Month: June 2022

Top Tips For Setting Up A Commercial Grow Room For Cannabis

It’s no secret that the cannabis industry is thriving, with markets like Washington state seeing total sales of up to $2 billion since recreational cannabis was legalized in 2014.  At the backbone of this industry is cannabis cultivation, where you need to get your figures right when establishing your commercial grow setup. 

Indoor cannabis farming is a prominent part of the cultivation industry. This type of cultivation has major advantages as well as challenges in setting up and running. 

A key factor to ensuring the smooth running cannabis indoor grow op is having your commercial grow setup meticulously planned.

Lighting, HVAC, irrigation, and cultivation systems are part of your commercial grow setup. Also, consider your floor space and the plant varieties you want to grow. All these elements contribute to your indoor grow setup, and strategically implementing them puts you on the road to success.

So, how do you design a profitable cannabis commercial grow setup?

5 Expert Tips For Profitable Cannabis Grow Room Setup

What do you need for the perfect cannabis grow setup?

1. Purchase The Right Vertical Equipment For Your Cannabis Grow Setup

You can’t say you are starting a cannabis commercial indoor grow room without having uprights in your space. 

Uprights, also known as vertical growing systems, are vertically stacked layers where you can grow and manage your cannabis canopies. They are available in various forms, such as vertical grow racks and mobile carriages.

Vertical grow racks are important for your commercial grow setup as they allow you to utilize the overhead space, increasing your acreage over every square foot of your repurposed warehouse, skyscraper, or even a shipping container.

Vertical systems come in various materials such as wood and steel. They both serve the purpose, but steel structures are preferred due to their sturdiness, ability to withstand damage and lower likelihood of harboring diseases and pests.

Another key advantage of using vertical systems is that they help save on water, utilizing 95% less water than traditional cultivation systems. 

On the other hand, mobile carriages add versatility to your commercial grow setup because they not only hold more cannabis canopies but also help maximize your floor space. They aid in the elimination of static aisles. If you want to access a system, you only need to create an aisle and tend to the plants.  

2. Choose The Right Seeds/ Strain For Your Cannabis Grow Setup

Every commercial grow setup may demand a different type of strain. 

For example, suppose you are doing vertical farming. In that case, you may need a short cannabis strain to facilitate the multiple layers and allow spacing between the lighting and canopies for each tier. 

However, because there is plenty of headroom in horizontal farms, you have more freedom to grow tall varieties.

Furthermore, auto-flowering seed varieties are recommended when starting an indoor commercial grow operation. These seeds have a quick turnover, fewer complications with managing light cycles, can fit in small spaces while remaining robust and resilient, and are an excellent choice for easily developing high-quality weed.

However, for more experienced growers, photoperiod feminized seeds are a suitable choice. These seed types demand the farmer to have basic cultivation knowledge and specialized grow equipment. 

Regardless, they have various perks, including the ability to control the size and shape of the plants as well as their vegetative cycle. This means you can save on energy costs as they require less light than auto-flowering varieties during bloom.

It’s important to note that only female cannabis plants can produce potent bud-rich produce. Therefore it’s crucial to prevent pollen contamination and avoid having male seedlings in your grow space. Pollination compromises the bud quality of the female plants as they tend to form seeds affecting your yields. 

3. Choose Good Lighting For Your Cannabis Grow Setup

In a cannabis commercial grow room, there are three primary types of grow lights: LED, HID, and Fluorescent grow lights.

Each grow light has its advantages and disadvantages, as well as a distinct purpose based on your needs.

High-intensity discharge (HID) lights have long been used in indoor growing. However, their popularity waned over time due to their excessive energy consumption and proclivity for scorching plants. They’re best, though, if your grow-op specializes in auto-flowering seed varieties.

Autoflowering cannabis plants have a fast growth cycle. Because of their high light intensity/potency, HIDs can handle their quick cycle. As a result, the potency of this grow light provides the necessary parameters for these plants during their brief existence.

On the other hand, we have LEDs. The low-emmiting diode (LED) grow lights bring in the dynamic slow-growing feminized seeds need. LEDs have grown in popularity due to their low energy consumption despite a high price point.

Feminized seeds take a longer time to get to the flowering stage; hence a grow light that can remain sustainable in the long growth cycle is key to a good commercial grow room setup design. LEDs, in this case, have low energy waste and won’t scorch your plants. 

Fluorescent lights are not common in grow spaces. But they can be useful in supplementing other types of grow lights. Also, they can be used in small spaces like tabletop caster units, and due to their low heat, they can be positioned near the cannabis canopies.

4. Save On Your Cannabis Grow Setup Energy Costs

Energy bills are responsible for the high production cost associated with cannabis indoor cultivation. The first step toward lowering your energy bills is to conduct an energy audit. This audit will help you figure out where you’re bleeding and what you need to do about it.

Incorporating an integrated climate control system that manages your HVAC, lighting, CO2, and irrigation is key to lowering energy costs. 

Most growers have equipment run by separate controls; this introduces a great inefficiency as the different commercial indoor grow systems don’t communicate.

You can resolve these inefficiencies through automation. Automation helps stagger your equipment avoiding energy spikes. Equipment staggering means having your commercial grow systems like HVAC and humidifiers turn on at different times. 

For example, if you have five units, instead of having all of them on simultaneously (causing an energy spike that can peak your energy bill), turn them on one at a time to lower the grow room temperature gradually.

Insulating your grow room also allows you to keep the temperature stable for longer periods without having to use your air conditioning.

The foundation of good ventilation is making sure the commercial indoor grow systems are in optimal working condition. This is as ascertained by good maintenance of your commercial indoor growing systems.

5. Partner With A Good Commercial Indoor Grow Systems Installation Company

Experts are needed to construct the best commercial grow setup, whether it’s for your HVAC, lighting, vertical system, or irrigation system.

When it comes to vertical farming systems, MMI Agriculture has the experience and equipment to get you started or transition into vertical farming systems.

We get you started with a free floor plan/drawing that ensures you get the most of your grow room space. 

Furthermore, if you require a capacity assessment to provide a mental picture that streamlines your expectations for predicted yields with vertical systems, please contact us.

Finally, we provide and install our unique vertical systems, designed to be functional and long-lasting.

Get Started On Creating The Ideal Cannabis Grow Room Setup

When creating the ideal cannabis grow room setup, you need to know the right equipment to purchase and have a monitoring system that ensures you keep costs low and profits high.

At MMI Agriculture, we provide you with reliable and durable vertical farming equipment backed with a 10-year warranty on the systems and installation service.

Contact us today for a quote.

Don’t Just Start! 5 Must-Haves in Your Cannabis Commercial Grow Facility Design Checklist

An efficient commercial grow facility design is essential for a successful cannabis cultivation business. You may have the best cannabis seeds available, but if their environment is deplorable, it will lead to low yields, negatively impacting your bottom line.

Equipping your commercial grow facility with the right indoor gardening technologies could be the game-changer your operation needs to thrive.

For example, incorporating commercial vertical grow systems into your commercial facility helps you utilize otherwise wasted overhead space and increase acreage by over 200%. In other words, you can get 4-6 acres worth of produce from a single acre which translates to higher yields and returns.

You can do much more to ensure you get the best of your available grow space. Creating the ideal commercial grow facility design is a necessary step toward running a successful cannabis operation.

5 Tips for a Successful Commercial Facility Design

What do you need well-thought-out before launching your cannabis commercial grow facility?

1. Develop a Business Plan

A business plan is the foundation of a successful cannabis operation. It provides a road map for structuring, running, and growing your business.

Every business, including a cannabis grow facility, has both the administrative and operational sides which need to be bridged to ensure a smooth operation.

Having unrealistic production methods can create a disconnect between the above factors resulting in systematic failures or inefficiency that result in heavy losses. The failures and inefficiencies would demand costly redesigns during operation, upsetting the harmony of your cannabis operation.

At this stage, you can decide whether to opt for vertical grow racks or horizontal shelving, each of which has different complications and benefits depending on the available grow space.

For example, one may go for horizontal shelving to grow their cannabis canopies in a warehouse considering available capital. On the other hand, assuming similar financial muscle, another may choose to have their commercial grow facility designed for vertical grow systems and equip it gradually.

Upon reflection, the former may switch to vertical systems, which would be a costly endeavor. While the other will smoothly transition into industrial operation with a minimum redesign of production procedures and management of the facility.

A successful cannabis commercial facility design begins with defining clear business goals, laying down an actionable production process, and then harmonizing the two.

2. Architecture

Many architectural preliminary activities need to be done before getting your vertical systems and grow equipment installed.

A sound installation company should have these done to ensure your commercial grow facility design is optimized for maximum yields

• Site Survey

This is where the installation company visits the site to assess and measure the area. Then, the installation company should work collaboratively with your team to design a setup that optimizes your space vertically and horizontally for maximum canopy cover.

• Capacity Evaluation

Once the vertical farming solutions company gets the measurements, they can help you evaluate the capacity for your operation. This helps you align your business plan’s expectations with the projected canopy coverage, helping you make more refined/ realistic goals.

• Floor Plans and Drawings

An experienced vertical farming systems provider understands how to manage a given space. As a result, hiring an installation company to create floor plans and customized drawings for your commercial grow room is a sure way to maximize your available indoor grow space.

At MMI Agriculture, we offer the above services to ensure a sustainable transition or start with vertical grow systems.

The good architectural design of the space will ensure the essentials for the plants’ well-being, such as good airflow (managed by HVAC systems), grow lights, and irrigation systems, are intelligently installed. Such considerations ensure maximum output while lowering production costs in energy bills for a given space.

A successful commercial grow facility design relies on good architecture to make the most of available space and energy resources.

3. Vertical Farming Systems in Commercial Grow Facility Design

Vertical farming systems, such as vertical grow racks, and mobile carriages, are a great way to start a commercial cannabis indoor grow room.

Vertical grow racks are a commercial indoor growing system vital in helping utilize overhead space that would otherwise be wasted with horizontal shelving.

Vertical shelving allows you to increase output per acreage of your warehouse or skyscraper as you can have multiple tiers of shelving filled with cannabis canopies.

Moreover, unlike fixed systems where you have static aisles consuming valuable space, you can install mobile carriages that help save on space by only creating one aisle in your grow room. Hence, if you need to access the plants, you only create an aisle for that row. 

The design of the vertical systems needs to be handy and versatile. The vertical grow racks should be sturdy enough to carry the weight of crops, lighting, and irrigation systems.

They also need to be resistant to agricultural chemicals and humid conditions in the grow room.

A suitable vertical farming system complements your commercial grow facility design. They are an expensive investment; hence should be durable and reliable, ensuring a good return on your real estate.

4. Safety in Commercial Grow Facility Design

As with every industry scale operation, accidents can be quite common, leading to significant losses in lost skilled labor and even reduced productivity from injured workers.

Water spills, falling shelving and trip hazards from equipment are among the most common causes of accidents in grow room setups.

You can prevent water spills by having hydroponic grow trays with proper drainage features.

Purchasing vertical shelving with anti-tip features is crucial in preventing accidents in seismically active areas. Anti-tip features keep shelving from falling over, reducing losses from the damage to commercial indoor grow systems and preventing injuries.

Moreover, with key innovations like the retractable mezzanine walkway, workers can be secure when reaching crops in higher-up shelving. Consequently, there’s enhanced workflow and hence increased productivity.

Also, ramps installed on railings that carry mobile carriages can help eliminate trip hazards enhancing overall worker safety.

The safety of workers is vital when considering your commercial grow room facility design, as their productivity rate sustains the output of your cannabis indoor grow operation.

5. Temperature, Grow Light, and Ventilation Considerations in Commercial Grow Facility Design

Apart from equipment, one of the high costs incurred by a cannabis indoor cultivator is energy costs.

It would be best to consider the energy used by various equipment such as lighting systems, temperature controls, dehumidifiers, and exhaust fans. All these are crucial elements of a grow room. Hence you need to have a design that ensures they are used efficiently.

Vertical systems can help maximize the utilization of key resources like exhaust fans, ACs, and lighting. A single source can serve a broader range of canopies spread vertically and horizontally in vertical growing systems.

Moreover, your commercial grow facility design should ensure good airflow, which is essential for removing stale air hence keeping optimum humidity levels for healthy plant growth.

The type of grow lights you choose also affects your energy consumption and the health of your plants.

For example, if you consider using LED lights for your cannabis canopies, the lights are initially expensive. However, energy costs are reduced because they consume low wattage while being gentle on crops because they do not easily scorch them.

When planning your commercial grow room facility design, consider how the climatic conditioning equipment affects production costs. Avoid buying equipment that will need to be replaced because it does not produce the output required to ensure proper airflow in your space.

You Can Nail Your Commercial Grow Facility Design on the Get-Go

You can do your commercial grow facility design the right way by creating a good plan. First, have your business plan simple and realistic, then get a handle on the various types of commercial indoor growing systems.

Finally, partner with the right installer of vertical grow systems. At MMI Agriculture, we not only install vertical systems but walk with you in the design phase to ensure you have the maximum cannabis canopies for your grow space.

Moreover, we back our products and services with a 10-year warranty to give you the peace of mind you need when transitioning and starting with a vertical farming system.

Contact us today for a quote.