What's new
  • Happy Birthday ICMag! Been 20 years since Gypsy Nirvana created the forum! We are celebrating with a 4/20 Giveaway and by launching a new Patreon tier called "420club". You can read more here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Greenhouse shopping in Grass Valley - Forever Flowering vs Conleys vs Alternatives

GinjaNinja

New member
I have had same experience with gro tech. Once you spend money they got all they want and ignore you. Really sad an industry booming like it is and its this hard to find a company that will just not screw you over. From reading threads everybody seems to just want to get what they paid for and most times they do not. All it would take is ONE company to be a REAL business, act professional, and just do what they are SUPPOSE to do. nothing more and that ONE company would take over. There are still a lot of good people in this industry but with all the money being reported now more and more shitty people/businesses are making what is great for people seem bad.
 

GinjaNinja

New member
Almost there. GH # 1 is 90% done, bringing down 50 amps to it tmro to power the supp lights and exhaust/shutters. There is a delay right now in 80-100+ ft blackout tarps so mine got delayed a few days, but luckily its finally in and they are slapping it on the 2nd one tmro as well. gonna be busy the next few days getting these buttoned up, and then its time to start filling these things up! my veg room is exploding at the seems with starts that need to get outside asap.

View Image


Who did you go through to purchase these? I have been trying to find a good auto light dep gh company. All seem to be the same, pay bunch of money and then get screwed.
 

Daniel Monk

New member
Might be a little late for this, but +1 for Forever Flowering. Make sure you get the right build crew! Ask for John and Dominic. I have heard some stories recently of some of the other build crews getting fired by the clients. If you're looking into light dep then you really want to make sure it's built professionally, if the foundation is out of whack then it makes it a real pain to get everything to line up properly. If you want to go straight to the source AgraTech inc. is Forever Flowerings Greenhouse manufacturer.
 

TheOutlawTree

Active member
Forever flowering and vital gh systems seem way expensive.

Karmens gh in GV can have a high elevation steel 30x200' 16ft high made for around 20k, not installed. That's without dep system, they make them for another 10k but not sure how there's works.

I'm not that handy and I've put up a 30x50 and 24x42 from them in a matter of a few days each with 1 helper. The grading, cement, propane heaters, fans and hourly wage will add up but I think you could have a functioning 30x200 for around 30k (without dep system) if you built it yourself with 3 friends

I'm getting a quote from Conleys soon for a 1/2 acre gh. Figured I can start with the shell and finish it off as time goes on. Curious to see what cost is, with labor. I got a next g3n quote for 90x120...shell was 330k and with all the bells and whistles they have it would be around 600k. I believe thats without the labor to install. Seems way to over priced, but I wouldn't know.

There must be other greenhouse company's that make commercial structures for food crops pretty cheap.....got some research to do these next couple months.

Does anyone know the most efficient way to heat large greenhouses? I know some greenhouses in the frigid northeast use fire / wood boilers. It was costing me about 2-3k a month just running 2 200k btu propane heaters for October and November of last season....but that's in ghs that didn't have insulated plastic.
 
Last edited:

HillMizer

Member
Karmens might be the outfit selling the custom hoophouse. Look around my brother in law just bought 3 full auto hoophouse from an outfit in the valley that isn't totally cannabis based. The have the tarps that roll down from the center purlin.

I believe he paid 18k for 3 20x75. He also has a 90k FF. He said eff that thing. Sorry I don't have the name of the outfit on my tongue. I'll call him today.

When I build my first greenhouse in NC you were allowed a 400 square foot agricultural building without a permit. It didn't really help me much .

If you want the greenhouse to be a "temporary structure" make it run on extension cords, big SO and SJO for everything. Just get a subpanel with 40amp weather resistant receptacles permitted before the greenhouse comes. Garden hose connections. No permanent plumbing or electrical. Also no concrete footings, ground posts only. That SHOULD work.. but with cannabis in it all bets are off.
 

TheOutlawTree

Active member
Karmens greenhouse is cheaper than farmtek and a locally owned / operated in grass valley.

A 30x100' w/ snow support and plastic is 12k after taxes. That doesnt include dep system but still good bang for your buck. These things are not super hard to put together either. Ill bet 4 people could have 6-8 of these built in a month.
 

Deezl

Member
FF greenhouses are agratech rebranded plus $.

I got mine through FF anyway. Customer service is great. Agratech won't even admit that their GHs can be depped. They won't "knowingly" sell you one for our industry.
 

Yes4Prop215

Active member
Veteran
Update on my Four seasons kits. One of my 24x80s took a total shit on me! First, this winter has been brutal at my elevation. Then, during a big storm, my worker failed to lower the exterior dep tarps to allow water to run off. this ended up with several hundred gallons of water on the ceiling of my cold frame, which stressed and crushed 10 beams. To top it off, the winds came in and totally ripped off both the plastic and blackout film. Total repair bill will come close to 10k after parts and labor.

My other 2 GHs held up perfectly, we kept the tarps down and everything.

In the future, DEFINATELY GO A-FRAME. Round cold frames are a disaster for snow loads. A Frames are much easier to allow water to run off properly.

My kits are still kicking, they could use a fresh coat of paint because some of the wood panels are rotting, but I should get a solid summer out of them. Aiming to pull 120-140 out of a 24x80 with 76 large blue dream plants in 25 gal pots. I'm stopping fucking around with fancy low yielders. I hit 2lbs a plant with BD and then only got half P a plant on some other loser strains. Il do all the fancy shit In my new tester and indoors rooms, and keep the sungrown strictly about the bulk.
 
FF greenhouses are agratech rebranded plus $.

I got mine through FF anyway. Customer service is great. Agratech won't even admit that their GHs can be depped. They won't "knowingly" sell you one for our industry.

That's not true at all agratech sells you the same stuff as FF for 30% less
 

TheOutlawTree

Active member
Been busy being a tire kicker....ended up getting quotes from Conleys for a 1/2 acre gable structure with 14ft gutter heights, internal dep system, all bells and whistles...440k after freight and tax. That doesn't include your foundation / slab, the cost of wiring, gavitas, power drop, or assembly of greenhouse. I haven't done anymore research to figure out how much assembly or a large power drop would cost...

got a quote for an agratech gable structure, just the shell of it with no dep Setup...it was just under 300k without assembly

Contacted several Canadian company's but never heard back with quotes

I'm going cheap route / sticking with karmens gh. You can have nicely functioning 30x100s with 4ft vertical walls and hoops on top making centers just under 20ft, 6 48" fans (~60k cfm ), 2 ptp200s per gh ( 1 on both ends ), double layered poly film w blowers ( high elevation insulation ) for around 24k or so. That doesn't include assembly but these are simple. You could call it 30k to be safe, cement for posts and hourly labor will cost a bit.

I'm not concerned with snow...but myne are only going to be meant for full / regular growing season, plastic will be taken down before winter

the karmens gh hoops dont have ridge vents so in lower / normal elevations these may not work without cooling, not sure. I'm goin up to 5000ft elevation, should be ok for me, will be 85 when it's 105 in the valley
 

Deezl

Member
I was planning on buying direct from agrotech. I had a question about interior dep and they said their greenhouses couldn't fit it and acted like no one would ever use their greenhouses for dep. I already knew that they were the same greenhouses that are set up w dep systems all of the time by FF.
The folks at forever flowering helped me design my own manual interior dep (that I built myself) for free. I called them hella times w questions about details about building out my plywood end walls etc.
Their customer service was worth the extra money. I bought a small kit so it wasn't that big of a difference.
The markup was too big on the light traps though, so I went w the emerald kingdom/alibaba ones for cheap.
 

Deezl

Member
But, that said, if I was buying another one (now that I am comfortable building one out) I would be tempted to go w agratech and save money. But if it was financially doable I'd probly go w FF again because they helped me before so they deserve my business.
 

Deezl

Member
And the default kit from FF had taller sidewalls and I wanted that. Now that I see how simple the kit is I'd maybe just get longer pipes for the sides and raise it myself or ask them to swap em out or something.
 

Deezl

Member
Basically my advice is if it's your first build and you can afford it then buy from a company that is set up for "crop specific" use. :)
If you know exactly what yer doin go get the greenie from the source supplier.
Or something. Peace!
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
The FF dudes are rad. They definitely know what's up but their systems are just way to expensive and complicated. Even with their homeboy discount it's out of my price range. I would love to give them my business. But do I really need 20 rack and pinion setups to do what 2 roll up motors can do? That being said, if I'm in a pinch I will buy supplies from them because it's local so no shipping and they give a small discount for friends. They do know their stuff.
 

Oedipus

New member
karmen's

karmen's

Has anybody worked with karmen's greenhouse's in grass valley? I've seen a picture on craiglist for frame running $1,800.00 and thought it looked pretty rustic , 1,800 is about my price range though because i feel for that price i can potentially build a larger hoop house
 

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top