Fog City Farms

10 Essential Tips for Creating a Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Facility

10 Essential Tips for Creating a Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Facility

Vertical Air Solutions

Setting up a Successful CEA Facility

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) has transformed the agricultural landscape, offering innovative solutions to traditional farming challenges. As urbanization increases and the demand for locally grown, pesticide-free crops increase, CEA facilities are gaining prominence. But setting up a successful CEA facility requires careful planning and foresight. Here are ten expert tips to help establish a thriving CEA operation.

1. Create a Comprehensive Plan

Setting up a Controlled Environment Agriculture facility requires a well-thought-out approach, accounting for many factors ranging from finance to nuanced design and engineering elements. One cannot overstate the importance of a comprehensive plan in ensuring your CEA facility’s efficiency, sustainability, and profitability. Investing time and effort into crafting a comprehensive plan can be the difference between the success and failure of your CEA venture. This plan should include: 

Business Plan

Start with a thorough business plan. This Business Plan should be the roadmap that guides your journey. Understand your target market, identify supply gaps, determine the crops you plan to produce based on market demand, and research the competition. 

The business plan should outline your marketing strategy, pricing model, and sales approach. Consider external factors that might influence your business, such as regulations, competition, market fluctuations, technological advances, and environmental concerns. Building flexibility into your business plan can help you adapt to unforeseen changes.

Financial Proforma

This is a critical component of planning that will have implications throughout the operations lifecycle. A financial proforma provides projections for revenues, expenses, and profitability. Your proforma should include estimates for initial startup costs, operating costs, anticipated yields, and selling prices. You must also factor in technology costs, testing, labor, genetics, nutrients, advisors, sales and marketing, and utilities. 

This document is crucial not only for internal budgeting but also imperative when seeking external financing or investors. Remember to regularly revisit and adjust your financial proforma as real-world data from your operations flows in.

Facility Design

Designing the facility is one of the most crucial yet challenging components of setting up a CEA. Whether you’re conceptualizing an indoor vertical farm, greenhouse, or another type of CEA environment, the design should optimize space, ensure efficient and ergonomic labor, minimize utility consumption, and promote high yields. 

Consider light sources, ventilation, environmental control, pest control management, and workflow. A well-thought-out design can significantly influence the efficiency and productivity of your CEA setup. If possible, involve experts or consultants in this phase to benefit from their experience.

2. Define Your Goals

Defining clear and measurable goals ensures success, strengthens morale, and maximizes resources when setting up a CEA facility. Before diving into the technicalities, clarify your objectives. Are you aiming for a specific ROI, year-round production, specific crop production, organic, and or GMP certification? Your facility’s design, technology, and operating procedures should align with these objectives. Early in the planning stage, it is essential to identify the type(s) and volume of crops you intend to cultivate. Each crop will have unique environmental needs regarding light, humidity, temperature, CO2, and nutrients. Once you’ve identified the crop, set clear yield objectives. Your infrastructure, technology, and financial investments will largely pivot on this decision. By defining goals clearly and precisely, informed stakeholders can align to ensure their facility’s resilience, profitability, and community impact.

3. Choose the Right Location

While Controlled Environment Agriculture facilities offer greater environmental control, location still matters and can impact nearly all variables operators manage. Here are a few factors to consider:

Energy Availability

Understand your power requirements. Ensure you have access to consistent, affordable energy sources. Lack of power can significantly impede optimization or worse.

Water Quality

Access to clean water is crucial. Test water for contaminants and consider and establish a purification system based on the results.

Logistics

Proximity to suppliers and markets reduces transportation costs and ensures product freshness.

Labor Force

Ensure access to the appropriate labor force at rates within the allocated budget.

4. Plan for Scalability and Future Expansion

When planning your facility, defining your goals, and selecting a location, don’t neglect to consider scalability. Planning for scalability and future expansion in a Controlled Environment Agriculture facility is a multifaceted endeavor that can save significant time, effort, and money. Developing a modular design is a practical approach to ensuring scalability, designing, and constructing in a way that allows for easy expansion or integration of new sections. Your modular design involves conceptualizing the physical structure, electrical, plumbing, and other systems to be expandable. Operations can add new modules or zones with minimal downtime and impact on existing processes.

A scalable CEA facility doesn’t just refer to infrastructure and technology; it’s also the team operating it. Continuous training programs ensure a prepared workforce to handle expansions and adopt new technologies. Focusing on workforce development ensures that personnel are ready to take on managerial roles as the company scales. Scaling operations often require significant capital. It’s crucial to have a clear financial roadmap that outlines the resources needed for future expansions. Scaling operations may entail setting aside a portion of profits for reinvestment, exploring external financing options, or partnering with investors who understand the vision of the business. Finally, it’s essential to have mechanisms in place to gauge market demand constantly. Scalability should be in line with market needs. By establishing strong feedback loops with distributors, retailers, and end-consumers, the CEA facility can fine-tune its expansion plans to better align with market dynamics.

5. Optimize for Space

Optimizing space in a CEA Facility is paramount, given the premium costs associated and the need to maximize yields to ensure profitability. As urban farming and indoor agriculture continue to gain traction, operations are constantly searching for innovative techniques and technologies to maximize output in limited space. A groundbreaking innovation in this space is the development of mobile vertical farming racks. Mobile vertical grow racks allow farmers to utilize unused aisles and vertical space, which is particularly relevant in urban settings where horizontal space is often limited. By stacking crops on top of one another, these racks can dramatically increase yields in a fixed area and their mobility allows for additional space optimization by eliminating static aisles and improves plant maintenance, harvesting, and cleaning.

Catwalk systems are another space-saving tool for CEA facilities. They’re advantageous operations where accessing the top tiers of vertical farming racks can become a challenge. Catwalks provide growers with safe and convenient access to all vertical indoor farming setup levels. This ease of access can also speed up farming operations like pruning, scouting, and harvesting. Mobile carts have become indispensable tools in modern CEA setups. These carts are designed and customized for seeding, transplanting, or harvesting tasks. Due to their mobility, they allow workers to move seamlessly from one location to another, carrying all the necessary tools and supplies with them. Utilizing mobile carts saves space and significantly improves operational efficiency, wasting less time moving back and forth.

6. Ensure Proper Air Circulation

One of the essential components contributing to the success of a CEA facility is ensuring proper air circulation and sanitation. Efficient air movement is vital for plant health and crucial for temperature, humidity, and contaminant control, influencing crop yields and quality. The ambient airflow system is at the heart of maintaining an ideal growing environment. Ambient airflow creates a gentle, consistent movement of air that minimizes hot, cold, or stagnant spots and ensures an even distribution of heat, humidity, and carbon dioxide (CO2) around the plants. Proper ambient airflow can also help prevent the growth of mold and other pathogens by reducing the moisture build-up on plant surfaces.

When well-designed, ambient airflow systems can significantly improve plant health and productivity by creating an environment where plants can optimally perform photosynthesis and transpiration. Multi-Level Airflow Systems: For multi-tiered growing systems, multi-level airflow becomes essential. Unlike traditional single-layer operations, multi-tiered systems have unique challenges, as each layer might have slightly different microclimates. The multi-level airflow system addresses these issues and ensures that each tier gets adequate air movement. Design and install these systems to ensure every plant receives a uniform air supply. Additionally, these systems help prevent diseases and pest infestations specific to each level. By effectively understanding and implementing these systems, growers can expect crop quality, yield, and overall plant health improvements.

7. Automate for Consistency

Automation in a CEA facility can encompass a multitude of systems and processes. Consistent automation could range from simple temperature and humidity controls to complex nutrient dosing, CO2 enrichment, and integrated pest management systems. By automating these processes, growers can ensure that plants receive the exact amount of water, light, nutrients, and other necessities at the right time. Such precision maximizes crop yield and quality and minimizes resource waste. When external conditions, such as temperature or sunlight, fluctuate, automation systems can adjust internal conditions to maintain the desired environment, ensuring that plants remain unaffected.

In addition to enhancing crop growth, automating processes can lead to operational efficiencies and labor savings. Modern automated systems often come equipped with data analytics capabilities. Allowing growers to monitor trends, make predictions, and refine their cultivation strategies to minimize utility and nutrient use while adjusting for optimal conditions. Having access to this information not only reduces costs but also lessens the environmental footprint of the facility.

8. Invest in Training and Continuous Learning

Setting up a CEA facility is a multifaceted undertaking that demands an in-depth understanding of various interdisciplinary domains. It amalgamates knowledge from botany, engineering, data science, and even business. As such, training and continuous learning become crucial components for the success of any CEA initiative.

Initial Training

When first embarking on a CEA venture, the team should undergo intensive training on the fundamentals of the system. This type of training could range from understanding plant physiology and its specific requirements for optimal growth to mastering the intricacies of the CEA technologies. Light intensity, nutrient mix, temperature, and humidity must be controlled and optimized. Mistakes in managing these variables can result in crop failure or suboptimal yields, making training a critical investment for long-term viability.

This training isn’t just limited to technicians or the individuals directly handling the crops. Stakeholders at all levels, from managerial to marketing, should fundamentally understand the operations. This training ensures everyone is aligned, leading to efficient decision-making and problem-solving.

Continuous Learning

As with any technology-driven industry, the world of CEA is constantly evolving. New research provides insights into better crop management practices. Technological advancements introduce tools and systems to optimize plant growth and reduce operational costs. Given this rapidly changing landscape, continuous learning is not just beneficial; it’s imperative.

Team members should regularly attend workshops, seminars, and courses. Many academic and research institutions offer specialized programs focused on CEA. Online platforms have become treasure troves of knowledge, with webinars, courses, and forums dedicated to CEA best practices. Leveraging these resources can provide a competitive edge.

Collaborative Learning and Networking

CEA facilities can benefit immensely from networking with similar operations elsewhere. Collaborative learning opportunities can be invaluable, where facilities share successes, challenges, and learnings. Collaborative efforts could lead to shared research projects, the pooling of resources for better training tools, or even joint ventures in exploring new markets or crop possibilities. Leverage the collective knowledge of the CEA community to overcome individual challenges and push the envelope on what’s achievable in controlled environment agriculture.

9. Implementing IPM Program

Implementing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs in Controlled Environment Agriculture facilities is essential for ensuring crop health, optimizing yields, and overall success. Due to the controlled nature of these environments, there’s an opportunity to adopt a comprehensive and proactive approach to pest management. IPM focuses on a holistic approach, combining various strategies to manage pests and pathogens rather than relying solely on chemical pesticides. In a CEA facility, it starts with preventing pest entry. Pests mainly gain access via new plants, materials, or humans. Regularly inspecting and quarantining new plants, ensuring the facility is airtight, and having proper hygiene, cleaning, and sanitation protocols can help prevent pest entry.

Continuous monitoring is crucial for an effective IPM strategy in a CEA setup. Use yellow or blue sticky traps to monitor flying insects’ presence and population levels. Once pests are detected, it’s vital to identify them accurately. Not all insects or microorganisms are harmful; some might even be beneficial. Accurate identification ensures that the response is appropriate and effective. Beneficial insects, like ladybugs, predatory mites, and parasitic wasps, can be introduced to manage pest populations. A controlled and sealed environment maximizes the efficacy of releasing these biocontrol agents.

In a CEA facility, growers have the advantage of adjusting environmental parameters, such as temperature and humidity, to unfavorable levels for pests. Physical controls, such as barriers, screens, or UV light traps, can be installed to prevent or reduce the entry and movement of pests. While the emphasis in IPM is to minimize chemical use, sometimes it becomes necessary, especially when pest populations reach threatening levels. In such cases, select pesticides wisely. Preferably, choose those that are least toxic, have minimal residual effect, and are safe for beneficial insects. Rotation of different modes of action can prevent resistance development in pest populations.

10. Continuous Evaluation and Adaption

CEA facilities and associated growing methodologies significantly advance modern agricultural practices, emphasizing precise control over environmental conditions to optimize plant growth and production. This technology-driven approach to farming can be applied in greenhouses, vertical farms, or other indoor facilities and hinges upon continuous evaluation, improvement, and adaptation to optimize crop outcomes. Essentially consistently monitoring and adjusting conditions in real-time to meet plants’ specific needs throughout their growth cycles.

Continuous evaluation in CEA is an ongoing process of collecting and analyzing data on various environmental parameters. By regularly tracking these variables, growers can identify patterns, anomalies, or inefficiencies that may impact plant health, growth rate, or yield. CEA operations often integrate many tools and systems to facilitate the perpetual cycle of monitoring and adjusting. Sensors continuously measure soil moisture content, ambient environmental conditions, and nutrient levels, feeding this data into centralized control systems. Automated irrigation systems can adjust water delivery based on real-time moisture data, ensuring plants receive optimal hydration with minimal waste.

Similarly, climate control systems can regulate temperature and humidity, ensuring they remain within desired ranges. Remote monitoring and cloud-based platforms have become increasingly prevalent in CEA, enabling growers to supervise and manage their facilities from anywhere in the world. Remote monitoring and cloud-based platforms facilitate quicker decision-making and allow for collaboration among experts in different geographical locations.

Conclusion

As our world continues to change, efficient, sustainable, and optimized agricultural production becomes imperative. By following the ten essential tips outlined in this blog, you’re ensuring a well-established foundation for your CEA facility, promising higher yields, optimal plant health, and a significant reduction in resource waste. 

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Oakfruitland Vertical Farming

Everything You Need To Know About Vertical Cannabis Grow Systems

Everything You Need To Know About Vertical Cannabis Grow Systems

Cannabis Vertical Grow Rack System

Although the legal cannabis industry is over a decade old in some states, it’s still a nascent industry compared to other agricultural sectors with proven best practices and equipment. The processes, techniques, and tools used to grow commercial cannabis are constantly evolving to optimize and streamline operations. Due to this rapid advancement, many ideas, systems, and strategies are antiquated and becoming obsolete. 

Growing Cannabis Vertically

Still, one concept expanding exponentially and here to stay for the foreseeable future is growing cannabis vertically. Vertical farming, when done correctly using vertical cannabis grow system, can significantly increase output, standardize operations, and maximize the overall efficiency of any commercial cannabis grow operation. Implementing vertical farming and space optimization strategies throughout the facility can reduce per-unit costs, allowing operators to take greater profits or stay competitive in more mature markets with declining prices. 

If you’re wisely considering investing in mobile vertical cannabis grow systems, read on to learn more about the benefits and what you’ll need to get started.

Advantages of Cannabis Vertical Grow Systems

While traditional horizontal growing is appropriate in specific scenarios, it leaves valuable space emptying many facilities. Incorporating vertical grow systems into your operation allows you to leverage every inch of your grow room to maximize profits while saving you money on alternative production space expenditures.

For example, sophisticated vertical cannabis grow systems can support strategies around efficient, closed-loop water systems to reduce water usage and associated costs. A well-designed irrigation plan should minimize and recapture run-off, in turn saving substantial amounts of money on water and sewer fees by capturing, treating, and reusing water.

Other advantages of vertical cannabis grow systems include:

  • Reduction of per-unit costs
  • Increased horizontal canopy space through the elimination of stationery aisles and the creation of mobile aisles via mobile carriages
  • Reduced need to buy or lease additional property for expansion
  • Standardized and streamlined cultivation processes and practices

Necessary Components of Vertical Cannabis Grow Systems

Oakfruitland: Vertical Farming Equipment and Components of a Vertical Grow System

Growing cannabis in a controlled-environment indoor grow facility offers a high degree of stability and control when combined with the proper tools and systems, including vertical cannabis grow system. To better understand the necessary components of commercial cannabis grow system, it’s important to understand the variables of growing cannabis. 

These variables include:

  • Genetics
  • Weather
  • Light (intensity, spectrum, cycle)
  • Temperature (ambient, canopy, sub-canopy, media)
  • Humidity (RH, dew point)
  • Airflow (ambient, canopy)
  • CO2 (quality, delivery)
  • Media (type, volume)
  • Irrigation (type, frequency, volume, treatment)
  • Fertigation (type, concentration, schedule, mixing)
  • IPM (microbial, viral, pests)
  • Plant maintenance
  • Support

All of these variables impact the final product sold to consumers and contribute to the costs of goods sold (COGS), which all play a part in any grow operation’s profit margins. In other words, to have control over these variables is to have greater control over how much money your business makes. Utilizing vertical cannabis grow systems in your operation helps standardize and better control some of these variables when designed, installed, and commissioned correctly.

How To Set Up a Vertical Cannabis Grow System

Vertical cannabis grows systems can require more planning than traditional grow operations because you need to evaluate multiple variables on multiple levels that can all impact one another. When setting up your vertical grow racks and mobile carriages, be sure to consider the following:
 
  • Floor levelness
  • Ceiling height (including ductwork and any other objects hanging)
  • Drain locations
  • Door locations
  • Columns and other obstructions and their potential interference
  • Local municipal building codes
  • Multi-level access equipment clearance (OSHA-approved ladders or man-lifts)
  • Workflow and ergonomics
  • Product lead times
  • Installation 

Hiring certified and experienced professionals to help you design, outfit, and set up your vertical grow system is wise. Working with providers like Pipp Horticulture allows access to seasoned professionals who can review architectural layouts and designs and make recommendations for maximized space utilization, elevations, and integration with other components. Additionally, Pipp can provide grow room dimensions for maximizing canopy, workspace, and airflow.

Flora Terra - Pipp Horticulture Mobile Vertical Grow Racks

Tips for Maintaining Your Vertical Cannabis Grow System

If your vertical cannabis grow system is made with aluminum and galvanized or stainless steel components, there’s a good chance it will require little maintenance. Wheels should be sealed bearings, so no lubrication or maintenance is necessary. Wiping down racks and trays, vacuuming debris from the floor, trays, and tracks, and using ozone, UV, Bio-Foam, and Bio-Fogger to sanitize your equipment will help maintain a healthy growing environment.

You will also want to check and perform suggested maintenance on your drains regularly. Make sure to keep drains clear of debris and monitor your entire plumbing as fertilizers and other chemicals and solutions can corrode pipes and joints.

Safety is a big concern for any commercial operator. Ensuring your Team has easy access to the plants on the upper level of your cannabis grow system while minimizing their reach and fall risk is crucial for owners and managers running a tight ship. Ladders, lifts, and scaffolding can get the job done, but they’re more dangerous than other options. Pipp’s ELEVATE™ Platform System is a robust, lightweight, portable deck that allows cultivators to access the upper levels quickly, efficiently, and, most importantly, safely.

The Future of Cannabis

Because of the rising demand for recreational cannabis and the growing list of medical uses of the plant, the need for indoor-grown cannabis shows no signs of slowing down. The combination of demand, land pressure, and increasing rents will prompt cultivators to embrace more efficient cultivation solutions like vertical farming. 

Vertical farming techniques allow growers to maximize their output and consistently provide locally grown cannabis to consumers in urban centers. Vertical cannabis grow systems will continue to optimize and drive efficiency in cannabis and other indoor agricultural sectors while reducing inefficiencies commonly associated with indoor farming.

Pipp Horticulture is the leading space-saving mobile indoor vertical grow racking systems provider. All Pipp Horticulture products are made in the USA and integrate with other essential grow equipment like lighting, irrigation, drainage, and airflow systems.

Vertical farming with Pipp Horticulture can maximize production capability, reduce COGS, and increase overall profitability.
 
 
 

Call us today to take the next step and learn more about vertical commercial cannabis cultivation!

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TerrAscend

Pipp’s Mobile Vertical Grow Racks Lift Farmers to Higher Ground – Max Yield Magazine

Pipp’s Mobile Vertical Grow Racks Lift Farmers to Higher Ground – Max Yield Magazine

TerrAscend

Pipp Horticulture featured in the latest Maximum Yield article

Leading mobile vertical grow rack provider, Pipp Horticulture, is paving the way for indoor and greenhouse growers looking to maximize their space and cultivation production.

After 40 years of dominating the mobile storage industry, it only took a few short years for Pipp Horticulture to become the industry-leading provider of mobile vertical grow racks, focused on the mission to develop the most innovative products specifically designed to meet the needs of indoor growers. The company passionately and meticulously meets the needs of its clients. With over 2,000 installations worldwide, their innovation and commitment to continual improvement have enabled them to stand out and expand their leadership position in this niche industry by eliminating obstacles, increasing efficiencies, and boosting revenues for indoor growers.

Pipp and its partners, Greenhaus Industries and Vertical Air Solutions (VAS) were awarded several U.S. patents for their indoor mobile vertical farming systems and airflow solutions. Additionally…

To check out the full article about Pipp’s groundbreaking products and services for cultivators across the globe, check out Maximum Yield’s full article, “Pipp’s Mobile Vertical Grow Racks Lift Farmers to Higher Ground,” with the link below!

Click Here!

Flora Terra

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Cannabis Conference 2022

Vertical Farming | What To Know Before You GROW UP!

Vertical Farming | What To Know Before You GROW UP!

Cannabis Conference 2022

The Pipp Horticulture team is no stranger to the Cannabis Conference stage. During the 2022 Cannabis Conference, Pipp’s team of cultivation professionals and engineering experts took the stage during the final day as session speakers! Michael Williamson, Director of Cultivation at Pipp Horticulture, James Cunningham, Co-Founder and Director of Cultivation at Vertical Air Solutions, and Del Rockwell, Product Manager at Pipp Horticulture, discussed the essential considerations behind space planning and design for a multi-tier indoor cultivation facility. 

During the Technologies and Solutions Session on Vertical Farming, Michael Williamson, Director of Cultivation at Pipp Horticulture, stated, “With everything in cannabis, it’s all about the little details.” Four main topics were discussed during the session when considering “What To Know Before You GROW UP!” Below you’ll find the key takeaways on how to improve your safety, ergonomics, and productivity.

Vertical Farming Space Planning & Design Layout

Mother Plants

Currently, we’re seeing many different trends in the cannabis industry, particularly around vertical farming. Everyone is used to double or triple multi-tiered environments for their clone rooms, but we are now seeing a shift from having huge mother plants to having multiple mother plants in a two-tiered environment. Typically, you see traditional cultivators with huge moms taking as many cuttings as possible, cycling through their mother plants much faster, with a three-month life span. When going from a single-tier to double, you’re getting twice the amount of healthy, viable clones. Cultivators are now getting healthier plants, more healthy cuttings, and reducing pest and disease risks.

How High Can You Go? 

Cultivators still need to consider the layout of the entire facility. It’s vital to support your flower room and the volume of plants while considering the design regarding your operations workflow. “It’s tempting always to go as high as possible and as long as possible,” Del Rockwell states, “but many growers saw a ‘sweet spot’ at about 32 to 40 feet in length. We see about 12 to 14-foot tall works for most facilities for shelving.” Del states, “We can go longer,” but you have to consider how you will access everything, how effective it will be, and what the quality of the plants you will get from labor and access.

Air Circulation

When constructing the growing area, you’re putting layers across the room with an HVAC design and adding circulation to create a homogenous environment. “Many of us in the indoor space came from single-tier cultivation, where you have a big open ambient space between the canopy and the ceiling in the room,” James Cunningham states while discussing air circulation in the grow space. James continues, “Combining all this equipment into one room creates an impediment for the supply air coming from your HVAC and for your transpiration and heat load from your lights to get trapped in. As the distance shrinks from canopy to ceiling, the grower will need to find a way to create consistent temperature and humidity in the space. By introducing Vertical Air Solutions to your growing operations, you’ll receive mixing chambers bolted to the outside of the racks with inline fans to pull conditioned and dehumidified air. You strategically supply conditioned air to each tier space, creating consistency and a dissatisfying microclimate through the canopy.”

Design and Mechanical Engineering

“Design and mechanical engineering behind your HVAC are very important in your cultivation space,” notes James discussing the difference between a successful and low microbial or low melt mold and mildew crop. Design and mechanical engineering are one of the most overlooked aspects of the process, taking into account the supply, layout, and innovation at the beginning before it’s too late.

Environmental Control Needs

Regardless of your approach to sizing your HVAC, growers need to understand how to supply air strategically to their vertical space. “To drop the moisture out of the air, you have to cool it rapidly to get the air to condense and then supply it back to the room with a reheat element,” James stated. Typical HVAC systems installed into grow operations exchange air only a few times per hour; however, Vertical Air Solutions expects 20-30 complete room air exchanges per hour. The supply and returns can make a world of difference in the performance of your plants and mitigating disease.

Genetics and Key Traits

Thanks to Vertical Air Solutions, “now I can grow any cultivar,” Michael reflected during the discussion with James about his past focus on growing only certain types of cultivars in a vertical farming environment. With years of experience, James states, “what landed us being fairly successful in vertical spaces was understanding the genetics and knowing what we were getting into.” In the beginning, running Indica-dominant plants that didn’t stretch too far can now work with any strain but also introduce the Sativa-dominant plants that grow in the lights.

Vertical Farming
Sozo Vertical Farming

Labor Optimization 

When thinking about single-tier grow operations, most are growing plants roughly five to seven feet tall, working on a rolling bench, and climbing a ladder to get to the very top. Pipp Horticulture considered this and “was the first to come up with a catwalk system that is seamless and easy to put into a system,” Michael states while talking about Pipp Horticulture’s ELEVATE™ Platform System. By incorporating ELEVATE™, growers no longer face challenges in a multi-tier environment. Employees can reach their level in a second or third-tier setting feeling safe and secure. Safety was one of the most critical priorities regarding design, flexibility, and efficiency. “One of the largest expenses you’re going to have over the lifetime of this facility is the labor expenses,” Del states. Anything to optimize and reduce the time spent on processes will be beneficial. When it comes to labor also comes liability. We always want to keep people and their safety first. 

In Conclusion

Shifting from a single-tiered grow room to a multi-tiered vertical farming environment helps optimize space and maximize profits. Subscribe to the What To Know Before You GROW UP podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts to stay updated with the latest cultivation tactics and industry trends.

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Vertical Air Solutions

Vertical Air Solutions – Dry Ice Test for Cultivation Airflow w/ James Cunningham

Vertical Air Solutions – Dry Ice Test for Cultivation Airflow w/ James Cunningham

Vertical Air Solutions

James Cunningham, Founder of Fog City Farms, Co-Founder of VAS & Director of Cultivation, shows vertical air solutions velocity with dry ice!

Vertical Air Solutions

Introducing the new dual 12 inch system that the team has developed for lengths 40 feet and longer. One major point to understand is when using vertical air solutions, you’re getting a system sized to the length of your racking. This ensures that you get a s much airflow as you could ever want at the longer length. Designed by a team having lifetime experience in designing HVAC in the proper configurations for HVAC equipment.

With the new dual 12 inch system at 65 feet long in racking length, the Fog City Farm team is able to create 200+ feet per minute, 36 inches below the system. The method is super efficient, consistent and you’re getting all the airflow you could possible need.

Check out the video below where in the vertical air solutions research and development facility testing some dry ice at about 5 feet below the system to really show how much air is actually moving!

Watch below for more information from James himself!

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Vertical Air Solutions at Tru Infusion

Vertical Farming Tips: Cleaning and Sterilizing with Vertical Air Solutions

Vertical Farming Tips: Cleaning and Sterilizing with Vertical Air Solutions

Vertical Air Solutions at Tru Infusion

James Cunningham, Founder of Fog City Farms, Co-Founder of VAS & Director of Cultivation, shows you how to clean and sanitize the HVAC system in your vertical grow.

Vertical Air Solutions

Cleaning and sanitizing has never been easier! You wouldn’t think that cleaning and sanitizing would be so labor intensive and time consuming. Pipp Horticulture and Vertical Air Solutions listened to the market regarding the need for a more accessible way to clean. The team has made the inside duct work more accessible by removing the end caps, very similar to how you would remove your registers on your HVAC supply. This gives you an ample amount of room to use a duct cleaner and clean the inside of the surface.

When sterilizing in between rounds, facilities can use any sort of airborne or vaporized sterilization system to sterilize your entire facility. The Pipp and VAS team can recommend products for this! This procedure is not only helping save cost and time, but also is thinking towards the future of your facility.

Watch below for more information from James himself!

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Maximizing Airflow During The Pruning Process

What is pruning and why do you prune cannabis? Pruning is removing cannabis leaves that are damaged or unproductive so that a plant can focus its energies on producing buds. While this may feel counterintuitive, the goal is to make sure that during those first few weeks of flower, when it’s bursting with growth, is to build the foundation of the plant to promote better flower development into the future. But without proper plant management and localized airflow, your canopy can’t thrive during this crucial process.

To gain complete control of airflow during the pruning process to form denser, more cannabinoid-rich buds you need to be able to regulate environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and CO2 levels for more consistent yields. Watch as James Cunningham with Vertical Air Solutions guides us through the pruning process to achieve maximum airflow and light penetration.

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Untitled-design-6

The Effects of Airflow to Your Canopy

In the previous video, we showed you a comparison between the absence of any airflow solutions in the vertical space and the presence of Vertical Air Solutions (VAS) providing laminar airflow. The VAS system provides seamless integration into your racking system, and it is built for the “long haul”. With functionality and efficiency in mind, we did not want to sacrifice vertical space, the velocity of airflow, or the ability to strategically supply conditioned air.

As growers, VAS developed this solution thinking about the potential losses that could be encountered by not controlling the environment correctly. The team was also considering the ongoing costs of maintenance in the vertical farm and teh effects of airflow to any multi-tiered canopy.

With an excessive amount of fans, your grow facility uses an excessive amount of power and negatively impacts your profit. Watch as James Cunningham heads into the Fog City Farms cultivation facility with Vertical Air Solutions and demonstrates just how different the two types of airflow are and how they greatly affect your grow.

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t1

The Ultimate Cultivation Airflow Test

When it comes to cultivation, strategic airflow is key. In a close proximity space, microclimates can be very easily created, and very quickly your humidity levels will shoot up to above 70% relative humidity. With a CO² injections, air circulation systems will allow you to deliver enriched air to every section of the crop to help consistently produce high-quality flower.

It’s also important to destratify any microclimates that are caused by transpiration from plants. These air circulation systems also provide air filtration that clean the room rather than aimlessly blowing around dust, dirt, and debris. Through localized airflow, growers can expect to see increased consistency, enhanced crop yields, and decreased crop loss.

James Cunningham from Vertical Air Solutions took us for a tour inside the Fog City Farms cultivation facility to test the presence of localized airflow, and the results were pretty astounding.

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Mobile-Vertical-Rack-Irrigation-Solution-scaled

Top Vertical Farming Trends Of 2021

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), especially related to cannabis cultivation, is one of the world’s most dynamic and competitive industries. Due to its rapid growth, sophisticated cannabis operators are actively looking for opportunities to standardize, optimize, and increase margins without sacrificing quality. With this in mind, many cultivators are transitioning antiquated single-level facilities into highly efficient vertical farms, with multi-level systems that are utilized from nursery to drying and then storage of the finished product.

These trends go far beyond North America and cannabis cultivation. Vertical farming continues to grow globally and is utilized across several industries and high-value crops. We are seeing a continuation of these trends and with a year full of advancements, improvements, and installations. In this article, we’ll review several advantages of vertical farming and uncover the top trends to watch.

Why Choose Vertical Farming?

Vertical farming involves stacking multiple grow levels on top of one another. In this way, a cultivation operation can double or triple the number of plants grown because they are leveraging the footprint of traditional single-level growing methods. While vertical farming typically requires more investment upfront, it quickly pays for itself with boosts to yield and profitability per square foot.

Top 4 Vertical Farming Trends

Although commercial cannabis is a nascent industry, trends are starting to emerge. They may not come as a surprise but without a full understanding of what they are and why they matter, players in the industry may be significantly affected.

Here are the four emerging trends to watch:

  1. The rapid expansion of the vertical farming market
  2. Increased access to institutional financing and banking services
  3. Rapid advancement in agricultural technology and systems
  4. Increased competition and pricing pressure

This is a simple roadmap of the terrain ahead, but now it’s time to take a closer look at each trend and what cultivation operators need to be aware of.

Rapid Expansion of the Vertical Farming Market

To get an idea of how quickly the cannabis industry will adopt vertical farming, it’s important to look at the growth projections for commercial farming of food in vertical farming systems. The vertical farming industry is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.2% from 2020 to 2025. In that time, it’s projected to reach a market cap of $7.3 Billion in 2025, roughly 2.5x the 2020 market cap of $2.9 Billion. [1]

Vertical farming’s relative growth is a sign of the rapid advancement, investment, and optimization cannabis growers are making to achieve higher yields, and better quality while lowering costs per square foot. With waves of funding and technological upgrades surfacing,  legacy growers are compelled to make a choice between embracing innovation or staying their course. Innovation can be costly, but without change, cultivators may lag in output, quality, and consistency.

Another factor driving the rapid expansion of the vertical growing market is the ongoing expansion of the legal cannabis market in America. In the November 2020 election, voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota voted to legalize recreational cannabis, continuing the nation’s spread of legalization. Since then, state legislatures in New York, New Mexico, and Virginia have approved bills to legalize cannabis for recreational use.

Now, in fact, there are more states that have legalized (either medical or recreational) than states that have not.  Paramount to this success was the ‘essential’ designation of the cannabis industry, which allowed it to continue operating through lockdowns. Over the past year and a half, many cannabis businesses incorporated delivery options, making it an industry norm. As new concepts have been adopted, it has shown how cannabis use trends can shape the industry’s future.

According to Forbes, “Almost half of the cannabis consumers aged 21 and up have replaced or reduced their alcohol consumption with marijuana since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the results of a Harris Poll released [December 2020].”

The rise of cannabis use and acceptance is a key indicator that the cannabis industry has an eager customer base that will continue to expand. And as a result of these market trends, vertical farming operations are growing in confidence and ROI.

Watch our vertical farming cultivation tools overview below:

Increased Access to Institutional Financing and Banking Services

A point of contention for cannabis business owners has been their inability to access the same financial services as businesses in other industries. Being forced to carry cash on hand, there has been minimal action to move away from the industry’s past. However, in April 2021 cannabis businesses gained legal access to banking and financing services. Tapping into the banking ecosystem will now have a massive impact on legal cannabis business owners by providing legitimacy and opportunity for the industry to flourish.

Most importantly, this banking access opens the floodgates for investors to pour into the industry. For example, a cannabis company looking for capital to increase capacity could seek a standard bridge loan vs. taking a hard money loan, which comes with increased risk and high-interest rates. Access to the vast pools of institutional capital makes business expansion more feasible and worthwhile for entrepreneurs than alternatives like offering several private investment rounds or taking a high-interest loan.

Efforts to give cannabis business owners access to banking services started in 2019. The Senate vote was scheduled to happen in 2020, but the bill was held up due to COVID-19 reprioritizing government initiatives. In April 2021, the United States House of Representatives passed the SAFE Banking Act, which indemnifies banks from federal prosecution for working with legitimate cannabis companies. This Senate vote on legalizing cannabis industry banking was the culmination of a two-year-long effort and will benefit the industry tremendously.

Access to market-rate financing and other agricultural lending programs will propel the vertical farming industry’s growth by reducing the burden of the upfront capital required to get into vertical farming. All the equipment that we’ve outlined previously requires investment by the company, it’s investors, or sometimes more simply, through a bridge loan. Now that there is an open door to the same opportunities and programs for financial services, the industry will see an increase in new legitimate cannabis businesses making competition even more aggressive.

Advancement in Agricultural Technology and Systems

 

Most farmers learn right away that it’s essential to learn, master, and trust equipment. Leaps in technology have defined advancements in the history of agriculture, and vertical cannabis farming is no different. With the previously discussed industry growth attracting more investment and more competition, growers who can get a leg up through the use of technology can create a sustainable amount of market share.

Software for monitoring and managing growing conditions and equipment is an area where substantial innovation is happening. Although manual data collection and tracking are on the decline, there are many cultivators that are still using notebooks, spreadsheets, and whiteboards.

Software companies are deploying vertical farming technology and automation into cultivation facilities automating many of these tasks. These solutions are creating an environment where data-driven decision-making and crop steering are optimizing the chemo-type expression, overall yields of biomass, and active ingredients. Many of these systems and software packages enable operators to adjust growing conditions, feeding, and equipment functionality remotely. Over the past year alone, the need for these continued advancements in data collection, data analysis, and other innovations has not just been a trend but has been noted as an essential tool for success.

In addition to technological advancements, product innovation has also been on the rise. Enhancements in racking systems, such as the  TRAK-FREE™ Carriage System are setting the tone for what’s to come. Utilizing a single guide rail along the back row eliminates the need for multiple tracks providing clearer walkways. Most recently, product innovations like the ELEVATE™ Platform System are also having an influence on the industry. This robust yet lightweight, modular deck allows cultivators to access the upper levels of multi-tiered vertical grow racks quickly, efficiently, and most importantly – safely. Systems like these are prioritizing safety and streamline operations for growing environments. The results of these trending innovations are proving to reduce the material and labor cost of installation and ultimately creating a better environment for products and industry workers. 

Increased Competition and Price Pressure

The vertical farming industry’s projected growth will be a double-edged sword for cannabis and commercial cultivators. On the one hand, vertical farming can provide a platform that allows growers to increase overall capacity, revenue, and margins. On the other hand, vertical farming will increase efficiency and productivity, which will likely drive prices down and increase competition. The potential for huge profits breeds competition. This means that with the rapid expansion of the vertical farming market, the first-mover advantage for cultivators is dwindling. Consumers demand high-quality products at cost-effective prices. Implementing the right systems today provides a competitive advantage to meet consumer demand.

To capitalize on these vertical grow trends, individual growers need to ensure their vertical farming operation runs at peak performance. Labor is the highest cost for a cannabis farming operation. With greater competition, optimizing labor processes is becoming a main priority. Utilizing labor-saving equipment like mobile carts and racks can reduce costs while increasing production volume and quality. Every touchpoint with a plant is a contamination risk and expense, so minimizing the interactions will increase the quality of terpenes and trichomes.

As competition grows, optimization of a grow facility and its operations are vital in order to stand out in the industry. 

Conclusion 

So far, 2021 has been another breakout year for vertical farming within the cannabis industry. Fueled by these four trends, operators that embrace vertical farming, implement proven technology, and optimize through data-driven feedback will have a competitive advantage over operators unwilling or unable to implement

If you’re interested in turning your grow operation vertical and installing the best multi-level growing equipment on the market, contact Pipp Horticulture today. We will provide a vertical growing solution tailored to your facility that maximizes production and capacity.

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