BioTherm explained five key differences between growing in a greenhouse and growing in a warehouse to consider before investing in your location.
- Light quality is better in a greenhouse. Natural light is best for plants. It delivers more power than the wattage possible in even the most technologically advanced warehouses. In fact, photosynthesis more than doubles on average in greenhouses. That said, it is fully dependent on the weather. You’ll never have a shady day in a warehouse. However, even if the winter growth rate is not to your expectations, you have the option of supplementing with strategic lights while still taking advantage of the power of the sun.
- Energy efficiency is drastically higher in greenhouses. Even the most efficient warehouse grower spends hundreds, if not thousands of dollars every month on electricity. By using natural light, greenhouses are exponentially more energy efficient—and as such are much more eco-friendly.
- It costs less to grow quality cannabis in a greenhouse. In California, it costs an average of $350 to grow a pound of medical marijuana in a greenhouse. It would cost an average of $850 to grow that same amount of the same strain in a warehouse. A lot of this difference is due to pure energy costs, but greenhouses also offer advantages in terms of temperature and humidity control. In fact, advances in heating and cooling, like our root zone heating systems, as well as specialized humidity venting controls brings costs even lower for growers over time.
- Greenhouses better leverage agricultural advances for future growth. If you look at just about any agricultural product grown for consumption in the U.S., it is grown either outside or in a greenhouse, not in a warehouse. That’s because the most modern technological advances in the field of horticulture take advantage of the natural light of these methods—and cannot be effectively scaled for warehouse growth. Many cannabis growers took to warehouses due to restrictions related to odor pollution and security imposed by the government, not because the plants flourished there. Now several years of successful harvests has led many to believe that warehouses will continue to yield more harvestable pounds per crop in the years to come, but this is far from the reality. Marijuana plants in California greenhouses are already growing practically to the size of trees—something that will put this location on top for growers looking to the future.
For more information:
BioTherm Inc.
476 Primero Court
Cotati, CA 94931
Phone: 707-794-9660
Fax: 707-794-9663
