Questions about a small commercial grow

[kahoona]

hi all. i have an opportunity to grow on a larger scale. i have a heated 40 x 60 building with good power and artisian spring water. id like to know how everyone would set this up for maximum efficiency. financial backing is behind this so it has potential. list of things i should consider are:
soil or hydro
seeds or clones
lighting and spacing requirements
ferts and nutes
one area for flower and one for veg with a nursery for seedlings and clones.
spacing between plants etc.

im in canada....any and all help muchly appreciated. thank.

 

[Azimuth]

hi all. i have an opportunity to grow on a larger scale. i have a heated 40 x 60 building with good power and artisian spring water. id like to know how everyone would set this up for maximum efficiency. financial backing is behind this so it has potential. list of things i should consider are:
soil or hydro
seeds or clones
lighting and spacing requirements
ferts and nutes
one area for flower and one for veg with a nursery for seedlings and clones.
spacing between plants etc.

im in canada....any and all help muchly appreciated. thank.

Hey Kahoona. Good luck with your project. Sounds like a dream business to me. I grow in a cabinet so I'm at a bit of a different scale than you.

I'd say whatever growing inputs you like and trust, first. I've seen commercial hydro grows, and @Mycelium Farmer runs an organic soil operation. Although if you're starting from a clean slate and don't feel strongly for or against any grow style, maybe there is one best for a commercial operation.

Will you have a blackout option? If so, you could grow a perpetual and harvest once a month though I'd imagine that would add substantially to the building costs.

I'll pull up a seat and hear the discussion.

 

[CaptainLucky]

hi all. i have an opportunity to grow on a larger scale. i have a heated 40 x 60 building with good power and artisian spring water. id like to know how everyone would set this up for maximum efficiency. financial backing is behind this so it has potential. list of things i should consider are:
soil or hydro
seeds or clones
lighting and spacing requirements
ferts and nutes
one area for flower and one for veg with a nursery for seedlings and clones.
spacing between plants etc.

im in canada....any and all help muchly appreciated. thank.

Check out a lighting company called (PM me for the name because not sponsored)they claim to be the most powerful in the business but very pricey. They also will custom build for your grow.CL

 

[Pat Puffer]

Personally I would do organic with a strong super soil. My grows were organic and I only had to have a drip irrigation on them.

There are more complicated systems I have seen with injectors used for hydro nutes on the water supply. I tend to lean on the less complicated side of things. I never adored having to check pH for the hydro approach.

The wife and I were totally able to leave the grow unattended for weeks and not worry about a thing.

I crafted my own super soil after researching a few different ones. I saw the repeating inputs and from there determined what was most useful. Quick and slow release inputs are necessary for all Macro-nutrients, and only one for the Micro-nutrients.

1) Alfalfa meal (quick)
2) Feather meal (slow)
3) Bat or Sea Bird guano (quick)
4) Bone meal (slow)
5) Rock Phosphate (slow) + good calcium source
6) Kelp meal (quick)
7) Langbeinite (slow) + great magnesium source
8) Green sand (SUPER slow) may not start fully breaking down for years.
9) Azomite (micronutrients) + silica
10) Humic acids (jump start your fertilizer deposits)
11) occasional compost teas to keep rhizosphere enriched

With this recipe mixed at about 2 Tbsp each (4 Tbsp for the feather meal) input per cu. ft. (7 gal of limed peat moss) I could run my outdoor grows with only drip irrigation. Only issue I had was pests. I never had any deficiency to speak of. Perlite was mixed in until it looked good; no set amount.

Then the following year the soil was gentle enough to use for clones for the next year and retill in the amendments again. Beauty of this type of soil is it can be reused again and again and again. The longer you use it, the better it gets due to naturally occuring humic acids.

Some use a no till method. Some add other things like oyster shell and gypsum. I guarantee that recipe above is rock solid and tried and true. It also doesn't get too hot to plant in; also guaranteed.

Set it up as any super soil and let bake/cook for at least 1 month and your good.

The info on the garden lime needed to neutralize the low pH of the peat moss is not clear in my mind but readily available on line.

If you go the peat moss route, know that it drop annually in pH and requires a light dusting of Dolomite Lime annually.

 

[CelestialNurseries]

hi all. i have an opportunity to grow on a larger scale. i have a heated 40 x 60 building with good power and artisian spring water. id like to know how everyone would set this up for maximum efficiency. financial backing is behind this so it has potential. list of things i should consider are:
soil or hydro
seeds or clones
lighting and spacing requirements
ferts and nutes
one area for flower and one for veg with a nursery for seedlings and clones.
spacing between plants etc.

im in canada....any and all help muchly appreciated. thank.

HVAC

 

[bluter]

HVAC

this.

my pops was in hvac and helped design / build my best indoor grow spaces. i've been involved up to a 200 plant per room grow. most cdn commercial is now much larger. i was involved more in the med side pre-legal.

 

[OldMedUser]

im in canada....any and all help muchly appreciated. thank.

No matter how you grow it you've missed the boat for making money growing pot in Canaduh. Commercial growers both legal and BM are shutting down all over the country as supply is thru the roof and demand is not growing one little bit.

Profit margins are way down and if you go the legal route your potential grow is too small to turn a profit and the red tape is miles too long. If you want to sell under the table you have even more competition so unless you already have a customer base it's pretty hard to build one.

Better to fix it up as a rental and move some immigrants in there if you want to make any money IMO.

Good luck and a Happy New Year too you and yours!

 

[CelestialNurseries]

No matter how you grow it you've missed the boat for making money growing pot in Canaduh. Commercial growers both legal and BM are shutting down all over the country as supply is thru the roof and demand is not growing one little bit.

Profit margins are way down and if you go the legal route your potential grow is too small to turn a profit and the red tape is miles too long. If you want to sell under the table you have even more competition so unless you already have a customer base it's pretty hard to build one.

Better to fix it up as a rental and move some immigrants in there if you want to make any money IMO.

Good luck and a Happy New Year too you and yours!

I would have to disagree. I'm not in Canada but I'm in a rec legal southwestern state and in the business. I think if this person is really good at what they do then there will always be money to be made. If your just going to try to grow some mids then good freaking luck. Let's keep in mind that this $500 a lb quote is for bottom of the barrel outdoor Oklahoma junk that's just going to be turned into shelf stable isolate...premium AAA top shelf still fetches a pretty penny. There will always be quantity or quality and I know that humans will always want the best stuff that no one else has...and they pay for it. You just got to have game...

 

[bluter]

I would have to disagree. I'm not in Canada but I'm in a rec legal southwestern state and in the business. I think if this person is really good at what they do then there will always be money to be made. If your just going to try to grow some mids then good freaking luck. Let's keep in mind that this $500 a lb quote is for bottom of the barrel outdoor Oklahoma junk that's just going to be turned into shelf stable isolate...premium AAA top shelf still fetches a pretty penny. There will always be quantity or quality and I know that humans will always want the best stuff that no one else has...and they pay for it. You just got to have game...

the industry is structured different here. the growers don't really get a premium if the product is better. most of our production is corporate owned, what isn't is controlled by the wholesaling groups. growers are not allowed to sell direct to retailers or operate their own retail.

locally the independents have had to form a co-op in order to market non corporate weed, and there are very few independent stores. the corporate stores will not support the independent growers, and will only purchase from them if they don't sell to independent stores, or sign a contract selling all their production to one retailer.

a lot of independent growers are selling below cost at present as there is a known glut.

the corporate players are working to make that the same structure in the US

 

[CelestialNurseries]

the industry is structured different here. the growers don't really get a premium if the product is better. most of our production is corporate owned, what isn't is controlled by the wholesaling groups. growers are not allowed to sell direct to retailers or operate their own retail.

locally the independents have had to form a co-op in order to market non corporate weed, and there are very few independent stores. the corporate stores will not support the independent growers, and will only purchase from them if they don't sell to independent stores, or sign a contract selling all their production to one retailer.

a lot of independent growers are selling below cost at present as there is a known glut.

the corporate players are working to make that the same structure in the US

I'm sorry. I didn't know it was so bad there.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Hey @kahoona, there's a zillion questions and answers involved. How do you feel about the cannabis market in Canada?

 

[OldMedUser]

I would have to disagree. I'm not in Canada but I'm in a rec legal southwestern state and in the business. I think if this person is really good at what they do then there will always be money to be made. If your just going to try to grow some mids then good freaking luck. Let's keep in mind that this $500 a lb quote is for bottom of the barrel outdoor Oklahoma junk that's just going to be turned into shelf stable isolate...premium AAA top shelf still fetches a pretty penny. There will always be quantity or quality and I know that humans will always want the best stuff that no one else has...and they pay for it. You just got to have game...

The grower is in Canada tho and as @bluter spelled out it's dog eat dog up here since Prohibition 2.0 came into effect across the land. Federal gov't set up the basic rules and leaves a lot of it up to each province like the 4 plant limit, how many and where stores can operate and how much provincial tax to apply.

Two provinces and one territory don't allow any home growing except for medical and that's not hard to get tho large plant number med grows are coming under more scrutiny to help clamp down on the BM growers.

A few big companies took the charge early in the game and tho short at first overproduced the hell out of things and now are shutting down a lot of big projects with millions of grams in inventory aging out and being destroyed.

Taxes are all that's keeping the prices high in the stores tho they've dropped a lot too. Of course the BM has to beat those prices to compete so many have folded and startups are few and far between with a lot of established hydro stores shutting down too. They needed those multi-thousand dollar cash sales to stay afloat and all the repeat business that generated. Most new home growers bought all their stuff a few years ago now and many sucked at it so of course that ended up on Craig's List, Kijiji and the like for cheap which didn't help.

I scored 5 sets of 600W digitals with lightly used Hortilux bulbs for $60 a set. Ballast, bulb and open reflector in each set. Was from a 24 light grow that had just shut down. Hell of a deal so gave two sets to a buddy back home here for that Xmas.

I just grow for myself and to help friends in need. All of us are getting old so there's plenty of need.

 

[CelestialNurseries]

The grower is in Canada tho and as @bluter spelled out it's dog eat dog up here since Prohibition 2.0 came into effect across the land. Federal gov't set up the basic rules and leaves a lot of it up to each province like the 4 plant limit, how many and where stores can operate and how much provincial tax to apply.

Two provinces and one territory don't allow any home growing except for medical and that's not hard to get tho large plant number med grows are coming under more scrutiny to help clamp down on the BM growers.

A few big companies took the charge early in the game and tho short at first overproduced the hell out of things and now are shutting down a lot of big projects with millions of grams in inventory aging out and being destroyed.

Taxes are all that's keeping the prices high in the stores tho they've dropped a lot too. Of course the BM has to beat those prices to compete so many have folded and startups are few and far between with a lot of established hydro stores shutting down too. They needed those multi-thousand dollar cash sales to stay afloat and all the repeat business that generated. Most new home growers bought all their stuff a few years ago now and many sucked at it so of course that ended up on Craig's List, Kijiji and the like for cheap which didn't help.

I scored 5 sets of 600W digitals with lightly used Hortilux bulbs for $60 a set. Ballast, bulb and open reflector in each set. Was from a 24 light grow that had just shut down. Hell of a deal so gave two sets to a buddy back home here for that Xmas.

I just grow for myself and to help friends in need. All of us are getting old so there's plenty of need.

It's just like thee tomato...there are tons of different heirlooms out there...beautiful black and white tomatoes, even ones that look like galaxies but if you go to a grocery store all you find is the boring 4 same toms. That's why we need these landrace guys to keep doing there thing!!

 

[bluter]

It's just like thee tomato...there are tons of different heirlooms out there...beautiful black and white tomatoes, even ones that look like galaxies but if you go to a grocery store all you find is the boring 4 same toms. That's why we need these landrace guys to keep doing there thing!!

look to the liquor industry if you are trying to find a metaphor. there are many many players in the industry, even tiny craft producers. over 90% of all global distribution is controlled by only 2 companies though, and 98% of your local retailers products are from those two.


we were pushed out when med licensing for smaller producers was dropped in favor of large production corporate licensing for a homogenized market. at one point during med licensing groups our sized comprised the majority, there are none left in existence unless solidly in the BM now.

 

[013]

an old New Jersey axiom goes….. write a law - create a business

cannabis reform is needed, our laws are written by lobbyist working for the 1 percenters

 

[Azimuth]

an old New Jersey axiom goes….. write a law - create a business

cannabis reform is needed, our laws are written by lobbyist working for the 1 percenters

True Dat.

 

[kahoona]

Hey @kahoona, there's a zillion questions and answers involved. How do you feel about the cannabis market in Canada?

i never use the dispensery weed. its dry and tasteless and pretty much generic. i didnt think it was this bad so im going to have to rethink this through. i would love to setup a shop that sells only top end product but with so many other shops in business i might have to wait them all out. i see grow stuff going for cheap at auction all the time here. i just bought 20 gals of AN SENSI bloom and grow for dirt cheap and could have bought all my lights for pennies. iv got a licence for 25 plants right now for myself so maybe have to wait a bit longer to start something.

 

[CelestialNurseries]

look to the liquor industry if you are trying to find a metaphor. there are many many players in the industry, even tiny craft producers. over 90% of all global distribution is controlled by only 2 companies though, and 98% of your local retailers products are from those two.


we were pushed out when med licensing for smaller producers was dropped in favor of large production corporate licensing for a homogenized market. at one point during med licensing groups our sized comprised the majority, there are none left in existence unless solidly in the BM now.

And the Zon will own all of us