Low budget CBG operation in upper Midwest.

C

CBGgrower

New Member
Hi there,
So I’m in a weird situation. I’m a pretty experienced small op grower who got hired for a startup company that is going to focus on CBG flower production. Our start up money is about $175,000, and the location they chose will be about $72,000 in rent per year. They are already licensed, and we can grow any number of plants we want. Also there is a separate account for employee payment, so don’t consider that either. That gives me about $100,000 to come up with the best grow operation i can. We have 18,000 sq ft total of useable indoor grow space, with 13 ft ceilings. I’m just looking for some starting ideas. I think the best way to go about it is to focus on short term profit so we can quickly upgrade to a better operation that could survive long term. Do you guys think I could even afford a hydroponic operation? Or should I start soil? I live in a very cold climate, and it only gets hot for about 2 months of the year, and that’s only like 100 degrees F occasionally. I’m looking for any ideas on what path I should take to make the company better off in the long run. I’m pretty good at making my own equipment wherever possible, and my bosses were engineers who would be really good too, so I want to do homemade whenever possible to save money. Thanks in advance!

PS: I’m aware that this is a low budget, and I’m not experienced in designing/doing this large of scale. They told me to just do my best with what we have. I’m not sure it’ll work but this is my best chance at getting a grower job right now so I’m going to put my full effort into it. Please save the negative comments of “oh you can’t do it” and “it’s not worth it.” It’s not my risk, it’s not my idea, I just want to give them the best shot of succeeding I can.
 
thenasty1

thenasty1

Well-Known Member
18k square feet is a tall order for 100k. best advice i can give is to build out 1/4-1/3 of that space with that budget and build out the rest of the facility bit by bit as you go, and even that is going to be tough. youll want to diy as much as possible. look for second hand gear and inspect it thoroughly before buying/putting it into service. run a simple hydro system with little to no medium, the nickel and dime of soil or coco or whatever is going to add up. run dry nutes (jacks, master blend, etc). i would go with de lights- yes they are more expensive up front, but nothing outdoes them on yield and you are going to need that yield. also, if you are in a colder climate and have highish ceilings, de lights probably wont hurt quite as much to cool until the warm season. led is also a viable option, but my experience with them is minimal and i cant be of much help in that department aside from telling you to diy them. shop around or call on friends when looking for contractors. hvac, electrical, and plumbing (and even just general labor) can all rake you over the coals if you just call a random number from the phone book. another thing to note is the volatility of minor cannabinoid prices. cbg is already way lower than it was just a few months ago, and everyone and their mom is going to be cranking out cbg this year. if your product does turn out to be high quality, you may be able to sell it as flower (apparently people sell "hemp" bud online legally for pretty absurd prices, particularly nicer looking indoor), but even in a best case scenario, you will have to process at least some of it. worst case, it will all have to be processed before it can be marketed. im assuming you wont have in house processing, and that also costs money. many processors will take their cut out of the finished product, but you are still looking at giving up a percentage of your yield right off the rip. not to mention paying for trimmers. you are going to be running extremely tight for at very least 4-5 months, more likely the first year or so. im not trying to discourage you or anything, but i think you should know what you are getting yourself into, particularly if you are going to be held responsible for the results. this is a tough game to get into right now, even with an appropriate build budget. you need to look at your own cultivation skill as well- are you prepared for the inevitable hiccups? can you diagnose and troubleshoot issues effectively and efficiently? have you dialed in a room before this and had it running smoothly for an extended period of time? is your pest/pathogen management game on point? if the answer to any of these questions is no, i suggest hitting the books (see: forums, books, videos, consulting with other cultivators, anything you can get your hands on) extra hard starting immediately. continue researching large scale build outs as well. all this stuff i just wrote out is only the tip of the iceberg. good luck
 
C

CBGgrower

New Member
thenasty1 said:
18k square feet is a tall order for 100k. best advice i can give is to build out 1/4-1/3 of that space with that budget and build out the rest of the facility bit by bit as you go, and even that is going to be tough. youll want to diy as much as possible. look for second hand gear and inspect it thoroughly before buying/putting it into service. run a simple hydro system with little to no medium, the nickel and dime of soil or coco or whatever is going to add up. run dry nutes (jacks, master blend, etc). i would go with de lights- yes they are more expensive up front, but nothing outdoes them on yield and you are going to need that yield. also, if you are in a colder climate and have highish ceilings, de lights probably wont hurt quite as much to cool until the warm season. led is also a viable option, but my experience with them is minimal and i cant be of much help in that department aside from telling you to diy them. shop around or call on friends when looking for contractors. hvac, electrical, and plumbing (and even just general labor) can all rake you over the coals if you just call a random number from the phone book. another thing to note is the volatility of minor cannabinoid prices. cbg is already way lower than it was just a few months ago, and everyone and their mom is going to be cranking out cbg this year. if your product does turn out to be high quality, you may be able to sell it as flower (apparently people sell "hemp" bud online legally for pretty absurd prices, particularly nicer looking indoor), but even in a best case scenario, you will have to process at least some of it. worst case, it will all have to be processed before it can be marketed. im assuming you wont have in house processing, and that also costs money. many processors will take their cut out of the finished product, but you are still looking at giving up a percentage of your yield right off the rip. not to mention paying for trimmers. you are going to be running extremely tight for at very least 4-5 months, more likely the first year or so. im not trying to discourage you or anything, but i think you should know what you are getting yourself into, particularly if you are going to be held responsible for the results. this is a tough game to get into right now, even with an appropriate build budget. you need to look at your own cultivation skill as well- are you prepared for the inevitable hiccups? can you diagnose and troubleshoot issues effectively and efficiently? have you dialed in a room before this and had it running smoothly for an extended period of time? is your pest/pathogen management game on point? if the answer to any of these questions is no, i suggest hitting the books (see: forums, books, videos, consulting with other cultivators, anything you can get your hands on) extra hard starting immediately. continue researching large scale build outs as well. all this stuff i just wrote out is only the tip of the iceberg. good luck
Click to expand...
Thanks for all the info! I was planning on just using a quarter of the space for now, I just wanted to give the total sq ft so people would know how much I could expand in the future. I’m confident in my grow skills, but I am still going to be hitting the books CONSTANTLY because obviously even one issue could throw us out of business. I am very good with DIY set up, and my boss knows quite a bit too, so we are planning on doing as much DIY as possible. We also have good connections for HVAC techs, electricians, etc, so we’ll be able to save a lot that way.

What hydro system would you recommend? Do you think I should do a lot of plants at short veg cycles, or low # of plants at long veg cycles?
 
C

CBGgrower

New Member
Oh and I should note that we already have quite a few people buying from us, we are currently middle-manning from an operation in Washington. Once we get our own crop going we are going to sell our product to our current customers
 
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