As the indoor cannabis cultivation market matures, cultivators and operators continually monitor and manage the impacts of microclimates within their grows. To date, there has not been a controlled study of identical rooms populated with identical genetics for a side-by-side comparison of improved airflow within the canopy.
In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, Dual Draft and Edyza are studying the impacts of microclimates in indoor cannabis cultivation. The study is being conducted at The Blue Goose Flower Company, an indoor vertical farm in Sacramento, California.
The trial
To ensure accurate comparison of grow environments, one flower room of 1,760 square feet of canopy will employ Dual Draft Integrated Airflow systems along with an identical flower room using legacy airflow solutions. Each room consists of five, two-tier racks (4’ wide by 44’ long) with 1,430 plants per room. The ability to run a real-world study at an active vertical farm offers valuable results to cannabis and traditional crop farmers using vertical racking systems where the microclimate issues are more pronounced.
“Our collaborative study with Edyza not only allows us to validate our theories on the functionality and value proposition of Dual Draft, but it also provides valuable insight to better support cultivators of all crop types,” comments Greg Panella, CEO of Integrated Hydro Solutions.
As a part of the study, Edyza is supplying a high-density network of wireless sensors to monitor the canopy environment as well as providing airflow visualization software that displays implied airflow at every level within the room. With 105 sensors per room, the sensors are located above the canopy, below the canopy, and at air intake points. This creates a highly dense network with which to observe the overall environment and microclimates.
Atul Patel, CEO of Edyza, explains, “Our high-density sensors offer cultivators a high level of insight into their crops and allow farmers to mitigate the impact of microclimates. Edyza is excited to offer our proprietary network of high-density sensors. The insights for this important study will benefit increased medicine and food production for a growing population.”
Crucial data
The environmental data gathered from Edyza’s sensors will allow the study team to continuously record temperature, relative humidity, vapor pressure deficit, and airflow patterns in both rooms. The study will be conducted over several harvest cycles analyzing yield, quality, consistency, and plant health data. At the study’s conclusion, the results will be overlaid with the environmental data. The combined data will allow the study team to understand the impact of microclimates in a real-world setting.
“Vertical farming is being deployed at scale in the cannabis industry and is being watched carefully by vertical farmers of food crops,” observes Mark Doherty, a Senior Advisor with Dual Draft. “If Dual Draft can reduce or eliminate microclimates within these facilities, we can anticipate an increase in the yield, quality, and consistency of all plant types, and improve the bottom line of today's cultivation companies.”
The goal of the Dual Draft and Edyza study is to provide the Controlled Environment Agriculture market with a better understanding of indoor cultivation environments and how to maximize plant performance.
If you are interested in receiving study updates, please sign up at the Dual Draft website.
For more information:
Dual Draft
info@integratedhydrosolutions.com
integratedhydrosolutions.com