Indoor cultivation facilities are gaining popularity across the nation for their ability to strictly control growing conditions throughout the lifecycle of any crop. For cannabis in particular, indoor cultivation facilities provide a wealth of benefits. The trouble is, developing an indoor cultivation facility is a big undertaking, and one that many in the industry are new to.
As modular wall system manufacturers and cleanroom and controlled environment experts, the Starrco team regularly works with those in the cannabis industry to develop pre-engineered solutions for indoor cultivation. While Starrco does not construct exterior buildings, our expertise with grow and cleanroom technologies and our superior modular wall systems provide the perfect solution to build out the interior of your existing facility. But, whether you’re building from scratch or converting an existing building, you need top technology and expert design to ensure your indoor cultivation facility includes the interior components necessary for a successful harvest.
To help you get started on your next construction project, here are answers to 7 of the questions we hear most often about indoor cultivation facility design.
In general, the size of your indoor cultivation facility will rely on two things:
Most indoor cultivation facilities segment grow space into individual flower rooms, which make pest treatment and quarantine easier in the event of an outbreak. While the size of flower rooms will vary depending on cultivation practices (as mentioned above), a typical measurement is somewhere close to 30 feet across, and 50-100 feet long.
In general, commercial indoor cannabis cultivation facilities have at least 8 or more flower rooms. To establish those numbers, consider how many plants you want to grow, of what strains, and the lifecycle of each. This will help you better stagger ideal harvest times, and can help you plan how many cultivation rooms you need to ensure steady production.
With all of that in mind, and those numbers in hand, you should be able to begin some initial calculations that will help you determine roughly how much space you might need.
Once you’ve established how much space you need, and how many flower rooms you’re planning, it’s much easier to nail down the design for your indoor cultivation facility. At this point, it’s a good idea to partner with an expert to get indoor cultivation facility design underway.
Look for a partner who has experience in the indoor cultivation industry, and who can offer design and implementation tips that support your end goals. While there are a lot of contractors out there who are willing to help you build a facility, it’s important to remember the special requirements of your grow room. Choosing a partner with experience in controlled environments can go a long way to ensure that every element of your indoor cultivation facility is developed according to your strict requirements.
When you want your indoor cultivation build-out built right, and built quickly, modular construction is the way to go. Modular wall system manufacturers like Starrco build for cleanroom applications regularly, so environmental controls are not a difficulty, and you’ll love the cleanliness and speed that modular can deliver. Because modular wall panels and components are prefabricated off-site, they can be manufactured exactly to your specifications, and then shipped to your facility ready for installation.
Installation of a modular building typically takes 70% less time than traditional construction and can be completed by a small crew, rather than a full construction crew and multiple trades. Modular cannabis grow rooms can offer some additional features, so we recommend you check out 6 Benefits of Modular Cannabis Grow Rooms for more information.
For most growers, the best design for an indoor cultivation facility is to segment your building’s footprint into multiple, isolated rooms.
This allows for strict environmental control between grow rooms, helping you avoid pests and diseases. Isolated rooms also make it easier to keep strict control over your growing environment, which is also perfect if you’re testing different growing conditions. Because manufacturers like Starrco have extensive experience with cleanrooms, negative pressure rooms, positive pressure rooms, and controlled environments, they’re specially equipped to help you design an indoor cultivation facility that delivers exceptional performance.
For any grower, your mechanical system is one of the most important considerations to make. Your indoor cultivation facility relies on a carefully planned mechanical system to ensure that your crop receives the strictly-controlled environment it needs for a successful harvest.
To determine how much airflow your grow room needs, first consider where you’ll need air. How many rooms exactly do you need to deliver air to? And even more importantly, can that air recirculate, or does it need to be filtered before it may enter another room?
Here are a few key considerations to make to determine how much airflow your grow room needs:
The key to successful indoor cultivation air is keeping it moving. You don’t want air to sit in your facility in any space. While a mechanical system may be one of the more difficult parts of your facility’s design, it’s worth getting right before you start building.
Environment control is essential to functional indoor cultivation facility design. Many experts even recommend investing in cleanroom technology from the start, just based on the fact that state regulations for growers will likely become more strict over time.
And even though cleanroom technology isn’t currently required for your indoor cultivation facility, making that investment now means you’ll have the most functional, most effective facility design once you get up and running. There’s nothing more controlled and precise than a modular cleanroom. Implementing that technology in your indoor cultivation facility can only provide additional benefits to the quality and safety of your harvest.
There are a lot of questions when it comes to indoor cultivation facility design. These are just a few of our most frequently asked, so if you have additional questions, you’re not alone. If you have another question and would like an expert’s opinion on the construction or design of your indoor cultivation facility, the Starrco team is here to help. Get in touch with us online for more information, or to request a free quote!
