Thaistick55
Member
Hello Everybody.....
I have been a lurker on this site for many years and decided this season to share with you my plans and get some feedback and maybe help someone else along the way. Thanks to all of you that post on here, I have learned much knowledge over the years.
Background:
I have been doing hydroponic grows off and on for the past 6 years. EF, DWC, Aeroponics and have been fairly successful. Last year, I got tossed into a large (72 plants) greenhouse grow..... Long story short, late start- plants didn't make it outside until late July, they were maybe 18" tall (been topped once) and were in 2L soda bottles and fairly root packed. They went into 5g grow bags with a mix of 70% Peat, 20% local top soil, and about 10% chunky perlite. They grew to about 4-5 ft tall. Three strains: Sweet tooth, Mayzar, and Lemon Kush. All seemed to average about 3-4 oz/ plant. Not ideal, but with what I was given to start, ie root packed, spider mites, late start, and a very limited knowledge of soil growing..... not too bad. This year I plan to change all of that.......
Rural southern Michigan location. Greenhouse is a DIY peaked structure, sourced from hours of internet research and is 30ft X 50ft, so 1500 sq ft. Plenty of height, I think its 16 ft at peat and sidewalls are 7.5 ft high. I am planning on growing 35 plants inside, rows of 5x7. This space gives me almost 43 sq ft/plant.
I am considering doing raised beds but a little different than most I have seen on different forums and YouTube videos. Ideally, I would love to do 3-4 ft squares and 18-24 inches high however the cost of the associated material and soil really blows my budget. I am thinking 2ft X 2ft and 1 ft tall which is 4 cu ft of space. However, I will be auguring (power post hole digger) down about 2 ft within this space to break up the soil, which is fairly decent maybe a bit sandy. I won't dig out the entire space, but more like a 12" diameter hole in the center. Then I plan on mixing in 4 cu ft material: 70% Peat, 20% bagged top soil, and 10% perlite. This material with also be mixed with dirt evacuated from the dug hole. I possibly might consider substituting the bagged soil for a compost material if I can find some locally that is equivalent in price to the bagged soil, which right now is about $1.10 a cubic foot. I would like to up the percentage of perlite but haven't been able to find anything cheaper than $8.50/cu ft. With the above mentioned percentages 70/20/10.... I am looking at about $9 a hole.
I have found Pro-Mix BX and MP 3.8 cu ft bales for $21,which is a steal, and what I have heard is they expand to about 7 cu ft. Can anyone confirm this??? And do you guys think the Pro-Mix is worth the additional 25% (well, actually 35% since its about 300 miles roundtrip to pick it up and the truck don't get too great of gas mileage
).
Hoping for 1-1.5 lbs trees.
Well this probably enough for now...... Later I will discuss, how I intend to construct the raised beds and get some opinions on strains.
Thanks for reading......
T_Stick
I have been a lurker on this site for many years and decided this season to share with you my plans and get some feedback and maybe help someone else along the way. Thanks to all of you that post on here, I have learned much knowledge over the years.
Background:
I have been doing hydroponic grows off and on for the past 6 years. EF, DWC, Aeroponics and have been fairly successful. Last year, I got tossed into a large (72 plants) greenhouse grow..... Long story short, late start- plants didn't make it outside until late July, they were maybe 18" tall (been topped once) and were in 2L soda bottles and fairly root packed. They went into 5g grow bags with a mix of 70% Peat, 20% local top soil, and about 10% chunky perlite. They grew to about 4-5 ft tall. Three strains: Sweet tooth, Mayzar, and Lemon Kush. All seemed to average about 3-4 oz/ plant. Not ideal, but with what I was given to start, ie root packed, spider mites, late start, and a very limited knowledge of soil growing..... not too bad. This year I plan to change all of that.......
Rural southern Michigan location. Greenhouse is a DIY peaked structure, sourced from hours of internet research and is 30ft X 50ft, so 1500 sq ft. Plenty of height, I think its 16 ft at peat and sidewalls are 7.5 ft high. I am planning on growing 35 plants inside, rows of 5x7. This space gives me almost 43 sq ft/plant.
I am considering doing raised beds but a little different than most I have seen on different forums and YouTube videos. Ideally, I would love to do 3-4 ft squares and 18-24 inches high however the cost of the associated material and soil really blows my budget. I am thinking 2ft X 2ft and 1 ft tall which is 4 cu ft of space. However, I will be auguring (power post hole digger) down about 2 ft within this space to break up the soil, which is fairly decent maybe a bit sandy. I won't dig out the entire space, but more like a 12" diameter hole in the center. Then I plan on mixing in 4 cu ft material: 70% Peat, 20% bagged top soil, and 10% perlite. This material with also be mixed with dirt evacuated from the dug hole. I possibly might consider substituting the bagged soil for a compost material if I can find some locally that is equivalent in price to the bagged soil, which right now is about $1.10 a cubic foot. I would like to up the percentage of perlite but haven't been able to find anything cheaper than $8.50/cu ft. With the above mentioned percentages 70/20/10.... I am looking at about $9 a hole.
I have found Pro-Mix BX and MP 3.8 cu ft bales for $21,which is a steal, and what I have heard is they expand to about 7 cu ft. Can anyone confirm this??? And do you guys think the Pro-Mix is worth the additional 25% (well, actually 35% since its about 300 miles roundtrip to pick it up and the truck don't get too great of gas mileage
).Hoping for 1-1.5 lbs trees.
Well this probably enough for now...... Later I will discuss, how I intend to construct the raised beds and get some opinions on strains.
Thanks for reading......
T_Stick
