So you wanna be a commercial grower?

[TGT]

I think the best way of growing commercially with the least risk is to grow at multiple locations and keep them under a certain kw. I know someone (very well) that has three grows going consisting of 4 to 5 thousand watters at each. He only has no more than 25 plants at each location and pulls in $35,000.00 profit from all three every two months. 2 pounds per 1000 is very common. The veg location is somewhere other than the three grow locations so this allows each grow to only need lights on for 12 hours each day. The amount of time it takes to tend each garden is about 2 hours a day on average. 6 hours a day isn't too bad for the income. Some days is less, some more. Just depends on what has to be done that day. Usually the most work is in the beginning and end of the crop, with the middle being the least effort.

The main things I can suggest to be successful is:

- Pay your hydro bill on time every time.
- Never steal power.
- Do the grow properly or don't do it at all.
- Don't tell anyone anything - it is a need to know basis.
- Take care of the property outside and look like you live there.
- Never put anything grow related into the garbage. Not even hydro bills.
- Get a lock on your mail box.
- Take care of smell 100%, even with the front door wide open you shouldn't smell anything.
- Use a dehumidifier in the grow room and in the living areas of the home. Fogged up windows in winter is a dead give away.
- Replace all incandecent lights in the home with spiral flourecents to save power.
- Wash and dry all clothing at another location.
- Eat out so that the electric stove does not have to be used.
- Secure your property with gates and locks, but not to the point of being suspicious. If the post man can go there so can the police! If locked it is trespassing. This is especially good for when cops try to do a perimeter search.
- If police come to the door it is probably for a 'knock and talk'. Do not open the door and act as though you are not home. When they leave call the number on the card they most likely left behind.
- Try to not have any exhaust exiting the home at ground level.
- Do odd favours such as cutting the neibours grass when away on vacation or shovelling snow ect.
- Be friendly to your neibours, but not overly. The less chance you give them to questrion you the better.
- Always make sure your electrical is up to par especially in older homes.
- Don't opt for any special offers your hydro company makes you. It will only flag your name and then human eyes will have to see your bill. Just better to be a number in the system.
- Do not dispose of old soil in your garden. The perlite stands out as indoor soil and looks very sucpicious.
- Don't have frends and visitors at the grow location.
- Never sell from the same location as the grow (obvious!)

That's all I can think of at the moment. If done correctly it can be very easy and not as stressful on the nerves. Even 1 grow that takes 2 hours a day on average to care for can bring in 15,000.00 profit every 2 months minus all expense.

Just what I have learned over the past fifteen years.

TGT

 

[Guest]

My small advice.

Know how to grow and be very confident you can take care of alot of plants and any issues that might come up.

I've had some good friends stab me in the back and steal a near worthless plant only flowering for 3 weeks. Trust no one

 

[Guest]

Also no strange pussy!! And if your pro, no pussy at all. M.O.B.

 

[HerbGlaze]

Commerical Growers.. I remember back in... the late 60's some friends of mine showed me there outdoor grow and when harvest timed happend they had pounds of dank smoke in there garages They gave me smoke to sell fo them and I did a great job but... One time it turned bad I was carrying an oz or so on me in a backpack.. some guy threatened to knife me.. so I did the right thing and gave him a swift distraction and ran for my life..
Its scary carrying a lot of weed or having it on you makes me paranoid.

 

[DitBaMay]

Get to know a corrupted real estate agency hehe.

 

[TGT]

I have been in the business for years now and have been stabbed, robbed, hand cuffed, had a gun put to my head, arrested, home invaded and even shot (in the hand by myself, but it still counts lol!). When I was younger I sold to some really shady people and didn't know the rule of 'claiming poverty'. I just had to show off, and that is what brought me all of my head aches. Greed is a very natural and powerful human emotion. We all have it, it is just what we decide to do with it that seperates the good from the bad. You need to have control over your emotions, and some people just can't seem to tame the green eyed monster.

Now that I am older I have selected my circle as work with only them. But from what has happened in the past I have learned a lot and it has only made me stronger and wiser.

TGT

 

[Guayaki]

Very good thread! Everyone has alot of good information to stay safe. Just wanted to say anyone growing commercial style might want to split there grow into 2 different grows. 12 hours for half of the day and the other half the other half of the day. No big deal if growing for personal but when you are talking 10,000 watts kicking on and nothing running the next 12 hours it could be suspicious. never can be too careful and who knows what those new meters can detect that they are installing on houses nowadays. A steady 5000 watts looks alot less than 10,000 watts running off and on.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

A good book to read is called "Budding secrets" about a gang planning a massive commercial grow in California, it is spot on with all the human greed/stupidity rubbish... turns out the locals all know what they are up to..

Years ago, when we started growing, 2 friends went full on indoors in 2 houses with third parties, and the usual nightmares....another just set up a small efficient room at home. Like the Hare and the Tortoise, the guy who just consistently churned out 55 Oz crops every 60 days surely came out the winner after all was said and done.

 

[accessndx]

So you wanna be a commercial grower?

There are many variables and decisions to be made, but the main considerations are as follows:

- Do you have access to a rented house?

O.K.; Read most of the stuff here on the thread. Here's where we differ on opinon. Rented house? I've done this before, as a matter of fact my last "commercial" grow was lucrative...and paid all school expenses. I smoked as much as I could handle.....and lived high on the hog.
I was paranoid as all hell because the "landlord" could stop by whenever the hell they wanted. Sure they would give you notice, but who the hell wants to take all your stuff out of the setup everytime the landlord wants to fumigate, or have the fire detectors inspected. The law is on the side of the landlord because invariably they have a key to the premises in case of emergency (broken pipes, electrical problems, etc.). I lived in fear of this crap continuously....more so than the cops, the neighbors, whoever.

The commercial setup I had before that was not in a house, but a garden apartment. Smaller, but nonetheless commercial. The smell was difficult to keep from the neighbors.....there was such close proximity. And of course, the same B.S. prevailed with periodic inspections, landlord drop-bys, etc.

I decided after having dealt with the privacy issue way too much to never go commercial again until I could obtain a residence that I owned...without a landlord. Additionally, that house needed to be in some out of the way area, where the neighbors were obscured by trees...maybe some cul de sac. Some relatively rural area. As far as neighbors are concerned...I keep a safe distance away from neighbors even when I'm not growing commercially. I am civil, pleasant and courteous....but don't get into extraneous and superflous talk about the weather. I've got friends that jump the meter, and that always makes me paranoid.....there's always the possibility that it can be found...and that's an automatic search. Trying to balance the amount of HPS lamps vs. what normal houses use is always a better idea. You can even augment your natural light into a house by using things like "solatubes" (do a quick search).
Additionally, it's probably best not to "live" in the house. So you can forget switching the regular lights to flourescent "power saving" bulbs....or doing the laundry elsewhere. Tell everyone you work day and night and do alot of travelling for work if necessary. Stop by periodically (like any good grower should) and check on things. I'm practically never home anyway.

Although it's not impossible, it's alot more difficult for the police to get a search warrant for your PRIVATE residence. You'd have to be doing something suspicious or get caught for something related (selling Lbs., smoking in your car while transporting stuff (duh!), hanging with known shady people).

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. I have a modest setup right now with the intention of doing a commercial again someday. The situation needs to be right, and safe. By the way: I never hear anyone talk about "solar" augmentation. IE: outfitting the house with solar panels to feed into the main box and at least dampen the other sources of electric outlay. It won't run your HPS lamps, but it will handle the regular lights in the house and cut down somewhat on your bill. The investment pays for itself in time. It's not a bad idea even if you aren't growing.

One additional thing: the IDEAL setup would be to create a completely separate identity with credit. Although it is difficult, it's not impossible. Once that "identity" is established.....it goes and buys a house. This way if anything bad goes down....it's this fictitious identity that's on the hook...not you. Before 9-11 this was relatively easy to do. In this Orwellian, Bush, post 9-11 world....I'm not certain how to accomplish this these days. The goal here is to minimize your risk to "JUST MONEY". I'd rather lose a stash of cash than my freedom. You can always make more money, but you can't shake a prison record. Plus, the thought of being ass-raped is not my cup of tea.

If anyone knows some definitively good ideas about creating, and fortifying a fake identity for the purposes of purchasing a house....feel free to start including that in this thread. I'm waiting with bated breath.

 

[TGT]

Thes best way is if you have good credit to purchase a cheap home with a basement. You can get a mortgage with no money down these days and it is almost as cheap as renting. Then the home is yours and you invested not too much into it. Get a 40 year mortgage, do your thing for a few years and sell. Then buy another. Most don't have to ability to do this, but if you can this is the way to go. No landlord problems and after your done you can keep the home and rent it out. Then move on to the next. I know more than one person that has done this and both of them started out with nothing. Now one of them owns five homes and the other four. They now just rent and collect money legally. Start off corrupt and end up legit - thats the way to do it.

TGT

 

[Daemon]

All I can add is that "nice little houses" in "nice neighborhoods" in Detroit are selling for $16k and $9K right now. There was one down the street that had been on the market for a year and a half listed at $129K. Similar house; has yet to sell. A friend of a friend told me that the gas bill to heat her 750 square foot house was $600 per month this last winter.

So, to all my peeps in the Detroit area: go buy yourself a house or two outright. Pay cash. Keep the natural gas line, but make an obvious conversion to "all electric". Hey, natural gas is running out anyway...legit excuse. Now you heat your house with grow-light heat in the winter. All electric

Good advice!! A friend of mine just sold his house in Plymouth and is looking to buy a few properties in the D. I think hes thinking one for living, one for growing....

 

[green_tea]

I'd like to chime in about what X said on the second page when talking about commercial growers.

I feel that TODAY, there are 2 breeds of commercial growers:

- illegal commercial growing
- "legal" commercial growing

illegal commercial growing clearly being setup the way you are talking about it. qucik and to the point, there to make money; IMO these are usually done in states where pot is illegal completely or just decriminalized. OR the stuff shipped from canada to the US

I see a new breed of "commercial" growers ever since I've started visiting this site.
now you have these legal commercial ops that sell strictly to patients, or clubs. the LARGE commercial grows I feel just cant provide the quality of product that these patients / clubs are looking for.

This is why id break it down into two different commercial grower classes.
You are correct though, that no one can just jump on a forum and learn your "way" of commercial growing. (for a lack of a way to clearly differentiate between the two classes ive defined)

Where as, I could easily set up a 5K flip flop system if i had the bank to do it; just from everything I have learned here and from the few grows under my belts of varying size and type.
(if we have 2 banks of 3x1000W lights each, were talking a 3000W harvest every month, giving you product on a monthly basis of roughly ~3000grams; I could easily see that bring in 15k )

the nice thing about this "level" of growing IMO, is that you could have a standard 40hr a week job and have this on the side. (if you are spending more than 20hrs a week on a grow of that size, your grow isn't dialed in yet; not including harvest time, thats what the weekend is for, and the 2 weeks leading up to it is basically doing nothing, since your flushing the system assuming a hydro grow)

EDIT: how do you give rep? ugh!

 

[yamaha_1fan]

First off: if you're on this forum and you ain't already a commercial grower...forget about it. Commercial growers don't learn shit on forums. Whether you like it or not, commercial growing is organized crime and organized crime works on the apprentice system; someone brings you in and shows you the ropes, or else you're cutting somebody else's grass and you shit as hell ain't want to be doing that.

It's simple: If you don't move in those circles, then don't make them moves.

I have to disagree with this. I may not be pushing 25KW but feel I fit in the commercial grow category with 9KW. Everything I have learned about growing an security has been from this site or OG back in the day

Growing organized crime? Gimme a break. Yes some grows may be run by OC units but not all.

 

[Charles Xavier]

Greetings yamaha 1fan

Apples and oranges, my friend;

Let's agree to remove ego from the equation. No offense meant; and I gladly extend my apology if offense is taken:

You may feel as if you're a commercial grower, but at nine thousand (9000) watts, you're simply not; and this isn't a bad thing, or a smirch on your good standing, or a degradation of your reputation.

The existence of a grey-zone does not negate black and white; and what I attempted to relay in my previous post is this: A formalized guide to commercial growing can be equally detrimental as beneficial, if the concept is romanticized.

If the discussion is about the hows of 'advanced hobby' production, then this thread and by extension, forum, is a reliable source to compile or glean pertinent information from. Commercial growing is a different animal altogether; and in my opinion, the notion should not be lightly entertained.

Concerning your last point; again, if ego is disdained, then there is no argument. As long as cultivation remains illegal it is a crime to commit it; and a successful commercial enterprise needs be organized; therefore commercial cultivation is organized crime (irrespective of whatever noble purpose the perpetrator personally entertains).

My post in response, is not designed nor intended to create a tangent; it is my hope that my position, after having been elaborated upon somewhat, is now clearer, and so further discussion on the matter is unwarranted. I am interested in, nay fascinated by, how this thread will develop, and so I state this with some reticence: I implore the members of this community to be deliberate in their responses to this topic.

Sincerely,
Charles.

 

[Guest]

LOL

LOL

Also no strange pussy!! And if your pro, no pussy at all. M.O.B.

^^^LOL...You're so right nicky

 

[indicapimp]

Okay,
Lets talk numbers. First do FED's still prosecute for first time offense? Let's say at 18 plants your state has 5-7 mandatory sentence. Then what? Move to a State like Cali , not realistic!

So to go larger, I assumed that LEO will try to get you for the Max penalty. So bump cultivation to distribution, they go by weight, plant numbers other items in a house ie guns and or scale? i mean were is the firewall, it you go 10 big plants at a half pound each then they just flip to weight and measures? OMG, WTF

 

[Guest]

Well, you say that you can do a 6k setup with your eyes closed, yet say you need help on a 24k setup... that seems contradictory. I think you can run a 24k setup, if you treat it like a full time job and aren't a lazy stoner.

Safe wiring shouldn't be taught over the net. Some people just don't get it and wont get it. I don't recommend anybody 'play' with sometime that can kill them. Once you understand amperage, voltage, wiring gauge, hot, neutral, ground & voltage drop over distance, then we can start talking about proper wiring techniques.

As for trimming such a large scale operation. You should have the money to have a safe house in which you only trim and store your stuff. If you have to bring in people, better make sure they are trustworthy, and even then they aren't. 24k grows make a lot of $$, so go buy a trimpro automatik or rolling thunder. Might be between 6k-15k, but will make a 10 man job a 2 man job which = more security.

Clean up should be easy if you setup your system up to be. If you're running a 24k setup, I'd probably go with coco or hydroton and reuse it. That way you're not transporting trash and bringing in new medium.

If you think about how you design your system, you can reduce your costs, increase your productivity, lower labor and increase your security.

My point was, I am running 6k currently and could have a full time job on the side and it not be an issue because I flower and do all garden work at night, lights dont come on till 9pm. I never said I didnt have any help with the 6k just that I dont really need it. I am a lazy stoner and I hate trimming so sometimes I have my brother help, but like you said If you arent lazy and treat it like a job you can do it yourself.

About 24k thats different imo and you have to have the help if you want a quick turn around to get the next set of clones in. On a side note I would never in a million years use a trimming machine for ANY herbs besides outtys, I try and get top dollar for my herbs and theres no way I would molest them like that, Im going for pristine quality, 3 guys 3 days nonstop would do it i think. 2 guys could bleach all the trays, walls, rezys and in my case, drip lines with 1 more days work. I guess I think about things differently as I work with friends and might be a little more on the co-op side of things when lookin at the big picture.

As far a wiring goes, I can only do basic additions of breakers, 40 amps is as far as Ive gone, pretty much plug and play with CAP timmers tho.

Lots of interesting points in this thread though. And I like the view of some others saying about 2 differnt types of merch growers. Im not big time, but my grow aint just for me.

 

[FunkBomb]

Great thread and lots of good ideas. Before this debate gets too subjective we need definitions as this is the frist part of proper debate. First and foremost we need to define what the word "commercial" means.

(Dictionary.com Unabridged v1.1)

com·mer·cial :

(3) Prepared, done, or acting with sole or chief emphasis on salability, profit, or success: a commercial product.
(4) Able to yield or make a profit.

I think Charles Xavier you can relate more with definition 3. Yamaha_1fan I think you can relate to definition 4. Either way you are both correct. I think a fair grey area between the black and white could be the term "profit" as both definitions contain the word.

Lets keep this tought experiment rolling

-Funk

 

[yamaha_1fan]

Charles I am not mad nor is my ego hurt.

When you say organized crime, "I" (cant make it bold) think of mafia or some chineese gang. I guess technically if I run several houses and have 2-3 guys working for me, I am organized and am now a crime boss.

I am a commercial grower. Maybe 5-6 pounds every 3 weeks a month is a hobby to you and thats fine. But a 250K-300k income from a hobby is one hell of a hobby. Shit I never have smoked weed

I think growing is tier based. Tons of people doing cabinets, little less doing rooms, even less doing houses and very few doing 25KW.

But my original point remains. There is no reason someone with no experience cant come on here and learn to grow. I did and once the op is profitable and in full swing, it will go bigger, much bigger

 

[yamaha_1fan]

Funk, just curious how I fall under #4? My whole op is for one reason or do you think I can smoke 5 pounds every 3 weeks? LOL

I dont even smoke