Cash Flow analysis on Culture Solutions vs buying the dry constituents

MisterBlah

Well-Known Member
This analysis is here to show you the costs of buying Cultured Solutions vs using the dry constituents. That is, you will personally be making the UC Roots mixture, Veg A/B, etc.

To see the dry blends for all of Cultured Solutions, please visit my other thread: https://www.rollitup.org/t/reverse-engineering-everyones-nutrients.893906/

The spreadsheet attached represents a 100 gallon recirculating deep water culture system. This information can be extrapolated to smaller AND larger systems. So, if your's isn't the same size, just do some math. I made it based off 100 gallon systems for a reason. I'll have a more useful spreadsheet in the future so you can enter your own system size.

The top section has all the cost information.
Cultured solutions costs are based on buying their largest 275 gallon tanks. I know you guys don't buy that much, but I think you'll be surprised by what you'd save even if you do that. Regardless, if you're buying 1 gallon or 5 gallons, you'd just be saving a lot more.
The costs of the DIY dry mix, that is, the raw fertilizers you use to recreate the Cultured Solutions products are based on costs I've found from local fertilizer shops and I also include the costs of the containers and labor in mixing. There's no sense in telling yourself that you work for free.
Section 2 has the usage requirements.
Section 3 has the Cultured Solutions costs.
Section 4 has the DIY dry mix costs.
Section 5 has a direct week to week comparison of costs.
Section 6 is the NPV and year over year cash flows. The cash flow numbers represent 4x of everything. Based on a setup that has 3x the flowering lights as veg lights, so 4 total hydroponic systems, each one is 100 gallons.

For those that do not want to open the PDF, here's the highlights:
For the full 13 week growth period that CC's nutrient calculator shows, the cost of nutrients for a 100 gallon RDWC setup will be $164.17 if you buy from Cultured Solutions, and that's a minimum. It depends on you buying 275 gallons of nutrients from Current Culture.

If you mix your own, it will be $41.47. It can be a lot cheaper than $41.47 as well, as that depends on your cost of the dry blend. It won't be MORE than that. It will cheaper if you reuse containers, if you get 50lb bags from a local fertilizer company, etc.

I've included a $2000 price tag on the scales you will need to make this all happen as well. Two scales. I go into more detail in my Reverse Engineering thread that I linked above.


I'm working on other companies blends as we speak. So, look for those in the future.
 

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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
Did some more searching, I've found the right scales for a total of $700 at most. Not bad, I say.
You can do this with really cheap scales.. I have 2 scales I use for measuring out nutrients... A cheap 0.1g precision scale for measuring 5-250g and a cheap 0.001g precision scale for measuring 0-5g.

Both scales cost under 15 dollars and do a fine job at measuring salts. Total cost for scales is more like 40 bucks. You don't need good scales for DIY. Your plants really won't care if your recipe is off by a tiny bit.

This is the scale I use for measuring micros.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0159KDR9G
 

MisterBlah

Well-Known Member
You can do this with really cheap scales.. I have 2 scales I use for measuring out nutrients... A cheap 0.1g precision scale for measuring 5-250g and a cheap 0.001g precision scale for measuring 0-5g.

Both scales cost under 15 dollars and do a fine job at measuring salts. Total cost for scales is more like 40 bucks. You don't need good scales for DIY. Your plants really won't care if your recipe is off by a tiny bit.

This is the scale I use for measuring micros.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0159KDR9G

Thanks for posting. I never did find a cheap scale with 0.001g precision.
 
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