Colombian Andes Greenhouse SIP CBD Auto Grow

[cbdhemp808]

Ahhhhh, ok!!
Thank you, Stone!
Yeah, creek water is still natural. (It is just rainwater that has slid sideways.)
I have to go for right now, but I hope to be back tomorrow.
I ordered the test kits, and we will track down soil sampling here.
Thanks!!

Creeks are fed by water moving through a watershed, and I think this typically involves many inputs from surface flows and subsurface flows (springs). So, I'm guessing the water has high mineral content. Easy enough to check with a TDS pen. Rainwater captured straight from the sky into a tank is much different.

 

[CBDMed]

Creeks are fed by water moving through a watershed, and I think this typically involves many inputs from surface flows and subsurface flows (springs). So, I'm guessing the water has high mineral content. Easy enough to check with a TDS pen. Rainwater captured straight from the sky into a tank is much different.

No, you are right. That's right. (And if it passes over pastureland it can even have nasties in it, although ours reads zero coliforms.)

I ordered a TDS pen. I imagine it will get here right after the NPK test kits.
The only soil testing is through the local university. However, Colombia pretty much shuts down for December and the first week of January, so the NPK test kits are really the thing. Thank you, @cbdhemp808 !

So we can do the rapid test, and that will probably get it in the ballpark, and then we can see how they go from there.

We found coco coir yesterday, and also "coco-pine", which is what the local city pot nursery gardener uses for his grows. Next time to go to the city I can ask him, and talk with him about local soils and such, and see what he does.
I know nothing about coco yet. I hope to ask him why he likes coco-pine.

In the meantime, I wanted to stick with what is cheap and local natural source as much as possible.
So, speaking of NPK, @Azimuth 's recipes are a hit!
We got blessed with a referral for a reliable constructor.
He has not done a greenhouse before, but he is an organic gardener.
His son is helping him, and they are they are figuring it out.
We had a talk yesterday about ventilation.
Today is a welcome sunny day after a wet week, so it will get hot on the roof, and then he can see what I was talking about, about the need to ventilate both sides up high.
He seems very humble and reliable, and he suggested bamboo, because he knows a friend who sources it to him for cheap. So we say yes please!! Haha!!!!

He is an organic gardener himself, and we were talking plants.
I showed him a jar of @Azimuth's and @Emilya Green 's banana peel tea (I am sure there is a technical term for them, but I learned it from them, haha!)
Three banana peels (or plantains half the time, haha!) and a teaspoon of worm castings, and then top with de-chlorinated water, cover, wait three weeks, and voila!!
(Well, after only three weeks they look nasty, but this one was older, and all of the nasty furry stuff had long since fallen to the bottom....)
I told him it was organic P for bloom and he lit up and smiled.
Then he asked me what to do for organic N, for his avocado tree.
I showed him Azi's fish-and-wormcastings in water tea, 1:25 dilution, and told him it was just fish guts and a teaspoon of worm castings in water, and they were very happy.
There are trout farms here, so they can get fish guts easy.
So now I am thinking about gift jars with simple instructions plastic-taped on the lid, with maybe a quick warning that Roundup causes cancer.
Thanks for the recipes, @Azimuth and @Emilya Green !
I hope he tells all his friends. And I hope organic takes off in this valley. Because no one it warning them against the dangers of Roundup, etc.

(Oh, and, I was told that you can plant sugar cane in this valley, in a greenhouse. It won't grow wild, but it will grow.)
Anyway, it is great to see the temporary bamboo greenhouse frame starting to go up! Aleluyah!~~~

I would've built it differently than that, but I did not want to crowd him.
It is a father-son team, and I am sure they will figure it out.
He was a referral, I am sure he and his son can figure it out at least good enough for temporary. (And then next time I will specify the design.)
He took the small coca plant also. He likes native organic herbs and things.
Got to go. They are here.

 

[Azimuth]

Three banana peels (or plantains half the time, haha!) and a teaspoon of worm castings, and then top with de-chlorinated water, cover, wait three weeks, and voila!!
(Well, after only three weeks they look nasty, but this one was older, and all of the nasty furry stuff had long since fallen to the bottom....)
I told him it was organic P for bloom and he lit up and smiled.

Probably more like K for his plants, but some P in there as well.

 

[CBDMed]

Probably more like K for his plants, but some P in there as well.

Oh!
Thank you for letting me know!
But if it is mostly K, then should it be added for root growth also?
(I can see I will have to test it when the test kits get here.)

Also, do you perhaps have a recipe for P ?

 

[CBDMed]

Ok, this is a Purple Kush auto.
Are those fan leaves, or sugar leaves? (Or some of each?)

And since they are filling up with trichromes, do I leave 'em? Or cut them off so the light can hit directly on the buds themselves?

 

[Cide Hamete Benengeli]

Hola from the Colombian Andes!

I am in the Colombian Andes, and we are in a small town similar to Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.

Buen Carnaval por allá...

Hola desde la Sierra Morena ibérica.

 

[InTheShed]

Ok, this is a Purple Kush auto.
Are those fan leaves, or sugar leaves? (Or some of each?)
And since they are filling up with trichromes, do I leave 'em? Or cut them off so the light can hit directly on the buds themselves?

If they have trichomes they are automatically "sugar" leaves! Always leave them on.

 

[CBDMed]

If they have trichomes they are automatically "sugar" leaves! Always leave them on.

Thanks, Shed!

 

[CBDMed]

Buen Carnaval por allá...

Hola desde la Sierra Morena ibérica.

Hola Cide!
Soy muy religioso, pero muchas gracias.
¿Cómo está todo en la Sierra Morena Ibérica?

 

[Azimuth]

Also, do you perhaps have a recipe for P ?

Plants don't need all that much P at least compared to K, but a bit of a bump up in flower is called for.

For P, I make what I call my Fruit & Flower JLF. And it is exactly that, fruits and flowers of various plants.

Fill your container half way with water, add a bit of leaf mold soil or worm castings and then add your f&f until full, and cover.

Master Cho says the best fertilizers for strawberries come from the fruit of other strawberries. So it would stand to reason that the best fertilizer for canna are the flowers of other canna plants.

I don't know about you but "not in my house!" I'm not using perfectly good buds to make another crop feel better about itself. So I do what I consider the next best thing.

I use the flowers of plants with large flowers since that's what I want to encourage, so peony, daylily, hydrangea, things like that.

And I use a variety of the fruits including apple (high levels of Ca), banana (high levels of K), strawberry, cucumber, grape, pumpkin, squash, tomato etc. including the skins, or I should say especially the skins.

Ok, this is a Purple Kush auto.
Are those fan leaves, or sugar leaves? (Or some of each?)

You'd have to back the camera up a bit but those are mostly sugar leaves. The fans will stand on their own apart from the flower on a longish stalk.

And since they are filling up with trichromes, do I leave 'em? Or cut them off so the light can hit directly on the buds themselves?

You leave them. Some growers will trim them off after harvest and make edibles or hash etc with them.

 

[CBDMed]

Master Cho says the best fertilizers for strawberries come from the fruit of other strawberries. So it would stand to reason that the best fertilizer for canna are the flowers of other canna plants.
I don't know about you but "not in my house!"

Amén!

I'm not using perfectly good buds to make another crop feel better about itself.

So I do what I consider the next best thing.
I use the flowers of plant with large flowers since that's what I want to encourage, so peony, daylily, hydrangea, things like that.

And I use a variety of the fruits including apple (high levels of Ca), banana (high levels of K), strawberry, cucumber, grape, pumpkin, squash, etc. including the skins, or should I say especially the skins.

Oohhh, interesting!
I hope I will get time to learn about all of those eventually!

You'd have to back the camera up a bit but those are mostly sugar leaves. The fans will stand on their own apart from the flower on a longish stalk.
You leave them. Some growers will trim them off after harvest and make edibles or hash etc with them.

Thank you, Azi!

 

[CBDMed]

I just realized that with this rooftop greenhouse, I am up above the security lights.
There is a liiittle bit of light from the neighboring houses, but not too much.
My camera was set to auto-flash, so I left it (but without the flash it seems pretty dark up there).
Would this much light cause problems for photos in flower? (Because the moon seems brighter than the street lights...

Without the flash, everything in the foreground was all a dark gray.
(No way could I read up there without a light. Not like the last place.)

If I start the photos in the nursery, that heats the house--and then can I bring the waist-high girls up to the rooftop, to flower?
(I think @Buds Buddy said he flips his when they get about waist high, but I have to check.)

They will be fun to harden off, because the door to the rooftop is only 4' high--so I will have to bring them up to the roof before they no longer fit through the doorway. But if I could play it that way, then I can let the sun do part of the work.

 

[Azimuth]

I just realized that with this rooftop greenhouse, I am up above the security lights.
There is a liiittle bit of light from the neighboring houses, but not too much.
My camera was set to auto-flash, so I left it (but without the flash it seems pretty dark up there).
Would this much light cause problems for photos in flower? (Because the moon seems brighter than the street lights...

Without the flash, everything in the foreground was all a dark gray.
(No way could I read up there without a light. Not like the last place.)

If I start the photos in the nursery, that heats the house--and then can I bring the waist-high girls up to the rooftop, to flower?
(I think @Buds Buddy said he flips his when they get about waist high, but I have to check.)

They will be fun to harden off, because the door to the rooftop is only 4' high--so I will have to bring them up to the roof before they no longer fit through the doorway. But if I could play it that way, then I can let the sun do part of the work.

Probably will be fine. Only one way to find out!

 

[cbdhemp808]

No, you are right. That's right. (And if it passes over pastureland it can even have nasties in it, although ours reads zero coliforms.)

Any agricultural land may introduce various toxins, such as pesticides, herbicides (e.g. Roundup), fungicides, etc. Not to mention nitrates and heavy metals.

We found coco coir yesterday, and also "coco-pine", which is what the local city pot nursery gardener uses for his grows. Next time to go to the city I can ask him, and talk with him about local soils and such, and see what he does.
I know nothing about coco yet. I hope to ask him why he likes coco-pine.

I googled that, and it appears to be ground up pine bark. pH is between 4.0 and 5.0, so it's acidic. Coco coir is 5.7 – 6.5. Can you confirm if the coir you found is pre-washed?

I recommend coir because it's already in the right pH range. If you are blending it into a soil mix, I don't think buffering is necessary. I don't buffer mine.

Anyway, it is great to see the temporary bamboo greenhouse frame starting to go up! Aleluyah!~~~

Assuming you are not going to use any PVC hoops...

Stretching greenhouse plastic over a flat roof frame like that is going to be tricky. The frame needs enough of a slope on it, and enough support in the middle, and the plastic needs to be tightly connected to the edges. Otherwise you'll get water pooling up between the rafters. In a hard rain, this can cause a big pool, and the weight can bring the whole structure down and/or break the plastic sheeting.

If you did use PVC hoops in addition, that could work nicely...

(you can read more about it here, and the subsequent replies.)

 

[cbdhemp808]

You could put up a screen of dense shade cloth to block this light.

 

[Cide Hamete Benengeli]

Hola Cide!
Soy muy religioso, pero muchas gracias.
¿Cómo está todo en la Sierra Morena Ibérica?

El invierno ya está aquí, y cada vez hace más frío. Este año se perdió la práctica totalidad de la cosecha de aceituna (el principal recurso económico de muchas familias en mi Sierra; deberíamos empezar a recolectarla ahora) durante unas olas de calor sahariano que tuvimos a final de primavera y principio de verano, y me temo que para much@s este sea un invierno de estrecheces...
Yo por mi parte coseché mi última sativa (un hibrido entre congoleña y sudafricana) el pasado miércoles 7 de Diciembre: no tengo aceituna este año, pero al menos no me faltará la ganja...

Oye, "paisa"...: Haz caso a lo que te dice @cbdhemp808 sobre la necesidad de que el techo de tu invernadero tenga pendiente para desaguar: o bien con una curva o bien en forma de pico triangular. Si no, se te hunde el chiringuito con las primeras lluvias, y más como supongo debe llover en tu zona.
Si durante tu época de cultivo no hace mucho frío, yo más que un invernadero ponía un simple techo (pero con su pendiente para desaguar) para la lluvia; pero eso lo valorarás tú mejor.

Salud y suerte.


Winter is here, and it's getting colder. This year practically the entire olive harvest (the main economic resource of many families in my Sierra; we should start harvesting it now) was lost during some Saharan heat waves that we had at the end of spring and beginning of summer, and I fear this be a winter of straits for many...
For my part, I harvested my last sativa (a hybrid between Congolese and South African) last Wednesday, December 7: I don't have any olives this year, but at least I won't lack ganja...

Hey, "paisa"...: Pay attention to what @cbdhemp808 tells you about the need for the roof of your greenhouse to have a slope to drain: either with a curve or in the shape of a triangular peak. If not, the beach bar sinks with the first rains, and more as I suppose it must rain in your area.
If during your growing season it is not very cold, I would put a simple roof more than a greenhouse (but with its slope to drain) for the rain; but you will appreciate that better.

Health and luck.

 

[Buds Buddy]

I just realized that with this rooftop greenhouse, I am up above the security lights.
There is a liiittle bit of light from the neighboring houses, but not too much.
My camera was set to auto-flash, so I left it (but without the flash it seems pretty dark up there).
Would this much light cause problems for photos in flower? (Because the moon seems brighter than the street lights...

Without the flash, everything in the foreground was all a dark gray.
(No way could I read up there without a light. Not like the last place.)

If I start the photos in the nursery, that heats the house--and then can I bring the waist-high girls up to the rooftop, to flower?
(I think @Buds Buddy said he flips his when they get about waist high, but I have to check.)

They will be fun to harden off, because the door to the rooftop is only 4' high--so I will have to bring them up to the roof before they no longer fit through the doorway. But if I could play it that way, then I can let the sun do part of the work.

I try to keep my plants 3' - 4' tall & 3' or more wide. So once they are LST'd to the end of the pot I let them grow upwards about 16" - 18" & then flip to 12/12. I seem to be getting right around 1-lb. per plant this way. But, that's also with feeding my buckets twice per day during flower.

 

[CBDMed]

Any agricultural land may introduce various toxins, such as pesticides, herbicides (e.g. Roundup), fungicides, etc. Not to mention nitrates and heavy metals.

Siiii.....
It will be great to get to our own property, so we can be sure about the water.

I googled that, and it appears to be ground up pine bark. pH is between 4.0 and 5.0, so it's acidic.

Ahh, ok. Thanks!

Coco coir is 5.7 – 6.5. Can you confirm if the coir you found is pre-washed?

I wish I could. The bags have no markings.
I had to write to ask if it is coco or coco-pine (no markings).
So I will probably have to wash it.

I recommend coir because it's already in the right pH range. If you are blending it into a soil mix, I don't think buffering is necessary. I don't buffer mine.

Good to know.

Assuming you are not going to use any PVC hoops...

Big sigh....
Do you ever have one of those lives where things don't always go as you envisioned (haha)?
I thought to do a simple hoop house like I had before, except in 3/4" PVC instead of 1/2", and then support it real good to the sidewall.
However, I am swimming in work, and don't begin to have time to do everything myself, so we got a referral for a reliable man who could help with many things around the house (including the greenhouse).
He wanted to build in bamboo, so I let him.
It was that or build it myself.
Some nights I don't get sleep (or not much sleep), so what I needed was to hand it off.
Now I am paying for that.

Stretching greenhouse plastic over a flat roof frame like that is going to be tricky. The frame needs enough of a slope on it, and enough support in the middle, and the plastic needs to be tightly connected to the edges. Otherwise you'll get water pooling up between the rafters. In a hard rain, this can cause a big pool, and the weight can bring the whole structure down and/or break the plastic sheeting.

I know what you are saying. I have seen that kind of stretching before.
If that is not enough slope on the roof, then I am not sure how to fix the situation.
I can ask him if such hoops would be beneficial, but I am sure he had a different design idea, and I am not sure how to implement hoops at this point.
Let me print this picture out, and see what he says.

If you did use PVC hoops in addition, that could work nicely...

(you can read more about it here, and the subsequent replies.)

I like your suggestion.
I think we can implement that when we get to the property.
You are saying this will definitely have a problem unless there is more slope, or more support? :[

 

[CBDMed]

El invierno ya está aquí, y cada vez hace más frío. Este año se perdió la práctica totalidad de la cosecha de aceituna (el principal recurso económico de muchas familias en mi Sierra; deberíamos empezar a recolectarla ahora) durante unas olas de calor sahariano que tuvimos a final de primavera y principio de verano, y me temo que para much@s este sea un invierno de estrecheces...
Yo por mi parte coseché mi última sativa (un hibrido entre congoleña y sudafricana) el pasado miércoles 7 de Diciembre: no tengo aceituna este año, pero al menos no me faltará la ganja...

Oye, "paisa"...: Haz caso a lo que te dice @cbdhemp808 sobre la necesidad de que el techo de tu invernadero tenga pendiente para desaguar: o bien con una curva o bien en forma de pico triangular. Si no, se te hunde el chiringuito con las primeras lluvias, y más como supongo debe llover en tu zona.
Si durante tu época de cultivo no hace mucho frío, yo más que un invernadero ponía un simple techo (pero con su pendiente para desaguar) para la lluvia; pero eso lo valorarás tú mejor.

Salud y suerte.

¡Hola Sierra!
La agricultura es muy arriesgada, a su manera. ¡Siento mucho lo de tus aceitunas! Espero que todo sea bueno para ti.
¡Es bueno que al menos tengas ganja!

Sobre el techo plano, puedo imprimir la imagen y mostrársela.
He visto otros invernaderos de bambú y plástico de techo plano en el área similares a este, así que cuando lo sugirió, no me resistí.
Pero hablaré con él al respecto.
¿Estás seguro de que este techo plano no lo logrará?
¿Y hay alguna forma de reforzarlo con horizontales?
Tiene que durar alrededor de un año.
Salud y provisión.

Winter is here, and it's getting colder. This year practically the entire olive harvest (the main economic resource of many families in my Sierra; we should start harvesting it now) was lost during some Saharan heat waves that we had at the end of spring and beginning of summer, and I fear this be a winter of straits for many...
For my part, I harvested my last sativa (a hybrid between Congolese and South African) last Wednesday, December 7: I don't have any olives this year, but at least I won't lack ganja...

Hey, "paisa"...: Pay attention to what @cbdhemp808 tells you about the need for the roof of your greenhouse to have a slope to drain: either with a curve or in the shape of a triangular peak. If not, the beach bar sinks with the first rains, and more as I suppose it must rain in your area.
If during your growing season it is not very cold, I would put a simple roof more than a greenhouse (but with its slope to drain) for the rain; but you will appreciate that better.

Health and luck.

Hi Sierra!
Farming is very risky, in its own way. I am very sorry to hear about your olives! I hope everything will be good for you.
It is good that at least you have ganja!

About the flat roof, I can print out the picture and show it to him.
I have seen other flattish-roof bamboo-and-plastic greenhouses in the area similar to this, so when he suggested it, I did not balk.
But I will talk with him about it.
You are sure this flat of a roof won't make it?
And is there any way to reinforce it with horizontals?
It needs to last for about one year.
I wish you health and provision.

 

[CBDMed]

I try to keep my plants 3' - 4' tall & 3' or more wide. So once they are LST'd to the end of the pot I let them grow upwards about 16" - 18" & then flip to 12/12. I seem to be getting right around 1-lb. per plant this way. But, that's also with feeding my buckets twice per day during flower.

Ahh, ok. Perfect!

Thanks, @Buds Buddy ~!
Still praying for your wife.