The Path of the Cannabis Plant: How to Optimize Your Grow Room Layout

August 20, 2024

The Path of the Cannabis Plant: How to Optimize Your Grow Room Layout

Creating efficient, profitable cannabis grow rooms requires thoughtful planning. Plants demand different levels of care throughout the growing process. How you arrange them along the way will play a vital role in ensuring healthy movement and development.

Your facility floor plan must include distinct rooms for propagation, mother, veg, and flower. This ensures proper care, productivity, and limited risk of cross-contamination.

Additionally, multi-tiered vertical farming solutions provide even more space while allowing cultivators to continue monitoring pH levels, nutrient content, and humidity with ease. Using the right racking systems is paramount in maintaining consistent air circulation and light filtration.

Accounting for current and future needs when designing a grow room can be daunting. However, we can help you craft a facility equipped with optimized growing systems, layouts, and workspaces to boost profitability and longevity in the cannabis industry.

How to Set Up Grow Rooms for Plant Movement

Cultivators must account for various factors when designing a cannabis grow room, such as ease of access to plants, airflow, irrigation systems, and structural elements. Vertical farming techniques solve many of these problems, as growers can smoothly integrate automated environmental controls to monitor water, nutrients, and humidity levels.

Other factors to consider when building a cannabis grow room include:

Ceiling height
Drain locations
Current workflow
Installation timelines
Potential obstructions to plant access
Local municipal building codes
Door locations
Ground level

1. Mother Room

Your mothers secure future crop yields. Keeping them happy and comfortable in their vegetative state ensures you can continue cloning and cultivating new plants. An efficiently managed mother room will account for individual genetics and incorporate nutrient management, pest, and pathogen controls. These carefully curated practices foster consistency and reliability.

Many cultivators have opted for double-tiered racking systems rather than single-level layouts in their mother rooms. This change allows for growing additional genetics or housing new and older mothers in the same area. Larger facilities may even consider triple-tiered systems if budget and space allow.

When considering multi-tiered systems, growers must remember the importance of good ventilation. Proper airflow maintains stable temperatures and humidity levels while guarding against pests and mold. In-rack airflow Systems like Vertical Air Solutions (VAS) can be built into tiered racks for seamless, even air distribution (we’ll touch on this further below), freeing more space for easy plant access.

Ensuring Sanitation and Hygiene

One thing to note when building a cannabis mother room is sanitation. Cross-contamination can ruin your efforts to cultivate productive, healthy mother plants. Therefore, never use cart systems intended for mothers outside the mother room. Ensure other grow rooms are supplied with enough equipment to sustain current and future needs.

2. Clone Room

Clone rooms, also known as propagation rooms, are designed to encourage healthy root development in new plants or cuttings. However, this space is not inherently necessary for every operation. Smaller cultivation centers can combine veg and clone rooms to save on resources and space. Still, 2-5% of the total floor plan should be dedicated to this stage of cannabis growth.

If growers are using one room for multiple purposes, proper considerations should be taken when approaching the layout.

Generally, cultivators should keep clones with vegetative plants rather than mothers. Less traffic in the mother room protects genetics and mother-plant health.

Combining clones and veg plants in one space can expedite the transplanting process once clones are ready for vegetative propagation. Clones can be placed in the same racking systems as your veg plants but be sure to adjust the light levels lower to accommodate their needs.

For larger CEA operations, a dedicated clone room incorporating a multi-tiered rack system is ideal for optimal plant movement. One triple-tiered wired mesh cart can house between 300 to 600 clones. In the end, many of your design choices will be budget and scale-dictated.

3. Veg Room

Multi-tiered systems are most commonly seen in veg rooms. In the beginning days of cannabis cultivation, growers did not have enough vegetative space to keep flower rooms supplied. In response, they took advantage of cubic footage by growing upward rather than outward.

Now, a best practice when sizing a veg canopy is to allocate between 20 and 30% of your total flowering footprint to vegetative growth. Square footage may vary if facilities have a combined veg, mother, and clone room as opposed to separate spaces.

Regardless, the ideal size for a racking system is 32-40 ft. in length and 10-15 ft. in height. Triple-tiered racks are typical, but facilities with smaller inventories may consider double-tiered solutions instead. Regardless, these dimensions set you up for success as you create a functional veg room layout (and they apply to flower rooms, as well).

4. Flower Room

The flower room is the heart of operations and harbors the potential for your business–this is why layout and design are so critical.

Increasing yield is of the utmost importance to any cannabis cultivator. So, how can an efficient flower room boost profitability and efficiency?

Ultimately, layout, engineering, and equipment will determine your ability to achieve desired metrics. A well-designed space can produce two to three times more than a poorly drafted setup. Having an optimized operation gives you a leg up over competitors and ensures you’re equipped for evolving market demands.

Technologies, automation systems, and HVAC are essential components, but your floor plan is the foremost factor to consider. Plants should be spread equally to ensure proper development and consistent growth. Your crew must also have access to them for scouting, cutting, and transporting.

Modular systems solve both needs in one easy-to-navigate system. First, vertical racking systems maximize space and are seamlessly integrated into a current footprint. Second, growers can further boost capacities by adding mobile carriages, allowing for flexibility when expanding or rearranging floor plans.

Two-tiered solutions are the most common, but some facilities can accommodate three tiers. Remember–populate vertical growing systems with grow trays that are compatible with automated technologies to enhance functionality and yield.

Here are additional factors to consider when optimizing a flower room:

Environmental control systems: Consider including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in your design. These controls can monitor how plants respond to subtle environmental changes, such as lighting and airflow. Using this information, you can gauge whether or not your current setup facilitates healthy plant growth and movement.

Proper airflow: Adequate airflow ensures proper humidity and temperature control while reducing the risk of contamination, pathogens, and mold. Multi-level airflow systems address these concerns by ensuring every tier receives consistent air movement. This technology can be easily integrated into multi-tiered racking systems.

Irrigation and fertigation: Don’t forget about irrigation systems when optimizing your grow room for plant movement and growth. Automated drip or hydro setups are great because they require minimal space and can prevent mishaps from stray hoses or cumbersome equipment.

Multiple cultivars: Different cannabis strains have unique phenotypes. Growers can adjust vertical racking systems to accommodate both tall and short plants.
Light mapping: Your flower room design will rely heavily on light mapping. You can use software to determine where plants can receive optimal exposure and distribute accordingly.

Planning for Future Growth

Always factor in your goals for expansion before you design your indoor grow rooms. Modular setups are typically best because they ensure growers can easily integrate new sections into each space. Incorporating additional modules requires less downtime, saving you resources and money.

A multi-tiered grow room setup can mean a higher upfront investment.

However, vertical farming greatly increases capacity, both square and cubic footage, which boosts potential yield and profitability. Growers have a more efficient indoor cultivation strategy with the added advantage of room for future augmentation.

Below are a few other things to consider before building a grow room:

Financial pro forma: This plan will guide you as you design a CEA operation. A financial pro forma should include initial building, operating, testing, labor, and utilities costs. You should also factor in potential profits and selling prices.

Your goals: Where do you see your business down the road? Are you comfortable with your current growing capabilities? Grow room designs should account for potential year-round production, specific strains, or crop-rearing methods.

Environmental resources: Ensure your location has the proper facilities to provide optimal environmental control. Consider energy availability, water quality, labor availability, and proximity to your target market.

Room for automation: Leave space for additional automation if you anticipate larger production. Additional plants could mean integrating more pest management, nutrient dosing, humidity control, and CO2 enrichment systems.

Pipp is here to help with all your grow room needs. We can guide you through designing a space that meets current market requirements and accommodates expansion. Our innovative solutions are excellent for any cannabis cultivator–whether you’re a beginner, expert, or somewhere in between.

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Lesson Learned from a Decade in CEA: Part 1

August 8, 2024

Lesson Learned from a Decade in CEA: Part 1

In the mid-20th century, NASA embarked on ambitious projects to grow plants in space to provide astronauts with a sustainable food source during prolonged missions. These experiments led to significant advancements in indoor lighting and hydroponic systems, technologies that would later revolutionize agriculture in controlled environments on Earth.

Interestingly enough, it wasn’t the food or floriculture markets that first picked up on these advancements, but rather illicit cannabis growers. Cannabis prohibition forced innovative cultivators to move their operations indoors to avoid detection. With legalization in states like Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, the industry emerged from the shadows, bringing a wealth of expertise in controlled growing environments.

Early on, high cannabis prices meant growers could not lose money (barring a catastrophic crop failure). Data from Cannabis Benchmarks pegged average wholesale prices for a pound of cannabis flower at $1,789 in 2016, with average highs as much as $2,100. During this Green Rush, investment dollars flowed into purpose-built facility construction and retrofitting projects.

At the same time, indoor agriculture technology experienced a boom not seen since the Space Race. The advancements in LED lighting, mechanical cooling, environmental control and monitoring, and vertical growing technologies over the past decade can nearly all be tied to the growing cannabis market. Wholesale prices have since cooled (in 2023, the average wholesale price for flower was $1,019), yet cannabis remains a cash crop where innovation abounds.

In the decade that I’ve been involved in the cannabis and broader controlled environment agriculture (CEA) space, I’ve found that there is a misconception that these markets share few parallels. The cannabis cultivation market and the food/floriculture industries are mostly two sides of the same CEA coin, and there are insights and lessons that crop and flower producers can learn from cannabis growers.

Bridging the Gap between Cannabis and the Broader CEA Market

My experience as both a cannabis grower and Director of Horticulture at Pipp Horticulture has led me to develop a nuanced understanding of the CEA landscape and how cannabis fits within it as the outlier. To appreciate this, we should first zoom out and define what we mean by CEA and indoor farming.

Controlled environment agriculture is a technology-based approach to crop production that involves the control of most (if not all) plant growth variables. This includes lighting, temperature, humidity, irrigation, fertigation, airflow, CO2 supplementation, and more.

CEA can broadly be divided into two categories: indoor farms, and mixed-light structures. Mixed-light structures utilize both natural sunlight and artificial lighting to optimize plant growth. These facilities provide the benefits of natural light while allowing for environmental control through supplemental artificial lighting.

Greenhouses are one form of mixed-light facility. These are structures with walls and roofs made chiefly of transparent material such as glass or plastic in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown. Greenhouses can range from small, simple structures to large, high-tech installations, and they can be leveraged with or without supplemental lighting.

Hybrid mixed-light structures have a glass roof allowing sunlight to penetrate and insulated walls to better control the environment. These facilities combine the benefits of natural sunlight with enhanced climate control to optimize plant growth.

As opposed to mixed-light structures, indoor farms rely solely on artificial lighting. These are sometimes referred to as urban farms, vertical farms, and container farms.

While approaches to cannabis cultivation are broadly similar to food and floriculture production in mixed-light structures, cannabis indoor farms are unique in that they often are at the extreme of plant production levels. From lighting, CO2 supplementation, nutrient uptake, irrigation, and latent heat load management, these structures can be extremely energy- and resource-intensive. Some indoor cannabis growers operate their lights at intensities as high as 1,800 PPFD, which increases transpiration rates, latent loads, and nutrient delivery needs.

The cannabis plant’s ability to thrive in these environments and the dollar value crops can generate justify these large inputs. Produce or cut flower indoor farms are generally less energy-intensive than cannabis farms due to economic and crop limits (i.e. plant stress would negatively impact yield and quality in those conditions).

For these reasons, cannabis growers have been viewed as “lucky” to be able to make mistakes that would otherwise bankrupt an indoor food production business. Conversely, indoor farmers growing crops other than cannabis have been told for years that their methods aren’t feasible without the benefit of a cash crop. There may be some truth to both sentiments, but the fact that these industries continue to evolve in parallel remains true.

Lessons from the Cannabis Industry for Other Indoor Farmers

Budget for consultants and SMEs

In my time as a cannabis grower, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to design my own indoor farm. Due to the extensive licensing process, I had a lot of lead time to build my knowledge on the subject. Through my research, I discovered innovative indoor farming principles in both academic studies and online cannabis message boards. I studied cutting-edge technologies such as LED lights and environmental controllers. I drafted plans, scrapped them, and drafted some more.

Additionally, following my career as a cultivator, my time at Inspire (my previous employer) and Pipp Horticulture granted me the opportunity to impact the designs of hundreds of facilities.

These experiences taught me that you shouldn’t let your head grower be your design-build expert.

In the early legalization days, private investors looking to tap into the Green Rush, none the wiser, would sometimes give full design control to growers who presented a “fake it ‘til you make it” attitude. Even architects and systems designers, who had no experience with cannabis, deferred crucial decisions to these “experts,” sometimes leading to millions of dollars in losses due to design-build errors and missed opportunity costs.

To be fair, few technologies were purposely designed to address the needs and realities of commercial indoor cannabis environments, and little knowledge was available about growing the plant at such scales. High-intensity discharge (HID) lights such as high-pressure sodium (HPS) fixtures were the industry standard. These systems emit significant amounts of heat, increasing cooling costs, and preventing growers from leveraging vertical racks to maximize the use of their floorspace. HVAC systems were not yet optimized for a cannabis grow’s latent load, either, leading to plant health issues and forcing growers to rely on multiple technologies to manage humidity.

Indoor farms today have the benefit of being able to learn from the cannabis industry’s growing pains. Many design-build experts and consultants with hands-on indoor farming experience can inform your decisions, as it is often easier to dial back systems and controls from the extremes present in cannabis cultivation environments.

High-efficiency LED fixtures have drastically cut the sensible heat load compared to their HID predecessors. High-efficiency, specialized HVAC units able to manage both latent and sensible heat loads have become widely available. Even vertical racking units designed for cannabis grows (such as Pipp’s Vertical Grow Systems) have evolved from simple mobile shelving to sophisticated units that integrate in-rack airflow technology.

So, when designing an indoor farm make sure to budget for industry consultants and other subject matter experts no matter the crop you intend to grow.

Purpose Built is Easier than Retrofitting

In my time with Pipp, I’ve had the opportunity to help design countless facilities. Thanks to that experience, I can confidently say that building a purpose-built facility from scratch is much easier than retrofitting a space designed for another industry. Something as simple as column placement and spacing can greatly reduce your ability to leverage mobile vertical racks, cause airflow issues, and make it more difficult for employees to work with crops.

It’s important not to get enamored and purchase a location until you have a clear plan of what you want to build. For example, a site close to cheap utilities and a growing customer base may be rendered useless by the lack of outside or rooftop space for the HVAC equipment you will need to maintain your crop’s ideal climate. Similarly, an urban location may not have the parking space to accommodate staff adequately. While a seemingly silly reason to turn down an otherwise acceptable facility, keeping employees happy and safe will greatly reduce turnover. Designing a bespoke facility on a lot that meets your operational and employee needs can help avoid headaches when you’re up and running.

Additionally, older facilities may not have the necessary utilities (water, power, and/or natural gas) to support an indoor farm, and the costs to increase the amount of those utilities delivered on-site may exceed those for setting up new purpose-built connections. It’s important to engage with utility companies and city building departments as early as possible to identify existing and upcoming sites that are suitable for your grow at the scale you wish to build.

(Side note: Some sustainability-minded operators may think that lack of electricity may be easily supplemented by solar panels. However, it’s important to consider that every 8,000-10,000 square feet of cannabis canopy needs approximately an acre of solar power arrays.)

Build a Realistic Business Plan

Produce and floriculture growers already know how tight their margins are. Running an indoor farm that can’t reduce costs by relying on the most abundant source of natural light (the Sun) will be difficult in the best of circumstances. That’s why it’s important to adopt a “buy once, cry once” mentality when designing a facility and weighing which systems to adopt.

Many early commercial cannabis growers made that mistake. Trying to balance out the volatility risks of changing regulations and price drops, several cannabis operations value-engineered their builds by under-sizing HVAC units, opting for less efficient light fixtures, or selecting fixed vertical racking systems that didn’t allow them to maximize their floor canopy. The low CapEx investment led to higher OpEx costs and product quality issues, making them unable to compete with businesses that made larger CapEx expenditures and had lower operating expenses.

Due to the even tighter margins that exist outside of cannabis, indoor farmers have to go all-in by opting for the best systems they can afford. If budget constraints force you to make value-engineering decisions, aim to save money in areas that are easiest to retrofit, such as lighting fixtures. Many utilities will offer incentives for growers to adopt higher efficiency systems, making the most advanced systems more affordable when you’re ready to make the jump. However these programs usually expire, so growers cannot wait forever to make those upgrades.

HVAC systems and floor planning, on the other hand, must be done right the first time as those are harder, if not impossible, to change after the fact. An undersized HVAC system will constantly operate at near capacity, increasing energy costs and wear. Meanwhile, floor plan changes usually require facilities to shut down all or part of their operations to make the necessary fixes.

The lessons and similarities between the cannabis and broader CEA industry don’t end here. In part 2 of this blog series, we will explore lessons that cannabis operators can learn from their food and floriculture cousins. As these industries continue to co-mingle, CEA as a whole can achieve its potential to maximize efficiency, increase profits, and build a better food, pharmaceutical, and floriculture supply chain.

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FAQs – Optimization vs Maximization Webinar

July 18, 2024

FAQs – Optimization vs Maximization Webinar

The legalization and commercialization of cannabis have sparked a revolution in cultivation practices. With this evolution comes the critical question: should cultivators design facilities that optimize resources for efficiency and quality, or should they push boundaries to maximize output? In our recent webinar, we tackled this debate between optimization and maximization in cannabis cultivation design. We discussed the intricacies of both approaches, dissecting the pros and cons to provide a comprehensive understanding for cultivators, entrepreneurs, and executives alike.

At the end of the webinar, we held a Q&A with the viewers to answer any questions they had. We then took those conversations and turned them into this blog to share those great discussions and frequently asked questions with you!

#1: When going the optimized route, is it better to go with clones, seeds, or tissue culture?

Optimization referenced during the webinar was mostly referring to design, airflow, and workflow in an indoor multi-tier cultivation facility. When comparing working from clone, seed, or tissue culture there are advantages and disadvantages for each. Growers must take it into consideration many other external, regulatory, and infrastructure factors.

Clones are one of the most common approaches for starting a cultivation facility. Clones are genetically identical copies of a mother cannabis plant, so you more or less have a general sense of what to expect in terms of the cultivar’s cannabinoid and terpene profile, plant structure, and overall performance. Mind you, how growers manage the environment, substrate selection, and irrigation strategy can manipulate plant performance. Clones also allow for the fastest speed to market (with the exception of auto-flower seeds) of the three options. It is important to ensure you are sourcing clean clones that are free of pests, diseases, and viruses. If the mother or stock plant has pests, diseases, and/or viruses, it can be spread through clones. All clones should be inspected, tested, and quarantined before being introduced to craft or commercial production.

There are three major types of cannabis seeds, which are regular, feminized, and auto-flower. Regular seeds can germinate into male or female plants. Feminized seeds are modified so that they are incapable of creating male chromosomes, growing only the female plants. Autoflower seeds or day-neutral seeds automatically switch from vegetative growth to the flowering stage based on age, as opposed to the ratio of light to dark hours required with photoperiod-dependent cultivars. Seeds are typically free of any pests, but viruses can be spread through seeds if the parental lineage plants used to create the seeds are infected.

Plant tissue culture (PTC) is a collection of techniques used to grow plant cells, tissues, organs, or seeds in a sterile environment on a nutrient medium. The sterilization stage in tissue culture cultivation can be particularly effective in eliminating diseases and viruses, making it stand out when compared to starting from clone or seed. PTC propagation can result in faster maturity times compared to growing from seed, which enables growers to use space more efficiently without overcrowding grow rooms. However, the key advantage of tissue culture is the sterile environment, which can eliminate diseases and provide a clean environment for plants to thrive. Most cannabis operators who utilize PTC are creating clean stock mothers and then taking cuttings through traditional cloning techniques for production. Because of the equipment involved, chemicals needed, and tools required, setting up a cannabis lab becomes an expensive process. Thus, it limits many low-budget researchers and growers to work with the technology. PTC is new to the cannabis industry and not everything has been figured out so far, like the kind of work that has been done with other plants in the area. Thus, it will require a lot more time to get a working protocol or workflow that will enable growers to produce healthy, stable, and reliable genetics without much loss.

#2: To be optimized do we really need rolling tables or can they be stationary?

Good question! In most rooms with mobile racking, we see between 6-9 inches between the wall and each rack, as well as between each row. However, if it’s a stationary racking system, this spacing might not be sufficient for working with the racks and doing tasks. There’s a balance between optimizing space and not using it effectively. Mobility is key for space optimization. Avoid maximizing space to the point where it harms plant health.

#3: What do you recommend the space between rows to be while in the resting position? When working with a clean slate what is optimal?

For best results, aim for at least 6 inches of space, but ideally closer to 9 inches. The width depends on how many rows of racking you have in the room. For instance, if you have 6 rows of racking compared to 24 rows, you shouldn’t have the same width for the mobile aisle in both cases.

Once you exceed a certain number of rows, you’ll need to widen the mobile aisle. This isn’t just for airflow but also for better workflow. You can place Elevate platforms between two rows with a wider mobile aisle, allowing two teams to start working simultaneously. Introducing a competitive element can make tedious tasks more engaging and help speed things up.

It’s all about finding the right balance for your space. While 6 inches is the minimum, 9 inches is optimal. It really depends on the specific room dimensions and canopy size for each project to determine the perfect level of optimization, but we’re here to help. Feel free to share your design with us for feedback.

#4: When building a new facility, what is the ideal room height?

There are a few things to consider when planning your setup:

1. HVAC Equipment Placement: Ideally, you want to keep mechanical equipment out of the cultivation room, it can reduce your effective ceiling height and become a vector for pests/pathogens. Think about the ceiling height compared to your grow room. You might consider placing equipment above the grow room in a mezzanine, typically positioned above the main hallway.

2. Tier Consideration: If you’re planning two or three tiers, it affects your decision-making. Think about what equipment will be in your room and what will be placed above. Ensure there’s enough space for maintenance and service, as it can be challenging to fix systems if they’re cramped.

3. Free Space: Instead of just focusing on height, think about how much free space you have above the racks (i.e. head space). It’s recommended to have at least 3 feet of space. For example, if your room is around 12 feet high, the ideal ceiling height would be 16+ feet.

You can use our free room generator tool to visualize your space in 3D and plan accordingly.

#5: How can we best balance irrigation strategy with environmental management?

Great question, but a tough one to answer succinctly. We highly recommend you check out the book “Plant Empowerment” as this is a wonderful resource for learning how to balance all the cultivation parameters.

Irrigation strategy and environmental management are intrinsically linked via the process of transpiration, but light is still the main parameter driving plant growth. To begin dialing in this balance, consider the light levels you are providing your crop, then dial in the root zone accordingly using sensors and data collection to determine your VWC%, EC, pH, root zone temperature, and rate of dry back. Based on this data and the rate at which your plants are drying back, adjust your VPD (leaf temp, air temp, and relative humidity) either up or down to increase or decrease the rate of transpiration. All of this needs to be adjusted based on the phase of growth, the age of the plant, and whether you are steering vegetatively or generatively. Every cultivation parameter must be in balance with the others for the plant and the room to operate at their maximum potential.

#6: What are the biggest challenges with labor and operating on a multi-tiered system?

Challenges or opportunities? Lean into the excitement! The biggest challenge may lie in training individuals accustomed to different systems and guiding them through adjustments. But new hires won’t need to break old habits to adapt to new systems. The transition from single to multi-tier operations brings plenty of crossover, simplifying the process. We’ve got the tools and resources ready for you to master operating systems safely. Once you’re optimized, you’ll have the freedom to move around and operate with ease.

#7: Is your company investing in the German Cannabis Market?

Actively working on investing in the whole EU and global market including Portugal where we have boots on the ground. We have numerous global installations completed with several more in the pipeline.

#8: How closely are you working with energy suppliers, utilities and managers when it comes to optimization- have you done a cost-benefit analysis?

We are in the beginning stage of this process. Pipp Horticulture is a member of Resource Innovation Institute, a non-profit organization driving the adoption of resource efficiency and sustainability in the CEA and cannabis sectors. We have discussed with them the idea of doing a cost-benefit analysis comparing the efficiency of single-level to multi-level cultivation facilities. Stay tuned! Currently, we are working with utilities across the country to go after utility rebates for our highly efficient EC fan motors that are used in our VAS 2.0 In-Rack Airflow system.

#9: In a retrofit room would you address attaining proper tier row spacing or mechanical limitations?

This is not an “or” situation but more so an “and” situation. Both optimal row spacing and mechanical systems need to be addressed. When retrofitting from single-tier to multi-tier cultivation, the current HVAC and dehumidification will likely not be sufficient. It is critical to address electrical and climate control needs along with optimal racking layout and row spacing.

Miss the webinar?

No problem! We have attached the recording so you can watch anytime!

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Site Selection for a New Cannabis Grow Facility

June 7, 2024

Site Selection for a New Cannabis Grow Facility

Your team is gearing up to build a cutting-edge cannabis cultivation facility, and you’re collaborating with a design team to ensure meticulous planning and execution every step of the way. Proper site selection is one of the most crucial decisions to make in the early stage of the process. Taking a thoughtful approach to choosing your site can prevent costly upgrades and compromises later on.

So, how do you identify that ideal site for your facility?

As Pipp Cannabis Operations Specialist Anders Peterson said in a recent webinar, it helps to move methodically through a checklist of sorts, covering utilities, structural support, climate considerations, and fire code compliance. Schedule meetings with all your stakeholders to confirm that your checklist aligns with local regulations and business goals.

Let’s get into it…

Initial Site Considerations

#1: Utilities

Before committing to a location, assess the available utilities. After all, you need a great deal of power to run your operation, and you’ll want to consider any long-term expansion plans for your business.

Peterson said that, in most cases, your team will need to augment your site’s power capabilities. “More often than not, you’re going to have to run additional power to these facilities, sometimes gas,” he said. “Most commercial buildings today just don’t have the infrastructure that indoor grows need. That’s why it’s good to locate a building close to a denser area that has a pretty established grid.”

Conduct a thorough load assessment to verify the availability of three-phase electrical connections for HVAC systems, grow lights, and irrigation.

If natural gas is required for heating or CO2 enrichment, consult with local utility providers to determine whether extending existing gas lines is feasible.

For water supply, perform a pressure test to ensure the system can meet the demands of irrigation.

Action Item: Obtain blueprints from the utility companies for an accurate understanding of the current infrastructure.

#2: Structural Support

Bear in mind that most commercial building roofs weren’t designed to support controlled environment agriculture (CEA). Get out in front of that problem as early as possible.

“Most of the roofs on commercial buildings aren’t designed to support the heavy HVAC equipment required for indoor cultivation,” Peterson said.

Have your team perform a roof load analysis to check the live load capacity and consider ground-level equipment installation to reduce pressure on the roof. Plan space around the building for generators, chillers, and fans without obstructing parking or delivery access. Work the space from all angles (building needs, people needs, plant needs).

Action Item: Hire a structural engineer to inspect the roof and foundation for load-bearing capacity.

#3: Climate Impact

The local climate will affect your HVAC system’s efficiency. Now, your business may be tied from the get-go to one climate over another. (Let’s say you’re bound to the state-licensed market in Ohio, for example, or Connecticut. California may be another story entirely.)

Extreme temperatures, humidity, and seasonal changes can greatly impact HVAC efficiency and performance. Consult historical weather data to adjust HVAC system sizing and ensure you can maintain ideal room conditions.

Action Item: Obtain historical climate data and cross-reference with HVAC specifications to confirm equipment performance under expected conditions.

Specific Site Selection Factors

#1: Floor Condition

Multi-level mobile racking requires a strong foundation. “You need to make sure that the foundation is good and well-suited for that application,” Pipp Product Manager Del Rockwell said.

Core drilling can confirm the slab’s depth and uniformity for supporting mobile racking. Cracks or uneven surfaces can undermine stability. If flaws are identified, consider resurfacing or replacing the slab with high-strength concrete.

Action Item: Commission a geotechnical survey and core drilling to verify the slab’s condition and calculate necessary repairs.

#2: Column Spacing

Column spacing impacts mobile racking layouts, so get a good sense of the literal square footage available on the floor.

“Column spacing … can cause a lot of issues with laying out the racking.,” Rockwell said.

Plan for a minimum 40-foot span to minimize obstructions and provide ample support for overhead systems. Conduct a structural analysis to ensure the columns can withstand extra loads from HVAC equipment and irrigation piping.

Action Item: Create or study detailed blueprints indicating column positions and calculate load capacity before designing the rack layout.

#3: Ceiling Height

The ceiling height must accommodate multi-level cultivation tiers. “Ceiling height can absolutely cut off your headspace and eliminate some cultivation tiers,” Rockwell said.

Ideally, the ceilings should be at least 16’ to accommodate multi-level racking. But they can be installed in spaces with as little as 10’ high ceilings and tighter spacing between grow levels.

Confirm the clear height for multi-tier systems and assess whether mezzanines or beams will obstruct usable space. Plan for ductwork, lighting, and irrigation systems to maximize growth potential.

Action Item: Use laser measurement tools to map out the usable height for each rack tier, adjusting for overhead equipment.

Fire Code Compliance

#1: Local Regulations

Engage with the local fire marshal early to ensure the facility adheres to local fire codes. Local community communication is paramount in those early days.

“Try to do everything you can to make that a smooth interaction,” Rockwell advised.

Network with other cultivators who have successfully navigated the local fire codes to identify common issues and best practices.

Action Item: Schedule a preliminary consultation with the fire marshal to review plans and obtain feedback on compliance strategies.

#2: National Standards

Monitor the progress of NFPA 420, the National Fire Protection Association’s new standard for cannabis cultivation. Sign up for proactive email updates, too. Stay updated on regulatory changes to ensure your facility is compliant.

Action Item: Sign up for the NFPA newsletter to receive updates and download relevant guidelines.

Conclusion

Planning a new grow facility requires collaboration between experts, clear communication with regulators, and careful analysis of utilities, structural support, and fire safety.

By considering floor conditions, column spacing, ceiling height, and HVAC loads early in the process, facility managers can minimize delays and create a highly efficient and compliant grow facility that thrives.

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Why Vertical Farming Is Important in Urban Real Estate Markets

June 6, 2024

Why Vertical Farming Is Important in Urban Real Estate Markets

At least two trends are converging for the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industry: a slow commercial real estate crash in major American cities and broad inflation on input costs. Cannabis growers especially need to get as much bang for their buck on their indoor cultivation facility, and urban settings are perhaps a surprising source of possibility now.

Following the pandemic, major cities like Washington, D.C., New York City and Denver hoped to flip newly vacant office space into residential units. That hasn’t entirely worked, partially because of consumer inflation concerns.

That opened an opportunity to rethink warehouse and office space in the light of a rising CEA industry.

For cannabis growers, these spaces can be especially appealing.

In most cases ( depending on state law), cities provide proximity to retail distribution and broad customer bases. To facilitate cannabis cultivation and other CEA practices, these areas tend to already have robust infrastructure, which is essential for the high energy and water demands of this industry.

With the U.S. cannabis market projected to grow from $115 billion in adult-use sales in 2024 to $170 billion in adult-use sales in 2028, there’s a wave of new businesses on the threshold of licensure or expansion that may thrive in more urban environments.

Here are three benefits (and challenges) of building out an indoor cultivation space within urban city centers.

The Benefits of Vertical Farming in Cities

#1: Maximizing Space Utilization

A primary hurdle to this type of CEA development has long been cost. In mid-sized and larger American cities, commercial or industrial real estate is often expensive and limited in availability. This is changing in the post-pandemic real estate market, but those long-standing challenges have often kept cannabis businesses, strapped for cash early on, from setting up shop in city environments.

Vertical farming addresses this constraint by expanding overall canopy upward, doubling or even tripling the actual grow space. For businesses acquiring land or real estate that may not be as expansive as an industrial footprint in a more rural community, vertical farming lets growers exponentially increase their production capacity in a given room.

This spatial efficiency is crucial in densely populated areas, making vertical farming particularly appealing to city planners and developers looking to attract new business to their jurisdiction.

Buckeye Relief, based in Eastlake, Ohio, just east of downtown Cleveland, built out a new facility and eventually saw the need to expand upward. Early on, the Buckeye Relief team ran into environmental trouble with an original site, so they pivoted to a 10-acre plot of land offered by the city of Eastlake. It fit the company’s needs for the medical cannabis market, but expansion would be inevitable.

Mobile racking on the company’s initial single-tier setup helped them achieve their expansion to a second tier within the existing footprint of their facility. Future footprint expansions are one thing, but growing up and adding vertical tiers to a given production facility can provide significant returns.

Now, the company runs two tiers of production space, and they are preparing for the rapidly expanding customer base that will come from the greater Cleveland area once adult-use sales begin (following legalization in November 2023).

#2: Reducing Environmental Impact and Water Use

Vertical farming in a closed environment allows grow teams to cut back on water and nutrient use, generally. Water use efficiency is especially important in more urban neighborhoods, where resources are under constant pressure from the dense populations they support.

Research is ongoing on this topic, but vertical farming has proven in some studies to reduce water usage significantly. In one 2023 study, vertical farms reduced water use by 28% to as much as 95% compared to greenhouse environments in the same region.

#3: Shielding Your Crops from Tricky Environmental Conditions

In environments like California and its hyper-competitive cannabis market, growers across the state are competing with small outdoor farms. Those smaller farms can reap serious benefits from a photoperiod perspective; nestled in Humboldt County groves, many farms achieve optimal microclimates and draw ideal sunlight for their plants. They’re also exposed, of course, to the elements and a rapidly changing climate.

Vertical indoor farming can surmount a lot of those challenges.

James Cunningham, CEO of Fog City Farms, told us in a recent podcast episode, that moving into the vertical farming segment provided his company with a competitive advantage–and a space to accelerate research and development ideas.

“You can achieve a consistency that you can’t achieve in other growing platforms,” he said. “The distance between your light bars and the [light] throw, and intersecting lighting patterns is so consistent throughout the space that you get very consistent [plant] development.”

Those conditions are ideal for businesses developing end products for a brand, which is a paramount concern right now in cannabis. Consistent products and engaging delivery on retail shelves are must-haves in most cannabis markets.

Fog City Farms is based in Watsonville, Calif., just outside Santa Cruz, and it is a fine example of this mid-sized city real estate market opportunity.

The Challenges

Of course, the story is not all rosy. The cannabis business is nothing if not complicated.

Setting aside the bevy of production challenges in cannabis cultivation just on face value, the prospects of acquiring real estate and setting up a vertical grow offer their own unique roadblocks that must be overcome:

#1: Zoning

Zoning regulations will vary from one jurisdiction to the next, but, nonetheless, indoor cannabis cultivation has always faced an uphill battle.

While the density of cities will place your cultivation business near its retail base, there’s a trade-off. Most zoning regulations come with buffer language and even limits on the number of cannabis businesses that may be allowed to operate.

That buffer language often includes certain distances that businesses must place between their facility and schools, daycares, or churches. In a city environment, this is difficult.

As far as the limits on cannabis businesses, some cities do not necessarily distinguish between dispensaries and cultivation operations; a city that allows a lot of dispensaries to open up shop may leave few, if any, cultivation licensing opportunities on the table.

As more cities recognize the economic benefits of supporting urban agriculture and cannabis industries, there may be a shift toward more accommodating policies. This is a great example of where active cannabis businesses can get involved with local legislatures and regulatory bodies to bring about some change for the industry.

#2: Community Engagement

Speaking of working with local government, it’s important for businesses planning on acquiring real estate in a city to remain mindful of the existing community.

As with all business development issues in cannabis, the surrounding community of people must be considered. This is partly due to the slowly dying stigma that accompanies the industry and also partly because cannabis is broadly seen as an industry capable of delivering tremendous returns to the local community.

To fulfill that promise, business owners who run vertical farms in cities must listen to their neighbors’ questions and comments.

#3: Conversion Costs

New builds are possible and perhaps even ideal when considering a footprint in a major city, but retrofitting an older warehouse is a common enough development plan for cultivation businesses. This is where the real estate opportunity lies, as mentioned earlier.

However, as the commercial real estate market cools in some cities, brokers and business owners must be very knowledgeable about what they’re looking for in a building. Retrofitted spaces will deliver all sorts of unique challenges and costly work. A cultivation facility, especially one that’s set up vertically, has very specific requirements tailored to its operational needs, making the adaptation of existing structures complex and often costly.

When operators consider moving into a pre-existing building, they frequently encounter the need for substantial upgrades to accommodate the specialized infrastructure of cultivation operations. Notably, these facilities require elaborate setups for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and irrigation systems.

These systems typically involve heavy equipment and extensive piping, which are often mounted on or suspended from the roof. Upgrading the HVAC system is one of the most important processes in a retrofit project, as highly sterile vertical grow environments demand great efficiency (as opposed to whatever types of businesses the building may have housed previously).

Also, consider a closed-loop recycled water system, which can generate the resource conservation benefits mentioned earlier. This is a significant upfront cost.

One pivotal problem arises because most conventional roof structures are not engineered to bear such heavy loads. This mismatch means that the roof must often be structurally reinforced to prevent integrity issues.

Conclusion

In summary, the intersection of declining commercial real estate demand in cities and rising agricultural costs opens a valuable opportunity for vertical farming in urban areas. Although high property prices and complex regulations pose challenges, repurposing vacant office and warehouse spaces offers a promising solution for CEA. Vertical farming systems can capitalize on existing city infrastructure to maximize productivity and minimize environmental impact.

Urban vertical farming makes efficient use of limited space and allows growers to be closer to dense consumer markets, reducing transportation costs and spoilage while boosting food security. By adopting vertical farming practices, producers can create sustainable, technologically advanced cultivation facilities that meet changing regulatory standards. This approach aligns with global trends toward urban resilience and sustainability, providing economic growth while meeting consumer demand for fresh, eco-friendly, and locally sourced products.

Repurposing commercial real estate for vertical farming can transform city landscapes, offering a sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective solution that helps address food security and climate change challenges.

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Beyond Dancing Leaves: Quantifying Cultivation Airflow

May 1, 2024

Beyond Dancing Leaves: Quantifying Cultivation Airflow

Setting the Stage

“As Pipp Horticulture’s Director of Horticulture, one of the most common issues I help cannabis growers and controlled environment agriculture (CEA) producers with is improving airflow within the crop canopy. Interestingly, several of those conversations follow this script:”

Grower: “I’m not getting enough airflow.”

Anders: “Ok, what airflow do you want to get?”

Grower: “Well, I want to see my leaves dancing.”

Anders: “But what does that mean? Leaf dancing is not a quantification.”

Despite how sophisticated indoor farming has become over the last decade, with many sensor and control system companies investing heavily in data collection and analysis tools, most growers still rely on subjective visual cues to determine whether enough air is flowing through their plant canopies. Even if these groups have an interest in quantifying this cultivation parameter, many control systems aren’t set up to do so, as they are often designed for outdoor farms or greenhouses where air speed is out of the grower’s control. Instead, most controllers prioritize parameters such as air and soil temperature, light, humidity, CO₂ concentration, water, and nutrients.

Even with the right control systems, CEA growers can encounter limitations with the airflow sensors themselves. Many commercially available airflow sensors are designed to measure outside wind speeds for greenhouses and outdoor farms. As such, most are not sensitive enough to get an accurate reading of indoor airflow speed targets. Airflow sensors for indoor farms should be able to accurately measure airflow coming from all directions in the targeted velocity ranges.

As a scientist and data-driven cultivator, I’ve spent the last several months studying airflow. During this time, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for quantifying airflow in plant growth environments. Like most things in CEA, measuring airflow requires a decent understanding of the available tools (and their limitations), as well as the time and desire to collect and analyze data over months. By moving from subjective assessments, like the level of perceived leaf dancing, to precise measurements, growers can maximize the expression of their crop’s genetic potential, grow healthier plants, and increase their bottom line.

Use the Right Metric: Airflow, Not Flow Rate

Measuring airflow requires growers to determine the speed at which air is moving through or across their plant canopies. For the airspeeds we are targeting in indoor cultivation, the most appropriate units of measurement to use are meters per second (m/s) or feet per minute (ft/min). (Miles or kilometers per hour (mph/kph) are better metrics for measuring much higher airspeeds, such as those found outdoors.)

Airflow velocity can (and should) be measured across multiple points in a cultivation environment. For example, growers may be interested in knowing the air velocity coming out of a ventilation duct or fan as well as closer to the canopy top, or even within the canopy, to understand how equipment layout influences how air moves through the space. While air speeds may be adequate near ventilation equipment, vertical racks, plant density, and other factors can impede that flow where it is most needed.

It is important to avoid conflating airflow, a velocity measure, and volumetric flow rates, measured in cubic feet per minute (CFM). CFM is commonly used for measuring the capacity, or flow rate, of fans, blowers, and HVAC systems, along with the flow rates through ductwork. This figure can help growers determine the system requirements needed to achieve their desired amount of air changes in a given period. CFM can be calculated by multiplying the velocity of the air (in feet per minute) within a defined area.

Unless growers are measuring within a defined space, like in a piece of ductwork, growers should always be using feet per minute or meters per second when discussing airflow. Various academic sources cite a target airflow speed of between 0.5-1 m/s (~100-200 feet per minute) at the canopy top for most crops. For leafy greens, growers can target the lower end of the range, while tomato crops can be pushed to the upper range.

Due to the generally high light levels and transpiration rates, cannabis plants may require even greater airflow speeds to maintain optimal plant growth. Anecdotally, targeting 1.25 – 1.5 m/s (~250-300 ft/min) at light levels between 1,000-1,200 PPFD will better homogenize the leaf surface temperature, facilitate gas exchange, and prevent moist air from stagnating. In vegetative growth, speeds of 0.5-1 m/s generally are sufficient. Essentially, the higher the light levels on your crop, the more airflow is needed to balance the energy transfer within the plant and within the grow room.

How to Measure Airflow in Indoor Farms

While there are limited tools specifically designed to measure airflow in CEA environments, technologies from other industries and use cases can be used as we wait for better purpose-built solutions.

Infrared (IR) Thermometers

Indoor farmers and greenhouse operators may already be using infrared (IR) thermometers to monitor their crops leaf surface temperature for VPD calculations. These heat-sensing devices can be used to get an indirect airflow measurement by detecting differences in leaf surface temperatures across the plant canopy in a given grow room. Areas of the canopy with higher leaf surface temperatures than the rest of the room can indicate a lack of sufficient airflow in those zones.

IR thermometers can provide qualitative information about airflow patterns and speeds within a space but do not offer precise airflow readings needed to optimize growing environments. Nevertheless, this data is better than making decisions based on human senses or dancing leaves.

Cup/Vane Anemometers

Cup or vane anemometers use a mechanical system to measure airflow. Cups or fan blades pushed by wind spin on an axis, and the number of revolutions per minute determines the wind speed. These systems are common in outdoor farms and can be affixed to the top of greenhouses to capture outside wind speed.

While handheld models exist, cup or vane anemometers are generally not sensitive enough to measure the lower air velocities we are targeting in indoor cultivation. Furthermore, these handheld devices only provide accurate readings when held vertically and are not useful when measuring top-down or bottom-up airflow in vertical farms.

Hot-Wire Anemometers

Hot-wire anemometers are handheld devices generally used in the HVAC industry to measure in-duct airflow. A small wire sticks out of one end of the device. That wire gets heated and cools off as air moves around it. The voltage required to heat it back up to setpoint is correlated to the amount of air velocity going across it. These are currently some of the best handheld devices that growers can use to measure intracanopy airflow.

Unidirectional hot-wire anemometers are more readily available and come at a lower price point, but require the user to point the device in the correct direction and can only take airflow readings from one direction at a time. (These units will have an arrow indicating how the user can align the wire against the airflow direction.)

However, airflow is hardly ever coming from one direction in cultivation environments and is instead quite turbulent. Also, in multi-tier grow rooms, cultivators often use a combination of side, bottom-up, and/or top-down airflow systems (like Pipp’s In-Rack Airflow Systems) and can find it difficult to get an accurate airflow reading using unidirectional hot-wire anemometers. Despite coming in at a higher price point and having fewer options available on the market, omnidirectional hot-wire anemometers can measure airflow coming from multiple directions. This makes them ideal tools to measure canopy-level airflow in indoor farms and greenhouse environments.

When using either unidirectional or omnidirectional anemometers, operators must take multiple measurements across the top of their plant canopies. By taking measurements at various points in their cultivation areas, growers can map out where the dead zones are and begin to optimize their airflow maps by adjusting fan positioning and intensities. By averaging these multiple readings, growers can determine the room’s plant canopy airflow velocity. This metric can be correlated with other cultivation parameters within the automation and control systems to optimize their cultivation strategies.

Airflow Sensors

Growers whose automation and control systems can measure and data log airflow can install air velocity sensors within and around their plant canopies to get a true understanding of how air moves through their crop.

Airflow sensors require some labor to install and commission but offer the most in-depth insights into intracanopy air movement. Similarly to measuring air velocity with handheld hot-wire anemometers, it is important to place sensors in different locations in cultivation rooms to get a better sense of the room’s airflow, including at different heights within the canopy and across all grow tiers.

Key Takeaway

By moving beyond subjective readings like leaf-dancing that leave a lot of room for interpretation and adopting strong quantitative data collection and analysis practices, growers can not only build optimized, resource-efficient facilities but can also gain peace of mind that they are doing everything they can to grow healthy, productive crops.

For more tips on measuring airflow, be sure to head to Pipp’s YouTube page and see Fog City Farm’s James Cunningham explain how to use an environmental meter. You can also check out our other vertical farm optimization videos on our main channel.

Air Velocity vs Air Volume

	Air Velocity	Air Volume
Definition	The distance air travels in a given amount of time (i.e. how fast the air is moving per unit of time).	The amount of air flowing past a specific point in a given amount of time (i.e. how much air is moving past or through a specific point per unit of time).
Units of Measurement	feet per minute (ft/min) meters per second (m/s) miles per hour (mph) kilometers per hour (kph)	cubic feet per minute (CFM) cubic meters per hour (m3/hr) liters per minute (l/min)
Examples of how it is used in Indoor Cultivation	Measuring the air speed across or within your plant canopy. Assessing the effectiveness and distribution of your airflow systems in maintaining a consistent environment.	Determining the air exchange rate of your grow room Validating the capacity and flow rates of your HVAC and airflow systems

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[CHECKLIST] 10 Safety Tips in the Grow Room

April 18, 2024

[CHECKLIST] 10 Safety Tips in the Grow Room

Grow Room Safety Is Key

The indoor cannabis cultivation environment is an exciting place, one brimming with life and growth. You’ve no doubt hired a supremely talented team to run the operation, but general reminders about grow room safety are always welcome. We have compiled 10 simple but essential tips for maintaining high safety standards in your grow rooms. These tips are meant to be regularly applied, as safety is an ongoing process. Encourage your team to consistently review and adhere to the safety protocols for your grow room.

1. Check Your PPE on a Regular Basis

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) protects employees from exposure to hazardous substances, plant allergens, and other physical injuries. PPE may include items such as scrubs, Tyvek suits, gloves, hair nets, beard nets, shoe covers, protective clear glasses, and masks.

Regular PPE inspection checks and immediate replacement of worn, compromised, or damaged PPE are vital to maintain high safety standards. Doing so will ensure that workers are adequately protected against potential risks from fine plant particulate matter. In addition to protecting employees, PPE, when used correctly, can reduce the risk of spreading biological contaminants, pests, and diseases.

The correct use of PPE not only complies with health and safety regulations but also fosters a culture of safety and sanitation within the workplace. Creating a culture with a strong foundation in safety is critical for any operation.

▢ Conduct regular PPE checks and replace any worn, compromised, or damaged equipment immediately.

2. Understand Stability with Mobile Racking

Mobile racks and multi-tier cultivation have been accepted by most commercial cultivators as they allow cultivators to maximize the total canopy of any given room compared to single-tier cultivation. Any time an employee is working off the ground, whether it be on a ladder, platform, or lift, it is important to be properly trained and mindful of all associated safety protocols set in place by the company.

Staff training is important to prevent unnecessary injury, even on something as routine as moving mobile racks back and forth within the grow room. It is important to always visually inspect the top and bottom of the open mobile aisle before moving any racks to ensure it is free of any employees who may be working in the aisle. Keep in mind that it is not uncommon for employees to work below the canopy on rolling stools, squatting, or sitting on a bucket, and they may be hidden from plain sight if looking for heads above the canopy. ***Pro Tip – Use magnetic high visibility flags that can be easily attached to the end of the racks to indicate workers are present.

Make sure that employees understand how to engage locking mechanisms on all mobile racking units when not in use to prevent unintended movement. Mobile racks are available with an Anti-Tip Track, as well, which is required in seismic zones. Employees should never climb up on racks or trays.

▢ Implement a checklist for periodic safety checks of your mobile racks’ wheels, tracks, and locks.

3. Understand Weight Distribution and Load Capacity

On a similar note, make sure employees understand and adhere to the weight limits of the platform cat-walks and the racking system, as it is crucial to prevent employee injury and/or damage to the equipment.

Regular inspections should be conducted to ensure that racks are not overloaded and that employees are using the equipment correctly and safely. After any employee safety education training, ensure employees thoroughly understand the training through exercises such as tests and/or “train-the-trainer.” Once the training is completed and the employee has passed any tests, it is important to have the trainer and employees both sign their names on a training document that acknowledges that the employee understands the training and the risk when safety procedures are not adhered to.

Pro Tip: Safety training is not a one-time event. Employees should be re-trained annually or even more frequently if unsafe work is observed.

Document all safety training. Ensure employees are adequately trained, tested, and have signed off on receiving and understanding the training.

▢ Label your racking units with maximum load capacity.

4. Monitor Your Electrical Connections with Thermal Imaging

Given the extensive use of electrical equipment in cannabis cultivation, electrical safety is important to prevent fires, shocks, and equipment failures. Proactive inspections help identify potential hazards early. This protocol helps maintain electrical systems safely and efficiently.

Lights can overheat if not properly installed or if the electrical infrastructure is overloaded. Implementing monthly inspections allows for the early identification of potential hazards, such as frayed wires, loose connections, or overloaded circuits, which are common issues that can lead to serious accidents.

During these inspections, use a thermal imaging camera to detect hot spots invisible to the naked eye, indicative of electrical overload or failing components. This proactive approach minimizes downtime and protects both the workforce and the investment in cultivation infrastructure.

▢ Perform monthly inspections of all electrical equipment and wiring, looking for signs of wear or damage.

5. Develop a Chemical Storage Protocol

Proper chemical storage and handling are essential to prevent spills, contamination, and exposure to toxic substances. Establishing a clear protocol, including a spill response plan, and reviewing it regularly with the team minimize the risk of accidents. All flammable chemicals should be clearly labeled and stored in an approved lockable flammable cabinet. All pesticides and fungicides should be stored in a dedicated and lockable cabinet and be separate from any cleaning and/or sanitation chemicals. Isopropyl alcohol spray bottles and bleach spray bottles are commonly used across cultivation facilities. These spray bottles should be clearly labeled with the date, chemical name, and any dilution ratio.

▢ Create a chemical storage and handling protocol, including a spill response plan, and review it with the team quarterly.

6. Stretch! (Seriously)

Consider a 5-10 minute group stretch at the start of each shift. Ergonomic practices like stretching help prevent injuries common in cultivation tasks that involve repetitive motions, bending, lifting, and prolonged standing. This is also a great opportunity to communicate any important information to the employees about priorities, goals, challenges, or issues to be aware of.

This simple yet effective routine can significantly reduce the incidence of work-related discomfort and injuries, enhancing productivity and employee satisfaction. It can also be a simple way to add some fun team-building to each day’s work.

Stretching can also elevate team morale. The high demand and repetitive nature of cannabis cultivation can place significant stress on employees, potentially impacting their mental health, morale, and productivity. Establishing a supportive workplace culture through simple activities that encourage a pause in the workday hustle can also prevent burnout in addition to enhancing team morale.

▢ To reduce the risk of injuries, implement a 5-10 minute group stretch for the team at the start of each shift.

7. Prepare for Emergencies

You never know what can happen in a dynamic environment like an indoor cultivation facility.

Conducting emergency response drills, including fire evacuation and first-aid scenarios, is critical to ensure staff are prepared for any potential emergencies.

These drills, ideally held twice a year, help familiarize the team with emergency procedures, improving the speed and effectiveness of the response to actual incidents, thereby minimizing potential injuries and damage.

If employees are allowed to wear headphones or earbuds during their shift, it is important to implement a one-ear-only rule, which allows employees to keep one ear free of any music, podcasts, etc., so that in the event of an alarm, they can hear it and react quickly. Some cultivation rooms can be very loud from HVAC and other noisy equipment; it is important to have not only audible alarms but also visual alarms like strobes that can help make employees aware there is an issue. Walkie-talkies are a helpful and economical tool for prompt communications on a daily basis, but especially during an emergency.

You can also get more specific with these trainings down to the individual level. Conducting regular first aid training and emergency response drills empowers employees to act quickly and effectively in case of accidents, injuries, or health emergencies. Having a well-trained team can make a critical difference in minimizing the impact of such events, making this an essential component of any safety program. Making first aid kits easily accessible throughout the cultivation facility and ensuring that all employees know how to use them is also crucial.

▢ Hold emergency response drills twice a year, and make sure your first aid kits are well stocked and easily accessible.

8. Place Sanitation at the Heart of Your SOPs

Daily end-of-shift cleaning routines for all tools and workspaces are essential for preventing the spread of pests and diseases within the cultivation facility. This might seem obvious, but it helps to put those routines on paper and communicate them clearly to all team members. This regular sanitation practice maintains a clean and safe environment for plants and people alike. It’s also a good habit-forming practice, which can encourage greater awareness of safety precautions throughout the rest of the facility.

▢ Establish daily end-of-shift cleaning routines for all tools and workspaces to maintain a hygienic environment.

9. Ramp Up Security

Regular audits of access control systems ensure that only authorized personnel can enter sensitive cultivation areas. This practice will safeguard against theft, contamination, and unauthorized entry.

Rigorous security measures maintain the integrity of the cultivation process while protecting valuable genetic material and preventing diversion.

▢ Audit access control systems quarterly to ensure only authorized personnel can enter cultivation areas.

10. Communicate With Your Team

Monthly safety and operations training sessions keep the team informed about the latest cultivation techniques, safety protocols, and regulatory compliance. Although those topics may not change monthly, each one involves a great deal of detail. Minor aspects of safety protocols or regulatory language can be overlooked as time goes on, so frequent communication is important to keep them top-of-mind.

Ongoing education empowers employees with the knowledge and skills to perform their tasks efficiently and safely. This fosters a proactive and safe workplace culture for all.

▢ Organize monthly safety and operations training sessions to keep the team updated on best practices and safety protocols.

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4 Strategies for Even Light Distribution in Vertical Grows

April 3, 2024

4 Strategies for Even Light Distribution in Vertical Grows

The Right Lights for Your Grow

Any cultivation business’s expansion into vertical farming is a complex challenge. One of the main goals is to achieve optimal light distribution on each level of the grow.

We are here to address the interplay between light physics, plant physiology, and technological innovations. Those elements work together to deliver light to the tiers in your grow room, and it’s on your team to ensure that the light falls evenly and helps all plants grow as healthy as possible.

Before we get going, is your business considering an expansion to a vertical environment within your facility? We’ve got helpful tips for building out a multi-tier grow.

Light Physics in Plant Growth

The Inverse Square Law

At the heart of understanding light distribution lies the inverse square law, which says that light intensity decreases proportionally to the square of the distance from the light source. This means that light gets weaker the farther it travels from the source, and this weakening happens faster than you might expect. This principle is important to understand in vertical grow environments. In vertical rooms, the variance in distance between light sources and plant canopies across tiers can lead to significant disparities in the actual amount of light received by plants. The measurement here is photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD), which conveys how much light that’s actually used for photosynthesis is hitting a given square meter of space every second. You want an even PPFD across your room. Growers can and should use mathematical modeling to predict intensity falloff and adjust light placement and intensity accordingly, ensuring more uniform PPFD across all tiers.

Light Intensity and Canopy Dynamics

Diving deeper, the Beer-Lambert Law provides a framework for understanding how light is absorbed and scattered within the plant canopy. This absorption, influenced by the actual number of leaves on a plant, significantly affects the light available to lower canopy levels. By trimming and shaping the plants, you can make sure light reaches all levels, especially in tight, vertical growing spaces. Watch your plant’s leaf area especially up top, closer to the light source.

Lighting Technologies for Precision Cultivation

Tailoring Spectra with LEDs

The rise and advancement of LED technology has allowed growers to focus on precision in the garden. LEDs let growers manipulate light spectra to influence plant growth and development.

By adjusting the spectral output, growers can elicit specific plant responses, optimizing growth rates, morphology, and secondary metabolite production (think THC, for instance, or a terpene like myrcene). Implementing LEDs with adjustable spectrum capabilities allows for dynamic light management tailored to different growth stages or specific plant strains.

Pulsed Lighting: How to Enhance Photosynthesis Without Adding Thermal Stress

Pulsed lighting has the potential to increase photosynthetic efficiency by delivering high-intensity light in short bursts, reducing thermal stress on plants.

This technique, based on the understanding of photosynthetic saturation points and non-photochemical quenching, can be particularly beneficial in vertical setups where managing heat accumulation is a challenge. Consider running a trial on pulsed lighting with an R&D crop.

Architectural Design and Cultivation Techniques

Optimizing Vertical Rack Design

The structural design of vertical racks should facilitate spatial efficiency and optimal light exposure. Both goals should be top-of-mind when implementing a new racking system. Incorporating inter-reflective materials and strategic geometry can amplify light reach and uniformity. Choosing materials that scatter light instead of reflecting it directly can prevent bright spots and make sure light is spread out more evenly. Consider matte white paint, white plastic, or fabrics, and foils designed for grow rooms; these materials help bounce light around the grow space more evenly than shiny, mirror-like surfaces.

Advanced Canopy Management for Uniform Light Absorption

Techniques such as apical pruning, lateral spreading, and the implementation of rotational systems ensure that all plants, regardless of their position, receive adequate light. Leveraging plant phototropism by periodically adjusting light source positions can promote more uniform growth across the canopy. By doing so, your team makes use of plants’ natural tendency to grow toward light sources, helping them grow evenly. Tune into Cultivation Elevated Episode 17, while host Michael Williamson sits down with Corinne Wilder, VP of Global Commercial Operations at Fluence, to discuss how LED technology has shaped vertical farming.

Integrating Supplemental Lighting and Precision Monitoring

Addressing the Lower Canopy Challenge

The deployment of side and intracanopy lighting addresses one of the primary challenges in vertical cultivation—ensuring sufficient light reaches the lower tiers. These systems must be carefully calibrated to complement top lighting, avoiding over-saturation and ensuring that light intensity and quality mimic natural conditions as closely as possible.

Harnessing Data for Light Optimization

The implementation of advanced light sensors and environmental control systems enables real-time monitoring and adjustment of light conditions. Data analytics can be used to fine-tune lighting schedules, intensities, and spectra, based on the dynamic needs of the crop and the specific characteristics of the vertical environment.

Navigating the Future of Light Optimization in Vertical Cultivation

As the science of cannabis cultivation evolves, so do the strategies for optimizing light distribution in vertical farming systems.

The integration of advanced lighting technologies, strategic architectural design, and precise cultivation practices offers a pathway to maximizing yield, efficiency, and product quality in these complex environments.

Growers equipped with a deep understanding of the scientific principles governing light and plant interactions and a willingness to embrace technological innovations are well-positioned to lead the charge in this new era of cannabis cultivation.

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European Cannabis Laws: What Is the Latest?

March 13, 2024

European Cannabis Laws: What Is the Latest?

Where Is Cannabis Legal in Europe?

In mid-February, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed into law a medical cannabis legalization measure. It was just the latest in a series of incremental cannabis reforms dotting the European landscape.

Ukraine’s medical cannabis law will take effect later in the summer of 2024; in the meantime, Parliament will draft more specific regulatory language. Imports will be a critical source of the country’s cannabis supply, echoing other European countries’ paths to a legal market.

As the global perspective on cannabis continues to evolve slowly but surely, Europe emerges as a promising frontier for businesses.

With a patchwork of regulatory environments and an increasing acceptance of medical and adult-use cannabis, Europe presents opportunities and challenges for industry stakeholders looking across the pond.

Statista Market Insights places the expected 2024 value of the European cannabis market at US$10.2 billion–with a growth rate on the order of 14.32% over the next five years.

Tune into Cultivation Elevated Episode 22, while host Michael Williamson sits down with Sia Baneei of Grow Motion, a Swiss cannabis cultivation company, to delve into the intricate world of the European cannabis industry.

For cultivators and retailers who have experienced the dynamic growth of the cannabis industry in the U.S., the European market may be the next big venture. Let’s explore the landscape of the emerging cannabis marketplace in Europe, highlighting the potential for growth, regulatory considerations, and how businesses can position themselves for success in this new terrain.

European Cannabis Laws: An Overview

Europe’s cannabis market is in a state of flux, with countries at various stages of legalization and acceptance. Nations such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal have made significant strides in cannabis reform, setting the stage for a burgeoning industry. Let’s take a tour.

Germany

Germany made global headlines in late February when the lower house of Parliament legalized adult-use cannabis in a limited capacity, the first legalization measure of its kind for a country of this size in Europe (Germany follows Malta and Luxembourg in legalizing cannabis on the continent).

The vote clocked in at 407-226, and arrived only after several years of ping-pong between a hardline “no” stance on legalizing cannabis and a willingness to draft actual regulatory language. In 2024, the willingness to open the door to cannabis reform won out.

While cannabis will be legal for those 18 and older (and legal to grow), lawmakers declined to take up a taxed-and-regulated marketplace for now. The legislation does allow for cannabis “clubs,” which will provide a space for up to 500 members to buy cannabis grown at home by other adults.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said the broader idea in Germany is to “fight the black market” and provide a measure of safety to cannabis use. “Whatever we do, we can’t carry on like this,” he told lawmakers, according to the Associated Press. “You can stick your head in the sand … but we won’t solve a single problem that way.”

Germany came into this year a leader in medical cannabis already, having legalized it in 2017. The country established a government-controlled system for cultivation, prescription, distribution, and imports, creating a significant market for medical cannabis products and associated equipment.

The Netherlands

Known historically for its liberal stance on cannabis, The Netherlands has tended to informally allow the sale of cannabis in coffee shops. In recent years, lawmakers have kicked the tires on plans to regulate the supply chain more formally.

The state launched a pilot program to legalize the sale of adult-use cannabis in December 2023, greenlighting coffee shops in the cities of Breda and Tilburg to sell cannabis grown by one of two licensed cultivators.

That marks the second European country to embark on a pilot program. The first country was…

Switzerland

Switzerland arranged a trial program for adult-use legalization in 2023. The country’s Federal Office for Public Health initially greenlit six pilot projects (three of which are already selling cannabis legally to Swiss citizens). More of those projects are expected as the program picks up momentum.

A federal commission stated in 2023: “Cannabis must be controlled, legally accessible, but not be promoted.” That’s a fine line to walk for small businesses interested in growing an audience and developing a brand.

“The cannabis business in Europe is very, very difficult,” Grow Motion’s Sia Baneei said in a recent Cultivation Elevated podcast episode. Grow Motion is a licensed cultivator in Switzerland’s high-CBD cannabis market. “We live in Switzerland, and the rent for our facility is very, very expensive. That’s why we wanted to get the maximum of our facility and why we made the decision to work on three layers [in a vertical farming room design].”

That’s another challenge that businesses will face in Europe, perhaps more so than in areas in the U.S.: Real estate is at a premium, and industrial space is simply more limited than it is in the rural stretches of, say, the Ohio cannabis market. A mobile vertical racking system can go a long way toward maximizing grow space while maintaining safe and easy access to plants, solving critical needs in cramped quarters.

Portugal

Having decriminalized all drugs in 2001, Portugal has taken steps toward a regulated medical cannabis market and is seen as a potential hub for cultivation due to its favorable climate. Companies of all sizes have set up shop in Portugal, using the state as a formidable base of operations for corporate headquarters and cultivation sites.

As of the end of 2023, the majority party in the federal government was developing a task force to closely look at cannabis legalization prospects. That party is not alone; support for broad legalization measures has increased across the government in recent years.

Somai Pharmaceuticals founder and CEO Michael Sassano told Business of Cannabis, “Discussions like Portugal’s decision to move forward with studying to legalizing adult-use cannabis and other discussions around legalizing medical cannabis are being taken up by most EU countries more progressively than ever before. Much has to do with the potential U.S. rescheduling to Schedule III and the German descheduling of a narcotic. Global winds are changing fast, and Portugal is still very much at the top of the list as a potential new country moving towards legalizing cannabis”.

The Czech Republic

The Czech Republic announced its intention to legalize cannabis, but that plan does not include any real tax-and-regulate system that would allow sales. The country decriminalized possession for personal use in 2010, meaning that this current plan would effectively reiterate the status quo and apparently add provisions for cannabis use in social clubs. After a show of political support for a regulated market from some political leaders, this “compromise” plan leaves licensed corporations and suppliers mostly on the sidelines. That said, we anticipate more information to come in 2024.

The lack of a formal market structure will be hotly debated this year.

“The existence of a commercial and strictly regulated market with licensed growers and stores is a basic prerequisite for the successful reform of anti-cannabis laws, as is evident all over the world – from Colorado to California to Canada or Switzerland and the Netherlands,” CzecHemp manager Lukáš Hurt said in a translated press release. “Thanks to regulation, it is possible to significantly reduce the revenues of the illegal market and at the same time obtain funds for effective drug prevention and education.”

France

France began a medical cannabis experiment in 2021, offering free products to thousands of patients. The trial program was expected to sunset in the spring of 2024, but for now, the Minister of Health is open to a plan that will gradually transition that arrangement to a more formal (yet still “temporary”) medical cannabis regulatory structure for the next five years.

This plan is in flux, so we anticipate learning more soon, but France has shown a willingness to broaden its access and industry sophistication with this news.

The UK

While not a member of the European Union, the UK has also made strides in step with its neighbors. Following its 2016 departure from the EU, the UK legalized an extremely tightly regulated medical cannabis program; the UK’s National Health Service has not developed this program much further than allowing limited prescriptions.

That said, the industry is livelier in the UK than it might seem; the country ranks among the largest exporters of medical cannabis products in the world.

Across Europe, the recent shifts towards decriminalization, and even recreational legalization in some jurisdictions, signal a broader change in societal attitudes towards cannabis.

This evolving regulatory landscape presents a fertile ground for innovation and investment but requires a nuanced understanding of each country’s legal framework.

Navigating Regulatory Complexities

The demand for medical cannabis in Europe is on the rise, driven by an increasing body of research supporting its therapeutic benefits and a growing awareness among the population. This uptick in demand signals a burgeoning market for cannabis-related products and business solutions.

However, the path to expansion is not without its hurdles. International treaties and the U.S.’s own complicated relationship with cannabis will complicate any expansion plans for growers or retailers with an eye toward Europe.

The continent’s diverse regulatory landscape means that what works in one country may not apply in another. For businesses looking to enter the European cannabis market, understanding and navigating these regulatory complexities is paramount.

Compliance with local laws and standards for the cultivation, storage, and distribution of cannabis products is critical, underscoring the need for adaptable and compliant solutions. To succeed in Europe, suppliers must tailor their offerings to meet the specific needs and regulations of each market.

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5 Best Practices for Your Cannabis Mother Room

March 5, 2024

5 Best Practices for Your Cannabis Mother Room

Be Good to Your Mother(s)

Your indoor cannabis cultivation facility is operating within a highly competitive market. While the point of harvest may seem like the most important link in your production process, you may want to revisit the management of your cannabis mother room. That’s where your business houses its real long-term value.

The mother room is where your team nurtures the mother plants, which, of course, shape the future of every plant you’ll grow. These mother plants are carefully selected cannabis plants kept in a vegetative state and not allowed to flower. The primary purpose of maintaining these mother plants is to provide a consistent and reliable source of clones or cuttings. These clones are genetically identical to the mother plant, ensuring uniformity in the traits and quality of the plants grown from them, such as potency, flavor profiles, and growth characteristics.

An efficiently managed mother room ensures a steady flow of high-quality clones to fill the other rooms in your facility.

Your yield and profits begin here.

A successful mother room strategy blends the precision of genetics with the art of cultivation, ultimately developing a shield for your business against the unpredictability of nature. In a market that values both diversity and the reliability of old favorites on the shelf, the ability to sustain and replicate specific cannabis strains with accuracy is invaluable.

So, what goes into a successful cannabis mother room?

A robust mother room operation employs advanced environmental controls, precise nutrient management, and rigorous hygiene protocols to ward off pests and pathogens, ensuring that each clone represents the best possible start for the next generation of plants. We’ll explain five helpful best practices to bear in mind below.

These tips will streamline your team’s cultivation process and cut back on the risk of crop failure. This level of control and efficiency translates into faster turnaround times, higher yield potential, and improved product consistency, ultimately contributing to a stronger market position.

The success of a commercial indoor cannabis cultivation business is intricately linked to the performance of its mother room.

[#1] Double-Stacked Cannabis Mother Room Racks

Let’s get into the actual layout of your cannabis mother room. How are these plants supported? Where are they located within the room?

More often lately, our team has seen cultivators double-stacking mother plants and maintaining them for shorter lifespans (as opposed to running a single-level layout with plants that might be sustained for longer time periods). Some cultivation businesses might prefer to hold onto mother plants for upward of a year or more, but the shorter lifespan encourages more supple cuttings and a more agile cultivation team in general. This also limits the risk of pest and pathogen spread.

In a 2023 webinar, Pipp’s Director of Horticulture, Anders Peterson said that double-stacking has proven benefits.

“Generally, I’ll keep my younger mothers on the top level, which is typically a shorter elevation, as far as its height,” he said. “The bottom elevation, which will be taller in height, … can hold my more mature mothers.”

Maintaining younger mother plants in your cycle balances the diversity of the room and allows for higher quality: We’ve noticed grow teams getting a significant increase in “A-grade” cuttings versus the older mother plants. Double-stacked mother rooms help house additional genetics in a smaller space, allowing you to allocate square footage for flower production.

There’s a balance, of course, in serving the market with tried-and-true genetics that will sell easily and providing dispensaries with more cutting-edge cultivars that might be a bit more experimental or nuanced in their demand curves. A diverse, double-stacked mother room lends some of that flexibility to your business.

PRO TIP: Good ventilation is essential to prevent microclimates within the tiers. Use oscillating fans and ensure your room's HVAC system is capable of circulating air effectively throughout the stacked racks. Proper airflow helps to maintain consistent temperature and humidity levels across all levels, minimizing the risk of mold and pests.

[#2] Optimal Environmental Conditions

Your facility runs on the efficiency of its environmental control system, but you must add a layer of redundancy by personally checking on the actual variables (temperature and humidity, foremost) on a regular basis. Automated systems are fine and increasingly prevalent, but your team should not solely rely on them. The value of the plants in your cannabis mother room is simply too great. Reliable handheld sensors (for variables such as temperature and relative humidity, among others) can be used to double-check and verify the automation and control platform data.

This may go without saying, but it’s worth underscoring the importance of daily touchpoints with your mother plants. In between cuttings, the maintenance of your plants is absolutely critical.

Keep your mother plants in veg by maintaining an 18-hours-on/6-hours-off lighting schedule. Inspect and clean all light fixtures to ensure optimal output–and do whatever you can to prevent light leaking in from the hallway. In fact, implement a rotation schedule for light bulbs to maintain consistent light intensity and spectrum.

That point about equipment maintenance is especially important in your mother room. Here’s a quick checklist of items you’ll want your team to manage on a clear, regular basis:

Check the efficiency of your ventilation system on a regular basis. Effective air circulation is the backbone of maintaining stable temperature and humidity levels in your mother room, (i.e., maintaining stable genetic lines!) and warding off mold and pests. Change your HVAC filters on a regular basis.
Check the sensors in your mother room to ensure accurate temperature and humidity monitoring. This goes back to that idea of redundancy and the human touch; you can’t rely solely on your automated data feeds. To maintain the accuracy of these systems, regular calibration should be part of your maintenance schedule as well. This ensures that your plants are always growing in the ideal conditions they need for optimal health.
Check on your airflow system in this room. If your ventilation system is in good shape, your fans will achieve even air distribution for your mother plants, keeping their veg cycles in a state of stasis. If you’re looking to give your plants an extra boost, consider implementing a CO2 enrichment system. This step requires the ability to closely monitor and control CO2 levels to avoid any potential harm to your plants.
Establish a consistent watering schedule that’s responsive to the visual cues your mother plants give you. Paying close attention to their appearance and growth stage will guide you in adjusting their water and nutrient intake.
To that end, daily inspections of your mother plants are critical. Be on the lookout for any signs of stress, pests, or disease. Regular pruning not only helps in controlling plant size and shape but also encourages healthy growth.
Lastly, do not overlook nutrient management in your mother room. Each strain and individual plant may have its own specific nutritional needs, and that’s paramount to the proper maintenance of the genetic line. By implementing a tailored feeding regimen and regularly testing the soil or hydroponic solution for nutrient content and pH levels, you can adjust your feeding strategy as necessary. Early detection of nutrient deficiencies or excesses, along with prompt treatment, is fundamental in maintaining the health and productivity of your mother plants.

[#3] Strict Sanitation and Hygiene Protocols

Perhaps more than any other room in your facility, the sanitation of your cannabis mother room is of critical importance. This is your genetic bank vault, after all.

Set up a daily surface cleaning routine for this room, and keep your team members up-to-date on SOPs. This includes entry protocols (and possibly uniforms and footbaths).

On that topic: While we all enjoy giving tours to curious news media and to interested stakeholders, you should never tour visitors through a mother room. Allow only a limited number of staff into your mother room. Protect it at all costs!

Use only one pair of pruning shears per mother plant, and don’t cross-contaminate them. The risk of hop latent viroid (HpLVd) is ever-present in facilities, and a pathogen like that could decimate your mothers (and thus your bottom line). Regularly sterilize all pots, trays, and other equipment used in this room. Any equipment relating to the mother room should not be used anywhere else in your facility.

To ensure a sense of uniformity across your plants and across time, develop a pruning schedule to manage plant size and shape. Training team members in proper pruning techniques is crucial to ensure they promote healthy growth without stressing the plants.

That pruning plan leads us to…

[#4] Cloning Procedures and Record Keeping

Cloning: where the true magic happens in your facility.

Follow a consistent cloning schedule, and make sure you’re building this schedule on sound reasoning (take your six-inch cuttings and rootings at the right time to maintain plant health). Document all records associated with each plant and its clones. Those records will inform later improvements in your mother room.

Observe the quality of those clones over time. How are they performing as they move through growth cycles? Those plants’ health will help you understand your mother plants’ health. Investigate and address right away any declines in cloning efficiency or quality.

PRO TIP: Implement regular data backup procedures to prevent loss of valuable genetic and cultivation records. Ensure that your digital tracking system has robust security measures in place to protect sensitive information and comply with regulatory requirements.

[#5] Regular Training and Education

Lastly, like most other activities in the cultivation space, work in the mother room is an ongoing education. Encourage your team to stay informed on the latest cultivation and genetic trends in cannabis.

Even in cultivation team meetings that don’t specifically address the mother room on the agenda, try to connect what’s happening in the mother room to broader developments in the business. Make sure that all employees are aware of what genetics you’re maintaining.

Coordination with the flowering team and sales staff is crucial for managing a cannabis mother room; you don’t want to be cutting clones of a cultivar that is not selling, or for a cultivar that is piling up in your finished product storage room.

Mother rooms dictate the flow of product to the rest of your facility and ultimately to your sales channels.

The mother room team can greatly influence the culture of your business; and promote a culture of shared knowledge across the facility. Make sure that your mother room team is keeping other cultivation teams informed on any changes at the individual mother plant level.

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The Path of the Cannabis Plant: How to Optimize Your Grow Room Layout

How to Set Up Grow Rooms for Plant Movement

1. Mother Room

Ensuring Sanitation and Hygiene

2. Clone Room

3. Veg Room

4. Flower Room​

Planning for Future Growth

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Lesson Learned from a Decade in CEA: Part 1

Bridging the Gap between Cannabis and the Broader CEA Market

Lessons from the Cannabis Industry for Other Indoor Farmers

Purpose Built is Easier than Retrofitting

Build a Realistic Business Plan

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FAQs – Optimization vs Maximization Webinar

#1: When going the optimized route, is it better to go with clones, seeds, or tissue culture?

#2: To be optimized do we really need rolling tables or can they be stationary?

#3: What do you recommend the space between rows to be while in the resting position? When working with a clean slate what is optimal?

#4: When building a new facility, what is the ideal room height?

#5: How can we best balance irrigation strategy with environmental management?

#6: What are the biggest challenges with labor and operating on a multi-tiered system?

#7: Is your company investing in the German Cannabis Market?

#8: How closely are you working with energy suppliers, utilities and managers when it comes to optimization- have you done a cost-benefit analysis?

#9: In a retrofit room would you address attaining proper tier row spacing or mechanical limitations?

Miss the webinar?

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Site Selection for a New Cannabis Grow Facility

Initial Site Considerations

#1: Utilities

#2: Structural Support

#3: Climate Impact

Specific Site Selection Factors

#1: Floor Condition

#2: Column Spacing

#3: Ceiling Height

Fire Code Compliance

#1: Local Regulations

#2: National Standards

Conclusion

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Why Vertical Farming Is Important in Urban Real Estate Markets

The Benefits of Vertical Farming in Cities

#1: Maximizing Space Utilization

#2: Reducing Environmental Impact and Water Use

#3: Shielding Your Crops from Tricky Environmental Conditions

The Challenges

#1: Zoning

#2: Community Engagement

#3: Conversion Costs

Conclusion

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Beyond Dancing Leaves: Quantifying Cultivation Airflow

Setting the Stage

Use the Right Metric: Airflow, Not Flow Rate

How to Measure Airflow in Indoor Farms

Infrared (IR) Thermometers

Cup/Vane Anemometers

Hot-Wire Anemometers

Airflow Sensors

Key Takeaway

Air Velocity vs Air Volume

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[CHECKLIST] 10 Safety Tips in the Grow Room

Grow Room Safety Is Key

1. Check Your PPE on a Regular Basis

2. Understand Stability with Mobile Racking

3. Understand Weight Distribution and Load Capacity

4. Flower Room