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New Greenhouse and operational advice with employees

Smith111

Member
Are there a few professionals that can help me out? I am working on a grow design, and I am looking into new greenhouse systems. I am up for ideas, but it seems the industry standard is quickly becoming 10k sq ft greenhouses, then stacked together. The size operation I am talking about will eventually be about 20 acres, but will be starting with smaller greenhouses, eventually working up to a full 20 acre greenhouse grow.

Greenhouse companies to use:

FF (has yet to call me back)
Conley
agratech
Farmtek aka growspan series 1000 (price before concrete and a few other extras comes in at about 250k)

What company is best? What company may have limitations on what size operation they can take on?

Is this the model most others are seeing successful? 10k sq ft greenhouses run by 1 farmer and a small crew? Any other details or helpful information would be greatly appreciated.



Pictured is the A1000 by Farmtek These start out at 30x90 and you can stack them side by side making them as big as needed.
picture.php
 

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
What commercial crop is closest to cannabis, which is still grown in greenhouses? You may find more information in those camps for now. It looks like we're kind of shy of those growers here on icmag just yet.


Bump!
 

gotnoname

Active member
Not familiar with those manufacturer..
You want poly or glass ?
Light dep or not light dep ?
Year long or seasonal ?
What type of heating system (propane,wood chip, gas electricity). ???
Light or no light ?
What climate control ??
Your climate/region will dictate a lot...
 

Smith111

Member
What commercial crop is closest to cannabis, which is still grown in greenhouses? You may find more information in those camps for now. It looks like we're kind of shy of those growers here on icmag just yet.


Bump!

I have lots of data, however I was hoping ICmag could be another source of valid information. I think you may be right, icmag growers are being shy about commercial ops. Thanks for the comment, :tiphat:.
 

Smith111

Member
Not familiar with those manufacturer..
You want poly or glass ?
Light dep or not light dep ?
Year long or seasonal ?
What type of heating system (propane,wood chip, gas electricity). ???
Light or no light ?
What climate control ??
Your climate/region will dictate a lot...

It's light dep, year long, has heating, lighting and climate control. All the bells and whistles.
 

Smith111

Member
You should visit other commercial greenhouse growers (not cannabis) in your area to get a better picture..

It's apples to oranges IMO. I have visited lots of greenhouses, own a few, and what I am proposing will have far more automation, climate controls, light controls, co2 controls than any other system I have seen. My buddy controls the timeline of rose sales for a very large greenhouse company in Half moon bay, and he is very jealous of my proposed greenhouse.
 

jidoka

Active member
So...this may be more than you want to say online...but is there money for the entire project or 1gh gotta pay for the next, etc

You gonna veg separately or in the flowering GHs? Organic with boosts for ec control or small coco/rockwool?

Once you make those decisions then it is canopy control and labor. I have trouble seeing more than 1-2 people/10,000 sq ft. I would be looking at a mgr/lead whatever you call them per 5-9 10K GHs

Do yourself a favor and look for people with mfg backgrounds for those jobs. Give them sops for the grow part. Do not hire anyone that claims to be a “grower”

Keep trimming and concentrates separate. Grow that as needed

Ideally you would start with enough ghs to harvest weekly to smooth out trim/concentrates
 

OldCoolSativa

Well-known member
At the scale you're talking about, you should look at the large commercial cultivation greenhouse operations in Ruthven, Ontario and especially in the Netherlands. The Dutch, in particular are doing extraordinarily innovative things in climate control, using seasonal thermal energy storage in aquifers.
 
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