Low budget indoor grow

Growing cannabis indoors, is usually understood by many as something expensive, that requires of high investment to get a nice crop. This believe, together with others like difficulty of growing indoors usually turns into users declining the investment, and keep accessing black market. In this chapter we will talk about existing options to set up a marihuana growth indoors for a low budget. in this post we will detail what in our opinion is most important when a grower starts his first indoor operation, and what it's best to invest in to don't waste a penny.

Low budget first indoor grow

Every single grower has a first time growing. Today we will try to give a brief explanation about basic steps when planing our first indoor operation, to succeed in our will.

The basics of a plant to survive are light, substrate and water. If we pretend getting good results in our first indoor operation it is recommended to don't safe money in any of these concepts, as those are the main pillars for a proper developement of our plants.

Priorities when investing in cannabis growing

One of the more tipical cases in-between growers with low budget is investing most of it in well-known seeds (an usually expensiver), neglecting with it many factors, specially those that could help creating a better growing enviroment. Our thoughts are these: We could have the best genetics in market, if we don't give plants the best enviroment possible, we won't get the best performance from them. So what's the meaning of all this? It is better to invest in tools that guarantee better conditions for our plants, to get the most from every single strain we grow. In practice this means that from our point of view it is better to invest our budget in elements like extractors, substrate, etc. lowering the amount dedicated to seeds or fertilizers, so no matter the strain grown, we will be able to get the most of it. Another example we can give is growing in a room: If we pretend to set up one fixture, and we are deciding if setting it directly in a room or buying a growtent, the difference in budget is clear. To everything we'll need to grow in a room, we must add the cost of the growtent. If we don't use the growtent, we can safe that money and invest in in other parameters needed for growing.

Shopping list with low budget indoor grow in mind

The first we should create is a shopping list of needed products, and then detailing the importance of each one, to give different options to get a good match quality/price. These is what we need for our first low budget indoor grow operation:

Ballast
Lamp
Reflector
Extractor
Odor filter
Ducting
pH meter
Pots
Substrate
Timers
Fertilizers
Seeds

Today we won't explain the difference between different fixtures, we will only say that if we are looking for something that gives good results for the lowest price possible, the ideal would be to get an HPS 600w kit, with mixed-spectrum lamp, and a basic reflector, type Kit Vanguard 600w. This will allow us to safe some money in something we can improve with the pass of time and growing cycles (when the high investment is done and the only thing needed to change are those elements we are willing to upgrade).

About fan and carbon filter the best solution is to buy a tubular extractor that guarantees 280-300 m3/h, and an odor filter with the same diameter and slightly superior capacity than the extractor (350-400 m3/h). It has to be oversized (in volume capacity) or otherwise we will suffer from smell escaping from the room.

Independent from the number of plants used (and so for the amount of pots) a good choice for the substrate is a Lightmix type, as it is a good quality soil, prefertilized for 15-20 days, for a lower price compared with other ones more prefertilized.

Another important detail is pH meter. As we are talking about a low budget grow operation, probably the best choice is getting one of those cheap pH meters that use few drops of a liquid to change the color of the water so we know more or less the ph of it.

Referring to timers, our recommendation is to buy two of them. One Legrand to control the switching ON/OFF of the light, and another one (cheaper) to control fans and extractors.

Referring fertilizers, we want to be clear about this: What we must have when we grow is a grow fertilizer and a bloom fertilizer. Once we have both, if our low budget allows us, it is recommended to also get a root booster and a bloom booster, that will help improving the result and the yields.

About seeds: It is not worth it to buy the most expensive seeds in market if we don't have the skills nor the tools to give them the best care. In our shops we usually explain that there are hundreds of strains available that, by many factors, have a lower price so they are more suitable for low budget growers. Some of these strains are not only good, they have been awarded with multiple prizes, what gives us an idea of the quality. It is interesting then to chosee cheap feminized seeds, instead of wasting money in expensive genetics that will decrease our budget in other compounds.

Improve the initial purchase if your budget allows you

Reverse Osmosis Filter

Digital pH and EC meters

Climate controller

High quality reflector

Digital ballast

More efficient fixtures

We have listed in the first place the RO filter because in our opinion high quality water is one of the essential elements when cannabis growing (specially indoors). It is not rare then that plants watered within RO water, nutrients and boosters, will become healthier, stronger and deliver higher yields. As an anecdote, after more than 15 years advising growers how to grow cannabis, we detected that giving two different growers the same tools and seeds, with the only difference of an RO Filter the difference in yields can be up to 100g per light (within 1sqm growtent and a 600w fixture). To this increase of yields we should add the improvement of quality in flowers, also derived from the water quality improvement.

Following with our improvement list, having a digital pH meter and EC meter will also help much. Mainly what we will be buying is accuracy when pH reading (compared with the cheap liquid drops), in addition to know if we are giving our plants a too high or too low dose of nutrients. All brands of nutrients give recommendations for dosing their nutrients. Even though it will be always better to manually check our ppm levels, as we've never seen a brand apologizing for a dose that killed our plants...

The next point is the climate controller. Temperature and humidity of an indoor operation is a key factor. Same way a high temperature can derive in pests, and a low temperature could harm plants, it happens the same with humidity. The reality is that with a little of ingenuity and a timer we can safe this element for a while programing the ON/OFF of extractors, but in long-term having a climate controller is a warranty for our plants to always stay on perfect temperature and humidity conditions automatically (getting rid of headaches, effords and time).

The three following points quoted (reflector, ballast and fixture) go by hand, as those all try to be more efficient in light use so improving yields using the same amount of light (that obviously the electric company will charge us for). So the efficiency in light-use is basic to reduce our cost per cycle. Let's go step by step:

Reflector: As we already said, if we begin our operation with a basic 600w HPS kit with its stucco reflector, the investment in a higher quality reflector should be something we must do sooner than later. A stucco reflector usually has a reflextivity of about 6-10%. This means that if a lamp emits light 360º, half of the light emited will go straigh down, and from the other half only a 10% will be directed back to plants (from the 100% of light used, or 600w, we are only taking profit of about a 55%, or 330w). This situation changes dramatically if with replace that basic reflector for a professional one with a reflectivity of 95-95% type: Azerwing or Adjust-A-Wings. With these reflectivity numbers in hand it is not rare to notice a huge yield increase (due the higher efficiency in light use).

Digital ballast: Traditional copper ballasts (or in some cases aluminium), have inside a coil of these materials. These coils execute a resitance, so when a fixture is sold as a 600w, it means the lamp will receive 600w to boot the light on, not that it consumes 600w. In these type of ballasts, what is normal is a consumption of 1,2-1,3 times superior to 600w (what could be about 720-780w). It is not rare then that if we replace our conventional ballast for a digital one, with more modern technology, our light consumption will drop between a 20%-30%. To this consumption decrease, we can also add another feature of digital ballasts: these technology gets higher lumens per watt ratio (larger yields), and produce less heat (what also derives in lower temperatures inside the growroom).

The concept of more efficient fixture refers to new technologies appeared that improve performance of HPS technology, for the same or less consumption. In this case CMH fixtures, or LED lamps. While LEC fixtures guarantee a yield improvement for the same electrical consumption, LED lights in addition improve another key aspect as it is heat (producing way less heat than CMH fixtures, and of course than HPS).

Buying complete sets or purchasing separately

This point may cause some of you to don't agree, but from our point of view, it will always be cheaper to buy everything together in one place, that walking around trying to buy the cheapest from each store. The main reason is that there are growing kits that give you everything needed for cannabis growing with a discount for buying the complete set. To this you should add the time and gas used to go to each store. Another interesting point is always check the offer section, where we upload products every week.

We hope this post to help guiding all those who are preparing their first cannabis grow with low budget. If you think this text has been interesting please push that Like to help creating new useful posts. If you still have any question or doubt we could solve do not hesitate to send us your questions.

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