Land for humans and land intended to sustain these people has become increasingly difficult to reconcile. According to a study, only about 10% of the earth is considered agricultural land, and with our growing population pushing to 8 billion people, conventional farming practices just won’t cut it.
As a result, vertical farming is becoming a more practical option, as it increases the number of crops a farmer can cultivate while occupying a lot less space.
The cannabis sector confronts space constraints, presumably affected by other causes. Cannabis is well-suited to indoor cultivation, although doing so significantly raises production costs.
Several growers are looking at vertical farming because of the high cost and logistical hurdles of sustaining conventional crops. Let’s continue on this path by looking at the advantages of vertical farming. Is it possible for cannabis to thrive in a vertically oriented, regulated agricultural setting?
Vertical Farming
Vertical farming is the process of growing food or other crops vertically. This strategy rises upward rather than cultivating commodities on a single horizontal field, greenhouse, or warehouse. As a result, there will be less room but more yield.
A vertical cultivation configuration produces substantially more per square foot than a traditional one. Vertical farming units (VFUs) from Flurish, for example, may make up to six times the crop output per square foot like a regular cultivation system.
Vertical farming allows farmers to better regulate their growing conditions, such as temperature, light, and humidity, and produce more crops in a smaller footprint. Flurish’s VFUs fit within the controlled environment agriculture requirement, albeit the control amount varies according to the facility design.
Flurish and other vertical farm systems enhance the local environment by delivering everything a plant needs. Every plant is given the attention it needs 24 hours a day, which is a significant improvement over the regular changeable outside environment. Cultivators use a network of sensors and a control dashboard to alter the environment in the most beneficial way for the plants.
Cannabis Cultivation Benefits from Vertical Farming
Vertical farming improves yields and uniformity across crops while lowering operational costs per square foot in the cannabis industry. Here’s a deeper look at how vertical farming may help the legal cannabis market:
- Considerable Amount of Space is Saved
One of the most often acknowledged advantages of vertical farming is its potential to conserve space. According to research published in 2018, a 30-story skyscraper with a basal area of only five acres may generate the equivalent of 2,400 acres of conventional horizontal farming.
Those numbers have a lot of good implications for the cannabis sector. Cannabis cultivation facilities are extensive, with separate spaces for each growth stage.
VFUs from Flurish may be stacked, meaning they can be added to instead of taken away. Facilities can be stacked up to three stories high, with catwalks providing convenient access at each level.
Consequently, cultivators may operate in fewer spaces, make the most of their current area, save money on real estate, and save money on facility maintenance and environmental management.
- Growth in a More Controlled Setting
Any agricultural product grown outdoors is vulnerable to shifting temperature and weather conditions. Vertical farming provides an enormously greater degree of environmental control right now.
The indoor growing environment, for example, provides appropriate illumination dependent on the crop’s stage (veg or flower). The light spectrum has also been enhanced, giving the plants exactly what they want when they require it. Temperature, fertilizer, water, and other variables are also adjusted. Consequently, the vertical farming environment is unaffected by poor weather, seasonal changes, or climate change.
For reproducible findings with cannabis, precisely regulated settings are required. Harvest yields and phytochemical composition are influenced by even minor environmental changes. Flurish’s VFUs produce the microclimates necessary for consistent phytocannabinoid and terpene concentration in each harvest.
- Delivers Higher Revenue
Flurish’s vertical farming utilities are very efficient in space use, energy consumption, and resource management, making them the ideal alternative for farmers looking for high-quality volume production at a cheap cost. The average operational cost per pound of cannabis cultivated indoors varies from $440 to $518. Flurish’s VFUs average $340 per pound.
- Increase the Number of Potential Areas
Vertical farming may theoretically be put up almost anyplace. For various reasons, including the high cost of real estate, the scarcity of space, and zoning or other rules that restrict cannabis cultivation to specific locations, this is very important in the cannabis industry.
Cannabis cultivation is already a cash-intensive business with considerable legislative restrictions on cultivating it. Many operations, unlike conventional companies, are unable to get financing, posing a severe budget constraint.
Landlord issues further limit the already limited pool of possibilities. Some landlords just refuse to allow cannabis growth in their properties.
Vertical farming does not require larger warehouses since it grows up rather than out. Instead, a smaller facility might supply a grower’s size, allowing more placement options.
- Safe and Greener Farming Alternative
Vertical farming not only takes up less land than traditional agriculture, but it also uses 80-90% less water and emits fewer greenhouse gases due to plowing, hauling, and harvesting.
Vertical farming allows for perfect control and uniformity in terms of material quantity. Cultivating plants indoors also protects them from potentially harmful environmental variables while ensuring the safety of natural fauna and trees. Pesticides, fungicides, and other dangerous disease treatments are not used in vertical farms employing modular units like Flurish’s VFUs. If pesticides are used, they are applied on a per-unit, as-needed basis rather than sporadically.
Developing the Future of Innovative Agriculture
Flurish’s turnkey solution focuses on enhancing the efficiency of existing operations while optimizing cultivation settings for consistent intended outputs. This microclimate strategy allows for complete control of the plant’s environment while also allowing several cultivars to grow in the same area (in distinct VFUs) without affecting the results.
If you have more questions about VFU, don’t hesitate to email or give us a call.