Rethinking Climate Control in an Age of Fast Growth

It’s not news. Everyone knows as cannabis legalization spreads, the industry is exploding. What does warrant talking about, however, is the trend toward larger production spaces as growers go commercial to meet skyrocketing demand. This year’s “State of the Growing Environment Report” seems to demonstrate this. Take, for example, that the average size of respondents’ cannabis canopy is 44,300 square feet, up from an average of 34,700 square feet as reported in Cannabis Business Times’ 2019 “State of the Cultivation Market Report” and 25,600 square feet from the same report in 2018. In an industry known for pioneering innovative ways to grow plants in any conditions, this is yet another reality that requires new ways of thinking, fast.

With growth comes opportunity—and increasing complexity for maintaining balanced indoor and greenhouse environments. Mitigating temperature swings, air pockets and moisture from thousands of plants transpiring in the same room gets even more complicated with each additional plant, light fixture and square foot. The consequences of getting it wrong can be devastating.

Yet support for managing these elements at scale, as well as access to equipment engineered specifically to balance growing environments, hasn’t been as quick to expand. In fact, this year’s results show that of the top five greatest challenges growers report in their operation, three are linked to unbalanced growing environments: temperature control, humidity control, and pest and disease control.

We’re not surprised. A holistic understanding of what leads to issues like these—and tools built with that in mind—is required to get us where we want to go as an industry. It’s why we’ve focused on expanding our technical services team, selecting market-leading partners like Quest with purpose-built portfolios, and improving education to empower growers with what they need to change the game.

Hawthorne is proud to support Cannabis Business Times’ first-ever “State of the Growing Environment Report.” While we believe in furthering the industry by gathering data and insights, that alone is not enough. To truly propel our industry forward, we must share those insights to help growers everywhere seize the opportunities of today and build the industry of tomorrow.