An asylum seeker was offered £2,000 a month to tend to a huge cannabis farm in Didsbury.
Ledjo Basha, 25, was a 'gardener' at the farm, which was installed in a semi-detached house on Palatine Road.
Police found cannabis with a potential value of £100,000 - and a 'sophisticated' set up.
There were 275 cannabis plants, found in five different locations within the building.
Officers also discovered 77 lights, at least ten fans and 76 transformers, prosecutor Saul Brody told Manchester Crown Court.
The electricity had also been bypassed.
Police forced entry into the property on May 28, and arrested Basha on suspicion of producing cannabis.
In interview, Basha said he had been at the house for less than two months.
The court heard he was a 'gardener' and had no involvement in setting up the cannabis farm.
Basha had been offered £2,000 a month for the role, but never received any money, he said.
Mr Brody said the 'significant' quantities of cannabis were being grown for 'commercial' use.
Basha's lawyer Eleanor Gleeson said the defendant can't speak English. He followed court proceedings with the help of an Albanian interpreter.
"He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he said he did so out of desperation," Ms Gleeson said.
"He moved to this country to make a better life, and unfortunately that has not been the case."
Sentencing Basha to seven months in prison, Judge Nicholas Dean QC told him: "You didn't play an important part in the growth of this cannabis.
"But this was a significant and commercial growth, and you took the job knowing that you would be tending to a growth of cannabis.
"You were not therefore exploited as such, because you took the job knowing what it entailed, and took it voluntarily.
"But that having been said, you didn't benefit from what you did, and you were never going to benefit from any profit that might have been made from the growth of the cannabis."
The judge said it was possible that Basha, an asylum seeker, may be deported after serving his sentence, but that this is for other authorities to decide.
Basha, of Palatine Road, pleaded guilty to producing a class B drug.
