Bigcedar 2019

BigCedar · Jun 21, 2019

Thanks for the info and replies guys! I don't know how I missed em but I'm just now am reading all of em! lol.

simp3204 said:
Loving the pictures and the progress. Looking forward to the mutant “Upside Down” plant progress. How many bee hives do you have?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you very much for kind words! I try to keep it somewhat entertaining! Me too, every week that goes buy I feel better and better about my decision to keep it alive, it wants to live that's for sure! The bees, that's an interesting story I'll try to keep it short (I suck at that) but here we go! So true to my personality I was all excited to move out into the country and that I could keep bees for the first time ever, so I went big and got 6 hives last year... That's big in the hobby world of beekeeping, it's very expensive to start.. And just like when I first got into growing peppers I spent hours, weeks reading into it... Wanted to do it right. Well I did everything "right", went into winter with 6 healthy hives, even left the honey supers on a few of them instead of harvesting it so they had the best chance to make it through the winter months. Lost 5 of 6 to sudden colony collapse. Which is basically to those who don't know... The bees just... disappear.. or commit suicide(in my opinion) How ever you wanna look at it I guess. The colony collapse disorder pretty much created what we I'm sure have all seen as the "save the bee" movement, hard not to buy honey, cheerios, or anything really with honey in it without seeing "Save the bees" somewhere on the label. Scientists to this day don't know why or what the hell it is. Everything kinda leans towards human involvement, whether it be with the bees, agriculture, deforestation, pesticides, climate change, etc etc etc etc.. Started in early 2000s I wanna say? Up until then colony collapse, so they say anyway, didnt exist.

Needless to say it kinda killed my "bee buzz".. I bought 1 new hive this year to make it 2... Since then I've caught 2 swarms so I'm up to 4 hives, the swarms definitely reignited my bee buzz. Plus, 2 free swarms depending on size... 400-1000 dollars worth of free pollinators! I'll take that any day! I put alot of time into it last year, checking on em, adding upgrades to the hives... I aint doin shit this year.. I watch the opening every month or so, you can gauge the health just lookin real quick if you know what looks normal and what doesn't. I'm just lettin them "bee" and well see how this winter pans out. Fingers crossed.

lespaulde said:
Incredible pics, thanks for sharing! Those insects are incredible beautiful from those angles... Amazing progress on your end , happy to see all the plants are making their way out and you are fully primed for a killer season my friend. Knew this was going to be an enjoyable ride following your glog, and you've done nothing but exceed expectations!

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

Wow those were some really nice words Erv! Don't even know what to say! Thank you thank you my friend!!

CaneDog said:
Was out working at the plots most of the day today and it looks like the scotch bonnets are coming out of the stall and starting to put on some better new growth. Glad to see that - it's about time!

So yeah, the hoop houses. The ones I have now were given to me and are prefab metal tube in arcs that fit over rebar driven into the ground ever few feet. The kits came with standard sheet plastic and plastic snap-on clips to hold it on. What I've done in the past is use rebar the same way and slipped PVC over the rebar and arced it over and anchored it the same way on the other side. Then I just draped the plastic over and weighted it on the sides and ends. If I were to do it again I might try to make clips using PVC too. Thinking I could cut it into 3" sections and then Dremel or hacksaw cut a 1/3" +/- piece out turning each 3" section from an O into a C. Then the C would kinda snap over the arcs of PVC like this ( C => O) and hold the plastic on. That's basically how the clips in the kit work. I'm not sure how well that would work with PVC, but I'm sure there's lots of ways to hold the plastic on and even just weighting it down along the outside worked OK before.

As far as using the houses, there's lots of versatility. I'll put gallon jugs of water and even 5g Home Depot type buckets of water under the HH as overnight thermal mass and totally close the plastic when it's chilly. When it gets warmer you can play around with one or both ends open partially or fully. Another trick on those hot early days is to fold the plastic up and back halfway the long side facing south (rather than just the ends which I align east/west) and give the plants full sun exposure. It's a lot easier to do that and just slide the plastic back at night or after the warm period's over than removing it fully and putting it back on. Really a lot of flexibility once you play around with them for a while. And in the fall anything in a bucket I want to keep out of the rain and cold to ripen I just stuff under a HH and it keeps the season going a bit longer. Still, at some point even before the frost they just seem to stop ripening and need to come inside to finish up.

Hope that helps some with ideas and that it works out for you.

Thanks a million CD! There is a ton a great information there and you literally answered all my questions. Thanks for taking the time to do that. It seems a whole helluva lot easier than I thought it was, I don't have much building experience with anything in life so any time I see something I have to build from scratch I'm automatically intimidated. Which is probably the main reason why I haven't ever tried one yet.. Ok I lied... One question. In regards to plastic.. There is a certain kind you wanna buy right? greenhouse film? Sorry for all the questions, I wasn't kiddin when I said I knew nothing about em lol. Thanks again neighbor!

CaneDog said:
The ones I've done in the past have been smaller (covering 30" +/- width beds for early season plants) and I'm pretty sure I used 1/2" and 1/4" rebar.. If I were going to go bigger, like my current kit size of 60" width beds, I'd probably be looking at 3/4". If the arc is too tight for the diameter of the PVC, it might have to be heat-shaped to avoid folding/breaking. I suppose the easiest thing is to go into the store and give the PVC a bend toward the desired shape and see how it responds.

I've never used a frame, but if I were to go big enough I'd start thinking about using lumber and L-braces to build a rectangular foundation and mountain the PVC in some fashion to the base due to a larger structure taking more force from wind. But that's getting into a more significant structure and I've only done the easy-up, easy-down type.

I'm actually considering building a small similar structure now with Tulle netting solely for the purposes of plant isolation for seeds. I've been thinking I could put different varieties of pepper in that structure and still maintain a much lower risk of hybridization due to excluding most pollinating insects.

That Tulle HH sounds pretty sick I'm not gonna lie... I wanna see that in action :cool:

Devv said:
Plants are looking stellar Brandon!

They should serve you well this season!

Lots of good info here, thanks for it

Thanks Scott!! I hope so! It's almost July... That's when summer weather finally shows up around here, and in turn, the supers finally start really growing.. time will tell! In regards to the good info I think my glog visitors have alot more to do with that than I do, either way I'll take the compliment lol. Thanks for stopping by buddy, hope all is well!

Gonna try to get to an update tonight or tomorrow am

Hope all is well with everyone :cheers:

PaulG · Jun 21, 2019

Glad to hear the weather is improving there, Brandon.
You are right about Summer arriving in July in the PNW!

Looking forward to seeing how your grow is progressing.

nmlarson · Jun 21, 2019

DWB said:
Great info CD. Do you like ½" or ¾" pvc? Good idea for the pvc clips to hold the plastic.

May I throw my two cents in here? One year I had an old garden hose that was worn out. What I did was cut 6 or 7 inch sections of the hose, then sliced it from end to end. Worked real well holding plastic, Agribon and insect netting onto 1/2 inch Sched 40 PVC.

BigCedar · Jun 21, 2019

Update time...

I tried to time the late and superlate starts to be fully hardened off right around my first day of vacation, it worked!

First time in almost a couple months that all my pepper plants were hanging out together in the same vicinity, nice to see everyone reunited! CCN's in proper rows and the late start gallons and super late 3s... next to my chair. Unc... This ones for you

Mixed 40 cu feet of soil these last couple days and got to potting up. Some of the superlates were ready for gallons and the 40 lates were ready to join the CCNs in permanent 7 gallon homes, it took some time and a few beers and some serious advil but I got er done.

My wife and I were talking about how it's so crazy to see the seasons change, so I had to find a somewhat recent picture to compare and figured you guys would enjoy.. Somewhat different angle but you'll get the gist!

4 1/2 months ago...

Yesterday after finally getting done!

Here's another angle that showcases the super lates a bit more, kind of a weird shape and way to "row up" the plants that messes with my ocd a little bit but I've watched for months, our field gets sun all damn day but this particular area gets the most morning sun, afternoon, and evening sun. So I mowed down some of the grass and weeds, used my compass to really get the south facing angle down and that's how it happened lol.

More to come, I don't have enough beer in my household to risk a post to index!

BigCedar · Jun 21, 2019

The superlate superhots are coming along... A few gallons and quite a few 3s are, if I were to guess, a week away from needing bigger homes. Weathers been so damn bi polar.. Hard for anything to really get a rhythm going... After 6 serious grows in this climate I do know one thing, nothing in the superhot world does anything worth talking about until July and on.. Almost there.

Ok opinions wanted especially from the PNW growers... With these superlates... Should I pot them up into 3 gals, let em grow up as much as possible, pods would be great but not expected and keep them in the 3s for OWing purposes? Or should I go big 5gal plus and shoot for somewhat production? I've never had plants this young this late so I'm racking my brain over what to do with them.. Cost is a shmedium issue, soil wise... but if I gotta spend it to do it right I will. I wasn't planning on having this many plants.. Infact once I had them all out in the same vicinity I thought... I should count how many plants I have, in years past I'm all over that shit. Well... I thought I was in the 60-70 plant realm..... Yeah no. Not even close. 117 :shocked:

I know that's nothin compared to alot of you but holy shit that floored me. 117 plants?! I counted 3 times and then stared at em for awhile thinking.. Wtf am I gonna do with 117 container plants?! How did I not know? The soil demand, nutrient demand, space demand, how the f*** am I gonna find space to OW this many plants in a 1600sqft house without a garage?! My wife's gonna kill me... I'm dead. lol.. Seriously though that number rocked my world, shouldn't have surprised me but it did in a big way... I honestly do wanna OW most if not all, if they don't make the specimen cut they'll get culled but still... How many aren't gonna make the cut by my light standards? Probably very few! Ah man... Gonna be an interesting tail of the season that I already have anxiety about. In over my head, unintentionally, once again.

Captain Cy has grown a good 4-6 inches in the last week, way less of a diva about our climate then the supers are..

Funny after potting her up into a 20 the cupping has subsided quite a bit, canopy shot.

Kinda hard to see but the pod-up is in full effect

And I feel like she's just getting revved up, buds and flowers every square inch

BigCedar · Jun 21, 2019

On to the CCN's..

They haven't grown UP a single inch since plant out, all the growth has been lateral and it's starting to come on strong. The late starts are just as tall, no where near the branching the CCN's have though.

Chocolate Ghost

Found some aphids on the Fatallii tonight, small group. Gonna kill em tonight with some dish soap water.. While inspecting the others I found my first super pods worth talking about! These Yellow Primos, tiny as hell but man they are looking primo-proper!! Made my night! I have a hard time calling it a primo unless it's carrying some long wicked tails and it looks like this plant will be a keeper!

Couple of latestart spotlights...

Bhut Peach X Primo

'

Leviathan Scorp from past posts.

TSM Yellow still rockin some big ol leaves

Bhut Chocolate Giant

And last but not least, The Upside Down is producing.... Normal lookin leaves? :crazy:

Been a fun one to watch so far, very interested to see this thing in late August.

Uncle Eckley · Jun 21, 2019

BigCedar said:
First time in almost a couple months that all my pepper plants were hanging out together in the same vicinity, nice to see everyone reunited! CCN's in proper rows and the late start gallons and super late 3s... next to my chair. Unc... This ones for you

Excellent chair shot! :cheers:

Whoops! I'm interrupting. :oops:

BigCedar · Jun 21, 2019

Ok last post!

Caribbean Red is about to go nuts...

And the randoms..

Perseus admiring all my work :lol:

Bella checking in on the bees with me

Went to mist the airplant the other night and... Blooms? I didn't know they could do that! Pretty cool!

Keeping my young fruit trees alive with sprinklers has been a full time job, one that Saydee loves being a part of lol.

Blues doing their thing

That'll do it this week! Hope all is well with everyone :cheers:

CaneDog · Jun 21, 2019

nmlarson said:
May I throw my two cents in here? One year I had an old garden hose that was worn out. What I did was cut 6 or 7 inch sections of the hose, then sliced it from end to end. Worked real well holding plastic, Agribon and insect netting onto 1/2 inch Sched 40 PVC.

Thanks Nan! I'd like to know more about what you did and I'm sure BigCedar wouldn't mind either. I'm still in design mode for an isolation structure. And the garden hose sounds WAY easier then Dremel cutting PVC - plus no sharp edges! Was it basically just hooped PVC onto rebar with whichever you needed at the time of netting/row cover/plastic held on with the garden hose pieces? Just that easy? What were your dimensions?

BigCedar said:
Ok I lied... One question. In regards to plastic.. There is a certain kind you wanna buy right? greenhouse film?

That Tulle HH sounds pretty sick I'm not gonna lie... I wanna see that in action

Yep. Greenhouse plastic. I think the kit I have has 4 mil, maybe 5 mil, but I'm not certain. Seems to work well enough for me. I know there's some high tech 6 mil stuff out there with layers to increase UV reduction and light diffusion and etc. If I were to use the good stuff I'd prime the PVC first to protect the plastic from chemical damage. I never bothered to because it was only on 3 of 12 months each year and I'd manage to screw up the plastic myself before the PVC had enough time to. Maybe not a bad idea anyway though.

And checking out your posts above. I'll just keep it brief and say "wow!" Your property and everything you have happening there just looks amazing.

Mr.joe · Jun 22, 2019

Did you just add a full page to your glog in one day? All the plants and the property looks great. Overwintering 100+ plants? I'll keep an eye on this one for sure.

nmlarson · Jun 22, 2019

CaneDog said:
Thanks Nan! I'd like to know more about what you did and I'm sure BigCedar wouldn't mind either. I'm still in design mode for an isolation structure. And the garden hose sounds WAY easier then Dremel cutting PVC - plus no sharp edges! Was it basically just hooped PVC onto rebar with whichever you needed at the time of netting/row cover/plastic held on with the garden hose pieces? Just that easy? What were your dimensions?

You're in luck! I found some photos from my 2016 garden. Let me preface this by saying my husband helped build these. He built and raced cars for a living, so everything gets a bit over-engineered, if you get my drift. This could be done way simpler, but it worked, and worked well for at least 4 years.

Because I needed to be able to easily lift the structure, by myself, we used 1-1/2" PVC pipe for the rectangular base, using elbow PVC fittings for the corners. Just dry fit. In the beginning, he drilled holes through the elbows and pipes where they joined where I was to drop a nail through to hold the pieces together, but I got too concerned about loose nails in the garden. Dry fit worked well enough, but if you weren't going to change the configuration (which I did on a yearly basis), you could cement them together. To support the hoops, which were 1/2" Schedule 40 PVC, he drilled 1/2" holes in the 1-1/2" PVC pipe. Just stuff them through. After putting the thing together, I stretched a single garden stake I had laying around across the tops of the hoops and used wire ties to fasten it across the tops, stabilizing the structure. That year I used clips to fasten the net at the tops of the hoops. In other years I remember using wire ties to fasten the netting, too. The bottom edges were tucked under the 1-1/2" PVC. Some years, I only opened one side, so there was usually a t-post at either end for stability and the end hoops were wire-tied to it.

To open the hoop house, I'd just lift the base and prop it up, or move it to the side, depending on how large it was, what I needed to do inside it, and whether it was tied to a t-post. I should say that using the hose sections as clamps worked really well, but only on the straighter parts of the Schedule 40.

Here are a couple of shots from 2016. I used them for 5 years, cutting and reassembling it in different configurations, as I always had a different garden layout. I always used them for eggplants, and found them good for bush beans and bush cucumbers and squash, too. If a bug ate it, that bug was at the community garden where I gardened. I believe I even used them to keep the flea beetles off radishes and beets. The first year I used them, we built a 9' x 3" enclosure for egg plants. Can you tell I like to build things, too? :cool:

CaneDog · Jun 22, 2019

That's awesome Nan! Thanks for contributing the useful info. I somewhat wish I'd bought my Tulle or netting in wider sheets versus the 48", but I'm thinking I might staple 48" wide strips to each side of a 1x1 and use the wood like your stake along the top with the Tulle draped down the sides. I'm still figuring out the plans and specs, but this one will certainly be a more Jerry-rigged/temporary structure than yours. I may make a more significant structure though next year to add to my second plot at the community garden and I like the idea of a full, but disassemblable frame. I've dry-fit S40 before and the ability to disassemble and reassemble is a real benefit.

BigCedar, I hope I'm not messing up your glog. I figured the extra info would be appreciated.

nmlarson · Jun 22, 2019

I must say, your photos are simply gorgeous!

BigCedar · Jun 22, 2019

nmlarson said:
May I throw my two cents in here? One year I had an old garden hose that was worn out. What I did was cut 6 or 7 inch sections of the hose, then sliced it from end to end. Worked real well holding plastic, Agribon and insect netting onto 1/2 inch Sched 40 PVC.

Hi Nancy! Thanks for stopping by, your 2, 5, 10 cents and anyone else's for that matter is always appreciated and more than welcome around here! That is an awesome idea with the hose! Living out here it's a good 40 minute drive to any store so I'm learning the ways of jerry-riggin pretty quickly to avoid the drive when possible lol. Great idea!

Uncle_Eccoli said:
Excellent chair shot!

Whoops! I'm interrupting.

Glad you liked it Unc! I went to move it outta the shot before I took it and thought... Why would I do that? This is a perfect UncleE shot! lol. You can interrupt anytime my friend!

CaneDog said:
Thanks Nan! I'd like to know more about what you did and I'm sure BigCedar wouldn't mind either. I'm still in design mode for an isolation structure. And the garden hose sounds WAY easier then Dremel cutting PVC - plus no sharp edges! Was it basically just hooped PVC onto rebar with whichever you needed at the time of netting/row cover/plastic held on with the garden hose pieces? Just that easy? What were your dimensions?

Yep. Greenhouse plastic. I think the kit I have has 4 mil, maybe 5 mil, but I'm not certain. Seems to work well enough for me. I know there's some high tech 6 mil stuff out there with layers to increase UV reduction and light diffusion and etc. If I were to use the good stuff I'd prime the PVC first to protect the plastic from chemical damage. I never bothered to because it was only on 3 of 12 months each year and I'd manage to screw up the plastic myself before the PVC had enough time to. Maybe not a bad idea anyway though.

And checking out your posts above. I'll just keep it brief and say "wow!" Your property and everything you have happening there just looks amazing.

Thanks alot for all the great info and visitors/info you've attracted with your hoophouse skills CD. I feel like I know the basic ins and outs of HHing

Pretty excited about it actually they look fun to build! Thanks for the compliments, it's coming along, waiting for the real weather to kick in so I can see some Cayenne style growth out of the supers, I always get impatient at this time of year. Watching all the great southern growers we have on THP with plants growing a foot plus a week doesn't help! LOL.

Mr.joe said:
Did you just add a full page to your glog in one day? All the plants and the property looks great. Overwintering 100+ plants? I'll keep an eye on this one for sure.

Thanks Joe! The potential OW op is going to be... interesting.. we'll see! Ha, not quite, avoiding the post-index tacks on some extra posts on my end but in order to keep my sanity until that issue is resolved I'm gonna keep doing updating like that. Keeps me from tossing the laptop out the window

nmlarson said:
You're in luck! I found some photos from my 2016 garden. Let me preface this by saying my husband helped build these. He built and raced cars for a living, so everything gets a bit over-engineered, if you get my drift. This could be done way simpler, but it worked, and worked well for at least 4 years.

Because I needed to be able to easily lift the structure, by myself, we used 1-1/2" PVC pipe for the rectangular base, using elbow PVC fittings for the corners. Just dry fit. In the beginning, he drilled holes through the elbows and pipes where they joined where I was to drop a nail through to hold the pieces together, but I got too concerned about loose nails in the garden. Dry fit worked well enough, but if you weren't going to change the configuration (which I did on a yearly basis), you could cement them together. To support the hoops, which were 1/2" Schedule 40 PVC, he drilled 1/2" holes in the 1-1/2" PVC pipe. Just stuff them through. After putting the thing together, I stretched a single garden stake I had laying around across the tops of the hoops and used wire ties to fasten it across the tops, stabilizing the structure. That year I used clips to fasten the net at the tops of the hoops. In other years I remember using wire ties to fasten the netting, too. The bottom edges were tucked under the 1-1/2" PVC. Some years, I only opened one side, so there was usually a t-post at either end for stability and the end hoops were wire-tied to it.

To open the hoop house, I'd just lift the base and prop it up, or move it to the side, depending on how large it was, what I needed to do inside it, and whether it was tied to a t-post. I should say that using the hose sections as clamps worked really well, but only on the straighter parts of the Schedule 40.

Here are a couple of shots from 2016. I used them for 5 years, cutting and reassembling it in different configurations, as I always had a different garden layout. I always used them for eggplants, and found them good for bush beans and bush cucumbers and squash, too. If a bug ate it, that bug was at the community garden where I gardened. I believe I even used them to keep the flea beetles off radishes and beets. The first year I used them, we built a 9' x 3" enclosure for egg plants. Can you tell I like to build things, too?

CaneDog said:
That's awesome Nan! Thanks for contributing the useful info. I somewhat wish I'd bought my Tulle or netting in wider sheets versus the 48", but I'm thinking I might staple 48" wide strips to each side of a 1x1 and use the wood like your stake along the top with the Tulle draped down the sides. I'm still figuring out the plans and specs, but this one will certainly be a more Jerry-rigged/temporary structure than yours. I may make a more significant structure though next year to add to my second plot at the community garden and I like the idea of a full, but disassemblable frame. I've dry-fit S40 before and the ability to disassemble and reassemble is a real benefit.

BigCedar, I hope I'm not messing up your glog. I figured the extra info would be appreciated.

Thanks for all that info and those pictures are great Nancy! I appreciate that! Your garden is huge looks great! Man I guess I had never thought about it but the versatility of these HHs is pretty nuts, temperature, isolation, bugs... Yeah I'm sold, it's on my fall to do list for sure. Kinda ticked off at myself that its taken me this many years to wanna build one! Ok so I'm thinking and visualizing all this in my head(thanks again for the pics nancy) Again, stupid HH question incoming.. Correct me if I'm wrong but say if I wanted to build one... 3-4 feet high its just a matter of getting longer PVC pipes to make the arcs with right? And I guess at some point the HH is now a small green house.. I guess the big question is how big now.. Another stupid question... Can you build a shmedium greenhouse with this same kinda of template? PVC still work or would you wanna go something heavier duty? And obviously the support on the sides/ground would need to be alot more substantial so the wind doesn't turn it into a hot air balloon.. Lots of good stuff here guys thanks alot.

Also, CD! You are far from messing up my glog buddy! I am lovin all this information and truly appreciate it from all of you guys. It's impossible to mess up my glog, there's no rules or expectations on my end... If a page filled up with 67 different examples of proper PT ducks, I'd be completely okay with that! It's all good around here. Lol.

I must say, your photos are simply gorgeous!

Thanks alot Nancy I appreciate that!

PaulG · Jun 22, 2019

Absolutely beautiful work up of your piece of heaven, Brandon.
I am envious of the space so many of the THPers have to grow
in, but not of the incredible amount of work and effort you have
put in to make such a beautiful garden. Plants, fruit trees, berries,
all looking real nice, from small to large.

OWing 117 plants? Haha :rofl:

Better take your anxiety meds now to prepare yourself!

nmlarson · Jun 22, 2019

BigCedar said:
Thanks for all that info and those pictures are great Nancy! I appreciate that! Your garden is huge looks great! Man I guess I had never thought about it but the versatility of these HHs is pretty nuts, temperature, isolation, bugs... Yeah I'm sold, it's on my fall to do list for sure. Kinda ticked off at myself that its taken me this many years to wanna build one! Ok so I'm thinking and visualizing all this in my head(thanks again for the pics nancy) Again, stupid HH question incoming.. Correct me if I'm wrong but say if I wanted to build one... 3-4 feet high its just a matter of getting longer PVC pipes to make the arcs with right? And I guess at some point the HH is now a small green house..

Using 10-foot lengths of Sched 40 on a structure about 30" wide would give you around 36" height. Obviously, the bigger you get, the more structure you'll need. If you wanted more height, you could do this: Take a 5' length of Sched 40, stick a tee on it, use the "top" of the tee as your top horizontal structure, the "leg" of the tee to insert a vertical length, say 7' of Sched 40, then the other end of the Sched 40 into your base. Find an hour or so to visit your closest Lowes of HomeDepot and spend some time in the plumbing department playing Lincoln Logs. (Oops,,,,,I'm REALLY dating myself)

Or.....if you can justify spreading the expense over the long term, find an outfit like Memphis Net (http://memphisnet.net), and invest in one of their "money-saving golf cage kits" and some extra fittings to close it up. Then, after plotting out your structure, head to your big box store for some EMT conduit and REALLY play with the parts. It's how I built my garden enclosure, but it needn't be 8' high, like mine. It could just as easily be 4' tall. Memphis Net made it entirely too easy with their fittings. I bought this https://www.memphisnet.net/product/998/golf-cages-money-saving kit for $73 and added individual fittings as I needed to configure the space and enclose the ends.

This

and some extra parts which made this

And you shouldn't have to worry about it blowing over or away and it's going to last. Plus, you can still take it apart if you want to.

CaneDog · Jun 22, 2019

BigCedar said:
I always get impatient at this time of year. Watching all the great southern growers we have on THP with plants growing a foot plus a week doesn't help! LOL.
You and me both. I can't help feeling I've done something wrong when I see all those awesome posts and feel months behind.

Ok so I'm thinking and visualizing all this in my head(thanks again for the pics nancy) Again, stupid HH question incoming.. Correct me if I'm wrong but say if I wanted to build one... 3-4 feet high its just a matter of getting longer PVC pipes to make the arcs with right? And I guess at some point the HH is now a small green house.. I guess the big question is how big now.. Another stupid question... Can you build a shmedium greenhouse with this same kinda of template? PVC still work or would you wanna go something heavier duty? And obviously the support on the sides/ground would need to be alot more substantial so the wind doesn't turn it into a hot air balloon.. Lots of good stuff here guys thanks alot.

You can look at the Schedule 40 fittings, like connectors, t-split connectors, and elbows and do really cool things. If you wanted more height than a single PVC can create, you can use the fittings to connect 2 pieces and also to add support pieces to improve structural integrity. Or, you could build a rectangle platform and then arc PVC above the frame from t-split connectors for greater height - especially nearer to the sides (did that make sense?).

Not gluing the connections with the blue cement means you can break it down for the winter for easy storage, reassemble, reconfigure, etc. If you use rebar, the HH isn't very likely to turn into a kite. If you use a PVC frame along the ground instead, weighting or securing it somehow should cover that. Or maybe attach it to a heavier wood base. Lots of cool pics and ideas online googling pvc hoophouse or pvc greenhouse. If I were going to the effort of a more significant structure, I'd be looking at the fancier and more durable 6 mil type plastics and would definitely put primer on the PVC to improve the life of the sheet plastic.

I need to be careful now or next thing you know I'm going to be building a greenhouse :rolleyes:

BigCedar · Jul 13, 2019

Almost been a month, time to update this thing eh?

There really hasn't been much to update these last 3 weeks. The weather here in the PNW has been very mild, mostly cloudy and cool for most of the last 2 months.. high 60s low 70s has been the norm.. even when it gets above 75 it's mostly cloudy, all day... It is definitely the coolest, cloudiest summer and spring that I can remember. Not exactly superhot growing weather. It could be a lot worse and is elsewhere and I'm truly very grateful excessive clouds and low temps are our only problems at the moment.

Even though the plants seem to be stuck in rut, they are growing.. slowly but surely.. My main concern is Aug-Sep weather, the extended July doesn't look too good.. I'm gonna to have to see some significant weather during those months to see any major production. I guess at the end of the day it's okay either way.. The grand plan has always been to see most of these through the winter, in my opinion and experience overwintered supers around here is the only real way to guarantee a really good harvest. I have to keep reminding myself to keep my eye on the prize.. That this IS a 2 year plan.. This year is the primer.. Next year is the paint.

Alright enough rambling.. Pics.

Captain Cy is still the clear front runner, glad I kept it around it's the only plant putting on a show right now!

The canopy is getting harder and harder to fit in my phone lens

Loaded with pods

First color of the year!

The growth habit of the CCNs starts is wide spread, tall and lanky to short and bushy and everything in between

Brain Strain

TSM Chocolate (all the indoor leaves have mostly dropped the remaining few are cupped and yellowed)

Fatalii is an all out bush

Bhuts are branching out as usual

More to come.. Not chancing a post/index!

BigCedar · Jul 13, 2019

I could be wrong but living out in the country, there's a good 10-20 times more bugs then in the city... With that said, I've seen more lady bugs and lace wings on my plants this year then in any of the previous 8 years in the city. Pretty cool.

Upside down, still being weird but healthy.

Pod time!

7 Original is throwing out some really light baby pods... Anyone else experience this?

7 Yellow has set a pod that seems to be growing to full size.. well see. Pretty excited just to see a almost full sized super pod in the yard lol.

I think the most exciting thing so far in the yard is this not so "Trinidad Moruga Red" plant... I know its early, but I have a feeling this baby is gonna be something special this year.

Also total side note but, CD, Paul, any other PNW growers.. I decided to look up old pics on a memory card today... this was July 12th 2016

This was August 20th 2016...

There is still hope for our season I think!!! I'm guessing after seeing those pics my CCNs are 2 weeks behind and my late starts are 3-4 weeks behind, I can deal with that!

A few more pics and I'll wrap this up!

BigCedar · Jul 13, 2019

Being that this is a OW operation I decided to take advantage of Jim Duffys end of season sale and had 6 plants sent over of varieties I didn't start and wanted to grow next year.. This whole OW plan, my goal is to not start any seeds so i figured why not. Give em a couple solid months of growing and have good sized plants next year. Some handled the transport and transplant better than others. It'll be interesting to see how small/big these guys get before frost

Varieties were Death Spiral, Despair, Bhutlah Scorpion, Bhutlah Scorpion Chocolate x 2, and BBM

Gone on a few daycations and mini vacations lately

And my yards pretty damn cool... It has still yet to really set in that this is my house now. It's honestly hard to get up the motivation to leave and go see other places these days lol..

Looking up in the driveway..