the market dominated more towards smaller scale growers? Like under 200 lights?
I'm also curious about the often heard saying that managing a grow over 50 lights is way different than a basement or smaller grow. It is repeated often enough to not make me question the wisdom, I'm just wondering what happens in a large grow that makes it so much more difficult.
Great thread, lots of good advice out there!
 
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toquer

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As the grow gets larger so does the potential for things to get messed up. An unchecked bug problem can be cataclysmic and fixing a problem can be costly on a massive scale. The maintenance on that size and the time in a day run very close to each other. More plants equals more work. Limited resources be it people, money, time, force quality controls to come down.
Every opp should have scheduled down time and a maintenance cycle outside of growing. We do so much for ourselves because of the industry. Just my thoughts this evening.
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Living dead girl
23,596
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600 vs. 1000 is a fun discussion to get into with people. It's a pretty polarizing argument. I made the switch a year or two ago to all 600's, but my rooms aren't more than 15 lights with 9' ceilings. It seems like most alot of guys running 50 plus lights have 1000's, but I've heard of plenty guys with 50 1000's switching them out for 600's. I think 600's are bigger in europe? I like the quality I get from 600's more. It's a bigger upfront cost, plus you're replacing way more bulbs every year.
I'm testing out double ended 1000's because everyones going nuts over them. The new gavita 600/750 flex looks interesting.
Lets see if theres any big warehouse guys out there that have 100 600's and wanna tell us about it!
I'm super curious about what moredankbuds said about cultivation not having many economies of scale and bigger grow ops don't save much more time. Think this will keep the market dominated more towards smaller scale growers? Like under 200 lights?
I'm also curious about the often heard saying that managing a grow over 50 lights is way different than a basement or smaller grow. It is repeated often enough to not make me question the wisdom, I'm just wondering what happens in a large grow that makes it so much more difficult.
Great thread, lots of good advice out there!
In my experience scaling up outdoors, it's the scaling that becomes an issue. EG, mixing fertilizers. It's one thing to mix up a batch of feed in a 5gal bucket, it becomes a different proposition when you've got to shift that to a 55gal barrel. The numbers are what you've got to get a handle on, and that can change how you approach the husbandry.
 
T

toquer

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As the grow gets larger so does the potential for things to get messed up. An unchecked bug problem can be cataclysmic and fixing a problem can be costly on a massive scale. The maintenance on that size and the time in a day run very close to each other. More plants equals more work. Limited resources be it people, money, time, force quality controls to come down.
Every opp should have scheduled down time and a maintenance cycle outside of growing. We do so much for ourselves because of the industry. Just my thoughts this evening.
So as I'm working this morning... On my small 16 light flower room that runs perpetually which I hand feed... Half of the plants daily, half of those compost tea which brew perpetually, the other half I've got to mix 10 gallons of nutes. Checking each plant as it's watered half its portion at a time. The other 72 get checked by the partner. Those plants get fed tomorrow while he checks the ones fed today. A solid routine for 150 girls in flower. Daily attention.
If we wanted to scale, it'd be adding another two trays in each quadrant. Thus doubling our operation. Nothing got easier our workload doubled. Plus we've got twice the equipment to maintain. And if I'm short on time for today and say to myself, that can wait until tomorrow, tomorrow has its scheduled routine and that's time consuming. It's this that causes the major failure as you scale. Everything is mission critical. 3 to 4 months for a cycle and failure can read her ugly head at any instance. Tomorrow is not part of a growers vocabulary as you scale.
 
Capulator

Capulator

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So as I'm working this morning... On my small 16 light flower room that runs perpetually which I hand feed... Half of the plants daily, half of those compost tea which brew perpetually, the other half I've got to mix 10 gallons of nutes. Checking each plant as it's watered half its portion at a time. The other 72 get checked by the partner. Those plants get fed tomorrow while he checks the ones fed today. A solid routine for 150 girls in flower. Daily attention.
If we wanted to scale, it'd be adding another two trays in each quadrant. Thus doubling our operation. Nothing got easier our workload doubled. Plus we've got twice the equipment to maintain. And if I'm short on time for today and say to myself, that can wait until tomorrow, tomorrow has its scheduled routine and that's time consuming. It's this that causes the major failure as you scale. Everything is mission critical. 3 to 4 months for a cycle and failure can read her ugly head at any instance. Tomorrow is not part of a growers vocabulary as you scale.

There is no "tomorrow".... that lazy man has the most work.

I'll trellis that tomorrow...
I'll spray tomorrow...
I'll water them tomorrow...

yeah right.

Hey toquer one bit of advice for you is to automate your watering if you can. Plants love that shit and it will free up many hours a week.
 
purpleberry

purpleberry

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IF I was going to scale up to 100 lights, Id break it up into 4 25k rooms. It eliminates a lot of the problems, spreads the work out, isolates problems Can even run flips and use less amps. And would be the same as running a small room, just 4 times the work. lol Even if I was going to run 500k lights, Id break it into smaller rooms. 200amp setup for each room. Of course this would be in a legal environment since the cost to build would be huge compared to a large open space. But the advantages would be worth it.
 
T

toquer

460
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IF I was going to scale up to 100 lights, Id break it up into 4 25k rooms. It eliminates a lot of the problems, spreads the work out, isolates problems Can even run flips and use less amps. And would be the same as running a small room, just 4 times the work. lol Even if I was going to run 500k lights, Id break it into smaller rooms. 200amp setup for each room. Of course this would be in a legal environment since the cost to build would be huge compared to a large open space. But the advantages would be worth it.
So you say 4 times the work. With 24 usable hours in a day... I'm an insomniac, how many hours a day? I do four hours a day and don't have time for 4 more hours workload and as Cap said that lazy man tomorrow has a ton to catch up on. Realistically how big can a two man operation get?
Add staff? I've had my share of wonderful employees. I'm working on a new place now... Need a grower. Thinking of importing one from Europe. 18 years old and locking him in the warehouse.
Great thoughts from everybody on this thread.
 
purpleberry

purpleberry

633
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Its all about having a system that works for you, and making it as easy as possible. If it takes you and another guy that much work to do 16k you need to change things up make it simple. Ill give you what all my labor on 16K setup would be.
Plant babies and water 2 guys 4 hours 15g pots 4 per 1K Would be 64 plants and 1 pallet of soil
Water every other day once established, takes me about 45 min to mix the tank, check equipment, and hand water with big ass pump and hose 8 seconds a plant
Cage each plant 2 guys 4 hours
Trim up small branches under the cages 2 guys 4hours
That's about all I do. Rooms set up perfect, Equipment is almost never a problem, Fertilizer is dialed, Run 1 cut in the whole room.
Takes another 4 hours 2 guys to cut and hang the plants whole. The trimmer can handle it after that and I do it all over again. Theres a little more time here and there for this or that. But overall I don't put much time in, at all and I can pull 2 per 1K everytime. Having your room set up right is one of the most important things.
Running perpetual causes a lot of issues, Like having to check every plant and mix different tanks ect. Everyday. Doing it all the same could cut your watering labor down big time.
 
C

crocodile og

296
63
Ever thought of going the generator route? Then you can be on a ranch and not have to worry about power upgrades.

I can't offer any experience but thought it was worth throwing it out there.
 
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