[bigbadbiddy]

I think I will have to make a special winter crop that finishes flower between December/January in the Greenhouses and drop the temps artificially. Or use a sealed, air conditioned room that I will have as a staging area and for mums etc. and artificially reduce temps there via a/c in order to get anything to purple.

But autos? On a farm? Really? I mean sure, if I have a farm I will get some fem and auto seeds and play with them since I will have the space and no limitations of plant count etc.
But to actually farm them in the fields? Why would I do that??

Maybe as a rough visualisation/idea of what I have in mind:
Check out brownguy420 on youtube. I know he just left there and people say he "failed" and stuff but as a general conceptualization/layout of the farm, that is more or less what I had in mind. Smaller scale though.
A sealed, air conditioned room or two in the house (or build a special shed for that or sth) that I use as a staging area for seedlings and clones, as well as keeping mums and doing some indoor growing/experimentation/seed making.
A large Greenhouse to use as the vegging area. That will be semi-controlled environment with air intake and outflow being regulated with fans etc. and heating elements in place to bridge the november-february time where temps could drop.
One or two Greenhouses for flowering and then a large field for the outdoor crop that gets transplanted outdoors in the spring.

I am not sure if I should use large fabric pots/raised beds or plant directly into the fields yet. I think the soil analysis will give the final verdict here.

Another great benefit is that solar is cheap there and I will be able to run the whole farm from solar power and be autonomous in that regard. Even in the winter there will be enough sun to power everything (most likely, I still have to run those calculations).

[exploziv]

Originally Posted by bigbadbiddy

Good info.

Question though:
If I look for a strip of land that has been used for tomato cultivation for say 10 years. That would be an indicator that cannabis will do well there as well. Makes sense.
But wouldn't the fact that tomatoes were cultivated there for 10 years mean that the fields are depleted of nutrients and likely have a lot of salt buildups due to heavy fertilization that likely occurred to compensate?

In that line of thinking, wouldn't it be more advisable to go for a field where tomatoes were cultivated 20 years ago and the last 10 years they grew peaches? My thought would be that the peaches would have allowed the soil to recuperate with regard to nutrients for tomatoes and other heavy feeders.

Catch my drift? Thoughts?

I was talking more about what's growing in the area than to what is growing on the exact piece of land. You can find out from the soil test if you got enaugh nutes to grow weed and a good ph and you can then know what you got to add to make it better.
Also, keep in mind that you buy a piece of land that has been used for regularar farming, with chem pesticides and mineral nutes, there ia a time period that you need to wait for before you can consider your crop to be organical. Especially with cannabis that is a bioacumulator and will absorb many things from the soil. Best bet wold be to work on the farm soil while you grow in soil mix and beds for a while. Hemp would be a nice crop to use to try to clean some of the pesticides and heavy metals from the soil. Then another soiltest, and you add organic matter and ammendaments and you start growing weed.

[bigbadbiddy]

Nice exploziv, great feedback.

The valley grows a lot of peaches and apples aye but also a lot of tomatoes etc. etc.

If I don't mix up something here, I was told that they farm peach trees whenever possible as that is apparently the cash crop in the area. They grow/harvest them for 7 year intervals and then remove them from their fields (shallow rooters) and plant tomatoes and the like for a while and then after a few years plant another field of peach trees. Or so I was told.

But there are definitely peach fields next to rice, tomato etc. fields. and then they swap around..


The hint with raised beds was great and I had considered that before and it could be a great way around my worry of the soil being burdened by mineral/chemical nutes and overfertilization for a long time.
Just use raised beds with my soil mix and work some cover crops and the like into the fields, then till them after a year or so and work my soil mix in there and then plant into that soil in season 2 or 3. Sounds like a good plan to me and this way I don't have to worry too much about the soil itself aside from heavy metal pollution and the like.

[h.h.]

I'd take an old peach/apple orchard.
Deeper roots mining minerals.
Wood.
Leaf mulch.

Tomatoes are famous for nematodes. Apples and peaches can suffer as well.You may look for a less nematode friendly cover crop. Put down some clear plastic and sun bake them.

With the short winter, you could veg plants inside, then depending, put them out until around May so they finish flower before the summer solstice.

Are you going to use the same plot year after year or can you rotate?
Security. Local kids can be like mice.

Spend the night. There may be a hidden dog kennel next door.

[Easy7]

If I had tropical land and could have a free for all grow method. I would not do indoor at all. I would work on breeding tropical and stable varieties. There is not a whole lot of tropical strains on the market. There is to start but why not extend that collection?

[Lester Beans]

Hopefully Slownickel will chime in. If not shoot him a pm. This question is right in his wheelhouse.

When I bought my farm it was from my family so I knew the land. Easy for me.



For sure a complete soil and water test is a must.

[bigbadbiddy]

Thanks Lester, I will shoot slownickel a PM, great help!

@hh

I will likely be able to rotate between two fields. It'll be about an acre of land, a bit more. So that should afford enough space for everything including a 2 field rotation.

Currently favoring the idea of having raised beds or large fabric pots for the first year, while I treat the barren field with cover crops, till it and then work my soil mix into it the second year and plant in that soil, in the meantime treat field 1 the same way and rotate the following year. Sound good?

I have avoided looking at peach orchards so far because I wouldn't want to bother with removing all those trees from my field. That sounds like a lot of extra work and cost for no (to me) discernable benefit.
Same reason why I look at plots that already have an asphalt road and don't really like the ones that only have dirt road.
If I can skip road construction costs, I think that will be very good. Plus the fields with already existing asphalt road connection are not more expensive than the ones with dirt roads at all.

Regarding security, I was considering a full fence around my property (wall is likely too expensive) with cameras along the fence line and then a large post around the middle of the property with cameras that watch the other cameras. Then some guard dogs patrolling the property. Sounds right?

@Easy7
I only want to do the mums, seedlings, clones thing indoors but figured if I already make a room for that, I might as well make a second to play in. I like the ability to completely control the environment and believe that it allows for better testing of methods and the like than outdoors where other factors play a role. Also I imagine it is much easier to make seeds and be sure which plant pollinates which, indoors. If for example I want to test several males for future breeding stock, I figured the best way would be to take say 5 select female keepers and then say 3 select males for testing and dust each of the females with pollen from each of the males (individual branches dusted and labeled).

This way I would be able to directly compare the progeny of each female and male combination the upcoming season outdoors (or in greenhouse) and believe this would give me a good idea about which of the males did best.

I don't know how I would do all of this outdoors without a controlled environment, wind and bees and stuff....

[h.h.]

Fence is better than a wall. Kids in my old neighborhood used to walk the walls. Once they find out, they don't quit.

Guard dogs? If some kid gets mauled over marijuana plants, I guarantee trouble. I have big dogs, but they'll only lick them to death.

What quality of soil is available for raised beds/fabric pots?

If heat is an issue, a hoop house covered with carpenters cloth, window screen, or even very light shade cloth, MAY be beneficial.

[Lean Green]

OP- do yourself a favor and buy Michael Astera's book " The Ideal Soil v2.0"
It will tell you how to interpret the results of your soil test and how to amend based on the test results.

[bigbadbiddy]

Thanks for all the infos guys, good stuff.

Got the book and gonna start reading in a bit.

I also found a place that does soil and water analysis after all. They even offer consultation for the soil, i.e. advice on how to ammend etc.

The soil ingredients available should be great.
Peat moss you have to import anyways and they have it too.
I will have easy and cheap access to rice hulls and crab meal, fish meal and the like.

EWC might be a bit tricky but only important for the first mix anyway as I will have my own worm farm.
Generally a lot of good ingredients are available in good quality and for very cheap.


I also have a plot of land already scoped out and in mind.
It would be next to a government facility and a large DIY store. That should make security an afterthought