Building out a grow facility takes planning, planning, and more planning. From top to bottom, every inch is calculated carefully to meet your operation’s goals, meet local regulations, and properly accommodate sensitive plants at every growth stage. The drying and curing processes must be accounted for in commercial grow room design too — learn what goes into a commercial grow operation so you can plan your next steps.
Elements of a commercial grow design
Cannabis cultivation has been shaped quite differently than other crops due to the decades-long illegal status that forced operations indoors and out of sight. Commercial grow room design is shaped by this history, informing the basics of every setup.
Though your needs as a business owner will vary based on the technologies you employ, the size of your facility, state regulations, and other factors, the following design elements of a commercial grow facility are commonplace and can be found in any setup.
Plant rooms
Your facility will need space to accommodate the unique needs of your plants at each stage. Separate vegetation and flowering rooms are common, and further division and environment control are needed from cultivar to cultivar. Though there’s some debate as to how much vegetation room you really need, these rooms are the lifeblood of your grow operation. Don’t forget space to hang your cannabis for drying and set aside for curing!
Climate control
Cannabis isn’t a “set and forget” kind of crop. These plants need specific amounts of light, nutrients, humidity, and water to thrive. To provide that, your grow operation needs specialized equipment like:
- Lighting rigs (either LED lighting or HPS lighting, depending on your preferences)
- A preferred irrigation system, including a water reservoir if part of the setup
- Nutrient management systems
- Air purification systems, and
- Carbon dioxide injection and monitoring systems
All those systems need to be carefully monitored and controlled, which is often done with a dedicated environmental computer control system and cultivation software to ensure the plants’ needs are met around the clock.
Decontamination rooms
Given how fickle cannabis can be, anything that enters the sterile grow environment can cause mold, mildew, pesticides, or other diseases that can spell certain doom for your entire crop. Staff members who do not follow careful protocol can risk introducing these threats into a growing environment. To combat that, you’re going to need specialized rooms to let your employees change into more sterile clothes or put on protective gear. This is an absolute must when drawing up an integrated pest management plan.
Processing rooms
On-site processing rooms allow your employees to properly trim and package the final product. For some cultivators with a processing office, those rooms will house the specialized machinery necessary for terpene extraction or phytocannabinoid extraction.
HVAC systems
More than just keeping everything cool, a commercial grow operation relies on its HVAC system to provide proper airflow and help control humidity. This includes systems for air filtration and purification, both for odor and for airborne contaminants; these systems may be part of the HVAC system or come as separate units. These systems are also necessary to create positive air pressure in the grow rooms, which helps mitigate potential contamination from bugs and pathogens.
Security
While it may not be directly related to cultivation, your commercial grow room facility needs proper security to safeguard the plants and all the equipment inside. Surveillance, alarms, security lights, and recording systems are just a few of the security protocols you may need to install on-site, both for your own peace of mind and to meet any requirements set out by the state.
Space considerations for a commercial grow room design
In many states where cannabis has been legalized for medical or adult use, legislators typically place licenses into categories broken down by size, often linked to the square footage of the facility. As plants require a certain amount of space to properly propagate, the size of your new grow op will depend largely on the conditions of your license.
Typically, most commercial grow operations are housed in a warehouse-style building. These constructions are large, steel structures, with the average production area coming in at 34,500 square feet in 2022, though 10,000 to 24,999 square feet was overall the most common size range. These figures don’t entirely comprise the area occupied by plants — all the space, equipment, and other requirements for the grow facility are contained within that single building.
A craft grower that’s licensed by the Department of Agriculture to cultivate, dry, cure, and package hemp or marijuana “must contain at least 5,000 square feet of canopy space for the cannabis plants during the flowering stage of their life cycle.” Depending on the individual market need, the agency can increase or decrease that amount by increments of 3,000 square feet, with a maximum of 14,000 square feet for cultivation.
How much room does a drying and curing area typically take up?
The drying and curing involved in cannabis cultivation are one of the most important steps in the entire process. Dry rooms need to provide ample space for proper airflow as the buds dry. This means that there needs to be adequate space between each branch as it hangs or lies flat to dry. There also needs to be ample room for HVAC systems, fans, and other climate control methods.
Your drying room should be a non-exterior room with walls and excellent insulation, both in the walls and the ceiling. Generally, these rooms should be no less than 10 feet wide, with a length of between 10 and 20 feet. This way, each space can hold several hundred pounds of your cannabis or hemp plants. For greater yields, you may need more than one drying or curing room.
How Cryo Cure saves space in your commercial grow facility
While you could dedicate entire rooms to drying and curing your cannabis, Cryo Cure technology occupies just a fraction of the space. Our patented technology preserves phytocannabinoid and terpene-rich trichomes without taking up tremendous amounts of space.
Cryo Cure’s high-capacity pilot model can single-handedly dry and cure up to 30 pounds of cannabis or hemp in a matter of 12 to 16 hours. All that magic happens within a space that’s less than nine feet long, under 5 feet wide, and under 7 feet tall! For larger operations, our high-capacity models’ chamber footprint is eight feet by either eight feet (the HC4 model), 15 feet (HC7), or 20 feet (HC10).
Cryo Cure technology saves invaluable space, and consumers love the smell, taste, and experience. Contact Cryo Cure today for maximum efficiency and space-saving in your commercial grow room design.
