My 2012 norcal greenhouse project

I started construction of my greenhouse, actually more of a hothouse, as I have no power available to it, around 3 months ago. Ran out of money so finishing is put on hold for now. I intended to cover it with plastic, the thickest I can find locally, within the month.
The frame is a 10 x 20 tubular steel carport frame that I picked up from someone who wanted it gone. The planter beds are railroad ties that I have been collecting for a while. As the ground is all rocks I had to do raised beds rather than just digging holes for them.

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I used closeline stretched between the roof frameing to give it a little more strength against the weight of water when it rains and give it a little more stability.

Last year I had a scabbed together pvc supported tunnel that colapsed on my Blackberry Kush about a month from harvest in a heavy rainstorm. I lost about 1/3 of my crop. So this year I intend on making sure it is strong enough for the job.

I planted 6 Mr. Nice in the beds around May 10 through 15. I wasn't sure if that was to early, but I was getting antsy to get this show on the road. Patience is not one of my strong points, and it does bite me sometimes. But they are looking pretty good, and arn't flowering, just showing preflowers so it looks like everything is going to be fine. I hardened them for 4 days previous to putting them into their final bed and I don't see any bad signs. The weather has been fairly mild compared to last year. We only had a couple of days when it reached the 90's and this last week has been unusually mild, averaging 65 to 70 deg. perfect starting weather.

The soil mix is basically 80% compost / 20% worm castings that I picked up at the local worm farm for $45.00 a yard. I mixed blood and bone meal into it, composted cow poop, azomite and diatamatious earth ( bug control ) as well as dolomite lime. Its a mix that I used last year and got pretty decent results from. Last year I think I averaged around a pound + from my girls using this, even with the rain damage.

When I get some more cash i'll finish it up with plastic and shade cloth. I still have to add some 1 x 3 wooden laterals to attach the plastic to on the top and sides, with the shade cloth covering the front and back to allow for air flow. I'm going to make the sides so as to be able to roll them up for air circulation or roll them down for rain protection.

Maybe if this works out ok this season I'll look into getting some regular greenhouse covering rather than plastic, as plastic has a very limited lifetime due to uv deterioration and greenhouse cloth is more resiliant to uv degradation. I just can't afford to go that route this year.

I keep kicking myself in the rear for not buying a commercial greenhouse when I had the oppertunity last year. A neighbor had one that he would have given me for $2000.00 that included a propane heater and two large swamp coolers. I could have sold the heater and coolers and paid for the hothouse with that. Oh well, lost opertunities....

Anybody with suggestions, feel free to chime in. Plans are always subject to change without notice with me and I am always looking for good ideas. The only criteria I have is that it be strong, and not very expensive as this is a low budget project.

My strains so far this year are:
Mr. Nice (clones)
Ice (fem. seeds)
Arjans Haze #2 (fem. seeds)
Wonder Woman (Nirvana, regular seeds)
Master Kush (Amsterdamseeds.nl, regular seeds)

I will admit to choosing the strains more for yeild than for power. Although all these strains are supposed to be pretty good. The only one I've grown befor is the Master Kush, and that was an indoor grow.

Looks good, i was going to use a carport frame to but i already have a concrete slab and would have had wasted space cause the carport is not as big as my slab