CaptainRon's Imaginarium: Off-grid, indoor growing, geothermal greenhouse build, a place to store my thoughts

Howdy Overgrowers,

Thanks for stopping by! I’m new to OG and feel comfortable enough to start sharing.
I don’t have any social media and hope to use this as a place to store my time with cannabis and her powerful influence along my journey.

A little about me to start.
I am a hermit.
I live off-grid in Vermont (The nearest powerline is 1.25 miles away).
My house is equipt with a fairly small setup:
6 panels with a shared inverter.
8 nano carbon(still lead acid) batteries.
Backup propane generator connected to a 1000g tank(holds 850g).

Cannabis has been the needle in my compass since the first time she filled my lungs. At that time I was only 19, now 36, and had no idea the seed she planted in me.
That seed soon broke open, and the one thing I needed manifested. A teacher.

Many years passed with many lessons learned.

Through all this time I was buying from roommates or friends. I also sold for a bit so I didn’t need to pay for it. But as years went on, her effect on me seemed to be weakening. I decided to spend the extra(EXTRA) money at the dispo, $195 for 1/2 zip, on shit I couldn’t begin to remember what it was called. Everything sounded like Dr. Seuess knockoffs.
But it all sucked. I remember checking the trichomes when I got home and they were easily 2-3 weeks immature. $195 for a 1/2 zip…

At this point, I had just bought my house and realized it was time to learn how to grow. I had zero experience with any plant and was now holding 2 clones. I bought a 2x2 tent with a 150w HPS to keep them alive until I could put them outside on June 1.
Once the clones were moved outside I started popping seeds and that’s when I fell in love. Seeing my first seeds germ, and then become little plants was ecstasy. I was hooked.
I had 6 plants outside that summer. The weather was all over the place, typical for Vermont.
85-degree days with 50-degree nights sometimes, monsoon rains, and a steady 70+% humidity.
That mixed with the caterpillars…
The clones were the first to go. By September they both were fully infected with botrytis and were chopped. The other four also got infected in early October, and about half of each plant was salvageable.

At this moment I had some decisions to make,

  1. Be happy with what I have, learn something, and try again next year,
  2. Build a greenhouse,
  3. Figure how I can grow indoors with a limited amount of power.

I ended up smoking some of the salvaged product and I took off. I got so high I had to get up and go outside. My mind was being flooded with so much inspiration and euphoria. I had finally found my teacher again. At that moment I knew growing was not going to just be a hobby, but something more.

Currently, I am making the majority of my inputs, including microbes, utilizing ferments and JADAM techniques.

Indoors I have a few tents, 2x2 and two 3x3. Typically only run one at a time for veg and either split into the two 3x3 for flower or just put them all together in the room with no tents.

I have a few lights; Ac infinity evo4(300w), Migro array3(250w), Ac infinity iongrid(150w), Ac infinity UVb supplement lighting.

In the tent, I have 9 DLA 5.3 and 3 Soma’s Amnesia Haze(fem).


The only way I could grow indoors without destroying my batteries and paying $2500+ in propane a year was to remove my need for entertainment via distractions( tv, movies, sitting at night with lights on, streaming videos-1080p video streaming uses more power than you may think, and using wifi.)
Removing all these distractions was massive in correcting my mental health, and allowed me to grow good quality bud indoors, off-grid.
But I do still need to be creative. I Veg typically on a 16/8 light sch, and honestly, I think this makes the plants happier. Everything does the majority of growing while sleeping, but I have no idea.
If there are several days of dark skies I’ll do dynamic lighting and lower and raise intesnsity as the sun comes and goes.
I also usually won’t grow between Nov and Feb.
I don’t keep clones and just pop seeds.

I’m not a yield guy and strive to get the best quality I can with the tools I have.

I would also like to keep track of my greenhouse build here. I’m about a week into construction.
I have dug a 5.5’ deep hole with very custom dimensions. I am building the walls from stone.
This baby will be about 6’ underground when done, with the roof fully exposed to the sun. I’ll use polycarbonate for roofing in the beginning. Technically speaking, I should be able to maintain above 55-degree temps at this depth during winter months with no heat. I have a few ideas for heating though! And the stone will act as a natural heater as well. The sun will cook the stones while she’s out and hopefully radiate a few hours after sunset. Light deps from May until October
I’d only need the greenhouse from April-Nov most seasons for cannabis and will grow food in my off months.
I hope that maybe if people are interested in the greenhouse you guys can keep me motivated and going. I’m building it solo and sometimes I lose spirit with projects. Although this one is very fun.

My crazy goal for the greenhouse is to be able to work with long-flowering sativas outdoors. I’d like to do my part by helping with preservation and sharing the seeds with the fine folks of OG.
And maybe, just maybe one day I will have made my own heirloom in the process.
Wishful thinking but this shit is a simulation so fuck it!

Anyway, that’s all for me for now.
I only run Wi-fi from 630am to 8am most mornings and I will post plant and greenhouse updates Sundays, or as requested.

Thanks for coming by and I hope you stick around, this should be a fun ride!

Cheers,
Ron

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Sounds and looks like a fantastic start! Thank you for sharing with OverGrow.

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This is so badass! Ive always had a similar dream after stumbling across this video years ago. Ive lived off grid for a season myself, and it can be such a wonderful experience. Especially if you’re growing a bunch of ganja lol

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Very cool! :+1:
You are absolutely right about using thermal mass in the greenhouse.
A friend recommended “The Passive Solar Energy Book” when I was exploring similar options, a great reference.
I’m looking forward to see where this leads you.

Cheers
G

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Welcome! You’re living the dream!! DLA5 is some stinky shit so I’m sure 5.3 will be right there with it.

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Renouncing to all those “distractions” just to grow weed icon_e_surprised|nullxnull is a great commitment I wouldn’t be able to do, much respect for that, I am sure that with your strong will you will succeed in all your plans, thanks for sharing and following along … popcorn

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Cool project you have going.

For a while I contemplated the idea of a fireplace heated greenhouse myself.

The old British pineapple manure house was an inspirational read.
The Story of the £10,000 Pineapple (heligan.com)

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Really cool project! Part of me wishes I had gone and lived the way you are before I got married. The wife wouldn’t go for it but I have no real need for technology and i would thrive having that lifestyle. Best of luck and if you would like some more variety in your seed stock, send me a message!

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@Heliosphear Thank you, brother!

@BackyardBoogie420 Off-grid living can be very challenging if you aren’t ready to put in the effort, but in my humble opinion is such a worthwhile experience.

@Gpaw Thank you, brother! Just ordered a copy of the book, looks like it’ll be an excellent tool to have all around.
Did you end up building anything?

@George Haha, I appreciate your kind words and support! Thank you, brother!

@Monst3rbean Thank you, brother! Initially, I threw around the idea of using a RV wood stove, but I learned pretty quickly running one all winter(a wood stove heats my house), that the fire typically drys out the space to around 30% humidity, and as long as there is a fire it’s pretty challenging to raise that humidity.
Currently, my idea is to get some coiled copper pipe, fill it with water, and cap off both ends. Have the coil in a fire outside the greenhouse, and route the pipe through the space. The heat should travel with the water through the pipe.
This is all just speculation on my end at this stage though!

I just read that article you posted about the manure house. Wow, genius! I bet you could also try compost piles around as well! Fantastic share, thank you, brother!!

@ABushOfKush Thank you, brother! It’s funny how society forces us to have a dependence on technology, but 90% of it is purely distractions to the current moment or just a quick means to buy something. It has destroyed our relationship with dopamine and with the sun. All the artificial light people bathe in once the sun goes down is wild! On a molecular level, this causes cells to be very confused…
If you’re at all curious about the topic of light and cells let me know. There’s a great podcast on the topic, but is kinda dry, and hard to understand without a few listens (6-hour podcast). What the neurosurgeon brings to light(pun intended) was profound for me and did end up changing the way I interact with the world.
I will definitely keep in touch about seed stock, but only once I have some to share!
I believe life grades us based on how much we give. v how much we take.

Thank you all for taking the time to stop in and leave beautiful support, comments, and information!

Tomorrow morning, 7/27/2024, I will be uploading photos of each plant with the information I have gathered so far on each. I ended up germinating the seeds in waves so unfortunately they’re a tad all over with age.
The DLA 5.3 has been the most vigorous plant I’ve grown so far, with three of the nine starting with five leaflets instead of three. Eight of the nine are looking very happy and healthy with one being a struggle to make happy. I’m sure if you look at the photos you’ll see which one I’m talking about! Interestingly enough, that plant’s first set of true leaves had three leaflets instead of just a single.
The Amnesia haze I originally popped has been showing a good bit of mutation but is starting to normalize by the fourth node. The other two are just three days above the soil and are looking beautiful!

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Thank you, brother!
Did you end up making it into hashish of any kind or did you keep as buds?
I think I’m going to have keep as buds as I don’t think I’ll be able to grow them large enough indoors for hash.
Shantibaba says that he recommends growing HP’s outdoors for hash production.

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Nice grow area.

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Update on the build after yesterday’s labor.

This wall is about even in height finally, and should make the vertical climb easier. We’ll see!
Drainage pipe and floor area this coming week.

Have a beautiful weekend everyone.

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Are you making fun of my snug tent? That’s fair if you are!
I hope you stick around brother!

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Very cool set up for sure.

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This is so much awesome @CaptainRon !

Looking forward to watching your progress!

:v:

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Thank you, brother! Thanks so much for stopping in!
The hope is that all this labor will benefit the whole community once completed.
Preservations, open pollinations, and seeds for everyone. That’s my motivation atleast!

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It’s very cool, I’m your “neighbor” and we want to put up a greenhouse soon I’m very interested in how the dugout one goes for you. I’m not sure how far we can go down, our water table is kind of high where we are.

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Thank you so much brother! Your support truly means a lot!

Fuck the government’s of the world, it’s time we OVERGROW them for good!

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I found my water table starting at about 5.5 feet. To make up the extra depth needed I’m going to add an extra 2’ of earth above what I could get to depth wise. Build a ‘hill leading up the sides, hobbit house like. This should finish out at about 7’ underground.

I dug the whole thing with the front bucket of my little 24HP tractor, and a shovel. No backhoe or excavator needed. Using all the stones I found for the build. I live along a few brooks that seem to flood annually at this point, but thankfully always leave a restock of beautiful stones to pick.
Other than my time, I have just the cost of 10gallons of diesel so far. Although I have blown a few hydraulic lines on the old tractor…

There’s a few posts that started this thread off that have some really cool ideas as well! Specifically the one that heats with horse manure.

Glad to have ya, neighbor! Have a beautiful weekend

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That’s cool, we are looking at a tractor about that size as well, we are to the point we need it with the firewood, chicken, garden, etc etc etc

That’s going to be a very bad ass set up. Did you have lots of shale?

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