New polytunnel grower

[desertshaman]

Hi all..

I'm new to outdoor growing and plan to stick a few plants in the tunnel this year. I have a large polypitch tunnel so lots of head height I think it's 3m tall. 10 ft wide by 15 feet long. I have some seeds from real gorilla seed co: early grape berry and dgf bx1. 

 

Reading around here it seems best to plant them out in end may or early June...

 

Did a few autos outside last year they were pretty shit. All got rot.

Plan to have a large fan or fans and a heater at night to reduce humidity. I have an ozone generator I can stick in there or just a cf in a 5 inch fan close to the plants? I'm close to the road but in a detached property. Tunnel has opaque sheeting so one can't see inside from outside as to what's growing and I'm not overlooked but smell will be an issue..! 

 

Was wondering if you all would go with pots or stick the plants in the ground?

 

 

I do plan on having flowers tomatoes and other veg around the cannabis...

 

Cheers all

DS

Edited March 30, 2022 by desertshaman
Sp

[MindSoup]

Hey dude, polytunnels can be brilliant, but they suffer badly from high humidity. So you absolutely need either a dehumidifier, or fuck off extraction and intake fans (CF on the extraction), Ideally on some sort of smart fan speed controller. Think of it as a giant grow tent without the lights. You can help yourself a lot by not over crowding it too much as well, it's tempting to fill it up with other plants as cover, but it can cause more problems than its worth. 

 

As for pots or ground, as much as I love growing in open ground I'd probably go with pots, simply because you can move them somewhere if you ever need to get them out of the way. It also makes it easier to work on them.  

 

I can't really stress the humidity thing enough. I've lost count of how many people have ignored my advice on that over the years and lost their entire crop. It might cost a fair whack initially but you'll thank yourself for doing it. Its a whole lot of risk to be taking for nothing but mush come harvest time. 

[desertshaman]

Hi @MindSoup 

Thanks for looking in bud. And for all the tips. I got the impression most poly or green house plants got rot so yeah I'm a bit paranoid about the humidity. Which dehumidifier would you go for? I was thinking of having a large oscillating fan at one end coming on at night with A cf at the other end working 24 /7 blowing air away from the closest neighbors and the road... Was going to hook up some inkbird controllers to trigger the fan and tubular heaters. And gave a few fans around the plants blowing air around...

Thanks for reminding me not to overcrowd them this is something I'm definitely guilty of. Like my last indoor grow with sixteen pants in a 1m tent..... Only got 8 this time around and it's so much easier!...

I figured the other plants would help disguise the cannabis and act as companion plants but I don't want to lose them to rot so I'll be sure to keep them well spaced ....

 

 

Would you plant out in may or June buddy? Hear you on the pots. Think I'll go down that route. Have a good dozen or so of large fabric pots in the garden that need a clean out. Will be a good job for my new karcher that I bought to clean the bikes lol...

 

Am tempted to use some well rotted organic manure and mushroom compost with coco added into the pots... They are around 30 l... I Use the compost to grow all my veg with no other amendments bit that's in the ground in a much larger volume.... Reckon this would work but might need to feed mid bloom onwards... Using intense organix indoors for the first time and it's working a treat so will probably use the same outdoors or try to use up my 5l bottles of coco feed lol....

 

Cheers and ATB

DS

[MindSoup]

Not much idea about dehumidifiers tbh, would probably need to be a hefty old beast. With enough extraction and air circulation you'll probably be alright, they're good hardy outdoor genetics so as long as its not any damper than outside it should be ok. 

 

Early- Mid may is probably a good time to start. They should reach a decent size that way, you can do some LST and some topping to get a lower plant and more smaller tops which are less prone to mould. 

 

Soil mix sounds pretty good some Worm Castings would be a nice addition. I've started using biochar recently and its amazing the difference it makes, I'd highly recommend it. Do your research though as it needs "charging" before use, there's plenty of info on YouTube. Some top dresses along the way will help. Sulphur of pot ash is a good one for flowering.

 

I hardly use bottled nutrients TBH, even indoors so I'm not too clued up, 1 thing I do know is the more "chemically" ones tend not to do the microbes much good and they're the guys that would be breaking down the manure etc, I prefer to keep the soil/beneficials/worms fed and let them worry about keeping the plant happy, but there's a million ways to swing a cat so you do you, just don't try mixing one style with another, it rarely works very well. 

Edited March 30, 2022 by MindSoup

[Kush Lover]

2 hours ago, MindSoup said:

I can't really stress the humidity thing enough. I've lost count of how many people have ignored my advice on that over the years and lost their entire crop.

 

+1 for this.

 

I'm sure there will be more experienced poly tunnel growers along but my personal experience didn't go amazingly!

 

Humidity is a huge problem as already stated, I ended up having to run extension cables and fans over to it and even had to have the doors open to create airflow. Essentially its fantastic conditions for bud rot.

 

Putting the above to onside, one of the biggest factors is location. What I found having a poly tunnel is everyone wants to have a look at what you have growing in there which can be a nightmare but for me the biggest problem was the smell. When I say it was a problem, it was stupid to be honest and I would never do it again unless I was a long way away from anyone else and certainly not in my garden again. It was like a beacon, you could smell it from quite a way away and when the wind was in the wrong direction it stank out the whole village.

 

Hands up I didn't have much of a clue what I was doing but even with just 8 plants I would only do it if I had a huge carbon filter scrubbing the air. But then you don't see many poly tunnels around with them so it might raise alarm bells for some.

 

Good luck dude.

 

 

[Crow River]

I'm planning on popping a single Autoflower in my polytunnel this summer, just as an experiment. Will be interested to see how you get on with a few plants.

 

My plan is to use a stealthy strain (Auto Duck, doesn't have classic canna shaped leaves) and camouflage (companion planting, runner beans outside, netting screen inside, etc.). 

 

Even so, humidity and odour during flower will be the main concerns I reckon. I'm going the chemicals route regarding fertiliser, using commercial compost too. I'll just be feeding the plant the same stuff I give my tomatoes and peppers.

 

Best of luck with the grow!  

[popespliff]

Polytunnels have come along way over recent years with side and top ventilation and various polythenes that can also inhibit the growth of Botrytus .  Try to avoid very long tunnels which can experience poor ventilation in the centre away from the doors . Keep floor dry and free of weeds will also help keep humidity down .

 

Cheers

PS