I’m currently in talks with an investor to open a medicinal grow in Australia. It’s been a dream of mine for 15 years to own my own farm. I have rough ideas of what I want/need but I’m also not an expert. I would love to be able to start a chat with some like minded people and discuss our ideas and hopefully get a clearer vision for my project.
I’m looking at purchasing a 500m2 warehouse (or somewhere in that range) I was thinking of having 3 75m2 flower rooms(would love some help on possible plant numbers, spacing,rough weight per commercial plant), utilising Living soil beds on roller tables, using organic nutrient methods, looking at 1000w LED lights (need help with spacing and quantity). I intend on using Quest dehumidifiers (not sure what sizes or how many I need). I am not very knowledgeable on HVACs and Irrigation, however I intend on recycling any of the run off and condensation/dehumidifier water that I can. I’ve heard you roughly need a quarter of the flower size for Veg but intend to have a bit more room just in case. Canna Cribs has been a huge help learning about devices and methods but I need more specific information. Probably looking at a high dry room so i can utilise space. Any way, looking forward to talking with some amazing people. #HustleandCultivate
Welcome to GN and thank you for sharing your exciting journey ahead. I think you have come to the right place. We have a number of growers on here that have setup large facilities that might be able to steer you in the right direction or do some technical work for you, @Slym3r , might be available and has the skills.
Also check out growershouse.com for lots of information, growing designs. Some direct irrigation help below:
https://growershouse.com/commercial-division-large-scale-growing-operations
Free irrigation consulting:
Thanks for link up! This is going to really help, I definitely want to work with Cannacribs Consulting and Growers Network on this moving forward.
Sounds like it’s going to be a great grow. I would love to help out. Where would you like to start?
Hey @Slym3r , thanks so much for replying. I’m currently writing up a rough plan layout. As I’m doing this all with no financial funding (currently) having a community like this is going to be amazing. If you’re ok with it, I’ll post what information I have worked out and if possible, could you tell me if I’m on the right path or not?
I have a lot to learn, so I’m going to be blind on a lot of the more intricate stuff like hvacs, irrigation, light spacing and dehums etc.
It’s also quite difficult to learn this stuff in Australia as a lot of whats current is years behind other countries or it’s run by people that don’t know cannabis.
Remi-D
Here is some rough information that Im going with. Any changes or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Cultivation Facility Overview:
- Total Facility Size: 500m2
- Layout: Divided into flower rooms, veg room, propagation/cloning room, and drying/curing rooms.
Flower Rooms:
- Number of Flower Rooms: 3 rooms
- Flower Room Dimensions: Each room measures approximately 13m x 5.8m (75.44m2).
- Lighting: 1000W LED lights in each flower room for flowering stage.
- Light Spacing: Approximately 1.2m to 1.5m between lights, ensuring uniform light distribution.
- Light Intensity: Target PPFD of 600-1000 µmol/m²/s.
- Plant Density: Around 4-6 plants per m2.
- Estimated Plant Count: Each flower room accommodates about 302 to 453 plants.
Veg Room and Propagation/Cloning Room:
- Veg Room and Propagation Room Dimensions: Each room measures approximately 18.92m2.
- Lighting: 1000W LED lights in veg and propagation rooms.
- Light Spacing: Similar to flower rooms, maintaining uniform light coverage.
- Light Intensity: Target PPFD of 300-500 µmol/m²/s.
- Plant Count: ??
Drying and Curing Rooms:
- Drying and Curing Room Size: To be determined based on your requirements.
- Humidity Control: Utilizing Quest dehumidifiers (225 pints) per room to maintain ideal drying and curing conditions.
HVAC System:
- HVAC System Size: To be determined by a professional HVAC engineer. Generally, around 1 ton (12,000 BTU) of cooling capacity per 500-700 square feet may be used as a starting point.
Dehumidification:
- Utilizing Quest dehumidifiers (225 pints) in each flower room, veg room, propagation room, and drying/curing room.
- Dehumidifiers will help maintain consistent humidity levels to prevent mold and mildew growth.
Watering and Irrigation:
- Watering: Providing approximately 1.2 liters of water per plant every 2-3 days, based on your estimation.
- Irrigation System: Implementing an efficient drip or flood-and-drain system to ensure uniform watering.
Yield Expectations:
- Average Yield: Estimated yield of 0.5 to 1.5 pounds (approximately 0.23 to 0.68 kilograms) of dried flower per plant in flower rooms.
I would recommend 1000ppfd for flower or more if using CO2. I don’t think you’ll need 1000 watt fixtures in veg unless your putting them super high or keeping them on low power. Veg room plant count will be whatever you need to supply the flower rooms. I think your Veg room seems a little small for the amount of plants you will need(min 302 plants min,453 max 3 times per length flower cycle. Do you plan on doing tiered racks for veg? If your using tiers in veg you definitely don’t need 1000 watt fixtures. You will need space for mother plants unless your planning on growing from seed. 302-453 cuts minimum (assuming you use 100% of the cuts and don’t cull any) 3 times every 8 or so weeks will require a fair bit of space for mother plants and propagation. For dehumidifiers it’s worth noting that the different models/sizes of quest have different efficiency of Pints/kWh. I’m not sure you sized you HVAC properly for growing vs home HVAC it seems very low. I would use a company that specializes in HVAC for commercial growing specifically as it has alot different requirements than regular HVAC. Ebb and flow works better for hydroponics in my opinion but the drippers will work in soil.
1.5 lb of flower x 4 plants = 2721.554 grams per 10.7639 sq ft or 252.840884809 G per sq ft, even higher if it’s 6 plants per 3m. That doesn’t seem like a reasonable estimate to me especially without CO2 even 1/3 of the 4 plant total per 3m (84.2802949363g/sq ft is higher than most commercial operations avg) so it seems like your estimates are off by a fair margin unless my math is wrong. Please don’t take offense to this but what’s your highest yield in g per sq ft canopy? Do you have experience growing with living soil?
I would also try to make some space for a growing room for employees to change out of street clothes and a washroom. You’ll likely need space to store all the nutrients/organic supplements and grow supplies as well. I imagine the amount of top dressing ect will be fairly large each round. I would also recommend soil testing between and or during rounds so you can see what’s being taken up and what need to be replenished
I would love to move to Australia! Thanks for offering @hiddenbudfarms ! 
A little (ahum!) late to the party but are you following the Cannabiz site? Lots of interesting articles and info in general about the Aussie medical scene…
To be fair with you… I had the same dream but parked it and decided not to jump on the medical wagon. It’s completely over regulated down under. No branding allowed, restricted selling to appointed apothecaries, only certain cultivars and in certain volumes. No freedom whatsoever. Not even mentioned the horror you have to go through to get the right permits & licences, and if your application fails all that money is gone. Big pharma lobbied this together with the Aus gov’t and made it so difficult to rule out the little man. The regulations you have to comply with due to medical standards… It’s completely different from a recreational market grow. You’re in the pharma business. Not really, but that’s how your gov’t sees it. Facilities are therefore equally regulated to a frikkin’ pill factory.
And then there is the biggest challenge still: claiming some market share between that big pharma. Players such as CannGroup, Auscann, Althea…
Not here to kill dreams. Go for it if you’re serious. But I’ve given up. For now at least, hoping for a recreational legalisation. That would change things.
