Grow cannabis, at first look, may seem complicated, something that many will say you need such a big investment, space and effords. In this aspect, like in many others, SantYerbasi disagrees with those that try to trick users, looking for more profits, and from this post we will talk about how to grow your wee for the lowest price, and 100% organic.
Grow cannabis with low budget
Most growers interested in self growing usually think about savings of no needing to buy in the black market what they can produce at home, for a lower price, in addition to acquiring more control over what's consumed. At this point is where appears the first important detail: Is it expensive to grow cannabis? Is it possible to grow cannabis with a low budget? The answer to these questions is easy: Grow cannabis for self consumption is quite cheap, and it gets more expensive as more limits are exposed.
If our mission is to grow cannabis for the lowest price, you have to notice a very important thing: The cheapest way of growing cannabis is doing it outdoors, as sunlight has no cost (for the moment, even some parties try to tax it), and for the results gotten were yields per plant are way higher than indoors. These two parameters are very important, because with few plants (3-4 medium-sized) we can get our needings for the whole year covered.
Even many people tend to think that indoor grown cannabis has more quality than outdoor grown, in our opinion, cannabis plants grown outdoors (with good skills) has nothing to envy to indoor grown ones. Obviously some limits could happen (not having a grow space like a terrace, balcony or garden), what makes it impossible to grow outdoors (so we will be forced to grow it indoors), but whenever possible, our tip is to proceed to grow cannabis outdoors.
Needed products to grow cannabis
Obviously the first step to grow cannabis is get some seeds. Nowadays the price of a cannabis seed could range from 5€ to 20€, depending if we are purchasing them by units, in packs of 3, packs of 5 seeds... As the wide availability of seeds offers us strains for all likes and purposes, our tip is not saving money when choosing the seeds, as its price, compared with the performance we'll get from them makes derisory the little price differences. As an example we like to expose the experience of a customer we will call X, arriving to our store asking for seeds from the strain he likes most: Jack Herer. By many it is known that Jack Herer seeds are one of the expensivest seeds in market, what could make that a 3 feminized seedpack costs 60€. The answer from the customer to this price usually suggests that it's way too expensive, so he/she would like to find something cheaper. Our opinion regarding this is that there are hundreds of top shelf strains for a lower price, that probably will leave us satisfied but, if we know for sure that strain is the one we like, why not paying that extra cost for what we like instead of trying something new that maybe likes us or maybe not? I mean are the 40€ difference (compared with 3-seedpacks from other brands or strains) too much for something we sure know we like?
Equation: Seed cost VS Yields in grams per plant
Cost of Jack Herer feminized seeds: 20€/seed.
Expected yields: 300-600 grams per plant
Cost difference per seed, compared with cheaper ones: 15€/seed.
15€/300 grams: 0,05€ per gram, of increase for smoking our favourite strain (taking as a reference the minimum expected yields). If, instead of taking the lowest yields we supose we'll get the highest yields (so 600 grams per plants) the difference would be 0,025€/gram increase. Said this, many will understand that 0,05-0,025 €/g increase is such a ridiculous difference, so no need to go for the cheaper ones.
For those that even though, still go for a cheaper option, do not worry, there are plenty, and as we previously explained, the quality of a strain does not match its price (price may depend of many other factors), so there are hundreds of them that we will probably enjoy.
Following with the needed products to grow cannabis outdoors, once the seeds chosen, there are two key points: A good quality growing medium, a fertilizer for growing stage and a fertilizer for flowering stage.
Choosing the best soil for cannabis?
Substrate is very important, as it is the growing medium where plants will develope in, and within it plants will get what needed for a proper developement. This is way, no doubt, save budget in this point has no sense (purchasing low quality substrates). Our experience tells us there are many specialized brands producing soil for cannabis (with desired pH and EC levels for its healthiest developement), for a similar price, and even in some cases cheaper than soils sold in garden centers.
We understand as soil a mix of substrates (peat, coco, perlite,...) that gets a balance in which plants will develope better, faster and healthier. When deciding which substrate is more convenient for us it depends on some factors, being probably the most important how prefertilized it is. Substrates are usually categorized by heavy prefertilized, medium, prefertilized, and low prefertilized. As it properly describes this categorization, knowing how prefertilized a substrate is gives us an idea of how long will it take before plants demand adding nutrients.
Obviously a substrate contains a limited amount of nutrients, and therefore it is a must to use fertilizers to help plants achieve its best performance.
Understanding that it is impossible that a soil guarantees a full cycle without needing to be fed, the choose of one or another type of soil is directly associated with our budget (as those cheaper substrates are the ones that will demand earlier our action to add nutrients, while those more prefertilized, will give us more time before needing the same action).
Powdery nutrients brands
So it is clear then, that independently from how prefertilized a substrate is, what we should look for (when trying to save some dollars) is a quality substrate for the lowest price: Best option are low prefertilized soils.
Fertilizers soils
Low cost fertilizers for cannabis
As we already commented, what's important when trying to get high yields is our plants to enjoy its medium, with any lack. This situation, used by many brands to try selling growers dozens of products, the only thing that means is that the only must use products are a grow fertilizer and a bloom fertilizer, to guarantee all nutrients needed by plants for a full performance (the first one will keep our plants green and the second one will fill our flowers and enhance resin production).
When talking about a low cost cannabis growth, our tip is to only buy these two type of products, as boosters and stimulators will help, but are not essential.
In a previous article we discuss about best fertilizers for cannabis (from here we aim you to read it), in which we explained the different formats available of nutrients (liquids or powder, besides mineral or organic). Today, being or subject grow cannabis for the lowest cost, we aim you to use powdery nutrients, not only because its cost it's way cheaper, also because its ease of use, and for the low attentions needed, as grower will only need to top dress the susbtrate once every 10-15 days (unlike liquid fertilizers that will need to be prepared every time you water plants).
Being more explicit, our recommendation for a full cycle are two products: Worm castings and bat guano. Worm humus will source with humic acids needed for plants in vegetative stage while bat guano will source the needed phosphorus and potassium for a heavy flower production.
Growing autoflowering plants outdoors
Outdoor growing is not exclusive of photodependant strains. there is an increasing hype, of growers that see on autoflowering seeds the desired characteristics for their purposes. These type of strains can be grown all year long, and a a much quicker growth cycle, so growers can harvest more times per year (notice the yields per plant won't be as high as regular ones).
Talking about requirements, automatic seeds match the same needings than regular strains, with the only special feature its quick cycle, that conditions when choosing a proper pot. If due hour location, daylight hours, or because needing a quicker crop we choose these strains, from SantYerbasi we can almost guarantee the result will be satisfactory, specially if we choose some of the newest XL Autoflowering seeds (that can even triple the yields of the first generations of autoflowering strains).
For those that have never grown autoflowering seeds, we recommend you to read some post written in our blog, in which we explain how to get maximum performance from these special genetics. To summarize, we will tell you that these strains get their best performance when grown under longer daylight periods, so outdoors you will get its best yields when grown between May and July in Northern Hemisphere. These plants require less space, are they don't usually grow taller than 4-5 feet and less nutrients (its quicker life cycle and its compact size makes their nutrient needings much lower.
Conclusions low cost grown cannabis
As explained, if we grow outdoors, the costs of a cannabis grow is super low. If we have the space where to grow,we can get a crop for a whole year, for a budget not higher than 50€-100€ what, compared with the price, for a similar amount purchased in black market, is ridiculous. No doubt, those looking for a self growing, not only will get their flowers for an extremelly cheaper price, they probably will increase the quality of whats consumed.
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