Indoor growing demographics: How many of us are there, geographic distribution, auto vs. photo growers, etc.?

[JP1]

We're fully legal here. Dispo prices are $600+/oz, with sales on old "smalls" around 250-350. Black market has stayed steady 300-400/oz for years for pretty good grass. Dispo weed is generally pretty ass except for 1 or 2 of the medical only places that do a pretty good job, and the quality has improved in black market while price has stayed the same. Most of the under 50 crowd will still go black market, especially with the "gifting" and delivery services; and the dispensaries are full of the 50+ crowd

 

[Death The Cultivator]

The state I'm in, Maryland, just recently fully legalized and tried to do it right. This included as the same time legalizing possession, gifting, expanded commercial growing for recreational use by established medical facilities (with new recreational-only licenses also to be granted); recreational sales by all established medical dispensaries (about 5 within 5 minutes of my home; with more licenses to be granted), and home growing (2 plants at a time for recreational; 4 for registered medical patients). Should I expect local dealer networks to disappear? Or can the non-taxed local individuals selling illegally compete and win vs. the dispensaries, such as have better quality at lower prices?

What becomes the role of home growers when states go legal? Do growers only grow for themselves; with simply no opportunities/markets/demand for them to even sell just a few ounces (or whatever amounts), no options for cost recovery?

Local dealer markets thrive here in Missouri. I have over five different black market plugs within 30 minutes along with several across state that will mail it. Everyone's prices are roughly 175-240 for black market with legal going for about 50 a 1/8 as they don't really sell more than 1/4s.

The quality is iffy on black market but it's typically better than dispensary buds. I worked for one of the major growers in the state as a cultivation manager and all 16 strains at the time were weak by my standards. There was a sharing of several clones that were selected for thc % rather than taste or effect but that is how genetics are selected here.

I think home growers should grow for themselves and those they are close to but the hassle of selling black market without sufficient capital to cover that chance for mistakes - it's a waste when good home grown is hard to find. Missourians do a lot of living soil but I've seen maybe two growers that were competent, everyone else always seems to have pest infestations or poor genetics.

I might sell my home grown from time to time but I didn't find it profitable most times because most people buy less than an oz every two weeks. It can work assuming there are no issues in the grow though.

Even if we get boutique weed, the cost of weed is prohibitive in this economy. I was in New Mexico buying Oz's for $100 that were near top shelf and that felt good. If weed dropped to sub 150 for top shelf flower it would push MSO's out because their overhead is so high and allow boutique to thrive. Still, bud with a storefront/testing is going to be more trusted over what a home grown produces.

I've grown in hermetically sealed grow rooms that were cleaned daily, I personally wouldn't want anyone's home grown just because it's dirty asf so that's a hurdle for home growers but that doesn't stop anyone from establishing their own private networks but I doubt the profit will be life changing without spending 20k or more.

So with such high legal plant counts, is there a lot of personal/home growing? From what you see, are consumers mostly getting weed from home growers (direct), pot dealers or legal dispensaries?

There aren't nearly as many growers here as I thought there would be. Here, it's mostly dispensary but with the high prices none of my plugs are suffering at all.

 

[pop22]

I can tell you that for the first time since Colorado's legalization, there are more dispensaries than there are cultivation licenses that are active. Over the past 3 years, the flower market completely dropped out here, where a pound of indoor grown cannabis used to fetch anywhere from $1000-2000, where now you're lucky if you can get over $200 for the same product by weight. Because they didn't limit the amount of licenses (which is a double edged sword,) a lot of big outdoor farms came in with the mentality of "we don't have to grow great pot, we just have to grow a LOT of pot." And they did. And it wasn't great pot. But they grew a lot of it. lol

The market hit this "flood" of over abundant flower, and suddenly where you used to fetch these big prices for weight, suddenly it get getting pounded down to NOTHING, but most of these companies were operating on the same fat budgets and sloppy practices that were fine to lean on, because up until this point, nothing was really getting in the way of that.

The result was a tremendous amount of licensed facilities going out of business, where it hit both the big guys but primarily shut down the smaller ma-and-pa grows that had the minimum license/flower count. I've heard numerous farm owners say "we just have to wait this out, because everyone will either go out of business or sell their licenses," and that very thing happened. Big farms purchased smaller licenses, and suddenly they became even BIGGER farms, and the small ma-and-pa's just left.

So now we have primarily big farms, ran by multiple shareholders, primarily dominating the Colorado market. Everything everyone speculated about "big pharma" coming into cannabis is right on track. Only those with the money really survived, and craft cannabis is almost a funny joke, because no one is going to pay the coin for your fire when they get "it's not quite as good, but it'll sell on the shelf" buds for pennies on the dollar.

And thus, why we still grow our own!

 

[MotaZona]

I live in a rural area, but it does have a significant population & many consume cannabis.
The closest dispensary is still 1.5 hrs away after rec being legal for a few years. With the price of fuel, homegrown is the only practical alternative.

 

[Delps8]

I'm in Orange County SoCal. I started growing when CA legalized cannabis growing because prices were $300/oz for good weed. It was an ROI issue for me. Premium weed now goes for $500+ per ounce so I have no qualms about having put money into "infrastructure" but it only makes financial sense here in bizzaro land.

 

[420Forever]

bizzaro land.

ppp

 

[BII]

I'm in Orange County SoCal. I started growing when CA legalized cannabis growing because prices were $300/oz for good weed. It was an ROI issue for me. Premium weed now goes for $500+ per ounce so I have no qualms about having put money into "infrastructure" but it only makes financial sense here in bizzaro land.

But on the US East Coast, I generally see it reported that CA growers are at best getting $1000/lb., often much less, with there being a surplus. Or maybe it's that the legal dispensaries aren't paying much to growers, vs. this being the market in general?

 

[Delps8]

But on the US East Coast, I generally see it reported that CA growers are at best getting $1000/lb., often much less, with there being a surplus. Or maybe it's that the legal dispensaries aren't paying much to growers, vs. this being the market in general?

To be frank, I haven't been to the dispensary that I used to buy from in…30 months±. Having said that, I also used to buy from these folks and \, checking their prices now, they're at $350 and up. That price includes delivery. IIRC, premium weed was $300± from them so I did the math and took the plunge.

These are prices in North Orange County and this area is…unusual. I almost got pulled over last week for driving without a Tesla, if you catch my drift. Maybe prices are lower in other SoCal cities?

 

[Bill.de.Cat]

The couple people I know in the Med system here in Florida usually wait for the monthly sales of old stock and get it for 25 a 1/4. The couple I supply are adamant about not having their names on government lists. I could probably get more but I'm happy at 100 and oz....keeps me in beer money.

 

[WildBill]

I can tell you that for the first time since Colorado's legalization, there are more dispensaries than there are cultivation licenses that are active. Over the past 3 years, the flower market completely dropped out here, where a pound of indoor grown cannabis used to fetch anywhere from $1000-2000, where now you're lucky if you can get over $200 for the same product by weight. Because they didn't limit the amount of licenses (which is a double edged sword,) a lot of big outdoor farms came in with the mentality of "we don't have to grow great pot, we just have to grow a LOT of pot." And they did. And it wasn't great pot. But they grew a lot of it. lol

The market hit this "flood" of over abundant flower, and suddenly where you used to fetch these big prices for weight, suddenly it get getting pounded down to NOTHING, but most of these companies were operating on the same fat budgets and sloppy practices that were fine to lean on, because up until this point, nothing was really getting in the way of that.

The result was a tremendous amount of licensed facilities going out of business, where it hit both the big guys but primarily shut down the smaller ma-and-pa grows that had the minimum license/flower count. I've heard numerous farm owners say "we just have to wait this out, because everyone will either go out of business or sell their licenses," and that very thing happened. Big farms purchased smaller licenses, and suddenly they became even BIGGER farms, and the small ma-and-pa's just left.

So now we have primarily big farms, ran by multiple shareholders, primarily dominating the Colorado market. Everything everyone speculated about "big pharma" coming into cannabis is right on track. Only those with the money really survived, and craft cannabis is almost a funny joke, because no one is going to pay the coin for your fire when they get "it's not quite as good, but it'll sell on the shelf" buds for pennies on the dollar.

My veteran buddy in Dallas, that I give weed to, gave his uncles and a cousin a bit of a sample of my wares. They absolutely raved about it. They asked my buddy if I would sell them some. My buddy called me and asked. I gave him a good price considering they were kin.
He told them my price and they came back with a counter offer. When my buddy told me the offer, I laughed and told him the price was really non-negotiable. It's take it or leave it.
My Buddy told me His uncle was getting it through a guy that got it from in Colorado, so it was cheap. I told my buddy to tell his Uncle to keep smoking that stuff he's getting. Tell him to keep rolling the dice on the quality and hope he doesn't get crappy grown weed with unknown fertilizers and methods.
I can care less if I sold a gram of my weed. Naturally being in Shadowland I only sell to a select few. They know the quality and they know what went into growing it. Those people are veterans. They Are definitely able to pay and they do so because they know that I use that money to produce more cannabis that I give to veterans that can't afford it.

As far as the amount of home growers here in Shadowland, I'd have to say it's reasonably sizeable.
In the MetroMess, there are several grow shops around and they seem to be thriving fairly well. And there is no mistaking these grow shops for what they are. They are definitely directed to the growing of cannabis.

If I lived in Colorado, I would still grow my own!

I'd probably become a fixture at Build A Soil!