Hello everyone I appreciate you taking the time to read this post, I'll try to keep it brief so your attention doesn't wander... I am an architect, in Ontario, Canada. I've been hired by a client looking to become a licensed producer under new regulations coming next March. My experience in marijuana is a 0 on a scale of 1 to 10. I have been reading a lot to get familiar with this stuff, but am having a hard time so I thought I would turn here for some help. My client is fairly new to this as well. I believe he has done some outdoor growing, but nothing of this scale. Please keep in mind that this endevour is 100% legal, so as far as the design goes, certain things are unneccesary (like hiding heat signatures, etc.) The build is to be a residential looking garage, approximately 22'x32' with an 8'x32' greenhouse attached on the southern side. The garage will also have an upstairs, which will be used as an office and mechanical rooms. There will be an entrance with a vestibule seperating the growing area from the outside. The stairwell to the second floor will also come off this vestibule. This will be to reduce risk of contimation from mold spores and pollen (apparantely this is a big issue?). The client would like to use the Closed Growing Environment (CGE) method. From what I presume this elimantes the noxious odours from escaping the facility? What else do I need to know about this? I believe we will require a 3 ton A/C unit. If you were starting a commercial grow op of this size, how many plants would you expect to be able to grow here, if you were having a continous grow cycle allowing for harvesting every 4 months? Or is that unrealistic and a 6 month cycle would be better? I would also think I need a seperate room for the mother plant and clones, correct? This is due to the difference in heat, humidity and light requirements? Would I need seperate rooms for each stage of growing, or are the growing conditions the same? If I know the number of plants I would better be able to plan security features (to meet Health Canada requirements). I am sure I will have many more questions for you all. Thanks!
as an architect what were you hired to do exactly so maybe someone can help you out? because your talking about mother plants and grow cycles... isnt that what his job is? the room is already built so what does he need you to do?
Your best bet is to hire an actual grower. If neither of you can answer basic questions youre going to need one.
From what ive read, im trying to understand why your client hired you. Its common sense to hire someone with prior experience and knowledge. There is alot to learn and most by experienced, some is purely trial and error. Few questions.What are your plans for ventilation? Lughts?Waterproofing? Growing style?Outdoor temps?Genetics?Insulation? All of those and many more will affect the size and design of said grow room.Get more info, have a plan and ask again. Right now even if I laid it out straight for you, im sure you wouldnt understand the reasoning behind it. Therefore how can you design and troubleshoot something you dont understand
I've been hired to design the facility - I need to know how many plants could fit in the space so that I can design the security features (wall type etc.) to comply with the regulations. Unfortunately, my client doesn't know enough to tell me, this is kind of a new thing for a lot of people here. My client hired me for my expertise in building construction. My main background is restaurants and commercial offices, homes etc. Unfortunately for my client and others in his shoes, there is no one who has both the building science experience and the marijuana growing experience. If he had the latter, he could tell me exactly what he wants, but he doesn't. Picture him as a client who is buying a restaurant but has never been in a kitchen. Get my drift? So that's why I came here. If there was a textbook or even good examples somewhere I could read it, but unfortunately the library is a little thin on growing marijuana since it has only just become legal here. To answer your questions: Ventilation will be provided. Sizing will be done after the heat gain calcs are done by the engineer - but we need to know the number/style of lights first. Lights - I have no idea at this point. What should we be looking at for this, or where can I get the research? Waterproofing will be handled - all concrete construction, except the ceiling joists which will be drywalled with 5/8 type x then covered in black poly. (the stuff that is black on side, white the other). Growing Style, I assume you mean the method? I am 99% sure he is doing a closed growing environment, with separate areas for vegging, flowering etc. Outdoor temps - varies greatly (canada and all...), but the insulation will be sufficient to easily control the room temps. There will be radiant floor heating as well. I appreciate the responses, like I said before, I am really new to this stuff and trying to do as much research as I can, but am having a hard time finding the good resources.
Lots of questions to be asked here,...but I'll throw in my cantonments(is that the word?) is this a DWC or soil grow? if soil I prefer to grow 9 plants to the sq. meter or yard for 3 months to 3 feet high, regardless of the actual plant population involved, if at the end of 90 days and the plants are not ready for harvest, then they are relocated, or trashed regardless of strain, see the grow space as a production facility, although I have used tomato grow houses in the past, and they are ideal, I do use aircraft hangers for convenience and productivity.....although this stuff is getting legal in many places, actual security is a real problem, and like in the days of cops and growers it's the same game with growers and Rippers, once you have been ripped ...you will have to re-locate...that hurts in cost and production
here's an offer. You hire me, I'll come up to canada, I promise you won't pay me anywhere close to what your getting paid. I will walk you through it, be there through the whole thing. I'll even walk the guy through his first run and getting set up into a perpetual situation. I know it's a long shot but what do you say.
the type of light, size of light, plant count, room type, number of rooms, environment, grow cycle, how the space is used, and yield is all up to the growers preference. there are thousands of ways to set up a grow and no one way is the "best". ill help you try to get some real answers here. -first thing is how much will your client need to be yielding and how often does he need to get this yield? - how many plants does the law limit him to or allow in one room? -by law how many can be in flower if you dont know find out! from here we will move on to the next step
^^^^^this^^^^^ a trillion times over how in the hell is your site owner gonna grow this shit? he/she should already have this info for you..if not..they're the wrong folks for the job. and obviously have no business plan.
I actually had a good chat with the client yesterday and brought up talking about him hiring a professional grower or consultant. He is confident that he can go it himself, so that is out of my hands at this point. I did ask him some more important questions about his plans etc. He actually wants a continuous harvest every 2 months. Needs a seperate drying room, vegging room and flowering room. There is no limit to the number of plants or the amount that he can harvest under the MMPR regulations - so basically the best quality/high yield. The drying room will be tucked upstairs as this is lowest humidity level - much the same as a typical office, 40-50% and the temperature is consistent with comfortable room temps. They will be in separate rooms though. The space downstairs is 22'x32' (704sqft), but once you remove the area for a stairwell there is 662sqft left over. The mother plants are going to be in the same room as the vegging area as the light is the same (18/6). The clones are going to be on a rack to save some space. There will be a maximum of 4 strains at a time, thus 4 mother plants. This area will be approx 25 sqft. The vegging room will be divided into 3x3 quadrants, each under a 600W HPS. There will be 20 quadrants with a pathway around them. This area will be about 227sqft. The flowering room will be slightly larger. Each quadrant will be 3'x3' still, but the number of plants will be reduced from 9 plants per quadrant to 5. There will be 36 quadrants here. This area will be about 410sqft. This should leave ample room for a countertop in each room, storage shelving and walkways. Does this sound a little better?
There ya go, now its makin some more sense. Does your client plan on going soil, soil-less, or hydro?
Yes there will be, but it won't be automatic. There will be 2 tanks stored premixed with the proper nutrients. One will be pumped to the vegging room and the other to the flowering room. Here is a starting layout. This would allow for 135 plants in each room, or about 45 plants harvesting each month. The flowering room would have plants in three stages of growth, so one third would be harvested each month. I suggested this to him over a 2 month harvest as it makes more sense to me and will reduce the workload come harvest time (thus maximizing space by being able to reduce the size of the drying room upstairs). Also because of the 9' ceilings (could possible go to 10'), the veg time can be longer, right? The veg time should be determined by the height of the room, so as a safe measure, hybrids double in height during flowering, so a 9' flowering room (minus a 1' for lights), means the plants can grow to 4' max during veg. It would look something like this: View attachment 123522 And the plant layout would look something like this: View attachment 123523
so if i had to set this up i would have 3 rooms, grow room #1 grow room #2 and a mother/clone room. the mother room can be small; a square area for 4 mother plants covered by a 250w mh, and a 4 layered cloning rack with 1-2 bulb 2ft t5s on each layer. Grow room 1 and 2 would be identical, with 4 double layered octagons each with a 600w (8 bulbs total; 2 per octagon; 1 per layer of the octagon) vertical lights and train them through some cheap plastic construction netting/fencing for the scrog method. i would use cool tubes or probably make the out of those glass candle covers and have my lights on a closed ventilation system, 1 big fan for room1 and 1 big fan for room 2. Then i would seal the room and add co2 with a generator oscillating fans and dehumidifiers or possibly hook up another fan and vent the room separately from the lights with a carbon filter. what ever worked better. i would have grow room 1 on 18 hrs and the grow room 2 on 12hrs when it came time to harvest one room i would flip flop the light cycles on the rooms. i would have 4 strains every 2 months and harvest of about 8-12lbs every 2 months.this gives your clones 1month to root and 1 months to preveg, plus 2 month veg requiring 7 gallon pots(5gal work but not optimal), i would use cheap organics such as peat, bloodmeal, bat guano, lime, all that stuff, total plant count of 64 flowering, 64 veging, 4 mothers, and 64 cloning/preveg. the drying room is critical to get perfect if you want to have the quality smell and security.
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