Greenhouses in the southwest grow jungles

[north0house]

Hey all,

This is my second year growing some OG Western Colorado strains from years past (I have a great community of friends out here who seed share their guerilla grow seeds from the days of growing in the forests out here). I've got two Gelato Cookie Cakes (GCC), two Black Garlic x GCC, one massive local strain called Daddy Issues, and another by the name of Bridger. Those two will be interested as they seem to be 100% locally crossed strains over the past decade +.

I have 6 girls growing this year, they're all at 10 feet tall now, except for an indica strain that is a western slope hybrid going back years. I'll be curious how these all behave since they're unusual strains.

My biggest two are Black Garlic x GCC and they are insane, easily pushing 10+ feet with at least a month to go. I'm glad I raised my greenhouse several feet on a foundation this year. I've had to be very religious about trellising and training to keep them under control.


It's been another great year. I just wanted to share. It's like entering a jungle when I step into the green house - less now that I've defoliated what I can reach lol, but still.


I love this time of year. A lot.

 

[cpurola]

Very nice! I'm in mold country up here in southeast Michigan and tho' I can grow big ones, getting to the finish line is tuff.
I've thought about a big greenhouse, but how do you regulate the temps and humidity?

 

[north0house]

Very nice! I'm in mold country up here in southeast Michigan and tho' I can grow big ones, getting to the finish line is tuff.
I've thought about a big greenhouse, but how do you regulate the temps and humidity?

I'm really fortunate that it's so dry where I am that I have never have had to worry about humidity. I've spent many many days in crawlspaces around here due to my career path, and even with long-standing active sewage leaks under some homes, I've never seen any mold buildup anywhere in the valley. It's pretty wild. But I am in the desert, it takes me like 10 minutes to full dry if I lay in the sun after jumping in the water.

I just regulate by feel. If it's humid, I'll just pop all the vents and door open and turn on the fan. Usually I don't regulate at all since it stays maybe 30-40% humidity and 100 degrees max, about 80 degrees average, all the way until harvest.

I elect to defoliate and aggressively manage foliage overlap to mitigate any moisture buildup as it works well for my climate.

I don't envy y'all in the wet climates. My friend grew on the Oregon coast for years before moving out here and they have noticed a massive difference in how little they have to combat mold and mildew buildup out here. Definitely grateful for sure.

 

[RoadKillSkunkHunt]

Very nice! I'm in mold country up here in southeast Michigan and tho' I can grow big ones, getting to the finish line is tuff.
I've thought about a big greenhouse, but how do you regulate the temps and humidity?

@cpurola - I'm in the Lansing area and I have a 10' x 20' double walled, polycarbonate hoop house that I have modified heavily. It has a louvered attic fan at the west end drawing air in and a louvered attic fan exhausting air on the east end. The fans are on a temperature controller. Each corner has a 16" oscillating fan to keep all the plants dancing in the wind. Hopefully you have a pretty good visual of what I've done ... I can control air flow which helps but I have next to zero control over humidity.

If I grow cannabis outdoors, I grow autos. This year, my greenhouse has a dozen Roma tomato plants and 8 bell pepper plants ... zero cannabis. Autos work well for me but photos are a real struggle. Michigan has to have about the worst climate for outdoor weed in the country.

@north0house - Good job so far! I hope your climate cooperates. If it does, you have an abundance for sure!

 

[north0house]

@north0house - Good job so far! I hope your climate cooperates. If it does, you have an abundance for sure!

Thanks! Fingers crossed. We can usually garden into Thanksgiving out here with our hardier plants. I anticipate my local strains to finish out within the next 2 weeks and my black garlics to push into November. Last year I had three SFV plants and managed 40 oz. dry out of those. So I'm hoping for more around 60 oz. dry flower out of this crop, hopefully even more but I've just gotten through half of last year's grow, so I'm not too worried about quantity this year, even if I lose a few that I can't reach.

For example of my climate -
I've kept the greenhouse shut all day with just one vent open and no fans 75% of the time. It gets to low 40s/high 30s here at night right now with 50 degree swings to the 90s during the days. So I don't want to run too much air when it's cold out. I turn the fan on late in the day if I notice condensation building up on the greenhouse panels. It's uncommon, like once a week if we have monsoons rolling through the desert. It's "humid" here today with some potential rain tonight. It's 21% currently, and I consider this a humid muggy day for us lol. Usually we're in the single digits.

I just did a ground barley top coat with some microbe additives and there was zero condensation buildup within the greenhouse anywhere. Nice and dry on the walls and plants with a decent 30% humidity. Last year was a nightmare of condensation due to my failure of control over the plant growth. I had zero mold or mildew and it was completely impenetrable until I cut and trimmed. It was rough, I won't do that again lol.

I watch for signs of moisture buildup and just open it up and run a fan to dry it out. But it's uncommon. We had a bad forest fire season here this year. In a way that's made it even easier to regulate climate because it's been so dry.

 

[RoadKillSkunkHunt]

Thanks! Fingers crossed. We can usually garden into Thanksgiving out here with our hardier plants. I anticipate my local strains to finish out within the next 2 weeks and my black garlics to push into November. Last year I had three SFV plants and managed 40 oz. dry out of those. So I'm hoping for more around 60 oz. dry flower out of this crop, hopefully even more but I've just gotten through half of last year's grow, so I'm not too worried about quantity this year, even if I lose a few that I can't reach.

For example of my climate -
I've kept the greenhouse shut all day with just one vent open and no fans 75% of the time. It gets to low 40s/high 30s here at night right now with 50 degree swings to the 90s during the days. So I don't want to run too much air when it's cold out. I turn the fan on late in the day if I notice condensation building up on the greenhouse panels. It's uncommon, like once a week if we have monsoons rolling through the desert. It's "humid" here today with some potential rain tonight. It's 21% currently, and I consider this a humid muggy day for us lol. Usually we're in the single digits.

I just did a ground barley top coat with some microbe additives and there was zero condensation buildup within the greenhouse anywhere. Nice and dry on the walls and plants with a decent 30% humidity. Last year was a nightmare of condensation due to my failure of control over the plant growth. I had zero mold or mildew and it was completely impenetrable until I cut and trimmed. It was rough, I won't do that again lol.

I watch for signs of moisture buildup and just open it up and run a fan to dry it out. But it's uncommon. We had a bad forest fire season here this year. In a way that's made it even easier to regulate climate because it's been so dry.

There's a huge difference between climates. 30% humidity is unheard of ever in Michigan. We have water on 3 sides so there's always moisture in the air. Low humidity for Michigan would be 60% and you'll never see that this time of year. You're actually in an area of the country that you CAN grow outside in a greenhouse and have some pretty good success. Michigan is just tough to grow photos.

You've done an excellent job with your grow so far. You seem to be ahead of the challenges that mother nature throws your way. The only thing I would say is if you don't have a battery powered leaf blower, you might want one. It could come in handy after an especially wet night.. We use them regularly (almost every morning) during the fall.

 

[north0house]

There's a huge difference between climates. 30% humidity is unheard of ever in Michigan. We have water on 3 sides so there's always moisture in the air. Low humidity for Michigan would be 60% and you'll never see that this time of year. You're actually in an area of the country that you CAN grow outside in a greenhouse and have some pretty good success. Michigan is just tough to grow photos.

You've done an excellent job with your grow so far. You seem to be ahead of the challenges that mother nature throws your way. The only thing I would say is if you don't have a battery powered leaf blower, you might want one. It could come in handy after an especially wet night.. We use them regularly (almost every morning) during the fall.

Brilliant thought, is the leaf blower to throw all moisture off of the plants, I assume? I definitely would be scared to use a green house for these in any cother climate. I could see them rotting instantly. Last year they filled the entire greenhouse and pressed against every panel collecting condensation. I was so stressed lol. I don't know how I avoided mold, but I credit my climate primarily.

Thank you for the kind words! It's been a lot more fun this year as it feels I've been able to be way more intentional than I was with my first attempt last year. It's been a lot more fun this year to be able to experiment and learn from my mistakes last year (and mistakes from this year too lol).

 

[RoadKillSkunkHunt]

It's to dry off the plants. I use mine on the lowest setting and I try to keep the airflow so its not blowing moisture onto another plant.

 

[north0house]

It's to dry off the plants. I use mine on the lowest setting and I try to keep the airflow so its not blowing moisture onto another plant.

That makes a lot of sense, that's a great idea. I already have one in the garage and I've been trying to figure out how to dry out the 10'+ flowers on the black garlics particularly so I think this sounds like a great solution.

 

[RoadKillSkunkHunt]

That makes a lot of sense, that's a great idea. I already have one in the garage and I've been trying to figure out how to dry out the 10'+ flowers on the black garlics particularly so I think this sounds like a great solution.

30% humidity wow ... I wish Michigan had some of that. I just did a bit of googling and found out that Michigan's average summer time humidity is 72%. Keep paying attention to the small details. I think your effort will pay off nicely.

 

[cpurola]

@cpurola - I'm in the Lansing area and I have a 10' x 20' double walled, polycarbonate hoop house that I have modified heavily. It has a louvered attic fan at the west end drawing air in and a louvered attic fan exhausting air on the east end. The fans are on a temperature controller. Each corner has a 16" oscillating fan to keep all the plants dancing in the wind. Hopefully you have a pretty good visual of what I've done ... I can control air flow which helps but I have next to zero control over humidity.

If I grow cannabis outdoors, I grow autos. This year, my greenhouse has a dozen Roma tomato plants and 8 bell pepper plants ... zero cannabis. Autos work well for me but photos are a real struggle. Michigan has to have about the worst climate for outdoor weed in the country.

Hey Roadkill, I feel your pain. LOL
I'm quickly coming to the same conclusion as you. Too much invested, money/time/effort to be ultimately thrown on the burn pile. And the Autos are getting better. Lots of us in this corner.
Perhaps I'll try the FAST photos again. Did it 2 years ago, but they were weak against bud rot and I didn't harvest anything. Maybe they're better now too.

 

[RoadKillSkunkHunt]

Hey Roadkill, I feel your pain. LOL
I'm quickly coming to the same conclusion as you. Too much invested, money/time/effort to be ultimately thrown on the burn pile. And the Autos are getting better. Lots of us in this corner.
Perhaps I'll try the FAST photos again. Did it 2 years ago, but they were weak against bud rot and I didn't harvest anything. Maybe they're better now too.

You can get away with running autos if you choose.

For me, going forward, I'm only going to do one indoor run a year. I have such an abundance already. I usually end up giving away 3/4 of my harvest to friends and family. If I decide to plant any cannabis outside at any point, it will be autos.