After years of growing many different methods and places, greenhouse growing is by far my favorite. Greenhouse growing encompasses the best of both worlds, with all the control of indoor gardening and the free natural light of the sun. This environment is arguable one of the best most efficient way to grow our most favorite plants.

  If you are just starting out or don’t have a lot to spend on supplies you should keep it simple. Concentrate on the basic needs of the plants: fertilizer/soil conditions, temperature, and air movement. The main purpose of the greenhouse is to shelter your plants from the wind and rain, and to keep things warm in the early spring and late fall. With our valued crop it also serves as a visual barrier to cops and robbers.

  Greenhouses can be made from glass or plastic, there are many different kind of plastic sheeting available that let the light in but obscure the vision of noisy neighbors and annoying choppers. The most available and inexpensive covering is rolls of clear plastic at your local hardware store. In order to block the prying eyes you may need to double or triple layer the plastic depending on the thickness. This will reduce the intensity of the light but there’s still more than enough to grow healthy plants.

  The flexibility of greenhouses are what draws me to this grow method. You can have a high tech hydroponic grow system or you can simply put seeds in the ground and watch them grow. Greenhouses are popular in climates that have early frosts or harsh rains. If you live in an area were things are to nasty outdoors by mid. Sept., you are very limited by the kind of strains you can grow. Most varieties of cannabis finish flowering between sept.20 – oct.30.  A greenhouse makes fat flowers possible in places were they wouldn’t natural grow.

  Another method used by a country grower friend outside of frozen Winnipeg is to grow the plants outdoors close to home in containers over the summer. When the weather starts getting cooler in the beginning of September he carries the plants into the greenhouse to finish maturing for another month. During the spring and summer months it is full of vegetables, decorative trees, flowers, and gardening equipment. He makes sure that the farming neighbors see his greenhouse like this over the summer, and goes as far as sharing his vegetables with them to dispel any suspicions. And then in the month of September he keeps things quiet and doesn’t encourage visitors. Its been working for him for many years, consistently getting a 10-15lb crop in 12’x 24’ greenhouse every fall.

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