Building a cannabis grow room takes a tremendous amount of planning, resources, and design expertise. You understand how to grow cannabis the right way, but you need a team on your side to coordinate all of your design goals.
So, how do you guarantee you can maximize your yield and provide a consistent product for your customers? In this blog, we’re looking at all of the things you need to consider while building a commercial cannabis grow room.
At MJM install, we believe in providing a full-service approach to your commercial cannabis grow operation. No more juggling multiple contractors and mixing up deadlines. We handle everything. From insulated metal wall panels to epoxy floors and grow room construction itself, we’re your one-stop-shop for success in the cannabis industry.
Find Your Grow Room Space
The first step to creating a commercial cannabis grow room is finding a space that fits all of your preferences. To pick out your space, you should know what types of plants you’re growing, what growing equipment you plan to use, your lighting solutions, and how you plan to supply the electrical needs to the grow room. The more you plan during this initial phase, the better you can preserve your bottom line.
Craft growers are facilities licensed by the Department of Agriculture to cultivate, dry, cure, and package hemp or marijuana. Craft growers have different approaches to their commercial cannabis grow room. However, there are certain guidelines to craft cannabis grow rooms. For example, these rooms must contain at least 5,000 sq. feet of canopy space for the flowering stage of the cannabis plants. Depending on the market need, the craft house design, and the history of the licensee’s compliance or noncompliance issues, the Department of Agriculture can also require additional space in increments of 3,000 sq. feet for the canopy space.
The maximum space for a commercial cannabis grow room is 14,000 sq. feet during the flowering phase. The USDA has also set forth guidelines for the plants throughout the other growth phases.
How Many Rooms Will Your Operation Have?
The number of rooms in commercial cannabis grow rooms varies depending on your crops and cultivation methods. While planning your space you should consider whether you will be using hydroponics or a standard soil medium for your cultivation process. For indoor cultivation, there are at least eight rooms with at least 30 ft wide and 100 ft long. Dividing your indoor grow facility into rooms makes each self-contained with temperature controls in place. These dimensions also simplify your pest control protocol.
Multiple rooms also open up possibilities for planting and harvesting times. Because these rooms are sequestered from others, pest infestations or mold outbreaks are more easily contained. So, if a pest problem occurs in one room, you can isolate it and prevent it from spreading into the rest of the facility.
Room division also allows you to test your Co2 injection efficiency and experiment with different lighting and nutrient regimens. This allows you to maximize the potential for your commercial grow room facility.
Engineering the Warehouse Grow Room Design
You should use an experienced construction crew to design your marijuana grow facility. These professionals, such as those from MJM Install, will have experience with environmental controls, plumbing, electrical requirements, backup power systems, and HVAC redundancies. To avoid having to deal with multiple contractors and having to worry about complex project management, you should consider hiring a full-service marijuana grow room facility construction consultant.
Use the Right Building Materials
For your cannabis grow room’s construction, you should consider using lightweight, non-combustible materials, such as steel. Insulated metal wall panels are modular so you can easily add and remove walls if you uncover a more profitable design to the structure later on.
HVAC for Your Commercial Cannabis Grow Room
HVAC systems for your cannabis are critical. You need to consider electrical requirements, Co2 and air purification requirements. Your HVAC team should be able to design the ideal environment settings for the various growth stages of your cannabis grow operation.
The HVAC system for your cannabis grow operation should consider the following elements:
- Emergency Co2 evacuation
- Carbon filtration in the exhaust path to account for odor control.
- Hydrogen peroxide filtration system in the return air pathways reducing airborne pathogens.
- Latent load cooling and calculation to maintain the grow facility’s environmental balance.
Things to Consider for Your Grow Rooms
Light Proofing
Light proofing is a critical component of your cannabis grow room. Light leakage can affect plant performance. Once they are on a 12 hr split between day and night to induce flowering, light leakage can confuse plants and lead to a lower yield, hermaphroditism, or failed crops. Growers must keep an eye on both male and female plants due to the potential to ruin a crop by sending the plants into seed production. Light proofing reduces this risk.
Air Tightness
Well-sealed grow rooms make climate control for the operation easier to maintain. When your rooms are airtight, temperature control and dehumidifying/humidifying air are easy to control. This type of environment promotes optimal plant performance. An airtight seal in your grow rooms also acts as a natural quarantine cell for your plants that prevents bugs and airborne pathogens from entering. You can also set up an air exchange system that presents an advanced solution for sealing your cannabis grow room.
Air Movement
If you want your plants to flourish, you need air movement. Your grow rooms require at least one oscillating fan to guarantee the continuous flow of air.
The benefits of airflow for cannabis plants are that it ruffles the plant’s leaves and gives the leaf stomata fresh air. Stale air also builds up on the underside of the stomata and hinders efficient gas exchange, inhibiting plant growth. In this case, stems weaken, leaves droop, and plant performance suffers.
Adequate airflow strengthens stems and stalks while increasing end-yields. Moving air als improves the wet-dry cycle by facilitating evaporation and prevents pathogens caused by moisture buildup.
Air Exchange
In commercial grow rooms, an air exchange is a more advanced solution to air movement problems. These systems provide an inlet for fresh air and an exhaust for stagnant air. If you want to maximize airflow to the fullest potential, you should consider incorporating a carbon filter into the exhaust system.
Climate Control
Climate control is one of the most important aspects of maximizing your cannabis grow room operation. Cannabis thrives under particular climates and you must monitor humidity and temperature very closely. There are certain parameters ideal for vegetation and other parameters ideal for blooming conditions.
Available Water Sources
When it comes to commercial cannabis production, one of the first things you should ask yourself is how you plan on watering your plants. Cultivators might believe they have the water rights on their property. They might also think they can simply use a nearby spring.However, this might not be the case and cultivators need to do their homework to ensure they have a reliable water supply.
You can consider four types of water sources for your commercial cannabis cultivation project.
Municipal Water
Municipal water is otherwise known as tap water and it is treated water supplied to residential commercial areas via underground pipes. Since the government provides this type of water, it meets all EPA water requirements.
If you want to use municipal water, you must provide documentation from the municipal water source demonstrating you possess the adequate supplies necessary for its proposed use.
Recycled Water
You can obtain recycled water with relative ease from a municipal recycled water supply and this type of water is typically only reserved for non-potable uses only. You can also obtain recycled water from captured rainwater from buildings or other surfaces for irrigation. If you’re interested in recycled water, call your local municipal water supply company to find out more information regarding cost and supply.
You can augment your existing water supply with rainwater capture and if your commercial cannabis grow room is in, recycled water can serve as an effective alternative.
Surface Water
Water from rivers, lakes, and any other outside water source is considered surface water. You can obtain surface water from a natural spring or any other surface water flow. A common practice for commercial cannabis grow room water is to divert surface water to artificial ponds for storage, though proper permits are required.
There is also a forbearance period on surface water diversion. You will only be permitted to divert water during specific seasons and to supply this water during cultivation season, you will likely need to design an onsite reservoir to store sufficient water for growing months.
Contact MJM Install for All of Your Commercial Cannabis Grow Room Needs
Planning, designing, and constructing your commercial cannabis grow room takes an enormous amount of resources and time if you wish to do it correctly. MJM Install is your one-stop-shop to ensure your commercial cannabis grow room meets all of your preferences.
Our project managers will walk you through the entire construction process and ensure that you’re proud of the final product.
