Not all agriculture is created equal right? If little vertical growth and or low light penetrating power is what you have then a canopy makes senses. But, that’s not cannabis naturally. And i don’t say naturally like a hippie saying ‘let it grow free man’. I’m saying the plant naturally wants to grow like 3-7 ft tall and produce good nugs from top to bottom if not crowded. If it wasn’t for the light bulbs inferior penetrating ability would canopy have been the path so many growing today learned?
Where in nature do we find fruit bearing trees naturally jammed together forcing a canopy? In agriculture do we dwarf the natural size of major crops by planting 200 seeds in a 500 sq ft greenhouse forcing an impenetrable canopy and flowering before 2’ tall? Illegalities fault imo, and if that’s so imagine how everything will change when its gone. When you go canopy you often go soil beds because hydro becomes inaccessible and cumbersome, but both are highly inefficient delivery methods in the case of cannabis.
A light dep (cannabis) canopy grow in fall winter and spring is sun lit from the southern sky. This makes the southern row large, the northern row smaller, and artificial lighting is required over the whole canopy all year. Yet from Phoenix to Anza on winter solstice there’s 10 free hours of sunlight that grows big nugs with no artificial lighting what-so-ever. I get that state lines are currently making markets where they shouldn’t and wont be in a near legal future, but in my idealistic mind i can’t take that into account when designing.
A small percentage of the industry has ever grown in the far south west and i don’t believe realize how much free light there is here and what it can do. I also think most think incorrectly that its too hot. Google image search “sun hours/day zone map” to see, there’s quite a difference in zone 1. Most everyone growing weed will be in the SW eventually so I just choose to think like that today when i call out the canopy monster.
Canopy cannabis immediately makes you one dimensional and forces much more defoliation work than should be required. A rotational crop allows more light in and thus more production per sq ft.
Greenhouses being used today are 20’ tall with a 4’ canopy inside. Paying to treat all that unused air. They’re built square which fucks everything north of the most south row. One long row east to west makes a lot more sense. They’re squareness invites canopy monsters inefficient nightmare. Narrow long tunnels with 6 footers ftw imo.
All this is a moot point if im not getting good output per sq ft doing it the way i see best. I currently get .05 lb per sq ft at $0.22 per gram production cost. The first number is adequate, the second by my research 5-10x lower than EVERYONE. My grow on an industry scale i know both those numbers would be even more favorable. I don’t see how canopy or soil can ever get down to $100 a unit grow cost, but i’ll be here waiting.