Week 19 and it happens to be a rainy week with on and off cloud coverage which was actually beneficial to my plant but the humidity has been up due to the fact I also use a swamp cooler and if it's gonna be this humid for another couple days then I'm worried about mold developing on the buds so i think I'll break out the AC to get rid of some of that moisture in the air and maybe alternate between the two.
The AC hasn't been used once the whole grow cycle so far but living in AZ we get random storms from the monsoon season not to mention tons of dust, high winds, flash flooding which could be used to flush my plant because it needs it now if rain builds up around and gets under the green house, j/k lol. I've been thinking about buying lady bugs to get rid of all the white flies, any experience anybody, would that work?
After writing the above, I could hear the wind picking up outside and remembered that a storm was coming so I ran outside to prepare and it punched it's way through Phoenix with extremely high velocity hurricane type wind, gusting up to whatever it takes to bring large trees down or make a wooden shed door fly off with a wall of dust to the sky and then finally finishing with heavy rain. I was outside the entire storm from beginning to end, well at least until the wind died down and it was just light showers by then. Even with having my greenhouse tied down I had to hold onto it for dear life or it would have taken off like in the wizard of OZ.
Honest to god I was almost pulled off the ground or several times more onto my greenhouse when the tsunami type wind would hit, pounding me and the greenhouse from behind having to pull down while leaning back with all my weight and strength.The whole time I'm screaming for my brother who was inside to come out and hold the greenhouse so I could tie it down better because it was just coming apart trying trying to fly away or be ripped apart as storm hit us I was holding on for Amy's Green Drop's dear life. It was pretty insane and wish I had video of me doing it but just have a video a friend sent of his backyard getting hit so you can imagine that wind hitting my greenhouse.
The after math was bad 😭 the wall of the greenhouse was getting hit so hard by the wind making it press inward towards plant it snapped off in the middle one of the lower branches making the two buds on the end half hanging there from a 90 degree angle from branch so I knew there was no way to support it back in place enough to heal itself so I clipped it off and started drying it. One other next to it got bent up pretty bad so I'm trying to LST it back to place. The storm also killed my swamp cooler somehow, I guess it's because it has a lot of electronic components on top that was soaked from the wind the rain came from the side, I know, you'd think a swamp cooler could get wet.
Now I'm stuck using only my A/C and a humidifier to control moisture and temp and I'm worried it's gonna be pretty hard only using AC in such a small greenhouse as it takes time to find the right ratio of intake and outtake air but can only open greenhouse to mix in so much hot dry air, so starting it was getting down into the high 60's, and I have to figure something out because I can't let it get that cold in there for the last few weeks. I'm almost ready to call it quits If I can't find an equilibrium with AC and humidifier, and if there are anymore storms on the way.
Next time I'm getting a bigger sturdier greenhouse that goes into the ground and has hard clear walls and roof, other than the recent storm and excessive sunlight finding the right shading it's been very beneficial doing the indoor/outdoor combo grow and would recommend it as you can live in any weathered extreme hot/cold climate and still grow outside,