Category Archives: Vertical Farming

Tips for Winter Greenhouses

Greenhouses are an important way to grow crops outside of the usual growing season and a great way to increase yields. Canada has a unique climate, and as such special care is required when establishing a greenhouse, large or small that will produce a good return for the owner.

Windows

Light is required to grow any plant, so choose a material that lets lots of light through. A good rule of thumb is a material that allows at least 70% of light through. Insulation performance will drop as transparency increases. It’s important to balance light transmission with the R-value (the thermal resistance) of the material.

Insulation

Many greenhouses are transparent on all sides. A cold climate greenhouse may not be fully transparent because conserving heat is a priority. Winter nights are dark and cold and temperatures need to be managed.

Installing windows on the side facing the sun, allows the other sides and the roof to be insulated. The ground underneath the greenhouse should also be insulated. The heat that collects in the earth during the day, shouldn’t be allowed to just disappear out into the ground. The windows themselves can be insulated with removable shades after dark.

Ventilation

Cold climate greenhouses are designed to provide optimal growing conditions during the winter.  As a result, they can get too hot in the summer. It’s important to install proper ventilation into the greenhouse that provides enough ventilation during those hot summer days.

Thermal Mass

Thermal mass will harvest and store the warmth of the sun during the day and release it back at night to heat the greenhouse. This minimizes temperature fluctuations in the greenhouse and will prevent the temperature from dropping during cold nights.

Common materials can provide thermal mass: water, stone, cob, or even the earth itself. Water can be a risky choice because it can freeze, but it’s also one of the most flexible thermal mass materials because you can easily add or remove containers fo water.

There are two ways to take advantage of thermal mass: heating the air or heating the growing beds. The energy required is lower to heat only the growing beds but can be harder to install or modify.

Active Heating

In addition to thermal mass distributing heat, and the rays of the sun working to heat a greenhouse during the day, on cold days and during the night your greenhouse may require additional heat. Often Wood burning solutions or propane heaters can be good choices, as they are equally easy to install in remote areas.

Cost

Commercial scale greenhouses are not cheap to build. A solar panel system can have a payback time of years. A four-season greenhouse should be similar in terms of payback time.  Long-term production yield will be higher, as the greenhouse allows longer growing season but also a kind of insurance against weather risks.

When you are ready to expand your greenhouse business or start a new agricultural production facility,

Farm Grants can help.

Contact us now to find out more!

Greenhouse and Vertical Farming Systems

Canada is a country with plenty of space to grow food on farms. There is one major hurdle to ultimate farming productivity common to all of Canada’s farms: the unpredictable weather and low temperatures we have for almost half the year during winter.

The solution to this age old problem may be in a combination of traditional greenhouse knowledge and cutting edge vertical farming technology.

Indoor growing of high yield crops like leafy greens, tomatoes, and peppers has long been a way to increase yields per acre by extending the growing season well into the normally unproductive winter months.

In addition to the extended growing season, there are other notable yield increasing factors at play when talking about greenhouse based indoor growing. Pest and disease control are more straightforward, as access to external pathogens and organisms can be limited much more extensively than in an open field. As a result, greenhouse crops often do not require chemical pesticides or herbicides and are less likely to fail from fungal or bacterial illness.

Another major productivity boost can be seen in modern greenhouses and other indoor growing spaces. Vertical farming tools and techniques can increase crop yields per sq ft of indoor space many times over.  There are varying degrees of complexity and automation possible for vertical farming setups.  At it’s simplest, Vertical Farming is the practice of producing food in vertically stacked layers, or on vertically inclined surfaces. Conventional agriculture focuses on 1 layer of plants growing across a wide area, Vertical farming techniques plant upwards as well. Some systems can consist of racks or shelves containing plants that are many units high.

Vertical farming techniques and equipment can translate into a big productivity booster for existing greenhouse owners.  These techniques can also make non-conventional farming locations such as urban areas viable for commercial scale food production. When you are ready to expand your greenhouse business or start a new agricultural production facility,

The Canadian Grants Business Center can help.

Contact us now to find out more!