FarmerJake’s Raised Bed

FarmerJake

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You may have seen my Original 2x2 raised bed. This thread will follow my attempt to scale up that successful highdea.
First step was removing the original 2x2 as I placed the new setup over the old footprint. I placed the 60 gallons of soil into rubbermaid totes and set it aside to be mixed into the new soil bed. The soil from the 2x2 has so many worms it’s awesome
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Next I built the 4x8 tent
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Built the 90”x43.25”x21.5(interior dimensions) cedar bed. It took 15 cedar boards but I got them for 1$ apiece from a local lumber mill as rough cut rejects.
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Cut the tent bottom and then stapled up to bottom wood panel
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Now I forgot the picture of the stone floor underneath but I remembered to grab one after clearing it but before cutting into the plastic sheeting someone put below. You can see the spot near the upper left which is the old 2x2 footprint.
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Cut the plastic and folded it up and stapled it onto the interior of the cedar bed walls, this gained access the the super compacted native soil. I pitch forked this soil and shoveled out the roots that were present from the trees growing outside. Part of the real Biosphere here:toke:
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From there I layered 35.4 cubic feet of new bagged materials. The body of this was Organic Raised bed mix that I scored for 2$ a cubic foot on clearance. I then bulked this up with various bagged composts/soils. Funnest part was getting all the bags through this basement window alone 🥷
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I also amended with pelletized garden lime and Stonington blend plant food as I was adding the bagged materials. Would have added more dry amendments but you get what you get and don’t get upset. The 2x2 soil was well amended with goodies and not exhausted and ended up being the uppermost layer added last. Still some space to add new compost over the next few grow and amend too
Tent wide open
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Tent half closed
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I am going to slowly be populating the hardware like lights, vents, fans as other grows wind down. We will be growing some Twenty 20 Grow and Show strains, I’ll update once they arrive:pass: I am completely shutting down all other tents so once all is said and done we will have a Mars FCe3000, Mars TS1000, vivosun Vs1000, Vivosun aerolight(100w), and an AutoCOB. Not ideal but still awesome.
 
I have the controller setup in a manner that prioritizes humidity over temp but the vivosun really does a swell job. Temp rise represents the addition of a 100w light and some wetter weather so more dehumidifier action. Coming into the fall grow this is the most manageable season here so hoping to give a nice show
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Today is day 2 for the seedlings
We will be growing 2 each of Twenty 20 testers
Strawberries N Funk
Strawberry Biscotti
Chic Lit
Calibubba
As of now there is 2x 100w panels running at 100% from the top of the tent, still waiting on a few plants to harvest before I populate with more lights but I think this much should suffice for a few days. The seedlings will tell me shortly. Amazing that in 90 days or less this tent will be stuffed with the dopest dope
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Running 350w 30” above soil. 2x 100w panels and 1x 150w panel running @ 100% just to get the spread and intensity I need before I add more lights and could then run them at a lower intensity. Making do Day 5
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Are you gonna use a living cover crop?
I may since it’s a real long term soil project and I understand the benefits involved. I never did in my 2x2 though and had favorable results so I’m leaning towards sticking with what I know for this round. Keeping vegetative matter in the grow room to a minimum is a goal as well, any kind of untended vegetation has the chance to rot and cause mold within the tent, learned this the hard way with untidy leaf removal, and organic mulch covers that ended up molding from moisture. Safest to compost outside the tent and bring it in, so I’m unsure I want a cover crop in this situation. Alot of a cover crops benefit is realized when it is reincorporated into the soil and the process of reincorporating it creates the vegetation decay I want to avoid. More living vegetation also makes more humidity via transpiration. A lot of variables but I agree long term it would make sense, short term I don’t think I would benefit beyond planning ahead for the future. And I can match the benefit by adding amendments on such a small scale. Cover crops come into play on a much larger field size scale where amendments would be too expensive to implement and natural soil structure is at mind(not much natural soil structure to preserve here) Interplanting cover crops is also not the typical way farmers use cover crops though it is being adopted more. I was almost wondering if next spring leading into summer I would plant a cover crop only bed to revitalize and skip the hassle of a summer grow in the basement with the humidity and all.
 
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