@papapayne Everything will most likely finish mid to late October. I like to push my strains and let them ripen as much as they want. I usually don't have weather issues, being in a greenhouse. However some of the strains started to flower early, and might be finished in the next 10-14 days. One of my Goji Og's started to flower mid July, and is looking pretty close to done. I could harvest her if I wanted, but like I said, I like to fully ripen my flowers.
Smart pot vs raised beds
Depending on your water demands, temps and humidity.
Smart pots are fantastic growing pots. They leach out water as fast as you can put it in. This means you would have a hard time over watering, and the air that this draws into the root zone is second to none.
Smart pots are easy to store in the off season, and have thousands of uses as well as a worm farm.
Smart pots also keep gophers out, that is big for me.
Raised beds are another fantastic way to grow our beloved plants. Raised beds will hold water much better than a
smart pot. You can over water a bed, but being raised, it's hard to over water. Cover crops in the off season are easy to till back in. Can climb and work on the raised beds. Can support t-posts with just screws attached to the bed, so no driving in t-posts. I also find raised beds to keep the soil more even. I don't know if this is because of less oxegen moving in the soil, or what. However I find my beds keep the ph and nute levels better than my
smart pots.
I have some numbers going for this year, and when everything is done I will post up my watering numbers. I kept track of how much water each plant in my garden is receiving. I plan to divide that by the number of #'s each plant gives me. That way I know how much water to expect each plant to use next season, and start extrapolating out this information for others. I have already noticed the
smart pots are taking about 15-25% more water than the beds.
For me personally, I like beds better than
smart pots. Overall performance of beds is better, water usage is lower, easier to attach supports. However
smart pots are great as well. Might use less soil with
smart pots. I would consider that a disadvantage, but maybe your budget wont.
Greenhouses
Man, if your looking into a greenhouse then check out Farmtek. They have the highest quality light dep greenhouse in the country right now. Here is a bit from an email I just received from Zack at Farmtek.
"
Make sure you check out the detail we built into brackets, the cabling system and the leading edge system with gasket.
This is going to monopolize the market – no other company has the resources that we have to pour into a system like this (fully staffed R&D department, laser cutting tools, state of the art CAD equipment) not to mention the support we offer with a fully staffed customer service department.
Looking forward to doing business!"
Look into the s1000 model. I am starting to design my next greenhouse as we speak. Let me know if you need any help. This will be the 4th greenhouse I have been involved with, and the 3rd I will build. Fully automated blackout greenhouse.........I think I just peed a little. Cost will be around 50k.
