No use for a name farms El Dorado 2016

[noyd666]

yep in for a watch. nice set up.

 

[Stone House]

Hope you have a great year!
I'll be watching and learning.

 

[HillMizer]

Happy Beltane

Happy Beltane

Been occupied energized and simultaneously exhausted by some spring Beltane celebrating and spring work.

Squirrel the skunk dog.

Finally got the full season seed plants up in to the sunny spot!

The hoophouse is ruffed in and covered. I still need add baseboards, hipboards and ground anchors and some more frame/bracing.

I know how to build pretty well but I'll jungle a bunch of things sometimes and push my luck. I feel like I know what's at stake and take the calculated risks. Hopefully a big storm doesn't blow in out of nowhere.

The dep girls are still over in the barn for a bit.

I got fired up in Tractor Supply and decided to build a new spray rig that can move between the herb gardens and veggies and perrennials. Hopefully the little pump will push a longer hose for the spray wand.

 

[Mendogrowing]

Nice spray rig, I did something like that years back. After that you'll want a stihl gas powered backpack, the 3gal one is probably my favorite tool, I love foliar feeding.

 

[HillMizer]

Ya I've been using the electric Hudson atomizer for a while but I wanted more capacity and no cord. I got 15 gal now.

One caterpillar year my buddy and I were light Ghostbusters were those atomizers. On ladders up in the oak trees, all through the grass and rose bushes, we won.

I'm also trying to have less gas engines to work on. I just bought a few lately though. I need a wood splitter next.
I'm calling advancing eco agriculture right now.

 

[HillMizer]

Greenhouse beds

Greenhouse beds

We're working on putting together some beds in the greenhouse. This will be my first dep not using pots.

The beds are made of fabric wrapped around a mixture of rebar and tposts. The tposts will support the trellis later.

They are 3' wide x 48' long. One girl in this picture just did not like being moved, don't think anything else happened to her.

Sky Lots and Super Critical Haze are still killing it. Snow Leopard looks to be coming in a little stronger than sssdh and SSH. DJ Short Azure haze is terrible. I was hoping for a new blue dream. Azure haze had apx 50% or less germ rate. All the leaves are wrinkly and I found two intersex or hermaphrodite plants out of the 8 or so plants I have. They had both male and female preflowers.

I probably paid the most for the Azure haze too. I was hoping to use it in a breeding project.
Bodhi is killing it and my Dinfem Super Critical is very vigorous as well.

 

[Manivelle]

nice green house . it sucks for the azur haze.

 

[jbarsk8]

Beds are definitely the way to go

 

[HillMizer]

After working on the beds I decided to check on some herb from the fall. A demand has been creeping up.
This deadhead of was purple, dense and reaking of paint thinner.
Now when I look at my little deadhead of starts I remember why they are there

 

[megayields]

mmmmmmmmm yummy! great work Hill!

 

[HillMizer]

Go another delivery of soil and put got it in.
We put 10 yards in here we started at 1:20pm finished the soil at 2:40 amended, tilled and watered by 3:30.

It looks a little short for covering my roots balls but I'll either mound it or throw a yard of peatmoss or promix or something in. It will likely help bring potassium and nitrate levels down.

Pink ribbon are girls, blue are boys and yella is I don't know yet.

Waiting on analysis from full season. I ordered a saturated paste and C:N for it.

I watered by buckets a little early one day when I was going out of town. It set me back a little. I may wait 1 week to plant the full season, at least until they start drinking a little more.

The dep plants have overthrown the propagation room and can only stay a week more and then the greenhouse will get a couple t-5s for insurance and I'll veg for 2 weeks and then flip.

 

[_tessarecting]

Love your design that is awesome

 

[HillMizer]

Love your design that is awesome

Thanks Tesser. I have used a bunch of wire in the past and I got too cheap this time. This turned out cheap. I hope the gophers don't show up. I'll have to kill em if they do. They didn't show up last year. Thanks!

 

[Manivelle]

will the tarp stays the during the entire season ?

 

[HillMizer]

will the tarp stays the during the entire season ?

Mani the clear cover will stay all season.

It's so warm that it's really not needed once I started flowering with the blackout.

Without the cover a lot of dirt falls off of the blackout tarp on to the plants.

Next year I'm thinking I will use a breathable row cover type fabric unless is run when it's cold. The fabric row cover can be misted to create an evaporative cooling effect.

 

[Manivelle]

ok thx. yes i was talking the clear cover.
why not using shading cloth. just on top like a roof ?

 

[HillMizer]

ok thx. yes i was talking the clear cover.
why not using shading cloth. just on top like a roof ?

The reason I don't use shade cloth is because I don't want shade. Use of the greenhouse cover may actually give me more consistent diffused light. There are no shadows in the greenhouse.
I just removed a bunch of trees to get more light. This is not a "top of hill" spot. I've got about 9 hours of sun in the summer.
It works well with the film on. The pictures of deadhead of we're from a covered greenhouse.

 

[Manivelle]

what i'd do . (my 2 cts )
it seems you have heat problems. put shading on top and clear cover on both side .
it wil keep the moist but heat will lowered by breathable roof.it works really well.
all fruit culture in spain (really hot and dry weather) use it. the plants stop growing if temps are too high. in middle of the day it's better to don't have direct sunlight during summer.
and if you need more light it'd be better to have contruct your beds south to north and not east to west like it seems you did. if i'm right! ??
how about that ?

 

[gorilla ganja]

It looks a little short for covering my roots balls but I'll either mound it or throw a yard of peatmoss or promix or something in.

You can try planting them on their sides. Plant them horizontal, like they do with tomatoes sometimes.
Lay your buckets on their sides for a day and the plant will form a gentle bend upwards.
It works great and would solve the depth problem.
Everything is looking fantastic and looking forward to your season.

peace GG

 

[HillMizer]

I can't say I'm having significant heat problems, more than heat I would say I have significant privacy and nuisance ordinance problems. The only South facing slope is within eyeshot of a major road. The southern facing slope at this location only offers a few minutes more of sun per day due to topography and standing timber on adjacent properties. I've used apps designed for solar panel orientation to design this garden.

My beds are oriented for optimal sun at this location. It's much easier to make a 25' wide terrace rather than a 55' terrace. I would not want to orient the beds perpendicular to the greenhouse it would be a poor use of square footage due to the walkways.

If I'm really worried about heat. Which I'm not. I would install an evaporative cooling unit which operate really well in our arid climate. I've used them in the past with much luck.

I'm interested to see flowers grown under shade cloth. Do you have any pictures?