Hello ICMag community,
Usually I keep my gardening to myself, but I'm really stoked this year and thought I should share. First, a little about my site. I'm in rural Clackamas County Oregon at 45 degrees latitude and 300' elevation. Last year, I did a full season garden in 400 gallon pots, and ran into a lot of problems, as any new outdoor gardener might. This year I decided to do light deprivation to try to beat the fickle PNW fall weather. So, I wanted to share a little bit and hopefully clear up some questions I have, as well as hope to answer questions that are out there in the ether.
My setup: Last year I had 400 gallon pots and I thought that was a bit excessive this year. So, I dug out those 400's and filled 2 200's from each old 400. I put the 200's on pallets so that I could move them around with a track loader once filled. The soil is a coco, compost, and perlite base, with 10% homemade biochar and whatever organic ammendments are still around from last year (chicken manure, bone meal, etc). So I have 50 pots total, split into 2 rows of 25 each, on 6 foot centers, making each row 150 feet long. Most pots have only 1 plant, but some pots I put 2-4 clones in if they were small. I used 20 foot lengths of 1" pvc to make the tunnels that support the dep tarp over the plants. I went with the Americover BOLD tarps this year, and I'm so happy I ponied up for the stronger tarps. Per a friend's recommendation, I decided to take the guess work out of feeding this year and just go with the Botanicare Pure Blend Pro nutrient line. I'm using the 1-4-5 Bloom Soil, CalMag, and Liquid Karma. In early flower, I mixed homemade compost tea in with every watering, and at week 5 flower, I switched to 1 tablespoon/gallon molasses mixed with these nutes.
My strains: being that I don't have much capacity for indoor space and keeping mothers, I had to scramble getting enough plants late this winter to fill my garden. So I ended up with a hodge podge of strains, but am more or less happy with what I got. Mostly Gorilla Glue, Cinex, Betsy, GSC, and Green Ribbon, with bunch of other random individuals.
My schedule: So I had all my plants out of my cramped, 2 light attic and into my greenhouse by mid April. Here, I kept them under supplemental lighting in 2-4 gallon pots until May 15, when I transplanted them into their 200 gallon final pots. My first major challenge was to decide when to start pulling tarps on these girls. The main goal was to get them as big as possible, but small enough to stay shorter than the pvc frame throughout their stretch in early flower. So, in the end, they got 1 month of veg time in their 200 gallon pots, from May 15 - June 15, when I started pulling tarps. So throughout their veg period, I spent a lot of time training, bending, staking, topping, and pruning to keep them as low and wide as possible to fill the space in the tunnel. If left to their own devices, the typical christmas tree shape they take in nature would yield way less square footage of canopy, and stretch to the top of the tunnel in no time.
A note on tarp pulling times: At first I went with 8am off, 8pm on schedule, where they were covered for 12 hours straight. Don't ever do this unless you're ventilation is on point. The posts on these forums state this over and over again, but I decided not to listen
The results weren't too catastrophic for me, but left at that schedule, all my plant would have got super moldy. The Cinex was furthest developed, and maybe a little mold prone to start, so I had to harvest the tops early to keep the mold from going outta control. Since then, I've switched to a 7pm on, 10pm off schedule and the plants are way happier, with no further mold growth.
Questions: Well I've had a lot of questions along the way, some answered, some still a mystery. My main question now is: When do the increasing night lengths allow me to stop pulling tarps? Well, another post on icmag has stated, with evidence to back it up, that if your daylight length is less than 14.5-14.25 hours, then you're safe to stop pulling tarps, or for most people, when your full season plants begin flowering. For me that is August 6-12, if you calculate daylight length as the time from sunrise to sunset. Mainly, I want to stop pulling tarps to avoid unnecessary exposure to high humidity; 24 hour open air is something I'm really jealous of now!
Anyway, I shot through those details pretty quick and probably glazed over a few important details. Planning on harvest for early-mid August, and then letting the larffy stuff fill out another 2-4 weeks under fully natural light cycles. At this point, you're probably saying, when is this guy gonna have some freakin' pictures! Here ya go...
Moving the pots into rows with the rented track loader.
Rows set up, and tarp frame installed. I have winter peas growing as a cover crop.
Examples of staking and tying down early in veg.
First day pulling tarps June 15!
Week 5ish
Usually I keep my gardening to myself, but I'm really stoked this year and thought I should share. First, a little about my site. I'm in rural Clackamas County Oregon at 45 degrees latitude and 300' elevation. Last year, I did a full season garden in 400 gallon pots, and ran into a lot of problems, as any new outdoor gardener might. This year I decided to do light deprivation to try to beat the fickle PNW fall weather. So, I wanted to share a little bit and hopefully clear up some questions I have, as well as hope to answer questions that are out there in the ether.
My setup: Last year I had 400 gallon pots and I thought that was a bit excessive this year. So, I dug out those 400's and filled 2 200's from each old 400. I put the 200's on pallets so that I could move them around with a track loader once filled. The soil is a coco, compost, and perlite base, with 10% homemade biochar and whatever organic ammendments are still around from last year (chicken manure, bone meal, etc). So I have 50 pots total, split into 2 rows of 25 each, on 6 foot centers, making each row 150 feet long. Most pots have only 1 plant, but some pots I put 2-4 clones in if they were small. I used 20 foot lengths of 1" pvc to make the tunnels that support the dep tarp over the plants. I went with the Americover BOLD tarps this year, and I'm so happy I ponied up for the stronger tarps. Per a friend's recommendation, I decided to take the guess work out of feeding this year and just go with the Botanicare Pure Blend Pro nutrient line. I'm using the 1-4-5 Bloom Soil, CalMag, and Liquid Karma. In early flower, I mixed homemade compost tea in with every watering, and at week 5 flower, I switched to 1 tablespoon/gallon molasses mixed with these nutes.
My strains: being that I don't have much capacity for indoor space and keeping mothers, I had to scramble getting enough plants late this winter to fill my garden. So I ended up with a hodge podge of strains, but am more or less happy with what I got. Mostly Gorilla Glue, Cinex, Betsy, GSC, and Green Ribbon, with bunch of other random individuals.
My schedule: So I had all my plants out of my cramped, 2 light attic and into my greenhouse by mid April. Here, I kept them under supplemental lighting in 2-4 gallon pots until May 15, when I transplanted them into their 200 gallon final pots. My first major challenge was to decide when to start pulling tarps on these girls. The main goal was to get them as big as possible, but small enough to stay shorter than the pvc frame throughout their stretch in early flower. So, in the end, they got 1 month of veg time in their 200 gallon pots, from May 15 - June 15, when I started pulling tarps. So throughout their veg period, I spent a lot of time training, bending, staking, topping, and pruning to keep them as low and wide as possible to fill the space in the tunnel. If left to their own devices, the typical christmas tree shape they take in nature would yield way less square footage of canopy, and stretch to the top of the tunnel in no time.
A note on tarp pulling times: At first I went with 8am off, 8pm on schedule, where they were covered for 12 hours straight. Don't ever do this unless you're ventilation is on point. The posts on these forums state this over and over again, but I decided not to listen
The results weren't too catastrophic for me, but left at that schedule, all my plant would have got super moldy. The Cinex was furthest developed, and maybe a little mold prone to start, so I had to harvest the tops early to keep the mold from going outta control. Since then, I've switched to a 7pm on, 10pm off schedule and the plants are way happier, with no further mold growth. Questions: Well I've had a lot of questions along the way, some answered, some still a mystery. My main question now is: When do the increasing night lengths allow me to stop pulling tarps? Well, another post on icmag has stated, with evidence to back it up, that if your daylight length is less than 14.5-14.25 hours, then you're safe to stop pulling tarps, or for most people, when your full season plants begin flowering. For me that is August 6-12, if you calculate daylight length as the time from sunrise to sunset. Mainly, I want to stop pulling tarps to avoid unnecessary exposure to high humidity; 24 hour open air is something I'm really jealous of now!
Anyway, I shot through those details pretty quick and probably glazed over a few important details. Planning on harvest for early-mid August, and then letting the larffy stuff fill out another 2-4 weeks under fully natural light cycles. At this point, you're probably saying, when is this guy gonna have some freakin' pictures! Here ya go...
Moving the pots into rows with the rented track loader.
Rows set up, and tarp frame installed. I have winter peas growing as a cover crop.
Examples of staking and tying down early in veg.
First day pulling tarps June 15!
Week 5ish
