2013 Greenhouse Grow

Hey everyone!
 
Im going to start my grow log here in a new thread because I had some set backs earlier this year mainly with overwatering. Thanks everyone for all your help this site is awesome.

I just put this greenhouse up a few weeks ago and have been working on getting it all dialed in. Temps are still a little high, but Im going to install some bigger exhaust fans next week that will take my exhaust CFM from its current 2200 CFM to 6000 CFM so I should see a further reduction in temps. Its about 95 degrees in there today and some days it gets up around 100 or a bit past so Im hoping the larger fans will bring that down a tad.
 
Anyway ... heres what I have going so far. Here is the greenhouse, I still need to bring some more rock in and surround the outside of it but for now I have to make sure I have a grasp on temps and automation.
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
Here on the left is a 7 pot yellow and on the right a better bush tomato
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
On the left a douglah and on the right the same 7 pot yellow from above:
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
On the left a douglah and the right a TSMB. All of these plants that are in these homer buckets got severe overwatering and sunburn ... they are just now recovering from the damage I did several months ago. Their bouncing back though.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Heres a beefsteak tomato, starting to pump out new growth. It already set several tomatos but I pinched them off in hopes of getting the plant to grow vegetatively:
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Here is a 25 gallon smart pot all loaded up with soil and ready to go. Now I just gotta figure out what to put in it! lol .. I have a fatalii seedling going that I may stick in there, either that or one of the various other smaller plants that I have going on the sidelines. Eventually I will do 3 of these 25 gallon smart pots right down the center of the greenhouse. One will definately have a fatalii .. Im still in the air on what to put in the other two. Im thinking either a red bhut, red brain strain and maybe a heirloom tomato of some kind. The soil mix consists of approximately 4 gallons rabbit manure, 2 gallons homemade worm castings, 3-4 gallons perilite, and the rest is a mixture of 50% fresh peat moss and 50% recycled soil from previous container grows (contains more perilite, peat and castings that were probably all used up by the previous plants).

I ammended with tomato tone, blood meal, bone meal and a very small amount of lime, gypsum, and powdered oyster shells. PH comes out to about 6.8. I loaded the smart pot all up, then brewed up 5 gallons of ACT (molasses, worm castings, tomato tone, and liquid kelp) then once the brew was all frothy and filled with goodness I poured the whole 5 gallons into the soil mix in this 25 gallon smart pot. Ill let it set there and "cook"  so to speak. The microbes will break down all the manures, castings, and ammendments while Im figuring out what to put in there, once I plant the soil mix should be ready to rock.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Someone bump this please so I can post more pics, the pic limit kinda sucks .....

 

[OZZZ]

Alright ... got the PC back up and running (bad video card).
 
Heres all the plants potted up and ready to grow into their new homes:
 
 

 
 
 
Heres the chocolate bhut sporting its new 5 gallon container:
 

 
 
 
Heres the red and yellow bhuts settling in, also in 5 gallon containers. I also put a yellow 7 pot into a 5 gallon homer bucket but forgot to take pics:
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
The neopoleon sweet pepper, jalepeno, and aji lemon looking good:
 
 

 
 
 
 
.......... and heres the little fatalii seedling with more soil then it knows what to do with lol:
 
 

 

 

 

 

[OZZZ]

Well...this glog might be over before it begins!! As I sit here at work waiting to get off we are seeing a bad ...bad hail storm.

Problem is I got fed up with fighting high temps in the greenhouse when my outside temps were perfect so I moved all the plants outside.

Yes ...just last night I moved them outside ...and now we are getting hammered with hail and I'm stuck at work.

Cross your fingers for me please cuz I got a feeling I'm going to have buckets of chopped salad when I get home. Ggggrrrrrr

 

[theghostpepperstore]

Oh man, I know how that feels. One reason I try to get as many plants in the ground as possible, it keeps me from even having the option of moving them. In previous years I had been known to leave work in the middle of the day to go move 100 pots of plants. Now I still freak out, but I know I can't do anything about it, so I deal with it.

I wish you luck. I just got a picture of those storm sent to me from someone in Sedona, looks like it might get nasty.

 

[OZZZ]

Thanks ghost pepper....all turned out well. At least they didn't get beat to death anyway but their pots got completely saturated with water and they just finally started recovering from my overwatering.

oh well...I just won't water for a month lol.

we have storms forecasted everyday for the next week so guess what? I moved them back in the greenhouse lol.

The temps will be more manageable with it being overcast and by then hopefully ill get my replavmcement fan in. They are being really slow about it!

I really should stop screwing around with these exhaust fans and just buck up and get an evaporative cooler ...that's really what I need and would make it perfect ...plus I could use the humidity!

 

[OZZZ]

Well, I went back to the drawing board and mixed up a new super soil for my upcoming cannabis grow. Im going to stick a chocolate bhut and a fatalii in the mix and see how they do. When I first came to this site I mistakingly interpreted the fact that since peppers dont need as much ferts - that they didnt need as good as a soil as I use for my cannabis.

Long story short Im going back to what I know on soil building and we will see how the two peppers that are in the new mix do compared to the others Ive planted in my old mix I shortcutted. I dont like the old mix I made at all... it has a large amount of peat in it and it turns into concrete when you let it dry out to much. As we all know peppers like to dry out between waterings and I need a mix that stays light rather then turning to stone like this old peat mix is doing.
 
So... my new super soil mix consists of the following:

5 gallons coco coir (wet and expanded)
5 gallons old recycled soil (peat moss based)
5 gallons cheap bagged compost (Kellogs/Home depot - has bark fines)
5 gallons organic materials (1 gallons composted steer manure, 1 gallon old rabbit poo, 1 gallon used coffee grounds, 2 gallons fresh EWC from my worm bins)
5 gallons perilite
5 gallons vermiculite
 
In total I have about 4 cubic feet of base soil mix.

Then I mixed 4 cups Kelp, 2 cups cottonseed meal, 2 cups alfalfa, 2 cups crab shell meal, 2 cups plant tone, and 1 cup bone meal in a seperate container. I applied 10 full cups of this mixture to the base soil mix (comes out to 2.5 cups per cubic foot of base soil).

Then I added 4 cups azomite and 8 tablespoons of lime mix (2 parts oyster shell, 1 part gypsum, 1 part dolomite lime).

Mixed it all up, watered with an ACT and set it off to the side to sit and cook for 8 full weeks... Im giving it a long cook time because of all the oranic materials. The final mix seems great, nice and fluffy, full of air but at the same time is a nice dark color and has a nice earthy smell with a tinge of kelp/crab/fishy smell 

ITS ON

Hey Pepper-Guru ... your rooster spurs are in the house! Also .... off to the right is a fatalii from your momma fatalii seed stock. She will be treated well I assure you. To the far left is a pineapple heirloom tomato. Still sleeping are two more fatalii seeds from PG's big fatalii momma and a couple chocolate habs.
 

 

[Swamp Monster]

Ozzz... Awesome setup man! I need to get a greenhouse bad.

 

[OZZZ]

Thanks swamp.... I'm still feeling it out but so far so good.

 

[Swamp Monster]

I'm sure it'll be the best thing since sliced bread when its wintertime, and in the spring when everyone else has little baby seedlings and you have 2nd year beasts.

 

[OZZZ]

Ha....that's what I'm hoping! I'm going to have a gas line ran and get a furnace ...hopefully I can keep it around 50-60 degrees throughout the winter. We'll see!

That's why I don't mind popping seeds in July... plus I have a bunch of hps/ mh so I can easily get them 2'- 3' tall indoors if need be (shouldn't need to though).

 

[theghostpepperstore]

You should have no trouble getting 55-60 in the winter, the sweet spot for pods in winter seems to be 65. If you can achieve that, you will be a VERY happy man.

 

[OZZZ]

Well... maybe I better look into 30000 btu heaters instead of a 20? Lol. Although you said your 20 does just fine... I suppose a little extra headroom never hurt anyone though and they cost the same

 

[theghostpepperstore]

My 20k heater has never been turned up past 2 (1-5 on the dial). Even set on (2) I am able to keep it at 60. I think I had to turn it up to about 3.5 to get it up to 65 at night. I think 20k in your greenhouse is more than enough to get there, it just comes down to how much you want to allow your heating bill to go up. If money is no object, you can do it.
 
I only keep a few mature pepper plants through the winter and the tomatoes, cabbages, and lettuce seem to prefer being at 60 at night, so I find it unnecessary to keep it any warmer than that. Its not worth having a few fresh supers a month, not when I have such a large supply of frozen, dried or powdered supers hanging around, anyway.

 

[OZZZ]

That makes sense. Thanks for the input. Oh... on a side note our "monsoon" season has begun. Really all it means is we get rain showers and cloud cover for the next month to month and a half.

So most days we have sun in the morning and around 11-12 clouds roll in and it rains all afternoon. Then the sun might be out for an hour or two or very intermittently.

Temps stay in the 70's and jump in the 80's when the sun comes out which means the greenhouse gets to the 90's with sun and 80's most of the time so Im going to take the shade cloths down.
 
My coworker says this happens every year, it gets super hot and dry (temps in the low 90's is very hot for here) then the monsoons come in and cool everything off to 70-80's with intermittant sun. Late August/early sept we get our full intense sun back, but the air temps start cooling off.
 
Sounds like I really only need to use the shade cloth and fight temps from late may to early july every year. Then take it down and let them rip. For that reason Im not going to get an evaporative cooler. No point for only two months time.
 
Definately a learning curve to growing in a greenhouse at 7000'  !!!