6. Setting Up Your Garden
(We took this picture from 40 feet up in the air on a scissor lift during build-out in, 2014, in Quincy, WA.)
If you build it, he will come.
While there’s no one size fits all answer to this question, as the requirements in each state vary significantly, there are some general things you need to know about with respect to your garden build-out.
For an outdoor site, you will most likely need an 8-foot-high, opaque fence. Shade cloth is far cheaper than steel slats, though much less durable.
If it’s not preexisting, you will need to dig trenches and install an underground network of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) piping for irrigation. If for any reason you won’t be burying the pipe, spend the extra dollars to get PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) line instead of PVC to reduce the likelihood of pipe burst during the winter.
You also need to make sure that your power will be adequate to meet your needs. This has to include your security and traceability systems, in addition to any machinery you may be planning to run. Make sure to find out if your equipment requires 3 phase power, and whether that will be available to your property.
Indoors you will need adequate plumbing and drainage systems installed. At an outdoor garden you are going to have to drill a well if there’s not one on the property already. The amount of water you need every day in an outdoor grow will depend on many variables including: the number of plants, amount of sunlight, temperature, and the organic content of your soil. Indoors water uptake will depend upon plant age/size, growing medium, air temp, and relative humidity.
Take samples of your water and soil and get them tested. If you’re not sure where to find a lab, call the Agriculture Department in your state or you can contact a State University’s Ag Department for more resources and information.
If you are not so adventurous to attempt a no-till grow, you will likely have to till your soil to add in amendments like nutrients, vermiculite, and manure.
You are going to need a large water holding tank. You can either manually check your water chemistry or use one of the many process controllers available to mix and check your nutrient formulas before letting your mixes run through your irrigation lines. Recommended is one distinct tank for storing water that’s ready to apply. Another tank is also recommended, or several smaller ones, depending on whether you have set up a pre-mix formula or are auto-mixing your formula during feeding/fertigation.
You are also going to need an administrative space with online access to your state’s traceability system. This is a good time to generate and/or implement starter SOP’s for everything ranging from your build-out to payroll processing.
Trellising
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
You are going to need to use some trellising methods that work well for cannabis, but the good news is that there are many great options from the orchard and vineyard industries that can easily be adopted for cannabis production.
One of Troy’s go-to trellising options for outdoor cannabis production is 8-10 foot metal t-posts, that suspend between them multiple horizontal layers of scrog netting.
The netting creates a support structure that both guides the plant’s growth when they are young and then later secures their heavy flowers from the wind.
A similar approach and use of horizontal netting that supplies low stress training and support, also applies indoors.
Plant Spacing
Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.
Like many growers and entrepreneurs before you, your instincts are probably telling you to cram in as many plants as you can squeeze into your canopy space, in order to maximize your yield and production. In this case (and probably many others), your instincts are dead wrong.
Not only does giving plants more space to grow enable them to have a higher ceiling for flower production, because of the exponential growth curve as discussed earlier, but, in order to maintain healthy growth in general, you need adequate space between the plants to allow for maximum penetration of the sunlight.
Of equal importance, is the critical need for airflow. Without enough airflow between the plants, you are almost guaranteed to have problems with hazardous infestations. When your plants are so close that they are touching, they will easily share all manner of pests and diseases.
Your Grow Pan
The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.
You have to decide if you’re going to grow directly in the ground or in pots. Both are valid options depending on your soil situation. If you have great, loamy, fluffy soil, in large holes or trenches dug into the ground covered with shade cloth, then you might want to save money and skip the pots.
If your soil is rocky, sandy, acidic, smells of sulfur, or is just generally inhospitable, then you may want to consider using a smart pot ranging from 30-100 gallons in size and plan for a larger budget for growing medium and a space to clean your grow pots. The cleaning of pots can range from automated pot-sanitizers (think a restaurant dishwashing machine on a large scale) to good old fashioned, grueling manual labor.
Planning for Bad Weather
Frozen Pot Farm in 2015, Quincy, WA.)
The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.
In cannabis or any commercial farming, you should always plan for the worst when it comes to the weather. The risk is much greater with an outdoor crop that you are bringing to full term vs. light dep. Harvesting in August as opposed to November helps you reduce many potential vectors of contamination including molds, fungi, and certain insects as long as you have air circulation during blackout periods.
If you’re going full term with open grow beds, you should have some kind of contingency plan for heating your plants in case a deep freeze suddenly comes in out of nowhere.
This is expensive and takes advanced planning. For instance, you can install underground heating cables on the perimeter of your plant beds that will help warm the ambient soil around the roots of the cannabis plants. You can also use orchard blankets, although these are like putting a ‘bag’ over the plant that creates critical conditions for the spread of mold and other threats.
Orchard heaters and fans can work but are not a cost-effective solution for covering a large open-air field.
When designing your site plan, find out which way the wind blows in your area. Layout your structures with the maximum amount of windbreak in mind.
Some additional wind protection options include hard wind barriers and diffusion cloth fencing. Another great alternative or supplement, is the use of wind diffusing perimeter trees. While it can be expensive to plant enough trees around a large garden to stop all of the wind, they provide a fantastic long term, natural solution that won’t need replacing every few years.
Planting
The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.
If you are planting in a pot, then you want to make sure that your roots will have enough room to grow. In that sense the larger the pot, the higher your ceiling for growth. That being said, you don’t want to jump right in by throwing your clones right into a 100-gallon smart pot.
As they are acclimating to the environment, you’ll want to transplant your clones into progressively larger pots, starting with a 4-inch pot, then moving to 1 gallon, and then finally the largest container. If you have experience then you may want to go right to the 1 gallon from clone to reduce labor and costs.
It’s important that you make sure that your plants have plenty of water before and after transplanting.
Be very careful not to damage the roots when you are handling the plants. Make sure you are wearing gloves and using sanitary equipment from plant to plant so that you don’t pass a disease, like Tobacco Mosaic Virus, to your new babies unintentionally.
Don’t get lost in the weeds trying to set up your pot garden. Reach out to the experts at My Pipe Dreams for help.
Key Chapter Takeaways
The Do’s and Don’ts of the Dope Industry
- Do– Find the right set up for your environment, budget and goals.
- Do– Make sure you have adequate water, plumbing, power, and electrical infrastructure.
- Do– Get your water and soil tested!
- Don’t– Bunch up as many plants as you can into a small space!
- Don’t– Forget to plan for bad weather!
- Don’t– Don’t forget to keep your plants watered before and after transplanting!