How to Prepare Your Cannabis Greenhouse for Maximum Quality

Posted by Brian Sparks|May 22, 2023

Photo: Fluence

When light levels increase in the greenhouse, a cannabis crop will adapt. But how? A recent blog post from Fluence highlights the key elements needed to prepare a greenhouse environment for cannabis cultivation. In order to successfully cultivate cannabis, growers will need to understand how cannabis grows, the relationship between environmental variables, and how to effectively manage vapor pressure deficit (VPD) at different energy levels.

There are a number of environmental variables that play an essential role in cannabis cultivation. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and vapor pressure deficit are two important variables that greatly impact the cultivation of cannabis.

Dr. Nadia Sabeh, president and founder of Dr. Greenhouse Inc., says HVAC requirements change intricately when you increase light intensities in your environment. She recommends calculating the thermal conditions of a facility by addressing the facility size, heating sources, and moisture sources. This analysis ultimately leads to the management of VPD, which is the measurement of the difference between saturation vapor pressure inside cells and the vapor pressure of a room’s air at a given temperature and humidity level. VPD affects how plants cool themselves by releasing moisture into the air, otherwise known as transpiration. When VPD is high, transpiration is rapid, in comparison, when VPD is low, transpiration is slow. Transpiration critically affects the diurnal balance of heat and moisture in the cultivation space.

Learn more in this blog post on Fluence.Science.