2018 - The Farm

Well, I've been gone a few years from the board, and away from growing peppers, but looks like life is pushing me back that way again. 
 
I recently (last month) closed on a 25 acre farm in Central Illinois with some primo soil, and I'm going to give a commercial grow a test run. 
 

 

 
From up on the roof, when I was doing some roof repairs on the outbuildings. Not much as far as the eye can see, but cornfields...
 

 
 
Has a 4 stall garage and a horse stable on the property
 

 

 

 
Probably do my grow room upstairs here after I insulate it
 

 
Built some doors for the horse barn and patched the roof last month
 

 

 
 
Anyway just dropped a cold grand on seeds from pepperlover and buckeye, going to hit a greenhouse supplier up for other materials next week.
 
Have plans to build a 30x72' greenhouse in the spring, and a ~1200 sq foot dedicated grow room. Too late really to help with this year's grow, but next year it'll save me a lot of hassle on hardening off. 
 
The greenhouse, I am going to do a piped infloor heat slab, with a horizontal loop geothermal system (I own a mini excavator) that is solar powered. So heating should be nice, uniform, not create heat / cold bubbles, and not dry out plants like forced air would. I build circuit boards in my day job, so I will also build a microcontroller to handle the automated watering system with soil moisture monitors and actuated plumbing valves on the water supply.
 
Also plan on building a "deep winter" greenhouse for year round production. Got blueprints I made from a couple of years back, those are walled on three sides with heavy duty insulation, with the glass wall side angled to face winter solstice, so you can grow in the deep freeze months of the north. In the summer, those get hot enough to use as a natural dehydrator, replace the tables with racks for bulk drying.
 
Only doing a half acre or so of peppers to start with this year, the balance will be put in corn. I can't manage more than that with the labor I have available. (When you start talking thousands of plants, simple tasks like up-potting grow in to hundreds or thousands of man hours...)
 
Going to hire some local kids to help, school has a good ag co-op program for high schoolers, they can get school credit working on local farms. Since the plant out and harvest doesn't conflict too badly with corn, shouldn't have a problem finding labor around here.
 
Anyway, that's the plans.
 
We'll see how it goes.. er.. grows.
 

 

[Chilidude]

 
That wasn't me, that was walchit, edmick, and cmj
 
 
Also see this when you correct a deficiency and they take off fast. Like giving P to a deficient plant; it'll grow so fast after correcting a deficiency it wrinkles and yellows before it catches up and greens back up, as it flattens back out. 

 
Of course it was not you and the best course of action in coco coir growing is to start with milder dosage of fertilizers and go slowly up if needed. The EC number doest always seems to be the key factor when using different fertilizers optimally, you also have to keep in mind the NPK ration when you are adjusting those dosages. My current project is to see is the one bottle Hesi coco fertilizer a safe/easy stuff for both growing and producing chilis when working with the coco coir.
 
 
 

 

[Edmick]

We were just messing with you chilidude. We weren't being serious. Lol

 

[Ethansm]

Oh my god this glog is awesome! I'm still reading through what I've missed, but damn your thoroughness and determination is impressive. Going to catch up and keep following this for sure.

 

[TrentL]

Some earth moving pictures from this week
 

 

 
Buried that damn monolithic footer down 2 feet below grade
 

 
Graded the site today and compacted with my big vibrator. 
 
Yes, I'm playing with a really big vibrator here. 
 

 
Site of the first cold frame house is prepped. This one will be for hardening off plants.
 

 
Which is sorely needed. It still rains indoors for a day and a half after I water.
 

 
Before
 

 
After
 

 

 
Tomorrow we'll have 3 pieces of equipment out working on the old horse pasture.
 
Hope to get the other two 24x96' cold frame sites prepped as well as the 32x100 isolation house area graded.
 
Also, had an unfortunate accident today. My shoulder cramped at a precarious spot while adjusting lights up, and I dropped one down. I stopped it's fall, but heard the snap-snap-snap of three of the taller annuums getting snapped in half.
 
They'll live, albeit slightly smaller, although whether my pride survives will is speculative at this point. I've been overly hard on plants this year.
 

 
 
I guess on the bright side we get to see what happens with that variety when "topped"..?
 
 

 

[TrentL]

Cleaned up the entry road a bit and I also found an old gravel road going to the stable, underneath 4" of dirt and grass.... got it cleaned up and graded as well
 

 
The before (slightly different position, but you can see there's no roadway going to the pasture)
 

 

 

[TrentL]

My wife spent 6 hours cleaning the garage and grow room today, in preparation for an inspection Saturday. She did a fantastic job.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
She even organized all the "stuffs"
 

 
 
 

 

[DontPanic]

I think you need to pull down a few sections of your insulation and inspect what's going on underneath. I'll be glad to be wrong, but what you're describing is worrisome.

You have a fairly humid, warm interior environment up against insulation with much cooler temperatures (at least at night) outside.

It sounds like the condensation is accumulating underneath the insulation. I'm not there, so I can't say "I know" what's going on. But what you're describing sounds really similar to a problem that will wreak havoc on the particle board especially, and will eventually eat into the plywood also.

 

[karoo]

Looking fantastic , can't wait to see that cold frame house.

 

[TrentL]

I think you need to pull down a few sections of your insulation and inspect what's going on underneath. I'll be glad to be wrong, but what you're describing is worrisome.

You have a fairly humid, warm interior environment up against insulation with much cooler temperatures (at least at night) outside.

It sounds like the condensation is accumulating underneath the insulation. I'm not there, so I can't say "I know" what's going on. But what you're describing sounds really similar to a problem that will wreak havoc on the particle board especially, and will eventually eat into the plywood also.

 
There's an inch and a half gap between the insulation and plywood sheeting. 
 
As far as pulling insulation down to look at it, to see if mold is growing, something that's on the list for once the plants go outside. Can't really get to the peak with the tables and lights in the way.

 

[TrentL]

FYI The condensation is mostly appearing on the paper itself, the insulation is dry where I did peel it back.
 
What's happening is during the day the air temps hit 86-90F and 100% humidity after a watering. Then at night the temps drop to 60F - a 30 degree temp swing. All of that humid air condenses out and droplets form on the paper (and every other interior surface). 
 
It's visible all day long downstairs; where cooler outdoor temps keep glass cold.
 

 
 

 

[Bhuter]

Man, your tables are looking fantastically! Especially the third pic down. Just beautiful. And she did an excellent job of cleaning! You're killin' it!

 

[TrentL]

Man, your tables are looking fantastically! Especially the third pic down. Just beautiful. And she did an excellent job of cleaning! You're killin' it!

 
That table looks nice because it was one of them that I sorted plants on. Tables 1-7 were sorted so that all similar varieties were together, and unlike the other table, these are all annuums of approx the same growing speed and age. Tables 8-15 have a random assembly of varieties on them so they don't look nearly as orderly.
 
The organic soil is doing so well, I'm ordering $24,000 worth of processing equipment from Ellis manufacturing next week to begin bagging it commercially. Going to get with MOSA and get it certified organic, as well, so I can put the stamp on it. That way it will be an ORMI listed organic component for certified grows. With it out performing passive hydro by a country mile, might as well go for it. We'll be able to process roughly 8 cubic yards of it a day, soon.

 

[Chilidude]

Never mind, good luck with that organic soil sale thing, maybe it will become a hit and you will make a loads of money out of making it.

 

[TrentL]

Well, at the very least it'll save on labor for this year and future years. I was looking at how much labor it'd take to mix up 450 cubic feet (over 16.5 cubic yards) for the isolation grow and my stomach sank. Working a crew of dudes with shovels in a kid's swimming pool might work, but will take a long damn time. 
 
The soil mixer I'm looking at does 1 cubic yard a shot; It's rated for 8 cubic yards per hour, or 64 cubic yards of soil mix per day. 
 
The coir buster machine processes 2.25 cubic feet of coir every 15 seconds. It could process 12,960 bricks a day running full time (142,000 pounds of media per day, 70 tons). Between bagged coco coir sales and bagged organic fertilizer, be worth it.
 
Between the two, a few employees could bag and process 64 cubic yards of material.. in an 8 hour shift. There's 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard, which means we could output 1,728 cubic feet of soil per day. 
 
Or, 864x 2 cubic foot bags of soil per day.
 
With each bag selling for between $35-45 on amazon and in big box stores, that's $34,560 worth of retail product, per day, taking an average of the range.
 
I started the ORMI and MOSA organic certification process today (ORMI certification for the potting soil, and MOSA for the crop & fields).
 
 

 

[TrentL]

Also I have enough coir and dry organic fertilizers on hand to do 72 cubic yards of soil, right now. So one day, running the machines, makes enough product that the margin off of selling the product (however long that takes) will pay for the equipment and labor, both. 
 
It's all about making money, at the farm. I mean, at the core it's a commercial venture. The trick is figuring out different ways of (hopefully) making money, trying enough of them, that maybe, just maybe, one or two might work and generate a profit. 
 
Or I'll go broke in a few years and have to sell off everything.
 
Such is life. 
 
 

 

[TrentL]

MOSA organic cost was $1225 today. Hoping to get at LEAST the horse pasture certified organic this year; so I can begin the process of making "organic certified pepper seeds."
 
Or drown in paperwork. MAN they want records of EVERYTHING. Up to and including a log of when you wash your tractor and attachments. Or wash your hands.
 
OMRI will probably be about double that cost, to certify the potting soil. Looking at their tables of charges it appears it costs about $2000 to go through the hoops there, plus $160 for every additional supplier of organic material I add, plus $160 for every variety of potting soil I offer, etc.. etc... Heck, they charge $40 just to send you an application!
 
 

 

[Walchit]

They want their cut big-time!

 

[Bhuter]

Whew! That's a whole lotta BS to have to go through and very pricey! Good for you for going ahead with the certifications despite all the red tape and huge expenses.

 

[TrentL]

Whew! That's a whole lotta BS to have to go through and very pricey! Good for you for going ahead with the certifications despite all the red tape and huge expenses.

 
I am still chipping away at reading through all of the regulations and requirements for those. But there's only so much time and I'm using all of it working right now. Wake up, work, eat dinner, go to sleep.. wake up, work, eat dinner, go to sleep.
 
So as far as MOSA certification goes, I'll just do my best to keep things organic, and when it comes time for the inspection, we'll see what I'm screwing up.
 
This all makes for some long days. I killed a few tomato plants in the basement because I went to bed without checking them the night before last, got water on them last night, but several were keeled over dead. And I never did get the moscovich or the other half of the rose tomatoes planted. Or the cantaloupe. I'll just direct seed the cantaloupe, I guess, when I finally get out to the field. As far as the tomato goes, hell, looks like those will go in next year. 4/27 is way too late to start them.
 
When things start slipping through the cracks like that, you know you hit your limit on workload. So I'm not gonna beat myself up too bad over screwing up. 
 
Had three pieces of equipment out working the old horse pasture yesterday, leveling off ground. We are close to having the isolation house area graded, another couple hours of work left to go, then we'll be augering the holes to set the posts. It's a 32x100' area that'll have 3x 8'x99' long isolation structures on it, segmented in to 11 isolation rooms each sized 8' x 9', for growing potted plants in isolation. If it works out, hopefully we can grow organic certified seed stock.
 
Per USDA regulations "Perennials can be started from non-organic stock, but must be raised organically for one year before any crop is harvested as organic." 

Peppers are a quandary. You can start annuals from non-certified seed if there's no organic supplier available. But peppers are perennial, so maybe I have to overwinter them in complete organic regimen before they can be certified organic? 
 
What's interesting is if there's a seed supplier available for organic seed, you *must* use them for ordering seeds in a certified organic grow. If there's not, you can use non-certified sources so long as it's documented. So if I can get a run of certified organic seeds for various varieties going, it will meet the requirements for subsequent plant outs, and I'd be able to sell organic certified seeds?
 
Still trying to figure it all out. Right now just trying to get my crop certified, later on can worry about the rest of it, I guess.

 

[TrentL]

One potential hurdle; using calmag on the grow. That might nix the organic certification because it appears you are supposed to document the deficiency. And I don't think they're talking about pictures, like I did. It looks like they want laboratory tissue tests to document the deficiency.  Maybe photos will be enough. But I might have to send off some tomato and pepper tissues for lab tests to document the magnesium deficiency if my photographic documentation isn't good enough.
 
Another potential hurdle, farm field runoff. The fields upslope of mine are not organic (they were out spraying this week). If we get a heavy rain those fields shed water on to mine. Which means I may need to build a half mile long dike to catch runoff and redirect it around my organic grow.
 
All sorts of stuff comes in to play that I didn't even think would be an issue.