[hogan400]

been gettin down for yrs indoors in the medical circles in portland, and this year my group and i have decided to do a 30x64 cold frame. the plan is to provide enough medicine to last us.... start in the cold frame, peel of the top thru the nice summer months. then in sept close it off and finish em up under lights w generators. its northern and semi coastal so i have concerns about mold and finishing up early...

cindy99 and shiva skunk. fairly proven in this area but very nervous since the outdoor program is new to me!

we have good sun exp, apprx 10 hrs a day. i followed the backcountry site prep to a T.

great water, we have a lg natural spring yr round...tds and ph are so very nice!

150 gallon smart pots, working out our soil mix now.... roots x ff ocean forest 2:3 plus some minor additions.

got a new honda pump on the way as well as a decent back pack sprayer.

what i need is your input..... and i will post pictures and return the favor. i have very good indoor exp as i been at this for many yrs, just never once tried something in the wild.

i really am worried about my soil mix, and dont trust the local yardage providers to drop me some mix so i figure better to spend the extra and have decent quality.

[bikhomes]

I'm curious:

I've seen pot sizes for some grows jump up by huge amounts, before it was 5 gallons on a 4 month run, maybe 15-20 on a full season. Now it's 100+ gallon pots on single plants. Is the big increase due to organics and the need for enough soil mass for biological activity to continue? I stepped out of the scene for awhile so this has been a surprising change to see.

Good luck, following this one.

[Bob Jones]

I'm down in the Eugene area and that's pretty much what I do. I cover the house in the Spring, then about June when it starts to get warm I take the roof off and let the pure sun in. I leave sides on up to 6' or so for privacy but the top is open. About October 1 I'll put the roof back on to keep the rain off. It's worked well for me. Last year I had some plants that didn't finish until the end of November and they did OK with no additional lighting.

[Rose56]

I tend to mix a bag of good soil, earthworm casing, bat guano, perlite and verlite which has worked great for me.

[hogan400]

thank you, i have been very busy and feeling behind schedule. broke my thumb and it has slowed me for a week. the house has arrived and i will be receiving the soil and smartys next week. lots to do......tell ya what, ima be updating some pics next week after we get side posts in.

bikhomes, the lg pots are also new to me other than i use tens indoors. i guess thats prob more medium but the smart pots allow you to push em a little. one of the best upgrades i ever did indoors, also takes the guess work out of working holes and digging. 24 100 gallon pots are about 450.00 and that sounds better than diggin some holes! it also does allow the roots more space to grow and stretch out thus giving you larger spread plants and more control over the root zone.

bob jones, thank you, im super worried about the end. was thinking about closing it in entirely......adding heat, fans, and a burner just in case. is that going too far?

rose56, ima add perlite, some castings, gypsum and some a-z for just in case. sounds good to me.

we have a team of knowledgeable friends and old schools where im at. they all have some nice barns to transfer theirs into! jealousy at its finest, hahaha. gotta make it happen this yr. anyone hear about calcium25 or brix mix? whats the scoop?

[hogan400]

still major rain, were level and waiting some dry days to have rock delivered. the camera got left at the fams house, getting one asap! after all the clearing and leveling of the ground its a damn mess out there. we need rock and our local pit does not open for another week cuz of this rain!!!

on another note our full time camper has made permanent residence and he is a workhorse....were expecting a break in the sun this week and i sure hope we can drill these holes and install our sidewalls. the ladies are nice and eager to go. im thinking 3rd week in may now given my setbacks.

happy growing everyone.

[Bob Jones]

Don't stress over the timing. I've learned that it doesn't make all that much difference as at least here it's still cool, overcast and damp. The outdoor plants aren't growing all that fast and once it warms up and the sun gets intense they'll grow so fast that you'll never notice a couple of week difference in getting them out. Most of my plants are sitting inside under the veg lights as they'll grow at least twice as fast as they would outside. I just have some moms that are getting too big for the veg room that have been put outside, they're doing fine but not growing real fast. Just remember that you have all of June and July then into August for the plants to veg under the bright sun and warm weather.

I've grown a number of varieties in my greenhouse and have always averaged at least a pound per plant with some plants around two so no worries on ending up with enough smoke for the year. Don't know what you're doing for nutes but it won't take long to realize that you'll go broke buying hydro nutes for big outdoor plants when you're watering 20 gallons a day. I must admit I do it the easy way (at least for me). I fill up 5 gallon buckets with water, add about 2 teaspoons of good old 16-16-16 plus a dose of micronutrient solution and a teaspoon of epsom salts, then let them sit for a day before using to let the chlorine evaporate off. It's worked great for me over the years and is cheap and easy. I mix some dolomitic lime in with the soil at the start of the year and that helps with the calcium and adds some magnesium but they always seem to end up short without the epsom salts. Soil is just a mix of good quality potting soil and compost plus steer manure and coir to open it up.

Good luck.

[hogan400]

thank you for waiting as we have been very busy here. here are some photos of the muck and mess we had to start off in....



as you can see its been rainy here and we have only been able to work on the semi dry days.....

[hogan400]

our water here smells of rotten eggs, which as i know means we have sulfur gas trapped in the water. its a spring well, and remains full, yr round. we have a creek a little further away but this only runs until aug. i have been doing a lot of research and cant find anything to suggest this is bad for plants. everything around this is very healthy as well so i hope some of you can give me any info you have or think?

and some more pre leveling property pictures, and what not.

[hogan400]

now for the work we have completed in a fairly short amount of time.

32, 3 ft deep 12" holes. hand mixing of of 64 60lb bags of concrete. the leveling, and squaring of the green house, along with the filling and leveling of each pole. then the lifting of the bows, blah blah blah..... damn, my back and shoulders still hurt! loading, and then unloading 3 pallets of soil. luckily my partner "farmer j" we shall call him hand mixed our 2:1 ratio of fox farms ocean forest to light warrior along with some additional worm casts to give the ladies a nitrogen boost. right now the containers are siting in the rain this week getting some rinse time before we drop the ladies in. hopefully soon. im startin to stress this wet spring, having never done the outdoor program before.

im considering adding some bone meal and a-z along with some additional lime, and maybe more goodies.