Building a Geo-Thermally Heated and Cooled Walipini Greenhouse at Stony

Can You Grow Cannabis in a Walipini?

Can I grow cannabis in the walipini? The short answer is yes I am sure I can. Can I produce high quality cannabis seeds in a walipini in the winter? That I will have to find out, but I think the answer will be a resounding yes, yes you can. Will be fun to find out…

I am really amped about this project. I want to get started building a Walipini greenhouse at Stony Oasis Farms. Here is a link to a guy on YouTube that really inspired me to build one of these….Can the Midwest Grow Citrus?

How I will Build My Walipini

I will built with concrete block…expensive but will last forever. I plan on it being about 40 ft long, and have just one planting bed as wide as I can reach…the entire length. all built with block, which i will put rebar in and fill with concrete. The back wall I will insulate from the earth behind it and paint it black to absorb heat when the sun is low in the south during winter. In the height of summer the sun will not even hit that black wall.

I plan on using the double glazed Polycarbonate Sheets for the glazing, with auto vents at the top…they open automatically when it gets hot enough.

Heating and Cooling the Walipini

I will use my little excavator and dig about a 300 ft long ditch all the way to bedrock…amazing to me how fast I can accomplish this with my little machine. These ditches need to be as deep as I can dig…8 foot would be great because the earths temperature at that depth is constant…about 60 degrees. In that country I will hit bedrock at 4-6 feet more then likley, but will still have a constant temperature all year long….Maybe 65 degrees.

Then you install 4-6 inch tubing in the 300+ ft ditch with both ends in the greenhouse. One end you put a strong solar powered fan that will blow air down your tube 300 ft, and out the other end into the greenhouse. So when it is 100 degrees outside (yes it gets that hot up there) you will have 65 degree air coming in constantly. And, in the winter when it gets minus 20 degrees (yes it gets that cold up there) you will again have 65 degree air blowing in. I may add a wood stove…but I doubt it would be needed. The goal is to keep it above freezing so plants can grow.

I will have room in there somewhere for a hammock…there is nothing I like more then laying back on a sunny, but cold winter day in a 75 degree greenhouse.

Growing Cannabis in a Walipini Greenhouse

Can I grow cannabis in the greenhouse in the winter? The answer will be yes, yes I can. Autos would be the natural,easy way to do it, but I could grow photo type plants as well…would just need a little supplemental lighting to decrease the dark time a bit. These will be leds. and I will run them on solar as well. Everything I do there will be off grid…line power is over a mile away.

I expect to produce awesome cannabis seeds in this walipini…but do not have the experience to know for sure….time will tell, and I will tell you guys all about it.

Other Plants I Will Attempt to Grow in the Walipini

I am a plant guy, love growing them all. And I will def try to grow some unusual ones in my walipini…like bananas, citrus, maybe a few other small fruit trees. I will have to see what I can fit in there, and what will grow well. I plan to have the entire walipini full of plants most all the time. so if I build it 40 feet long, and I make the planting bed 4 feet wide I will have 160 square feet of planting area. I plan to squeeze in as many plants as I can. The trees I grow can have plants under them as well…just prune them up so the underside is exposed to the sunlight. I would imagine I can grow tomatoes and things like that in the winter…will be fun to figure it all out.

Conclusion

I really want to break ground on this walipini when I get up there to Stony Oasis Farms permanently which should be this month. Work on it through the winter, and hopefully have it built for next summer. Going to be a fun project for sure. Have you grown in a greenhouse, how about in the winter months? Leave me a comment and tell me a bit about it, would love your input!