Hi folks! First post, not sure if I can post photos, yet.
July has been a scorcher. Every day above average temps so far, many days near 100 degrees. I’m at 3500 feet west of the Continental Divide. My hoop house is 50 by 13 feet, made of 20 foot PVC pipe that form hoops. One layer of mesh shade cloth on the top, and one layer of clear plastic “grypholyn” which is a clear plastic with a scrim in it. The grypholyn is pulled up four to five feet on each side of the chophouse so that air can flow in through the mesh shade cloth. Three longitudinal raised beds in side the hoop house, one on each side and one down the middle. The raised beds are watered with driplines. I grow heirloom tomatoes on the raised beds along the sides, and peppers, herbs and a small amount of cannabis in the center raised bed.
Two Gorilla Glue X Lemon Haze photo period plants in 8th week of veg. (will go into a grow tent inside for 12/12 and flowering)
Two White Widow Autoflower plants nearing harvest.
Two Mandarine Autoflower plants about halfway through flowering, developing good buds. All seeds from Homegrown, all great.
Temps go to 110 to 118 degrees inside the hoop house during the worst part of a hot day. All three sets of plants flourishing so far.
So,…three ways I’ve been dealing with the heat - thought I would share and so if some of the real pros on this forum would give input (I’m only an intermediate level grower at best - I’m a better tomato grower than cannabis grower).
One - plants are in two and three gallon cloth pots in Ocean Forest soil and buried into the raised beds. The raised beds themselves have soil that has been developed for years through kitchen scrap compost and pre-seed alfalfa clippings. I’ve also added organic fertilizers to it at times. Moisture is always available to wick into the cloth pots and the temps 6 inches down into the raised bed are about 60-65 degrees. So the root systems are cool and always have moisture and nutrients available.
Two - three ten inch fans running off solar power keep the air moving inside the hoop house. These are cheap plastic fans from Wal-Mart that run off 9 volts. I use a 1000 watt-hour battery with a built-in inverter and two 100 watt solar panels to run them almost all the time. Just keeping the air moving a little bit helps a lot with the high heat.
Three - I ‘make it rain’ three times a day in the hoop house with a garden hose. Just a little five minute misting rain, not soaking, during the really hot afternoon hours. That will instantly cool the hoop house down ten degrees and helps to serve the increased transpiration needs of all the plants in there during high heat.
Those are my heat wave techniques. Probably helps to have seeds with good genetics from Homegrown. I feel like if I had plants from Mexican Bag seeds (like I’ve grown for a few years) in there I would have mutants and nanners all over the place from the high heat.
Any comments or other ideas? - Praying for rain and cooler temps in the mountains. Will include some photos later.
