The Bean House

[LORD BENIS]

Hi everybody, Lord Benis here.
The time has finally come time to where my ever growing plant collection has over run my modest backyard hoophouse. So, after much deliberation I think I have finally found the spot for a permanent greenhouse. It is a really cool peice of property on family land that used to be an old camp grounds. Several small dormitories remain in addition to a large cabin that used to be park headquarters. This is where I plan on building the primary greenhouse. The slab is oriented north to south and should get at least six hours direct sunlight for most of the season. There is a very large reservoir and well drilled slightly uphill from the main entrance that will be used to feed the plants by gravity.

This will be a large project for me, as I will mainly be working alone. I am currently waiting for my county to lift the burn ban so I can clean out all the old rotten wood and shit that's left over. I have a fairly solid plan on how to build this thing, but would still like as much input as possible before I get started.

I was gonna hold off on this thread until the whole thing was complete, but I'd really like to hear what ya'll have to say along the way.
So without further ado, a preliminary tour......


The entrance



Front side





Middle/Restrooms





Back side



The wall is reinforced with these every few feet.....



About 50 yards away....





I'm only converting one side for now, it measures 20 x 30 feet.

 

[hamstring]

Fist off, yee haa!!!!

Man that is a nice building and spot. I have no knowledge of greenhouses but am I sitting here drooling over what you have there including that water reservoir. Damn dude niccceee.

As far as those lag bolts go they look pretty rusted and my feelings are you will loose many trying to get the nuts off of the bolts. Also are the lags long enough to put a 4x4 on them? In most case a 2x8 or 2x10 would be the footing for the building.

What ever it takes get ur done. You can always put new lags in if you have to.

 

[DJ_highst_]

Hello Lord Benis, how ya been bro. I know I havent been posting too much these days, but I had to post in this thread.

You got a nice little project there. I guess my first bit of advice would be just to try to reuse as much stuff that is already there as possible. Clear out as much of that nearby brush to get the clearest path to the sun. Those cinder walls should be good for trapping thermal heat, but is low enough to still let in light.

Try to salvage some of that wood (if even feasible) for benches, planters etc.

Not sure what other tips/recommendations I have, it been a long day and I havent smoked yet, haha. Let me sit on it and I will chime in. Good luck bro. keep us posted. Peace_highst

 

[Guest]

Awesome!

The concrete blockwork should help keep temps under control in there. A double skin roof would help even more but they're a PITA to make.

Paint the blocks white on outside if you are expecting a lot of heat.

Thermal stability. Got room to spare. All those old blocks lying around will create a nice thermal sink for inside your greenhouse. water's even better. I use a barrel of water in winter above ground inside my greehouse (44 gallons) plus the 130 odd gallon pond... Water is the best thermal sink.... Anyhoo, it heats up in the day and releases the heat at night. I remove the barrel in summer and put it outside in the shade then top up the pond with it as it is cooler than the water in the pond. I also have a crazy paving concrete floor. If you can do any of this, it's worth it.

As you are already familiar with greenhousing I won't need to go into - pest explosions - air circulation etc, or should I?

Pots can get too hot in my greenhouse I've had to grow some plants as shade so I can use the shade for potted plants. most plants are in my hydro (aquaponic) system though and so their feet are kept cooled by water flow.

Also, that pumphouse.....

You could use the pump to cool things down by circulating water in pipes in your greenhouse. You could do this or have, a waterfall over cloth and a fan on it. Very good evaporative cooling, but watch humidity!

Use or ignore anything you wish, question me at will.

 

[LORD BENIS]

Hamstring
Thanks man, I'm very lucky. Not even gonna bother fucking with those bolts and washers, just gonna drill holes big enough to lay a 4x4 over 'em.

DJ Highst
What's up man, good to hear from ya. Pretty sure all the wood is fucked, but that's OK because I bought a lot of wood for a greenhouse that never got built due to me finding this spot. May build some small benches about half way up the walls to increase light and air flow under the plants.

Bong Song

Awesome!
As you are already familiar with greenhousing I won't need to go into - pest explosions - air circulation etc, or should I?

Please do. I dig your whole aquaponic setup, nice job man. I've always thought about combining aquaponics with a bio-bucket set up. I ran bio-buckets in my greenhouse all year and never experienced any heat issues which impressed me. Hopefully the blocks and slab do keep it from heating up too much. I been hoarding a bunch of green pots, the black ones do get quite hot.

 

[Guest]

Ok, my pleasure.

Thanks for heads up on Aqua.

I just had my 1st feed of beans yesterday. Was too hot they wouldn't fruit only many lovely flowers so I grew em up to and out the windows. MMM, fresh beans 2 days later.

Insects in greenhousing. Two in particular - Aphids and Whitefly.

Both aphids and whitefly can survive the winter in greenhousing making spring time a veritable explosion of insects (and hardly any predators at this point).

The only way I've kept on top of these two species is by using Neem every 4th-5th day at dusk. The way to win the war is to spray all plants when they are small. Prevention! Now, you've done the plants....

Spray the doorway, on the ground, both sides. Spray the ground inside the greenhouse. Weed out any weeds and spray where they were. Do not shake out weeds inside the greenhouse - gently take em outside then bombard the ground they grew in.

I leave my windows and doors permanently open in Summer. A lot of interaction starts to happen with the insect population.

In spring plant sunflower/s a couple feet outside your door. Ants will actively remove many of the aphids in proximity from other plants and move them to the sunflower. This doesn't harm the sunflower, and does wonders in controlling aphids.

Ants in greenhouse? You betcha, they love it dry. Diatomaceous earth will deter them if they are problematic ie: carrying insects to your grow. Sprinkle this around the base of your pots.

Slugs and snails? Vaseline strips around pots slow them down but they sure are good at finding the one leaf touching the walls... Beer traps are excellent. A can with beer in it buried with the top at ground level. They drown in it. No worries. They'll go out singing and brawling!

Damp spots - avoid them if possible, they breed fungus gnats and other undesirables. The roof causes condensation and that's where the damp spots come from. Get in there at dawn to find them. These are potential trouble. Try keep your plants away from overly damp corners and keep them neemed.

Springtime, if you keep things open, can make or break things. Insect populations can grow so fast it's very important to keep the neem regime up especially on younger plants.

Now you should be in the garden looking on those trees for ladybirds. You need a bunch of them as it's their larvae that eat thrip aphid whitefly etc larvae so you want enough to start a gene pool. The neem doesn't harm them. Dont get ladybird imposters! Check local entomology charts and get the right ones.

Now find a pregnant preying mantis and install that on opposite side of ladybirds.

When these start to establish parasite wasps follow them in, but the wasps get trapped and die a lot, in the hot corners. The ladybird/mantis combo will slow insect populations right down and combined with neem you stand a very good chance of surviving the spring.

Caterpillars, moths, beetles and other larger type pests. Very hard to deal with. The neem makes the plants less tasty but shield bugs, some caterpillars etc still try to get a feed. As the wasps are not able to fly well in the greenhouse you must be the control agent of these too.

An electric bug zapper is definately helpful. As is an eye for damage control. If slugs and snails are being lured to drunken death the large holes in your plants are beetles and caterpillars. (plus snails leave evidence behind making the determination even easier!)

Basically, I got to try find the caterpillars and beetles, till the plants grow and enough shade develops, then the parasitic wasps finally get a chance to move in.

Wooly aphids arrive around the same time as the butterflies/moths. They are usually accompanied by lacewings. Lacewings are also your friends. Again check the charts you don't want to be killing these guys when you see them. They'll predate many pests young.

As you've probably experienced it is nigh impossible to get rid of all insects unless you make your greenhouse a toxic dump. So recruiting insects to be working with you is the way to win the war. The fact it is so hard to remove all pests works in your favour once the predators are all there, it keeps their populations alive.

Mites! - Get predator mites, I'm lucky, they breed in my beds feeding on the mites that live on algae. A sage plant will attract mites - and then predators. Worth trying away from grow and see if you can't attract your own predators.

Summing up - Springtime is the time to be ever vigilant. Summer is easier with insect assistance - regular (and thorough) neem does the trick.

By Autumn you should be flowering and so not spraying. With the right insect population installed you wont have to worry much at all.

Spiders will arrive early, and populate all over with many species. I like them in there, and they can deal with beetles and stuff neem doesn't deter that well. They don't do much really, but they certainly help in the big picture.

As soon as you harvest, drench the place again, strip out any and all weeds trying to grow on ground, up end anything touching ground and sides and check they aren't housing pests.

As you approach longest day - put in some beans for a l-o-n-g grow season and get in some neem supplies...


Air supply. Have windows/outlets at your highest point so the hot air rising can get out. Use an oscillating fan as it gets hotter to move air about and assist pollination if your planning to grow anything but MJ.

Again, a thermal sink helps combat excessive heat very well. concrete is 2nd best (gravel based) Water is best.

 

[tripples]

http://www.sammysuperscrew.com/sammyxpress.htm
you should find what you need to give you an idea as for what you need to hold those 2x4s down.. something like one that you hammer into your hole that youve drilled with your hammerdrill, it expands into the concrete when you hammer it down.. then on the other side of it you can get 3/8'' female threads which i think may extend above the concrete a 1/2'' or so.. 1/2'' holes in your 2x4s or whatever the outside diameter of those sammys are.. get yourself some 3/8'' all-thread.. cut that shit down to pieces maybe 6'' or something.. (tip) (if you put your nuts on the all thread before cutting it.. you can screw them down towards the cut end and it will clean up your chopped up threads..) now screw those into your sammys till they are tight.. now youve got around 6'' of threads coming up on top of your concrete.. lay your 2x4s on the concrete.. holes in your 2x4s should line up with your all thread coming up.. now put on your washers,, then screw your nuts down tight and waalaa.. your secured..
these sammys and all-thread should be available at your local plumbing supply store.. so while your there getting your irrigation supplies you can get these things as well..
also.. that extra 4" or whatever coming up above your 2x4s,, can make them longer, will give you something to put that pvc on to bend over for your roof.. i thought you said you were making a hoop roof.. just make sure you secure your pipes to the all thread somehow.. hate to see your roof blow off with a strong wind.. and thats all i have for now..

 

[LORD BENIS]

Excellent info BongSong. Prevention is the key indeed. I learned that the hard way in many aspects. I noticed that you didn't mention lady bugs; what's your opinion on them? Also, care at all to discuss a bio-bucket/aquaponic merger?

 

[LORD BENIS]

You too Tripples, ya beat me to the post.

 

[tripples]

gave the wrong info.. looks like you can get ones that screw into the concrete like a tapcon.. but i swore they had the ones you smacked into the crete with a hammer.. heres the link to the tapcon type http://www.sammysuperscrew.com/CST.htm
then youll need that big ass nut driver that they sell for a drill or you could just use a socket-ratchet

 

[Guest]

Hehe - stoner! - "Now you should be in the garden looking on those trees for ladybirds. You need a bunch of them as it's their larvae that eat thrip aphid whitefly etc larvae so you want enough to start a gene pool. The neem doesn't harm them. Dont get ladybird imposters! Check local entomology charts and get the right ones."


Bio Bucket Aquaponic merger?

Like this

He he. Been there done that wrote the book!

Here it is

Excuse me back there in my 'glory days' all puff and ego but a load of good stuff in between the slow decline. Read up the first few pages will tell you most of it then I'll tell you how to make it better. We could start a thread someplace so others can share the info with us.

 

[cashflowdub]

do you own the land?????

 

[LORD BENIS]

I wish

 

[DJ_highst_]

Damn bong song, that was a legit post! TONS of great info there. Props bro. I almost want to delete my post, hahaha. I learned so much from that post, thank you.

 

[Woody Creek]

aquaponic/bio buckets all the way. ever since seeing bio buckets that was my first thought. if your building from the ground up why not do it aquaponic.

 

[Woody Creek]

WITH ALL THAT SPACE YOU COULD REALLY MAKE SOME PONDS.

 

[Guest]

Woody is right but it's a big learning curve, especially going BIG (ish) straight off.

Fly me over, feed me and give me herb, I'll call it a holiday.

Note - also a builder.

Hehe, now, fantasy aside, and it's a very good one, and I would do that - where's the man?

Need inspiration, come back we'll post ya pot porn to drool over.

 

[LORD BENIS]

Still waiting for the county to lift the burn ban. It's getting really annoying, I hate bureaucratic bullshit. Oh well, I'll keep ya'll posted.

 

[LORD BENIS]

It begins.....

 

[tripples]

we dont need no water... let that mother fucker burn.. burn mother fucker.. burn