http://www.cracked.com/article_19609_5-horrible-things-nobody-tells-you-about-legally-growing-pot_p1.html I realize that some of us are illegally growing pot here, but what about the rest of the article? The person who wrote this makes it seem like growing is sooo hard and expensive. I am about to start my first grow and only plan to spend a few hundred dollars for a setup. Is it really as hard and expensive as this article claims? Did you find that when you followed the advice of others, that your grows went smoothly with a great yield?
I've never had a bad harvest but I also read a lot before I even started..I did nute burn my first plants but they still turned out good..I found good genetics are everything if you do have some mishaps..get a few cheap feminized seeds from a good breeder and it's not that hard As for cost a decent setup can run round 500 bucks but you can get cheaper depending what you need which pays itself off first run anyway...This forum has everything you need to learn and it's not hard just a bit of a learning curve
Growing is actually pretty damn easy if you have basic skills and a rudimentary knowledge of science in general. As far as cost, it depends on how much you want to grow. Obviously there is a difference in a small personal grow versus using an entire house. I would recommend buying good equipment the first time, it cost to upgrade items that are sub par. However the returns are amazing compared to buying weed. Say you spend 1k on a setup with a 1000w lamp and all the other items. In three months of a successful grow you can easily harvest 1lb. So your looking at less than 100per oz, that's cheaper than Colorado mmj prices. One good grow will more than pay for all your equipment. After that, all you have to buy is your medium, new bulbs every six months, and nutrients. Then your cost goes way down. My last harvest cost me roughly $10 per oz including electricity used. Once you learn to grow, it isn't much work either. If your setup is good, all you have to really do is water and feed. Hydro is a bit different, but just as easy once you get it dialed in. People act like growing weed is hard, but its really pretty simple.
That article is talking about how to run a huge grow op that makes tons of money. Of course that is way harder than growing 5-6 plants (or even 20-30) in a closet. It just takes time to care for all the those plants. But if you love growing it will be fun so it doesn't matter.
In my admittedly limited experience, once you find out what this plant wants and give it, you can't stop it from growing. Believe me, I've tried.