Building a commercial grow room takes considerable planning, resources, and design expertise. You might feel like you understand how to grow your crop the right way, but do you have the right building expertise to build the right grow room design?
If you’re looking to maximize your yield and provide a consistent product for your customers, this article’s for you. Let’s take a look at some of the key considerations when building a commercial grow room.
Find Your Grow Room Space
The first step of creating your grow room is finding a suitable space fitting all of your needs. To choose your space, you should know the types of plants you plan to grow, the equipment you need to purchase, and the lighting solutions for your grow room.
Craft growing facilities must be licensed by the Department of Agriculture to cultivate, dry, cure, and package hemp or marijuana. For marijuana grow rooms, there are certain guidelines that are more advanced than typical grow room facilities. For example, these rooms need to have at least 5,000 sq. feet of canopy space for the flowering stage of.
Depending on the market needs, the craft house design, and the history of the licensee’s compliance or noncompliance issues, the Department of Agriculture can also require additional space in increments of 3,000 sq. feet for the canopy space. The maximum space for a commercial cannabis grow room is 14,000 sq. feet during the flowering phase.
Engineering the Warehouse Grow Room Design
Using an experienced construction crew to design your grow facility is a necessity. These professionals have ample experience with environmental controls, plumbing, electrical requirements, backup power systems, and HVAC redundancies. Avoiding working with multiple contractors is a simple way to streamline the design process. To do so, you should consider hiring a full-service grow room contractor.
Use the Right Building Materials
Lightweight, non-combustible materials, such as steel are ideal for grow room construction. Insulated metal wall panels are also modular, allowing you to easily add or modify walls to achieve the most profitable design to your structure.
Things to Consider for Your Grow Rooms
Light Proofing
Light proofing is a critical aspect of planning your grow room. Light leakage can affect plant performance and once your plants are on a twelve-hour day/night split to induce flowering, light leakage leads to a lower yield, hermaphroditism, and failed crops. Growers should keep an eye on their male and female plants because of the potential for ruined crops by sending the plants into seed production. Light proofing reduces this risk.
Air Tightness
Grow rooms must be well-sealed to make the operation easier to maintain. With airtight grow rooms, temperature and humidity control become easier, producing optimal plant performance. Airtight seals also act as a natural quarantine for your plants, preventing insects and airborne pathogens from entering the facility. Additionally, you can set up an air exchange system that presents an advanced solution for sealing your grow room.
Air Movement
For plants to flourish in your grow room, you need air movement. Grow rooms require at least one oscillating fan to produce continuous airflow. Airflow benefits plants by ruffling the plant’s leaves and giving the stomata fresh air. Stale air can also build up on the underside of the stomata and hinder efficient gas exchange, which inhibits plant growth. The correct airflow solutions strengthen stems and stalks while increasing yields and improving the wet-dry cycle.
Air Exchange
Air exchange is a more advanced air exchange method in commercial grow rooms. Air exchange systems provide fresh air and an exhaust pathway for stagnant air. If you want to maximize your airflow, you should also consider inputting a carbon filter into the exhaust system.
Climate Control
Climate control is critical for maximizing any grow room operation. Most plants thrive under particular climates and there are certain ideal parameters for vegetation and blooming conditions.
Available Water Sources
Commercial plant production depends highly on your irrigation system.You might believe you have water rights on your property or that you can simply use a nearby spring. However, you might not have those rights and you should do research to see if you have a reliable water supply before committing.
Municipal Water
Municipal water is tap water and it is treated water supplied to residential or commercial areas via underground pipes. Since the government provides this type of water, it meets all EPA standards.
If you want to use municipal water for commercial cannabis cultivation, you should provide documentation from the municipal water source stating adequate supplies are available for proposed purposes and they will be provided by the municipality.
Recycled Water
You can get recycled water from a municipal recycled water supply and it is typically only reserved for non-potable uses only. You can also obtain recycled water from captured rainwater from buildings or other surfaces for irrigation.
If you’re interested in recycled water, you should look into contacting your local municipal water supply company to find out more information regarding cost and supply.
If you’re interested in recycled water, call your local municipal water supply company to find out more information regarding cost and supply.
Surface Water
Any water from rivers, lakes, and other outside sources is considered surface water. You can obtain surface water from a natural spring or any other surface water flow. A common practice to obtain commercial grow room water is to divert surface water to artificial ponds for storage.
To do so, you need the proper permits and there is also a forbearance on surface water diversion. You will only be permitted to divert water during specific seasons. To supply this water during the cultivation season requires an onsite reservoir to store sufficient water for the growing months.
Conclusion- How Do You Build a Commercial Grow Room
Planning, designing, and constructing your commercial grow room takes an enormous amount of resources and time if you wish to do it correctly. Using a full-service grow room design contractor ensures your commercial grow room meets all of your design preferences and regulations.
