I saw a post on Facebook the other week about the price of an ounce of weed in Jamaica that had me wondering how much it would cost to grow cannabis in Northern Ireland

Unfortunately we’re not blessed with the same great climate as the Jamaicans who grow the vast majority of their ganja outdoors, it’s a rare occasion when you come across a bit of locally grown outdoor here in Belfast, though it does happen, I was lucky enough to have a smoke of Purple Maroc a few years ago.

Most cannabis in Belfast, if not imported ( #flownherenotgrownhere) is local homegrown ( #grownherenotflownhere). There’s also a lot of Asian criminal gangs growing shit commercial weed known locally as “Chinese Cheese”, “Takeaway” or “Orange Bud”.

Anyone I’ve mentioned to about the price of that ounce in Jamaica joked about moving there, what I want to know is if it’s possible to have weed here in Belfast for just as low a price. We’re way behind Jamaicans when it comes to weed and the law, but forget about that for now til we try work out these prices.

Growing indoors as opposed to outdoors means you need some lights to replicate the sun, an extraction fan to remove hot humid air and bring in fresh air, an oscillating fan to move the fresh air around, pots, a carbon filter to keep the funky skunky smell to a minimum, a room, cupboard, box…something to enclose plants in, grow tents are very popular these days. The shopping list isn’t long mounting up.

I’ve spoke to a local grow shop (never mentioned cannabis) and some local home growers just to verify the shop wasn’t full of shit, as a lot of salesmen are. I asked about the basics for a personal 5 ‘chili’;-) organic grow and here’s the list they gave me, as long as it is, it’s not the bare essentials but it is the basics.

Equipment to grow 5 cannabis plants indoors under a 600 watt HPS light

10cm Square Pots £0.30 x 5 = £1.50

20cm (5.7 Litre) Square Pots £1.65 x 5 = £8.25

25cm (11 Litre) Square Pot £2.00 x 5 = £10.00

Square pot saucers for 25cm (11L) £1.50 x 5 = £ £7.50

LUMii® Heavy Duty 24 Hour Plug-In Timer = £15.00 (no contractors needed with this timer)

(Optional, recommend for safety) Contractor – £30

Lightwave T5 Grow Light 4 Tube 96w – 4 x 2ft (24w) = £100

*(Optional) 250watt Budget Lighting System = £95.00

*(Optional) 400watt LUMii Compacta Maxii Kit = £85.00

*(Optional) 600watt LUMii Metta Maxii Kit = £75.00 (most cost efficient & strangely cheaper)

125mm (5″) RVK extraction fan & Mountain Air Carbon Filter Kit – 295m3/hr = £205.00

Lighthouse Grow Tent MAX 1.2m £90

BioBizz Bio Grow 1 Litre £10

BioBizz Bio Bloom 1 Litre £10

Biobizz Light Mix – 50L £10

Biobizz All Mix – 50L £15

Total for initial hydroponic store shopping list: £512 + *HPS light

On top of the shopping list for the hydroponic store some cannabis seeds are needed . For the article we will say £25 for 5 feminised cannabis seeds.

Don’t forget the cost of electricity to power everything. There’s a great grow calculator on the UK420 website that helps work out the cost of electric when growing cannabis indoors, by entering the wattage of grow light and the price per unit of electric we’re able to work out the costs. On the NIE website the standard rate per unit is 14.69 pence (at time of writing this article).

Using a 100 watt propagation light would cost £6.60 for 2 weeks use

£6.62 per month at 12hours a day

£9.93 per month at 18hours a day

£13.23 per month at 24hours a day

Used for propagation & first weeks of vegatation before moving onto prefered wattage of HPS

The recommended space required for a 250 watt light is 0.6m x 0.6m with a running cost of £31.54 for 9 weeks of flowering + 3 weeks veg at £15.77. Total cost per grow = £47.31

£14.02 per month at 12hours a day

£21.03 per month at 18hours a day

£28.04 per month at 24hours a day

Aiming for 1/2 a gram per watt the estimated yield when flowering with a 250watt HPS = 125g (approx 4.46oz)

The recommended space required for a 400 watt light is 0.9m x 0.9m with a running cost of £52.13 for 9 weeks of flowering + 3 weeks veg at £26.06. Total cost per grow = £78.19

£23.17 per month at 12hours a day

£34.75 per month at 18hours a day

£46.34 per month at 24hours a day

Aiming for 1/2 a gram per watt the estimated yield when flowering with a 400watt HPS = 200g (approx 7.4oz )

The recommended space required for a 600 watt light is 1.2m x 1.2m with a running cost of £77.35 for 9 weeks of flowering + 3 weeks veg at £38.60. Total cost per grow = £115.95

£34.38 per month at 12hours a day

£51.57 per month at 18hours a day

£68.76 per month at 24hours a day

Aiming for 1/2 a gram per watt the estimated yield when flowering with a 600watt HPS = 300g (approx 10.71 oz)

There you have it, disregarding the possible unwarranted interruption by government forces, other thieving bastards or the dreaded spider mites, I reckon you can grow weed in Northern Ireland for around about £68.55 an ounce (using a 600watt HPS light), that’s £2.44 per gram of organically grown cannabis. I have overestimated a little, but I’ve no doubt that cannabis can be grown even cheaper here in Northern Ireland.

Oh, I almost forgot, that’s the price including the intial cost of equipment, most of which can be used over and over. If you grow a second time the costs are greatly reduced. Second time around the reoccurring costs are electricity, nutrients, seeds & soil…something like £192.55. So the cost per ounce of weed grown using a 600watt High Pressure Sodium light would be about £17.97 that’s a whopping .64 pence per gram. :-).

If I’ve worked this out wrong sure let me know in the comments below.

Nearly forgot, well I’m not working it out anyhow, but I forgot to add in the cost of electric for running the extraction fan & oscillating fan. How much would that be?

Oh, and incase you’re wondering, the price of an ounce of weed in Jamaica in March 2016 was ten quid.