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The Princess added a coffee tree to our collection of trees that will come inside the greenhouse for winter.

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There are 3 fig tree cuttings that are putting on new growth. Here is hoping.

Ben
 
The greenhouse is almost ready to go, I need to add a little insulation up high and then I will be ready to move the growing station in. I have been testing the heater that I plan to use, so far on the low setting it draws 600 watts, it jumps up about 300 watts with each notch on the 4 settings and the max is 1500 watts. Considering it a very small space < 100 sq feet the heater should be sufficient. Without the heater the space runs about 10 degrees above ambient on a cloudy day. Tomorrow is expected to be the first sunny day that we have had since I started the project, so we will see what happens when the sun hits it...
 
UrbanHunter said:
The greenhouse is almost ready to go, I need to add a little insulation up high and then I will be ready to move the growing station in. I have been testing the heater that I plan to use, so far on the low setting it draws 600 watts, it jumps up about 300 watts with each notch on the 4 settings and the max is 1500 watts. Considering it a very small space < 100 sq feet the heater should be sufficient. Without the heater the space runs about 10 degrees above ambient on a cloudy day. Tomorrow is expected to be the first sunny day that we have had since I started the project, so we will see what happens when the sun hits it...
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Excellent idea!

I should be recording the outside temp in my greenhouse log.

I often miss recording readings of temp and humidity on week-ends. I found a max temp of 101 degree F over the weekend. Temps outside were in the 60s!?!?

Thanks for mentioning outside temps.

I may be adding a bunch of insulation soon. The roof should be insulated but I am getting a baseline.

Ben
 
I've been thinking thru what I would need to do to set up a small indoor growing area. It'll have to be in our basement. Thinking of a hydroponic system. It'll still work if I decide to go with aquaponics later.. Thinking of maybe 6 to 10 buckets to grow mater, peppers, and a few other vining type plants, and 1 or 2 trays to grow greens and onions in. Gotta see what I can come up with.
 
Neb said:
Excellent idea!

I should be recording the outside temp in my greenhouse log.

I often miss recording readings of temp and humidity on week-ends. I found a max temp of 101 degree F over the weekend. Temps outside were in the 60s!?!?

Thanks for mentioning outside temps.

I may be adding a bunch of insulation soon. The roof should be insulated but I am getting a baseline.

Ben
Click to expand...
I bought one of these 4 channel weather stations, it records the Min and Max for each location each day. I have the base unit at my desk, one at the indoor growing station, one at the new greenhouse/walkout area, and one just outside the walkout. Makes it easy to take readings and evaluate performance, while sitting reading posts..... ;) I over slept this morning so I will not be getting the last of the insulation board that I need until this evening......

https://www.amazon.com/Stations-The...refix=4+channel+weather+station,aps,68&sr=8-6
 
So last night I tried to move my growing station into the greenhouse area, tight fit at best, the usable floor space is 44" X 91" (27.8 sq-ft) and I moved a 2'X4'X6' 4 shelf (3 growing shelves) growing station in there. So now I am putting 8 sq-feet in a small space, but I will get 24 sq-feet of growing area.

So today am eating my lunch and looking at the temperatures and realize that I could have created a thermal mass on the floor using hollow bricks and paving stones. My thinking is I could create a set of hollow passages under the floor (paving stones) and make a solar heat exchanger by pushing air across the under side of the solar panels I plan to install. It would require a little airflow management but with the temperatures I am seeing I could easily be pushing 90+ degree air into the floor of my greenhouse in winter. The only problem I see is that last night I moved that growing station in there!!! DOH.. DOH... DOH>>>
 
Bacpacker said:
In summer time I use buckwheat. Winter time I use annual rye grass.
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Do you have a problem with Buckwheat reseeding, or do you cut/crimp it in milk stage?
Do you plant winter rye before or after first frost?
This plot has not been planted with vegetables for 25 years, so it will not hurt to do it wrong, just want to learn the correct way.
 
I let the buckwheat grow around 6 weeks here. Cut it before it goes to seed. I have done that 3 times over a summer. Helped the soil considerably. I did miss a cutting one year. Had to work it hard the next year to kill it back. Still had random plants for 3 years afterward.
I plant the rye before frost. I usually put it out late Sept/early Oct. But I don't plant the full bed if I plan to put out any early crops, it takes a long time to dry out enough to plow it under.
 
For my next trick, I shall don a shabby trenchcoat, stuff it with sacks o' dope, and give my best impersonation of a douchebag drug dealer: "PSSSST!!! HEY, KID, YOU WANNA BUY SOME WEED?" :oops:

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Here's little Black Diamond saying, "HOLY COW, BOSS!!! THAT'S A WHOLE HEAP O' DOPE!!!" ;)

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You'll have to forgive the shaggy appearance of these bud spears, as well as the excess lumber... meh, we can't ALL be agricultural hee-roes, lol. Also, take note of the decades-old baking sheet in the pics, as opposed to the cafeteria tray in Hashbrown's photos... somehow, HB manages to show me up in every way, lol. Guess I'll finish my 'Salted Caramel Black Tea' and trim these buds in a bit, that's my mission for this evening... I must say, the tea I bought is NOT as tasty as I had hoped it would be, but then again, I don't usually drink black tea, and the box only cost me $2+chump change, so no worries. It's alright, but I reckon the buds have better flavor, lol. Meh, I'll switch to beer before too long, I'm overdue for a cold one... Cheers!!! 🍺

P.S. I will fill that 2-quart glass casserole dish with bud later, cover it and let it sit for a few days, gently "tossing" the buds like salad every so often to ensure even curing. I'm thinking HB's method of curing is mo' bettah, but we're not real picky here at the ol' hacienda, and the weed is plenty powerful for this old hand (and the doped-up cats & kittens, lol). 🤪

Edit: See that pic with Z-Girl & Black Diamond sitting in the window? Look closely and you can see Tiger outside, hiding behind a tree as he scopes out some birds, lol... :rolleyes:
 
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Wingnut said:
For my next trick, I shall don a shabby trenchcoat, stuff it with sacks o' dope, and give my best impersonation of a douchebag drug dealer: "PSSSST!!! HEY, KID, YOU WANNA BUY SOME WEED?" :oops:

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Here's little Black Diamond saying, "HOLY COW, BOSS!!! THAT'S A WHOLE HEAP O' DOPE!!!" ;)

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You'll have to forgive the shaggy appearance of these bud spears, as well as the excess lumber... meh, we can't ALL be agricultural hee-roes, lol. Also, take note of the decades-old baking sheet in the pics, as opposed to the cafeteria tray in Hashbrown's photos... somehow, HB manages to show me up in every way, lol. Guess I'll finish my 'Salted Caramel Black Tea' and trim these buds in a bit, that's my mission for this evening... I must say, the tea I bought is NOT as tasty as I had hoped it would be, but then again, I don't usually drink black tea, and the box only cost me $2+chump change, so no worries. It's alright, but I reckon the buds have better flavor, lol. Meh, I'll switch to beer before too long, I'm overdue for a cold one... Cheers!!! 🍺

P.S. I will fill that 2-quart glass casserole dish with bud later, cover it and let it sit for a few days, gently "tossing" the buds like salad every so often to ensure even curing. I'm thinking HB's method of curing is mo' bettah, but we're not real picky here at the ol' hacienda, and the weed is plenty powerful for this old hand (and the doped-up cats & kittens, lol). 🤪

Edit: See that pic with Z-Girl & Black Diamond sitting in the window? Look closely and you can see Tiger outside, hiding behind a tree as he scopes out some birds, lol... :rolleyes:
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It ain’t no competition, I figure we are all here to help each other. I think you and I are both growing weed for the fun of it anyway. My next run of autos are flowering but not really bulking up like I had hoped they should be ready around the 15th of November which gives me one more run until the spring planting of photos.
 
Oh, I know, I was just kidding... I just sent those pics to family & friends, maybe one of them will take some of these buds off my hands. Funny thing, I really just grew this weed as an experiment in soil amendment, and now I'm rolling in dope up to my eyeballs, lol. Meh, at least it's legal to grow here, so no worries on that score. :cool:
 
Just an update before I log out: the goatheads have really become scarce on my property, few & far between, so my eradication campaign is actually working! Recent rains may bring up a few more but I think it's getting too late in the year for them to sprout? There must be a point when the burrs (or seeds) quit sprouting, right? Due to colder temps? I will pull another goathead patrol in days ahead, just to make sure the blasted things aren't sneaking up on me, lol. :oops:
 
Just forewarning you;
The seeds can lay dormant in the ground for up to 4 years before they sprout. Any strands of root will also sprout.
Pulling a vine out of the ground will prevent it from reseeding but it can give you many more plants from all the pieces of root that were left behind.
The most effective way to irradicate the monsters is to cut the base stalk and "paint" the fresh cut with "Round-up" or an equivalent. Use the full strength concentrate on a small brush liberally coating the exposed stem. Do that each year that you have new vines for at least 4 years.
People and animals will still track new seeds into your area but you can treat each new vine the same way.
 
SheepDog said:
Just forewarning you;
The seeds can lay dormant in the ground for up to 4 years before they sprout. Any strands of root will also sprout.
Pulling a vine out of the ground will prevent it from reseeding but it can give you many more plants from all the pieces of root that were left behind.
The most effective way to irradicate the monsters is to cut the base stalk and "paint" the fresh cut with "Round-up" or an equivalent. Use the full strength concentrate on a small brush liberally coating the exposed stem. Do that each year that you have new vines for at least 4 years.
People and animals will still track new seeds into your area but you can treat each new vine the same way.
Click to expand...
A lot of weeds can do that dormant thing.
My Father would plow the field three times over a three or four weeks period to force more seeds to sprout.
It worked, but did not irradiate the weeds, we still had to put weeds the next year as the grass carpet reformed over the soil.
 
Wild plant seeds can lie dormant for decades sometimes. For instance some the sedge grasses can lie dormant for 120yrs.

The universities I checked use the term "many years" to describe seed viability of goatheads. In other words... they aren't sure how long they can survive. If they knew exactly they would say so.

joel said:
Anybody use cover crops?
I am thinking of winter peas/winter rye n winter, the sorghum sudan grass next summer. If I am lucky it will keep the deer out of my garden.

​

Click to expand...

If you don't mind the question, what goal do you hope a cover crop will achieve? Nitrogen fixer? or winter weed control? Another way to look at this... whats already in my garden at the end of season makes a good cover, not necessarily a crop. We bush hog it then leave the plant debris as cover most of the winter. Some years if there's a big leaf crop in the trees around the house, we spread the leaves over the garden also. This keeps wild winter annuals from becoming an issue.

Plant material degrades/rots much better if oxygen is present (above ground). Come Jan. I plow it all under. If it's dry material some years I'll burn it, then plow it under.

I avoid sowing grass on cultivated land. It just makes more work trying to get rid of it. As backpacker described it always comes back, again and again.

Happened to us once with vetch as winter cover on a cornfield. It was years before we got rid of it.
 
i plant fall cover crops that are edible and fast and often survive farsh winters and start producing in spring time. kale,turnips,collards,beets etc. bloomsdale spinach can survive down to 10 or 15f below zero and produce in spring time. its nothing but a stem . these will want to bolt but i find chopping back to stem prolongs harvests. turnips stink in spring but not bad to till in.
 
I had lots of outdoor work to do today. The greenhouse is now operational and I trimmed my indoor tomato plants this morning, like Edward Scissor Hands after 6 cups of coffee! Bonsai! Because of the spider mites I decided to trim every branch with a damaged leaf... I hope they can bounce back!

I made a temporary platform on top of my water barrels, leveled it and placed my "indoor" grown carrots and turnips on it.

The greenhouse is running purely on solar and it seems to be doing fine, all the timers are in place and the supplemental lighting seems to be working fine.

I worked out there for a while this afternoon but it got too hot for me.... The outdoor temperature got to a high of 60F and overnight the greenhouse saw a low of 60F, it is holding about a 15F difference. Using the IR temperature gun I found "heat leaks" at the top of the side walls, so I sealed them up some with reflective bubble wrap. I hope it makes a little difference, 5 degrees would be enough to make a big difference.

Right now there are cucumbers and squash out there, but I room for a lot more plants.
 
Trimmed those buds while watching 'THE DEAD POOL'---not the best Harry Callahan film, but it still has some funny lines. I'm actually still watching it, but I'm done trimming buds for this season. I now have even more weed, but I talked to an old friend in Sandpoint, Idaho, and I'm gonna send him an ounce of bud as an early Christmas present, lol. There are other members of the family up there in Idaho, and we go back a long way together, all of us, clear back to our wild high school skateboarding days, so this will be a good way to reconnect and style 'em all out, lol. Here are some pics of the 2-quart casserole dish full of bud, I'll be sending some to my friends early next week... :cool:

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Okay, maybe the dish isn't quite FULL, but there's still plenty o' bud there, considering I already have two large Zip-Loc bags of dope in the fridge, lol. Meh, some will go to friends, some will go to trail riders I meet. Truth be told, it's not bad bud at all, though I can't tell which strains are which, due to the anonymous nature of the seeds I bought earlier from the dispensary. They were all "dispensary grade" seeds in a vial, I just didn't know which was which, and the buds are ALL strong enough to this old hand, lol. Haven't heard any complaints yet from those who've tried it, lol. :rolleyes:

Okay, back to this cheesy Dirty Harry film, no wonder I haven't seen it in a while, aye? Meh, I have nothing better to do right now, I already knocked out some tasks earlier so my "work day" is done, 10-4? I'll find a better flick to watch next time, I have the whole evening ahead of me... at least ol' Clint can carry these sorry-@$$ sequels to the original 'DIRTY HARRY' film, just through his sheer international megastar status. Hard to beat ol' Clint when it comes to squinting, lol. He has good "eye expression" too, if there IS such a thing... not every actor has such expression. ;)

P.S. Nice harpoon scene at the end of this film, lol... good ol' Clint can handle ANY weapon, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! 🤣
 
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Peanut said:
Wild plant seeds can lie dormant for decades sometimes. For instance some the sedge grasses can lie dormant for 120yrs.

The universities I checked use the term "many years" to describe seed viability of goatheads. In other words... they aren't sure how long they can survive. If they knew exactly they would say so.



If you don't mind the question, what goal do you hope a cover crop will achieve? Nitrogen fixer? or winter weed control? Another way to look at this... whats already in my garden at the end of season makes a good cover, not necessarily a crop. We bush hog it then leave the plant debris as cover most of the winter. Some years if there's a big leaf crop in the trees around the house, we spread the leaves over the garden also. This keeps wild winter annuals from becoming an issue.

Plant material degrades/rots much better if oxygen is present (above ground). Come Jan. I plow it all under. If it's dry material some years I'll burn it, then plow it under.

I avoid sowing grass on cultivated land. It just makes more work trying to get rid of it. As backpacker described it always comes back, again and again.

Happened to us once with vetch as winter cover on a cornfield. It was years before we got rid of it.
Click to expand...
The land has not had vegetables for 25 years, so I want to turn the ground & cover with winter rye that will die in spring heat.
I thinking about planting beets, turnips & radishes on the edge of the bed, just cause I can.
In Summer I going to plant sorghum Sudangrass, because it can mowed & chop & dropped, also may keep the deer out of my garden. Then I can turn it under in the late fall, nothing will come back as long as there are no seed head or the heads are cut in milk stage. Mosty want the bed to not wash/blow away & some organic matter in the soil.
The bed is small, about 30' X 150' for two garden plots & a row of fruit trees.
 
The temperature this morning is 35F and the little greenhouse got down to 50F. Yesterday was overcast most of the day and with light use in the late afternoon and early evening, then again this morning the battery bank is down to 11.8 volts, this is the lowest that I have seen it so far. I am hoping for a sunny day today so everything can bounce back.

I re-potted about 2 dozen plants yesterday, mostly herbs, tomatoes, squash and cucumbers. I am finding I need a way (place) to scrub my growing trays as I try to reuse them. I can't do it in the house as it will clog the drain, but I don't have a tub outside..... yet. Trying to recycle stuff as I go along is easier said than done.

Today is a range day so I will not be able to do any work until late this afternoon.
 
Good Lord!!! That's a whole heap o' buds!!! :oops:

Yesterday, I styled out the trash truck driver with a sack o' buds, it must have been a half-ounce at least, maybe more, lol. He was very happy to receive an early Christmas present, lol... ;)

Manana, if today's fine fall weather holds, I ride the big ol' thumper in the Sacramento Mountains and burn a little weed on some trail in the middle of nowhere, lol... hopefully with some trail riders I meet, aye? :cool:
 
Question, I have 4 -#3 nursery pots with strawberries, they finally bushed out and put out runners, but they are in the house and I am torn, should I find a place and put them in the ground outside, or should I try to make some sort of growing arrangement that lets them spread out? What would you do?
 
UrbanHunter said:
Question, I have 4 -#3 nursery pots with strawberries, they finally bushed out and put out runners, but they are in the house and I am torn, should I find a place and put them in the ground outside, or should I try to make some sort of growing arrangement that lets them spread out? What would you do?
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Down here I'd put them outside. Do you have any ideas on what you might do with them inside?
 
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