Commercial Greenhouse

There is a current trend that has caused more and more commercial greenhouse growers to switch their oil and propane powered boilers to biomass systems. The factors that are leading to such changes are simple: in areas where natural gas is not accessible, the options of oil, propane or electricity to heat a commercial greenhouse are becoming far too expensive, in some cases there is a biomass supply close to the greenhouse location, and there has been growing government incentive toward sustainability.

We find that find that there are two main factors which influence the type of greenhouse system that a group may consider for cannabis production.

As autumn approaches supplemental lighting for greenhouse growers becomes more and more important to the health and yield of your crops. Now is the perfect time to look at a few options for lighting. Whether you decide to go all out with a new LED system, stick with tried and true HPS lights or make some efficiency upgrades to your current crop lighting, take a look at the benefits of your greenhouse lighting options.

If you could go back and re-design your existing greenhouse, how many changes would you make? How many of those changes would be minor ones and how many would involve major structural, heating or other mechanical changes? Avoiding this in your future expansion is easy; have a checklist of things you should have in your greenhouse now and incorporate them into the next build.

There are many reasons to make improvements in a commercial greenhouse, modernizing your greenhouse can reduce maintenance costs, or make productivity improvements, or improve the greenhouse environment for better growing, or maybe you want to add some extra growing space.  Whatever the reason it is important to understand what the goal is before you talk to your greenhouse manufacturer.

As summer begins to heat up and the possibility that temperatures can rise to an unbearable 111°F or more as we've seen recently in Arizona, we're lucky to have air conditioning in our offices. But using air conditioning in a large space like a commercial greenhouse is simply not practical. While we can step away from the greenhouse into air conditioned lunch rooms, cars or homes, your crop doesn’t have that luxury. Keeping your greenhouse cool is vital to your crop and therefore your bottom line. So if you’re planning a new build or trying to figure out how to get your greenhouse cooler, the question arises – do I go natural ventilation (roof and side vents, rollup sides) or fan/shutter system?

When it comes to adding energy curtains (sometimes referred to as thermal blankets) to a greenhouse everyone focuses on energy savings. And certainly energy savings should be a major factor in any greenhouse grower’s decision to purchase energy curtains. In northern climates, winter growing adds expensive heating costs to the most diligent greenhouse operation. A well designed and properly installed energy curtain can reduce winter heating bills by up to 50% and in some cases more.

Structure maintenance and planning involves more than just new construction projects and a focus on expansion.  Often the best dollar value for a grower is in retrofitting and modernizing existing greenhouse structures.

Here is a list of potential solutions to common problems that greenhouse growers can resolve by improving existing structures: