The real "300$" walipini (pit greenhouse)

Some shots of the inside with insulation. The lowest space will be 4'x6' and get larger as you go up. Fireplace will be partially outside in a nook for simplicity sake and safety.

We're back on the track to the 300$ walipini! I didn't like how little space was left after the straw was in, so I sold my 200$ of straw no problem and I picked up an entire truck load of flattened cardboard boxes for free. I've started making 4" thick panels (theoretical R12-R16) and I have a ton of foil paper from the 50's that I can maybe work in there too.

According to Wikipedia, cardboard has an R value of 3-4 per inch, making it better than pink fiberglass insulation. The issue is that it's flammable and gets ruined if it's wet. Not an issue for me though, cuz I'm not living in this structure if it catches fire, and I can bag the cardboard in black 3mm construction garbage bags (which I have a ton of). The issue with my straw was making sure it was ventilated and not getting wet. I couldn't encapsulate it because it's naturally 15% moisture content and it'd rot. Cardboard however, no problem being bagged.

So I used a hot glue gun and layered an boxes in to a 4' x 4' panel that is 4" thick when compressed a little. I'll then put it in two taped together construction garbage bags for water proofing and the black can maybe make some heat for the structure. I'm working in ideas to keep them well pressed together without piercing through them to tie then together . One idea I had was to drill holes and fill them with hot glue, which would prevent them from shifting around if any come loose and keep the boxes from poofing out. In the middle.

I made about six 4ft by 4ft panels with a pickup truck load of boxes. It took me from around noon to 5. Had nothing more profitable to do with my time so this made sense.
So that's 96 square feet of R12-16 for free(9$ in hot glue). I'll need some more but I like where this is going.

What a wild idea, I love it, great work so far.

Is the application to grow your own medicine here in Ontario very in depth? Is it really just an application you dont need to get a doctors approval? Id love to see that form, cheers and happy building

the only problem i see is it doesn't look like you're going to be done with it till spring

TurboTokes said:

What a wild idea, I love it, great work so far.

Is the application to grow your own medicine here in Ontario very in depth? Is it really just an application you dont need to get a doctors approval? Id love to see that form, cheers and happy building

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It's a bit of a scam really. I have major depressive disorder and general anxiety, so my doctor was OK with me trying a prescription of marijuana because I had worked my way through all the ssri's and other prescriptions she wanted me to try and they were ineffective/impractical. I mentioned that I was able to manage effectively with specialized medical cannabis strains and she was on board. My doctor is just giving a referral though, she hasn't done the training needed to prescribe it directly. From there however, it's basically a referral to any of a bunch of greedy marijuana clinics that want your prescription so they can get a cut of what you buy from the licensed producer they hook you up with. Their standards for acceptance are very low. Modern day dealers basically.

To grow your own I was told that you have to pay an annual fee of 100$ per gram/day in order to cover the "liability" of you doing this at home. Bullshit. For example, I have a prescription for two grams a day so I'd pay 200$ per year just to be allowed to grow my own.

Im currently in the process of trying a few clinics that don't seem to want that 100$ per gram/day.

There are forms on the canada.ca website to apply to grow your own (12 pages long) and all the info I just told you and more.

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/topics/production-cannabis-for-your-own-medical-purposes.html

Roger A. Shrubber said:

the only problem i see is it doesn't look like you're going to be done with it till spring

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Haha, it should be closed in and warm before Christmas. I have all the parts for a woodfire water heater and barrels, once I close in. Then I need to do some ventilation setup and we're golden. I'm cannibalizing parts from someone else's glass greenhouse that was a bit of a dud.

Worst case Ontario, if it doesn't work as a weed growing area, I'll grow easier things (barley fodder) and make it a winter sauna/hot spot with a sand floor, a lawn chair and a giant bag of weed. Nothing I love more than walking in to a greenhouse in the middle of winter and smelling the fresh dirt and plants.

To be honest the thought of being able to put your feet in 60 degree sand, and sit "outside" without a coat in the middle or February makes me jealous on all fronts.

Ive heard of people basically getting some sort of prescription from a doctor and just having free weed sent to them, and just like you said, modern day wheeler dealers is what I gatherred, I have not heard of a process to be granted allowance to grow more than the 4 plant limit though, and to be honest with growing a few more plants than allowed only being a ticket, seems like its not worth the bother and just grow what you can smoke and be happy.

Im going to follow along to see your results in the coming months, I thought about building an outdoor grow space here in canada, but using artificial light and the heat that the fixtures generate for heat, but -10celcius fresh air intake is a big hurdle not wanting to run any sort of extra heating

TurboTokes said:

To be honest the thought of being able to put your feet in 60 degree sand, and sit "outside" without a coat in the middle or February makes me jealous on all fronts.

Ive heard of people basically getting some sort of prescription from a doctor and just having free weed sent to them, and just like you said, modern day wheeler dealers is what I gatherred, I have not heard of a process to be granted allowance to grow more than the 4 plant limit though, and to be honest with growing a few more plants than allowed only being a ticket, seems like its not worth the bother and just grow what you can smoke and be happy.

Im going to follow along to see your results in the coming months, I thought about building an outdoor grow space here in canada, but using artificial light and the heat that the fixtures generate for heat, but -10celcius fresh air intake is a big hurdle not wanting to run any sort of extra heating

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Ya, I'm sort of on board with that line of thought too, there's a lot of open area out here. However, if I get my prescription, I'm good for 10 indoor plants and 450g stored, dried cannabis. Which is hilarious because the new laws have no limit on how much recreational marijuana you can have at home. Also, part of my issue is that we're on a farm and have tenants, so there's like 4 pot smokers here and 1 plant each during summer ain't gonna cut it. The whole thing is bogus anyhow, you're not even supposed to be growing your 4 plants yet because they need to sell you seeds and they don't have any available yet. It's retarded how they rolled it out. They basically just created a ton of people who are misinformed and doing something technically illegal right now. Anyhow, I intend to do 4 scrogged plants running off aeroponics, so it should be a fast turnaround and high yield. If I get 10 plant allowance I'll do a sea of green.

I've been planning to make a SAD (seasonal affective disorder) treatment facility for years now. Basically, it would be a giant passive solar greenhouse with lots of room to do different things. I ain't no rich man though, I need to make a business plan and get loans and convince the gov it's effective. This greenhouse will be like a pilot program for that, as well as for some of the techniques I want to put in to my house when I build

i don't think 10 plants is enough to make a sog worthwhile, unless they don't count rooting or rooted clones waiting to flip....i'd look at a 4 plant scrog with the other 6 in staggered veg, about two weeks apart. get a perpetual 4 plant scrog going and you can get some good weight coming in

I think there's a big market for retrofitting greenhouses with ground heat pumps like you've done.. Hows the min max on temps going even though not finished?!

pinner420 said:

I think there's a big market for retrofitting greenhouses with ground heat pumps like you've done.. Hows the min max on temps going even though not finished?!

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Once I'm sealed up I'll toss my min/max thermometer in there. For now it's pretty cold as both ends are open to the cold.

So I read an article (https://richsoil.com/wofati.jsp) about building underground and water shed. I already knew i was going to have a bit of a water issue with the back wall, but I didn't realize how much it could affect the overall building.




My building basically looked exactly like their drawing of what not to do (above). SO, rather than re-dig in another location, I just put a gigantic rain gutter on the back of my greenhouse that is made of one 14ft long piece of reused steel roofing converted into a giant water run off. It catches the hill run-off because i buried it a little and it also gets the roof melt and dumps it 4 ft to the side of my greenhouse where it will run downhill and away.


The big takeaway from that article is that if the sand stays dry, it will be a better thermal mass, as well as having none of the problems caused by moisture (rot, mold etc).

And so here's a drawing of what mine should be doing. The big black thing is the rock behind my greenhouse.

I also put a bunch of garbage bag wrapped cardboard insulation panels on to the walls this evening, I wasn't done until it was too dark to take pictures though. Tomorrow!

4 more panels and I should have it covered and sealed in. The extra floor space is perfect for putting the barrels on their sides, under the floor.

After a long lull in my cardboard supply and some head scratching on what to do next, someone replied to my kijiji ad for free foam insulation and gave me (20) 1ftx8ft pieces of foam, that's like 6.5 full sheets. Enough to finally finish and seal in. I got two walls done today, should have the rest done tomorrow perhaps. I cleaned up a few half used cans of spray foam and they work well enough to give me a little string of foam, which is perfect to glue the sheets together with tape.

I also got 150 square feet of roxul (mineral wool) insulation from the same person. I'm going to salvage some 2"x4"x10' from old trusses that are laying around and make a back wall to put the roxul on and build shelves off of.

I'm liking the mix of cardboard and foam. The black bags catch early morning and late evening light, making heat. Also the cardboard is mostly high up where there's less ground contact..
Without the straw there is a LOT more room and fewer complications.

I'm thinking of using a livestock water container cube (3'x3'x3') instead of these awkward barrels.I happen to have a free one that was broken and I just patched it up.
I wanted to make a snorkel woodfire heater because they're so fast and efficient, but the barrels are too skinny. The livestock cube is a better candidate for that and simplifies things significantly.

Things are coming along nicely. I love the trash bag and cardboard wall. I've used them the same way but to use on the sides of an air conditioner back when I was a poor college kid lol. Hope all is well!

SoMe_EfFin_MasS_HoLe said:

Things are coming along nicely. I love the trash bag and cardboard wall. I've used them the same way but to use on the sides of an air conditioner back when I was a poor college kid lol. Hope all is well!

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haha, ya I've used cardboard before but never in such a thick amount. It'll be interesting to use the infrared gun on the walls when it's sealed in and see how they are performing compared to EPS.