Growers relocating to the California market

[weed enjoyer]

Thanks for the replies everyone, KMK and Phoenix, thank you for your insight especially..

I come from a long line of successful entrepreneurs, ranging from my grandfather who owned and operated several NYC restaurants and bars, to my father and his brothers who are very successful in the insurance business, I have uncles who own car/limousine services, hotels, fast food franchises, etc. I feel as though it's in my blood to take risks and build good business. It gives me a sense of purpose and fulfillment, and I also have a genuine love for the plant and the culture.

Phoenix you're absolutely right about the fact that I will need to enlist the aid of employees/partners. I've seen things go sour with partnerships, but I am pretty much going halves on this with a friend that I grew up with in New York. I believe he has alot of the same qualities as I do, he's a smart guy and I can't think of anyone I'd rather have on board with me.

I'm planning on starting with maybe a 600-1000 square foot greenhouse, using coco as my medium. A hydroponics shop near me is having a huge clearance sale (the owner passed away unfortunately), and I plan on taking advantage of it. I have about 10k watts of good lighting I can use, I think this would be enough to get clones started to eventually fill a space like I described above.

I will be running cuts from my Sour D x OG Kush mother (outperformed everything in my greenhouse this year in terms of resin production, aroma, taste, and bag appeal, it even finished in the first week of october with super hard chunky resinous buds on a stout sturdy plant with absolutely no mold or bug problems). Other than that I will be running cuts from a Mr. Nice SSH mother, and my partner has just picked up a pack of Rez's Chemdog IBL, which we will select a mother from before we move west. We will also be running cuts from a local skunk strain that i've been growing since I was 15 years old.

I'm not sure if we will be renting or buying property yet, we have some time to arrange those things. I'm looking to make the move in January, Lord willing..

I believe it was Phoenix who said it might be a good idea to have a female on board... My girlfriend of about a year and a half will be joining me, this years outdoor is her first experience with growing, but she is learning alot.

Anyway, I'm very excited as in the last week, this plan has gone from speculations made while passing a blunt, to real plans for the near future. It looks like we are as ready as anyone can be in our situation, I woudlnt say "money is no object" but we've got the funds to do everything I want to do for the next season, and If everything fails, we will still be OK.

Thanks again, and I'm glad I sparked some interest and conversation! If anyone else has more input, please, I'm all ears.

 

[weed enjoyer]

... and SCF, and KMK, trust me I'm well aware of the hours that go into a commercial grow. I'm totally prepared for that, this will most likely be my biggest grow yet, but not by that much.

 

[stickey fingers]

best of luck to you weed enjoyer, my only advice would be is only produce top quality herb
there is to much competetion for ok crapy herb, if you cant produce 9.5 to 10 type of herb i would forget about it. Phoniex and others around here, know whats going on, you
just need to be able to do it. club or not there are to many wana be growers flooding the market with shit!!!!!! welcome to cali

SPECIAL THANKS, GP,REZ,OJD,
RIP DR JAY

 

[Phedrosbenny]

Ooops..somehow I posted in the wrong place.Sorry.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

i dont understand the point of moving to cali, paying high rent and high electricity bills, just to sell Ps for 2800. your margins will suck, but if your willing to sacrifice profits for "legality" than go ahead.

personally, im a cali grower/broker sick of cali. the rent and electricity rates out here suck balls...fucking .40cents a kilowatt during peak hours WTF!!!! i hear stories of people doing it big in med states like RI or Me and makes me wanna move out there. shit even washington and OR seems to be better....cheaper rent cheaper electricity and higher market prices...

plus if you are growing in rhode island you can always ship it down to boston or NY for max margins.....in cali if you wanna ship its super hot to do that.

and alot of club owners are lowballin dicks....be prepared to get pissed off and sell it to the streets instead. why would you sell your SourxOG for lowball when you can box it up and move it where it will go for 5k.

 

[Dark Star]

Weed Enjoyer: go for it brother! if anyone can do it, you can.

Yes4Prop215: i vote NO on RI & ME. the whole northeast feels like a police state to me. i would not want to hold weight anywhere near there, let alone grow.

Trillion: yeah, $30k to $80k, easily. right.


and a free FYI for non-cali folks:

point 1: everyone in CA already grows, nobody is waiting for prop19 to pass. you know how kids everywhere play baseball (or soccer)? that's what weed is like here. everyone does it. which is terrific, but also makes it very competitive. very. yeah, your friend's mom is growing in her laundry room under a couple lights, sweet. but the chick down the street has her place sewn up with 18 1k lights. and that's every neighborhood.

point 2: "everyone" wants to live in california. that makes the state a very competitive and challenging place to live in general. housing, food, and energy all cost a lot here. i know a lot of you don't want to believe me, fine. come on out, rent 'the party of five' house, and light it up.

 

[supermanlives]

dont do it. stay put . i wish i could move back

 

[Yes4Prop215]

yea not sure where you are from weed enjoyer...if you grew up in the south bronx or dense urban area cali might suit you. its extremely crowded and full of sprawl. i get sick of living here every day....the oakland bay area is congested as hell...just to go pay my electric bill today had to sit in traffic. LA shares the same characteristics too...

if you are from the beautiful NE than you would probably hate california....its just sprawl after walmart after sprawl after walmart...traffic choked freeways and streets, high cost of living, etc etc..

not to mention all the freakin young punk gangbangers out here...on one hand its good because their mischief causes the police to not care about growers...but on the other hand if any of these punks get the idea you are growing be prepared to defend shop...and with californias extremely strict gun laws forget about using the 2nd amendment like most free americans do.

if you move to california try to stay away from oakland or LA....go up north to the triangle or go to santa cruz or something....however since the biggest clubs are in oakland/LA you might be forced to enter the urban jungle and sacrifice quality of life for your dreams.....alot of people i know who i grew up with in the bay area are leaving...mostly due to high rent and to keep their overall sanity. most went up north to the triangle where its a little more peaceful and calmer...some went to montana, australia, etc. me personally, if i had to set up MMJ shop again...would chose Colorado, montana, or maine.

 

[guest4098]

I relocated to CA almost a year ago. I just didn't have the balls to go big where I was due to mandatory minimum sentences. Competition is fierce here. Go look on craigslist under mendocino and you may find as many ads from people looking for 215 friendly properties as you will find legitimate property ads themselves. You can make it here being a 100% legitimate medical grower but you have much competition and that lowers your pay. Want to increase your pay? You will have to do things that not as many people can do, like grow the dankest smoke, or take the risk to go out of state with it. There is a sense of safety in numbers here. You can go pretty damn big and still be a relatively little fish.

 

[DankSide]

From what I've learned, the Californians are all pretty fully booked. Many are already very established and turn a righteous profit.

My view is that California has seen the cannabis rush come and go, the best decision for growers (economically) is to set up in a state that is teetering on the brink of some form of legalization or decriminalization. Good to jump into an early state though because if you go to the last few states to legalize, I guarantee the others will already have established the turf.

 

[Dark Star]

And that is what Cali growers are doing. Moving. CO, ME ... 2 o f Maine's 4 MMJ licenses went to a berkeley group. We are exporting growers. Many LA a folks setup in CO now.

 

[herbwarts]

After my probation is over I'm moving!

 

[johnnyla]

the cali growers in maine got denied. they don't like carpetbaggers in maine.

 

[Dark Star]

the cali growers in maine got denied. they don't like carpetbaggers in maine.

Umm, not really. Rebecca Dekeuster et al. won 4 Maine permits - she is a berkeley patient group founder. I was wrong : the stat was 4 out of 6 permits went to Cali folk.

 

[Oliver Pantsoff]

You can make it in Cali If you're smart. Some people play the game better than others. If you have good people skills, and know how to grow a good product, then you can do your thing. Just gotta be smart...

OP

 

[gardenbug]

It's becoming more legal and accepted. The economy sucks. Because of that, this years outdoor harvest seems to be 10 times bigger than last years. It seems like everyone is growing now. Most of it is crap, but it also means they don't need to source their smoke from someone else. It also means all their friends get cheap smoke from them as well. Prop 19 passing could open the market up, but both in supply and demand. I would recommend checking out a different state that isn't so flooded. That being said, if you can put out grade A stuff you will probably be ok. Keep in mind east coast black market grade A might be different than what is considered grade A in the cali medical scene. Out of all the threads like this I've seen, you seem to have a better chance than most.

 

[river rat01]

what can you guys tell me about the joshua tree area?
there is no way i would consider a large CA city, but do you think a grower could make it in joshua tree?

 

[zenoonez]

Why do people complain so much about electricity? Can't you qualify for a commercial rate?

 

[medmaker420]

our state is for sure crowded with growers but like most thing, there is only about 1% who can actually grow an amazing product. If you can grow amazing bud then by all means come on down and stake your claim.

If I was in another state and grew amazing smoke but worried about legal issues, I would be on my way to cali as well. There are plenty of cheap places out here, it isn't like our house prices are what they were 5+ years ago or anything. Most places tanked ESPECIALLY alot of the quick growin cities with over inflated rental prices.

Most of the growers will still buy TOP shelf smoke even if they are growing. I mean sometimes my crop isn't amazing and sometimes I just want something different. I see many growers happily trading or donating to fellow growers just for the added strain options.

I wouldn't focus on the hot markets because there are PLENTY of smaller cities with a ton of patients where they have little to no collectives and NEED/WANT quality meds in their city versus driving up north or down south.

 

[crw15213]

And that is what Cali growers are doing. Moving. CO, ME ... 2 o f Maine's 4 MMJ licenses went to a berkeley group. We are exporting growers. Many LA a folks setup in CO now.

What about Michigan?