Homesteader’s homegrow diary for '21

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Homesteader

Homesteader

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Hello fellow farmers. My name is Sean and I live up in Maine with my four kids and wife on our small 5 acre farm. We don’t sell much of anything from our farm and I’m not really interested in any of that BS but when you have four kids, raising your own protein (eggs, chicken and rabbits) helps the wallet a lot.
I’ve been around thcfarmer for a few years. I love growing plants and try to spend as much time as I can doing some aspects of it. We have a greenhouse which makes winter in Maine a bit more bearable. We grow fresh apples/pears, cider apples/pears, berries, nuts, flowers and many other trees and shrubs...we grow a lot of types of plants but cannabis is by far my favorite and always has been. I love the plant like many of you do. I grow organically and build my own lights and soil trying to cut out the middle man from everything.

I was using two sealed rooms using CO2 but had no way to vent out the room if I needed to, which only became a problem when I fed my plants fish and the smell would make me mildly nauseous for a few days. I also wanted to fix a couple smaller issues of inconvenience with the room and figured I would document it and maybe help someone with their construction.
My new room will be a total of 12' by 12' with the smaller veg room taking up 5 foot by 8 foot of that area.

Demolition: Completed last week.

Construction: Building a small veg room within the larger room today. Rerun electrical to put the box in a more convenient spot on the ceiling. Run a pex line so I can have water access from the room and not have to haul it in. Tile and sheetrock and put doors up.

Time to get to work. Ill post a few photos later. Hope you all are doing well and have a great day.
 
Marzcanna

Marzcanna

382
93
Hello fellow farmers. My name is Sean and I live up in Maine with my four kids and wife on our small 5 acre farm. We don’t sell much of anything from our farm and I’m not really interested in any of that BS but when you have four kids, raising your own protein (eggs, chicken and rabbits) helps the wallet a lot.
I’ve been around thcfarmer for a few years. I love growing plants and try to spend as much time as I can doing some aspects of it. We have a greenhouse which makes winter in Maine a bit more bearable. We grow fresh apples/pears, cider apples/pears, berries, nuts, flowers and many other trees and shrubs...we grow a lot of types of plants but cannabis is by far my favorite and always has been. I love the plant like many of you do. I grow organically and build my own lights and soil trying to cut out the middle man from everything.

I was using two sealed rooms using CO2 but had no way to vent out the room if I needed to, which only became a problem when I fed my plants fish and the smell would make me mildly nauseous for a few days. I also wanted to fix a couple smaller issues of inconvenience with the room and figured I would document it and maybe help someone with their construction.
My new room will be a total of 12' by 12' with the smaller veg room taking up 5 foot by 8 foot of that area.

Demolition: Completed last week.

Construction: Building a small veg room within the larger room today. Rerun electrical to put the box in a more convenient spot on the ceiling. Run a pex line so I can have water access from the room and not have to haul it in. Tile and sheetrock and put doors up.

Time to get to work. Ill post a few photos later. Hope you all are doing well and have a great day.
Have you ever thought about selling those lights you make? I would like to see some pics, I might have something for you if you interested. Anyway All the best bro, looking forward to this
 
Homesteader

Homesteader

3,473
263
I got less done than I had hoped but more than I expected so I guess it evens out. Still need to tile more and get mud on the walls. I'm using cheap 18" tile from Home Depot. The veg room is having the door swing in so it wont have all that much space in the end but it will be more than enough for what I need it for. I may build a small microgreens setup in a corner in there eventually but for the most part it will be used for seedlings and cloning and won't have the bigger bags of soil in there often so I wont need much for lighting or cooling. I'll cut a few holes in the sheetrock and circulate the air

My plants are getting a little restless sitting under one light in a cold room.
I have a lot of Barney farm seed going this year and I may be forgetting a few but I have Blue Gelato, Amnesia, OMG, Grinspoon, Wedding cake, G13 Haze, Dos si Do, Glookies, Cookies Kush and a few clones like GG#4 and a few landrace strains I kept going from my last run but may ditch in the end.
I probably will flower Amnesia, Blue Gelato, G13 Haze and Dos si Do in the next few weeks or at least get them ready to flower. They kind have been neglected this month so they are in need of some pest control before I do anything.



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Homesteader

Homesteader

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263
I started making some new soil a few weeks ago before the cold set in just so I could get the base mix all blended before it froze. I chipped out the frozen soil into 25 gallon "square" bags. These bags are new to me but I assume they don't stay square for long.

The soil is 3.7 cu bale of peat mixed with two 5kg bricks of coco and about 10 gallons of rice hull. Ill add the nutrients and minerals to it once the greenhouse warms up a bit
 
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Homesteader

Homesteader

3,473
263
We lost an entire variety of elderberry we grow to them this year. I couldn't figure out why the plants weren't growing or producing until I dug one up and found the roots were covered. I thought it was kind of wierd because it they didn't go after any of my other varieties nearby. Glad you got them all under control.
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

17,190
438
We lost an entire variety of elderberry we grow to them this year. I couldn't figure out why the plants weren't growing or producing until I dug one up and found the roots were covered. I thought it was kind of wierd because it they didn't go after any of my other varieties nearby. Glad you got them all under control.


I used a merit 75 (imid) dose early in veg and followed up with botanigard drenches 2-3 times.

also got rid of all remaining infected plants or harvested some and cleaned and left rooms empty a month before re planting.

It has cost me 6 months of production almost. I didnt see them for a long time and got less than half yield per plant by the end.

Hope you got them all too!
 
Homesteader

Homesteader

3,473
263
Have you ever thought about selling those lights you make? I would like to see some pics, I might have something for you if you interested. Anyway All the best bro, looking forward to this

I was going to start a business building lights with high power LEDs trying to use mostly American products and aluminum but the reality is that Chinese competition is hard to compete with and the regulations seem to be a bit daunting and pricey. To make any money you would have to charge a higher price than the lights would be worth and in the end, I just like growing and not selling. Plus selling high powered lights for cannabis in an industry that prefers mid range, isn't really my thing.
 
GimpDaddy

GimpDaddy

180
43
Looks like the build is coming along nicely so far. I will be tuning in for updates.

what kind of pears and apples do you grow? We planted a handful of pear, Apple, and cherry trees a couple years back, hoping to get some fruit from them this year
 
Goblinkiller

Goblinkiller

658
143
Hello homesteader, I will follow this thread. Interesting to see :) did you have photo of the lights?
 
Homesteader

Homesteader

3,473
263
We have a lot of varieties, probably too many to list. Mostly old varieties from the 1800's the perry pears go back even further into the 1700s.
Golden pippen, Golden russet, Porters perfection, black oxford, blankeney red, as well as some newer varieties like macoun and honeycrisp. Gala is one of my favorites. We also grow three apple rootstocks and a pear rootstock
My hope is to get several smaller acre purchases and convert them into cider orchards for my kids to take care of in the future. A $20k field can turn into a $100k+ orchard in about a decade. You just have to plant the right variety I guess. Many orchards are all in on honeycrisp.
 
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HarryHood

HarryHood

250
43
We have a lot of varieties, probably too many to list. Mostly old varieties from the 1800's the perry pears go back even further into the 1700s.
Golden pippen, Porters perfection, black oxford, blankeney red as well as some newer varieties. Gala is one of my favorites.
My hope is to get several smaller acre purchases and convert them into cider orchards for my kids to take care of in the future. A $20k field can turn into a $100k+ orchard in about a decade. You just have to plant the right variety I guess. Many orchards are all in on honeycrisp.
that's awesome! digging the lifestyle and setup. i planted a few varieties of pears, plums, and cherries a couple years ago so they should start bearing fruit this summer. got some blueberries going too. i was thinking of doing nuts as well, most likely hazelnuts. which type of nuts are you growing?
 
Homesteader

Homesteader

3,473
263
Hello homesteader, I will follow this thread. Interesting to see :) did you have photo of the lights?

Ill get a few pictures up soon.
that's awesome! digging the lifestyle and setup. i planted a few varieties of pears, plums, and cherries a couple years ago so they should start bearing fruit this summer. got some blueberries going too. i was thinking of doing nuts as well, most likely hazelnuts. which type of nuts are you growing?
Yeah hazelnut is a great one. Make sure you get the hybrid though because the native American variety is really hard to crack and is a much smaller nut.
I grow a lot of butternut which is a walnut species. The nut tastes much better than walnut does and you can tap the tree for syrup and it tastes almost identical to maple. You do get pectin though so you have to scrape off a jelly but that taste good too.
I love butternut trees.
 
Goblinkiller

Goblinkiller

658
143
Very nice. Think I saw the same parts in another diy light thread here. Are you electrically inclined? Have some prior training/skills in that area?

Sounds like you are living the dream.
I live in a city and often think of moving out. But the damn driving distance to work.. :)
 
Homesteader

Homesteader

3,473
263
I think just like everything, you need to jump in and be ready to get zapped a little. Electrical always scared me but then I had to rewire a lot of our house and I got over it eventually. I still get a little sketched out when working with 220 but no way I am going to pay somebody else to do it. I would go broke.

I love farming but most people don't understand the heartache that comes with it....especially raising animals. Shit happens with animals a lot and it drains you but on the flip side there are aspects (especially raising a family) that a spring farm brings that I wouldn't trade. Kind of a ying/yang that goes with it.
 
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