The rolling bench issue: The perfect table width for cannabis cultivation
Today I wanna write about a topic, that made me think a lot in the past: The best size for rolling benches.
Rolling benches might look like a trivial topic for you. But deciding the width of rolling benches is a really crucial consideration when designing an indoor or greenhouse cannabis grow facility. The size of rolling benches in your facility have a big impact on how efficient your floor space is used and how easily plants can be accessed by gardeners for defoliation and other care keeping tasks. All this will contribute to the production cost of your cannabis products and should be well thought.
Technical aspects of rolling benches, that dictate rolling bench designs
Recently I had a talk with Greenfox, a leading horticulture company in Switzerland, which installs rolling benches in many CBD and medical cannabis facilities. Greenfox has much experience in technical solutions in the greenhouse and indoor grow sector and have great knowledge regarding technical aspects of rolling benches.
When I was designing my first indoor grow facility, I was keen on getting rolling benches, which are not wider than 1,20m or 4 feet. But when I reached out to Greenfox to get a quote, I got a fast feedback: They would recommend wider rolling benches because of better usage of floor space and lighting. I mean, I love great efficiency, but back then I was more thinking about work ergonomic aspects. I thought, with 1,2m or 4 feet wide tables, workers just have to reach plants 60 centimeters or 2 feet deep in the canopy. Even really small people with short arms can defoliate this way easily.
Ergonomic requirements vs. technical requirements of rolling benches
Unfortunately, not only work ergonomics make up the requirements for rolling benches, but also gravity and structural stability. So it turned out, that rolling benches with a width of just 1,20m or 4 feet can just be moved by 12,5cm on every side. This means, if we have two rolling benches side by side and move them both in a manner, that we get an aisle between them both, we just get 25cm of aisle width. This is way too less for workers being able to go through these two rolling benches to do defoliation or other plant keeping work.
For safety reasons, it's not possible for conventional rolling benches to move them even more sidewards. Because then, the table can either turn over the edge and fall down or the structural stability would suffer. So to get an aisle width of about 75cm, which is a recommended distance to work between two rolling benches, we would need 50cm of "dead floor space" between each rolling benches. So however the 1,20m wide rolling benches are moved, there will be always at least 50cm of "dead space" between the two tables. Dead space, where you cannot place plants to make efficient use of your rent or light energy.
Fortunately, with wider rolling benches you can partially avoid this problem. With 2m / 6 feet wide tables you can move each table by 35cm each side - this makes up for 70cm aisles without having any dead space between the rolling benches. But with 2m wide tables it gets really hard, especially for small people, to reach the plants located at the center of each table. One has to stretch his or her arms 1 meter or 3 feet to reach these plants. So I would think about a compromise between 1,2m / 4ft and 2m / 6ft tables.
I think, 1,6m / 5 feet wide tables would make the deal. Because in this setup you just have 25 centimeters or 10 inches of dead, unused space between each table to get 75cm wide aisles. And workers just have to reach plants 80cm deep, measured from the edge of the table. Just keep in mind: 2m or 6 feet wide rolling benches are best practice for ornamental flower or smaller herb greenhouses. But in these cases, workers don't have to grab into the canopy, but can reach all plants from above, as these flowers and plants are way lower in height than cannabis plants.
I just made some CAD Drawings, to show you the differences between 1,6m and 1,2m wide rolling benches.
Top: 1,6m / 5ft wide rolling benches
Bottom: 1,2m / 4ft wide rolling benches
Top: 1,6m / 5ft wide rolling benches
Bottom: 1,2m / 4ft wide rolling benches
It's easy to see, that with the 1,6m wide rolling benches you use your valuable grow space way much better than with 1,2 wide rolling benches. I calculated a 16% better usage of floor space with 1,6m wide rolling benches. Especially when growing indoor, this makes a huge difference as floor space is way much more expensive than outdoors or in greenhouses. Just think of all the lights.
Fixed aisles for better aeration
When aiming for like 75cm wide aisles between the rolling benches when moved to the most outside positions, we still have these 25 centimeters of dead space between the 1,6m / 5ft wide rolling benches. What seems like heavily inefficient at first glance, turns out to be a big advantage in huge grow areas. Because all these gaps are useful for homogenous aeration and makes for better micro climates in the grow area. Also does it reveal all side branches of the plants positioned at the sides of each table to the top mounted light sources - so we will have more higher grade buds at the point of harvest.
Another advantage of the fixed way width for the 1,6m rolling benches: You don't have to move all rolling benches in your room to the side, to get an aisle somewhere in the middle of the room. For this we have this 25cm of aisle width, which is exactly the same as the moving distance to each side of the rolling benches.
To conclude the rolling benches issue:
In the end, you're free to decide which table width fits best for your very own grow project. Now you know some thoughts you can go though when planning and designing your own facility and can weigh up according to your personal needs, if you go with bigger dead spaces, wider tables or narrow aisle widths.
Don't forget to reach out to info@research-gardens.com, whenever you're in need of some help or consultancy for your grow project. Our team of well experienced horticulture engineers is here to help you out!
Photo Story: Cannabis Greenhouse Farm in California
A starting point in the life of every cannabis entrepreneur should definitely be a visit to a professional cannabis farm. It doesn't matter if you plan a small craft cannabis grow or whether you want to shake up the entire market: Once you dive into such a green realm, you will feel like in seventh heaven. Standing in a sun flooded greenhouse, surrounded by thousands of plants, makes you high by not even smoking them. You will feel the necessities of these wonderful plants immidiately. Growers will recognice all the exciting technologies used, nutrients and greenhouse management frameworks.
Some may even be disappointed by too rudimentary use of technology. For example, you'll miss lights on the average cannabis farm in California - that's what the sun is for. But pictures are worth a thousand words at this point - so enjoy our never-ending photo gallery of Paul's Farm, the Cannafornia cannabis greenhouse farm complex near Salinas in Central California.
Let's start with an overview of the cannabis greenhouse farm
At the beginning of the approximately three-month creation process of terpy cannabis buds, countless clones of even more countless strains and varieties have to be cut.
Meter-long shelves full of clone trays line up in the attic of this cliché-esque farmhouse. Here, under artificial light illumination, priceless values grow into clones about ten centimeters height.
Once the grower has settled on a variety, it's on to the vegetation stage greenhouse at the cannabis farm.
In the vegetation area, the cuttings slowly but surely grow into more root-rich, side-shoot-forming plants. Under 18 hours of light per day, the juvenile plants intentionally do not form flowers yet and can devote all their energy to side branches, leaves and height-oriented growth. In California, the juveniles grow naturally with plenty of sunlight, but especially in winter, artificial light must be used to help out in order to achieve the 18 hours of light every day. If this were not ensured, the plants would produce flowers much sooner and develop fewer side shoots. The yield, however, is much higher if the plant is first given adequate height and side growth under 18 daily hours of sunlight - after all, this way we get exponentially more leaf axils in which juicy flowers will later settle when we switch to the flowering cycle. But first, let's raise the curtain on the "veggie phase," as the growth phase is colloquially known - not just on American farms.
Now we finally get to the cannabis farm's flowering greenhouse!
After about a month of vegetative stage, the cannabis plants move from the vegetation greenhouses to the flowering area. But why can't the plants just finish growing in their vegetative environment? It's because at these huge scales, factoring in labor costs, land costs, and yield, a plant's cycle is most economically kept when the growing phase is about a month and the flowering phase is about 2 months. As we need different requirements for vegetative and flowering environments, at least 18h of light vs. 12h, two separate areas are the most economically way to go. One also have to consider that the plant doubles its height during the flowering phase. The end result is that at least twice as much area is needed for the flowering phase as for the growing phase. After all, plants in vegetative stage take up significantly less floor space at the beginning of their growth than they do in flowering. So it makes sense to move plants during their life cycle for best use of existing infrastructure and resources.
Budporn.
And what happens to the plants after harvesting?
After harvesting, the plants are first chopped up quite roughly, i.e. only freed from the fan leaves, and hung up in full length to dry. This is done quite easily by means of hangers. After a certain time in the ventilated room on the hangers and one or the other intermediate step, the plants then end up with the trimmers, who shred the flowers exactly the way we like it best. Afterwards a bright green plastic box is labeled and the way to the distributor can begin.
So. And now the most important question: How does the weed from Cannafornia Farm taste?
We received two packs of Raspberry Cookies as a guest gift. A strain with shallow 10% THC, delicious raspberry flavor and pleasant sativa high. Nothing special in comparison, but not the worst buds of our trip either. You can taste out that was fed with mineral fertilizer. However, only slightly, because even at Cannafornia Farms, the plants are once again rinsed with only water for a few days before harvest. Nevertheless, organic / bio has not been worked here.
Otherwise, raspberry and cookie notes actually dominate, whereby personally, as a declared cake variety fan, I was immediately satisfied with the smell and taste. Still, my favorite organic weed plays in a different league. What Cannafornia Farms can do, however: The right size of the flowers. Nice and small, you don't pay for stalks here. Nice and compact, perfect for a blunt and without the need for a grinder.
At this point, unfortunately, we have already reached the end of our little excursion to the large scale cannabis farm. Please not that all photos belong to Lorenz Minks and any third party use is not allowed.