You may have heard about how costly it is to grow weed at home. This is why most people who use cannabis for recreation or medication simply buy their supplies from a dispensary. But for most people who want to grow their weed and want to explore new ways to make good quality cannabis, they say that you don’t really need to pay so much to do so.
If you came here for information about the cheapest indoor grow set up, then you won’t be disappointed. We have a few recommended affordable growing setups for growing weed at home. These are complete sets with all the things you need to start growing weed right away.
We also have some of the best, highly-recommended growing equipment. These are affordable, easy to use, and perfect for people who are new to growing weed. All these prove that you don’t have to spend a fortune to grow the best-tasting weed at home.
Can Cannabis Grow in Any Growing Setup?
Cannabis plants are very hardy plants. These can grow in almost all environments, from rugged deserts to very cold regions of the planet. Somehow, cannabis plants were able to survive. Some plants adapted by reducing flowering times while some grow sparse leaves and stems so that all their energies are used to cultivate large and dense buds.
If you’re skeptical about growing weed in a cheap setup, don’t worry. Many have done this before and have achieved good results. There are also first-time marijuana growers who have managed to grow medicinal cannabis using a cheap setup. We recommend using a simple weed growing setup if you’re new to growing cannabis so you can better monitor your plants.
And to get you started, here are some important things you need to consider when planning your cheap indoor setup.
What Your Cheapest Indoor Grow Set Up Needs
Since we’re talking about affordable, cheap setups, the following should be considered:
Affordable Growing Room or Space
Before we head off to the different growing equipment that cannabis growers need to cultivate weed, let’s first check out an easy alternative called a grow box.
A grow box is a small tight space where you can secretly grow weed. A grow box comes in different sizes with some measuring 48″ x 48″ x 80″ which can accommodate two, three plants with some only about 24″ x 24″ x 48″ which can hold only two plants.
What’s great about grow boxes is for $500 to $1000, you can have a complete setup ready for cannabis growing. Aside from the grow tent or grow cabinet structure, you also get pots, soil, lights, fans, gauges, and reflective material. All you need to do is to buy seeds or clones, and you’re ready to grow weed.
If you think that this is too expensive, you can settle for just the grow tent, which costs around $60 to $100 and buy all the equipment or recycle growing equipment instead.
To give you an overview of some of the most affordable indoor growing setups, here are some good ones to consider:
The Ohuhu grow tent is durable, very easy to use and assemble plus is constructed from 600D Oxford material. To keep your plants secure, durable zippers made of strong metal plus double-stitched tents are also in place.
This is a good grow tent because the material is tear-proof, waterproof, and will keep unwanted grow odors out. The size is 48″ x 48″ x 80″ and there’s another larger version with a 60″ x 60″ x 80″ dimensions. Inside the tent is 98% Mylar that keeps light and heat inside the tent.
Assembly is easy with very sturdy frames that keep the tent in place. It comes with labeled parts, so you won’t spend too much time in assembly. To keep the tent steady are rubber feet. And of course, all the provisions and opening for growing equipment are included.
You’ll find ducts, supports, ballasts, and openings for your ventilation, lighting, carbon filters, ducting hoses, and reflectors are available. It is ready for growing weed in hydroponics set up but also for growing weed in soil.
This is another growing tent ONLY, an affordable option that comes with metal poles as well as connectors for extra durability. You don’t even need to use tools to assemble this tent.
The material used as a tent is a 600D canvas cover with a handy observation window that will help you monitor your plants inside the tent—no need to open the door, which will only affect your balanced system. The cover is non-toxic, will never tear, and is double-stitched for durability. Inside is a Mylar lining that reflects light 100% back to your plants.
Finally, this tent comes with handles so you can grip it firmly and hold it safely if you want to transfer your growing tent someplace else. You also get a special tool pocket inside the tent where you can securely keep your tools and other growing needs. Ventilation socks and electrical openings are also available for power cords to pass through with ease.
And to give you more value for your money, you also get a 30-day money-back guarantee plus a 20-month manufacturer’s warranty for this indoor grow tent.
3. LAGarden Hydroponics Indoor Grow Tent
For less than $120, you’ll have this indoor growing tent that’s made from very durable 100% powerful reflective Diamond-Mylar fabric. It is not just for growing cannabis because you can also grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, and other exotic plants.
The tent material is made from top quality strong 210D oxford cloth that’s lightproof and secure. You can grow your plants in secret with its efficient door and very strong zipper. You can also check on your plants with vents and windows. The tent is held with very strong metal frames; these are so strong that this can take around 88 to 176 pounds.
This tent is purposely for cannabis plants. It comes with parts and provisions to hold lights and fans. It can accommodate lamps from 400W to 600W growing lights as well as stronger T5 lights to cultivate plants. It also has a lot of space for three or more small plants as well as other vital growing equipment.
4. Hellogrower Stealth Grow Box
Hellogrower Stealth Grow Box is an indoor grow set that will work with soil and hydroponics growing. This comes with all the necessary equipment you need for basic marijuana growing. It comes with a 150W LED lamp, which is a powerful lighting system for a few plants. This LED lamp consumes only a small amount of power and gives off very low temperatures. Inside is 100%-reflective Mylar that will easily reflect light to your plants.
This grow tent measures only 30″ x 15″ x 15″ and can accommodate two plants using deep-water culture hydro method. You also get other growing accessories and equipment like a bubble tub kit, 1.5- gallon tub, lids, net pots, Rockwool plugs, plastic tubing, air pumps, T connector, air stones, and hydro stone.
You will have all the things you need to start growing weed; all you need to buy are Cannabis Seeds.
5. Cash Crop 5.0 LED Hydroponics Grow Box
Cash Crop 5.0 is a grow box perfect for hydroponics growing. It is a good option for people who have a limited budget. For less than $800, you will get basic growing equipment such as filters, fans, lights, nutrients, and pots. All you need to add are seeds.
Cash Crop 5.0 is easy to setup. If you need help, you can always contact their unlimited tech support by phone. This is a spacious hydroponics box that can grow up to 6 plants. You can choose a smaller version if you only have a small number of plants.
Anything Complete Below $100?
A very steep budget? Not a problem! You can grow cannabis with just the basics:
- 3-gallon containers at $4
- A bag of organic potting soil mix at $7
- CFL lamp with 125 watts at $60
- A small fan at $30
- An old cabinet (but clean!) with tin foil interiors
But the thing is, you reap what you sow with cannabis. With this cheap setup, you will only produce a meager amount of weed. But if you prefer to grow more, to produce larger and denser buds teeming with good yields, then you may need to pay more.
Growing Room Needs
You can grow weed using the basic equipment, but we recommend you complete your setup so you’ll grow more. Indoor growing can be effective and can give you high yields as long as you can control everything in your growing area.
Indoor growing will let you decide the humidity, lighting, ventilation, and the nutrients you give your plants. You can decide the exact amount of these factors according to what your plants need. With the cheapest indoor grow set up, you can evade external factors that can affect your success. This may be more expensive than outdoor growing, but many say it’s worth it.
- All growing rooms must be lightproof – the room must be able to preserve light and should reflect light to your plants. Also, your growing room should prevent outdoor light from seeping through since you need a completely dark room to stimulate the flowering of regular plants. If you overlook this lighting schedule, your plants can revert to the vegetative stage and delay flowering and harvest time. You don’t necessarily have to pay so much for a lightproof room. As long as the room or cabinet is well-covered, then you won’t have any problems
- All growing rooms should be airtight – some marijuana strains emit a very powerful odor, which can be a problem if you’re trying to hide your plants. As much as possible, the growing room, tent, or cabinet must have very tight doors to prevent the escape of these odors. Also, the only air escaping your growing area must be passing a carbon filter. As with maintaining a lightproof environment, you don’t need to spend too much money on keeping your growing area airtight. Just secure all the growing room walls, windows, and doors.
- A good growing room must have an efficient air extractor system – this allows hot and humid air to escape the growing area. If this is overlooked, your plants will eventually wilt and die. A pair of fans, one fan for the outtake, and one for intake should do the trick for small growing rooms or tents, and these are not as expensive at all. But for larger growing areas, larger and more powerful fans and exhaust systems may need to be used.
- A good growing room must be able to take in the fresh air – marijuana plants should have constant fresh carbon dioxide to create oxygen as well as sugars. 350 ppm of carbon dioxide can be used up easily, especially when you’re plants are inside a very small growing facility. Therefore, aside from having a proper air extraction system, you also need to have an efficient air delivery system to support your plants. And this does not have to be an expensive system. You can make it as simple as possible, made only from recycled or reused materials.
- A good growing room must have efficient heating, especially at night – if the lights are on, then there is a significant amount of heat inside the growing area. But when the lights are off, you need to consider adding heat to avoid freezing your plants. Again, this does not have to cost a lot. You 0can use affordable equipment or, better yet, use regular heating equipment in your homes like a heating pad or a lamp.
- A good indoor growing room should have an efficient air distribution system – aside from a system that takes fresh air in and removing stale or used air out, you must have an air distribution system that will move air inside the growing area. Take note that you need this to enhance CO2 distribution and to provide consistent temperatures. Now, this does not have to cost a lot of money, even a simple desk or wall fan will do.
- A good indoor growing area should have a waterproof floor – water can easily accumulate on the floor as you water your plants; therefore, the floor should be waterproof. It’s also a practice to spray water on the floor and walls to improve humidity, and thus, a waterproof floor is essential.
- A good indoor growing area must have efficient reflective walls – you can use simple, everyday household items to reflect light to your plants. This is important as you want to maximize every kilowatt of light you spend on your plants. Growers line the interior wall of their growing area with foil, Mylar sheets, glossy white paint, paper, or white linen. Again, reflective material does not have to be expensive. You can use regular items instead.
Cheap Grow Rooms, Tents or Cabinets
You have had the chance to check out a few of the most popular and affordable, grow tents and cabinets in the market earlier. If you think that these are still too expensive, we still have a few alternatives for you.
Considering the previous guide on what a proper indoor growing set up should be, we came up with a few useful tips to create the cheapest setup. Consider the following:
- Transform an unused room in your home into a growing space – instead of buying a grow tent or grow cabinet; you can turn an extra room or space to grow cannabis. Just remember to clean and tidy up and to use cleaning materials and equipment.
- Use old furniture as growing cabinets – transform an old cabinet or armoire to a convenient growing space. No one will suspect that you’re growing weed when you hide you grow inside old furniture! And the best part of using furniture is the frame of your growing cabinet is secure; shelves may be present, and doors may be lockable for improved security.
- Use old home or office equipment as growing cabinets – use home equipment like old refrigerators, speakers, or ovens as makeshift growing cabinets. For office equipment, use old filing cabinets, lockers, pantry cabinets, and other hollow pieces of equipment as safe and secure growing areas for your weed.
- Make your own growing tent using simple and recycled equipment at home – if you don’t have old furniture or old equipment at home, you can use different items at home to construct a makeshift growing area. If you have pieces of wood or PVC tubing lying around, then you can construct a frame. Use a tarp as cover for your tent and voila, you have a growing tent! Make sure to secure everything with wire or screws. To make provisions for ducts and electric cords, cut just the right size opening.
- A space bucket anyone? – a space bucket is a large 5-gallon bucket that is converted to a mini growing area. Stack 4 or more space buckets, and you’ll have a tall space bucket to accommodate one or two plants. You can attach a lamp to the cover, while PVC fans can be attached to the bucket walls.
As you can see, you will hardly pay for any of these growing tents/cabinets. And of course, you’ll be doing Mother Nature a favor by reducing trash thrown in landfills.
Cheap Grow Lights
Light is life to plants, so the more light you provide, the better plants will grow. Also, consider the formula 1 watt of light = 1 gram of yield, so basically, it’s not a good idea to be stingy if you want to harvest more. There are many kinds of grow lights, but if you want cheap, you must consider the following factors
- Some lights/lamps are cheap to buy – CFL lamps are very cheap and are available almost anywhere. However, you need more CFL lamps to light to illuminate all the buds and all plant parts. This means you will still end up paying more for electric power consumed by several CFFL lamps. The same goes for HPS lamps, which are affordable and easy to purchase from a local hardware store. However, HPS lamps are the most powerful and consume more power. Thus, you’ll end up paying for more when you use this type of lamp.
- Some lights/lamps are cheap to use – LED lights are among the most expensive. However, you’ll save in the long run as these consume less power, will last longer, and are more efficient than CFL and HPS lamps.
- Some lights/lamps are cheap to set up – Lighting setups can also be expensive as you need to use safe and efficient lighting fixtures. You must ensure the safety of your lighting system; otherwise, you may end up with electrical problems. Consider safe electrical equipment and ask the help of a professional for electrical installations.
- Some lights/lamps are cheap to maintain – LED lamps may be more expensive than CFL and HPS but lasts longer than other lamps. Meanwhile, CFL lamps may burn faster than LEDs, but you can easily purchase replacement bulbs from any hardware or electrical shop.
Cheap Growing Accessories (pots, nets and other hydroponics equipment)
Instead of buying new growing accessories like pots, nets, tubing, and containers, you can reuse or recycle items in your home. Just make sure that whatever things you want to reuse for your plants, these need to be clean and microbe-free.
You can recycle clay or plastic pots, or you can reuse recyclable shopping bags as fabric bags. There’s no need to buy expensive hydroponics equipment too because you can recycle things you have at home.
Growing Without Expensive Nutrients and Supplements
Fertilizers and supplements are expensive, especially the popular ones. But do you really need these expensive products to grow cannabis? Experts say that as long as you start your plants in good quality, pH-balanced soil, you’ll have no problems. Here are more tips to avoid paying too much for fertilizers and supplements.
- Start with healthy soil. Have your soil tested to check for pH, the presence of nutrients that cannabis plants need like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus as well as any toxins present.
- Use homemade compost. Check out guides on how to make your own compost and apply this to your plants.
- Use sandy-clayey soil because this soil aerates better, will absorb and drain excess nutrients and water, and are best for cannabis plants overall.
- Plant non-finicky cannabis strains. Cannabis strains vary in many ways, and one of these is their ability to grow best in any environment. Some are okay with almost all types of soil and are forgiving with very little mistakes, while some are very finicky. Going with an easy strain reduces the need to deal with nutrient problems and other cannabis concerns.
Some Important Tips
The cheapest indoor cannabis growth set up is basically something that requires less maintenance. Consider the following tips:
- Grow only a few plants – it’s safe to say that when you grow only a few plants, you won’t have to spend a lot of money on plant food, electricity, pest control, and buying different supplies. The same goes for being the only one taking care of your plants. Don’t be too overwhelmed; grow the number of plants that you can afford to care for.
- Cultivate only a strain at a time – growing different strains means that you have to consider the needs of each one. Take note that every strain is unique, and you can end up being too overwhelmed. So, consider the strain you wish to grow or what is needed at the moment, such as a strain used as medicine rather than the strain that’s used for recreational purposes.
- Use autoflowering strains – automatic cannabis strains are those that won’t require a change in lighting schedule to flowerer. This is an easy growing strain that will flower on its own. Autoflowering cannabis also flowers quickly even as early as 7 to 9 weeks. With autoflowering strains, you’ll save time, money, and effort when you use this kind of strain.
- Reuse growing equipment and supplies – if you have other plants in your garden, you can reuse old pots and other growing equipment. Just make sure to clean these first and to disinfect them before you sow your plants in.
- Invest in heavy-duty equipment and supplies – buying high quality growing equipment like lighting, fans, air coolers, and humidifiers can be very expensive, but if you’re a serious grower and want to enhance your growing skills, then it would be best to invest in good equipment. Read reviews, ask for good quality equipment from expert growers, and compare equipment and tools. This way, you’ll get the best value and your money’s worth.
Conclusion
Yes, it’s possible to have the cheapest indoor grow set up, but consider all your growing needs and equipment before you settle with cheap items. Recycle and reuse equipment, growing areas, and growing tools. Always know your options so you will always get more value for your money.
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