The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

[Backyard Farmer]

Best of luck Anonymous grow...Make those 12 count!!

 

[Shcrews]

in my opinion you're better off using your own formula and then finding a place to mix it for you, saving you lots of work.

if you buy a pre-mixed ...mix, with a formula 'they' make, they're going to be price gouging you in some way and then stuff you don't want to be in it is probably going to be in it, and even if they say 'this' is in it, not all amendments are created equal, pay attention to quality of the amendments. don't pay someone to come up with a formula for you, there are plenty of great formulas for soil mixes out there. this is how people get taken advantage of imo.

I've heard quotes as low as $2 per yard to mix 'your' mix, so have them deliver your peat, aeration such as lava rock, perlite etc, and high quality compost. (i'm using diestel) to the mixing site that you find. then choose your amendments, I posted the mix we're doing this year a couple pages back.

here it is again, I don't think you can go wrong with this one, similar to the CC mix but with some slight changes.

30% sphagnum peat
30% lava rock
30% high quality compost
10% top soil, this you may or may not do, if you're going to have it mixed at a place then this'll probably have to be screened to filter out rocks, I'd contact whatever place you find about this.

for amendments we went with:

1/2 cup neem meal, neemresource.com
1/2 cup kelp meal, Down-to-earth
1/2 cup crab meal, Down-to-earth
1/2 cup gypsum
1/2 cup oyster shell flour

4 cup rock dust, contact thomas vanacore at rockdustlocal, he knows a good hookup for rock dust in california.

that's the amounts per cubic foot, there are 27 cubic feet in a yard.

if you're on a tight budget you can use karanja meal which is slightly cheaper than neem and also probably cut back the rock dust to 2 cups/cu ft.

quoting this post again because we are ordering our soil on monday and i'm still trying to decide on a final mix. We copied Boobs' mix of equal parts (1/3) lava rock, peat, and compost

The soil place doesn't have diestel compost for another 2 weeks, so I am trying to decide between another compost that is chicken manure and rice hulls, or EWC which is probably more expensive. What should we go with?

also i cut the amendments from boobs' mix in half because we dont' have time to let the soil cook. Good idea? The only amendment they don't have is neem meal, so we either have to do without, or buy it ourselves and bring it to the soil mixing place. is it worth it to get the neem meal?

if somebody could answer these questions i would really appreciate it. thanks !


cheers..

 

[Little Hill]

I've done active venting much like nomad has described. Snaked ducting make good light traps. Now because of the location of my greenhouses I pull the cover between 530 and 6 pm because the sun is off it and pull it off after dark. This works better than the actively venting as far a keeping mold at bay near harvest. Idealy I would use a combination of the two but don't want to feed the genny more than I already do.

 

[HorseMouth]

Agreed with Little Hill, if you are battling super moist/humid environment then the double pull is in order. If you are close to your house, and only need a little electricity then an extension cord and a de-humidifier might help.

In the desert where I live there is almost zero humidity in the air, but the wind, oh Lord the wind!.

My early Ladies are getting battered right now by strong sustained gusts.

Peace

 

[Backyard Farmer]

You all know I like to play around with foliar sprays , one mix I'm really liking right now is

4 grams Ferti Nitro Plant Plus N
Kelp
1 gram Epsom Salt
3.5 gram Ferti-Humate Fulvic Acid
2 gram Albion Calcium with Boron
1 fl oz Pepzyme
1/2 tsp Yucca

 

[ponobegone]

might have to tune this up a lil, im gonna check it in the morning for light leaks ect. its set up on the other end of the greeny too.

 

[calientecarlos]

frig sweet pono nice work bud!!

 

[chef]

Damn Gophers!

 

[grow nerd]

Calcium-25 is getting popular and becoming more difficult to find in-stock it seems.

chef, how big are the holes?

 

[chef]

30" auger, 24-30 deep. I'll roto around the outside too.

 

[anonymousgrow]

I'm thinking 3 yard mounds with 15 foot plant spacing. 4 yards? Planter beds? We are getting a late start and it's a rental so I don't know if will be used again next season. What would you do if you were just starting to build your garden now and you can only run 12.

 

[Backyard Farmer]

If it was a rental and I didn't know if I would be going back I would do,100 gal smarties and shoot for 3 per,

I'd also do 4 plants in the pot.

 

[anonymousgrow]

That was my initial thought but I am thinking that even if I don't go back to that spot that the extra dirt may pay for itself.

 

[ponobegone]

i planted 2 sour ds in 600s last season on june 26th and they weren't super healthy and still pulled 6# each. i think never getting close to rootbound helped. how nice are your starts?

 

[Hash Man]

Had to test my cuts out in this tiny greenhouse. On day 35 and exploding. Some green crack, platinum cookie, and mango haze.



Im going with cuts instead of seeds this year so i can get more consistent batches of comb.



I will post up some pics once everything gets moved up to the hill. Hope all u guys n gals do great this year.

I have a jar of calcium 25 that is 3 yrs old. U think it is still good?

 

[nomaad]

lol. 3 year old ca25... lol... i have one too.

ponolovesyou... is that an intake or exhaust pictured?

 

[nomaad]

i can't remember which way vortex fans blow based on shape, but if that's an intake, you might want to raise it further from the ground or its going to suck a lot of dirt into your hoop house. Even if its filtered, no reason to pump your filters full of crap.

If its an exhaust... moot point.

Also, that ducting is super reflective. They make the same stuff with a black non-reflective lining. Much better suited to this application.

 

[ponobegone]

ya its sucking in some crap im going to make a postal box intake for it. i also had to lay some wood over the duct cuz i crushed it a few times pulling tarp.

 

[Hash Man]

ya its sucking in some crap im going to make a postal box intake for it. i also had to lay some wood over the duct cuz i crushed it a few times pulling tarp.

Honestly man u may not nned the fans in the hoop house. I stopped using them last year and never noticed any issues. If it was a real gh u would need it, but if you are just pulling the tarp overnight, it seems like the plants like the humidity boost. Insulated ducting may work better, and they do make filters to put before your intake so u wont have that dust problem.

 

[Backyard Farmer]

Here's what I uncovered today...

Like I said..That neem cake makes it go nuts!