Vertical farming is becoming increasingly popular as people are realizing its potential as an effective tool of solving the world’s food problem. It is a type of farming that not only maximizes yields per square area, but also offers incredible cost savings especially when you consider the cost of space.
Physical Layout of Your Farm
Just because vertical farming allows for stacking of crops on top of each other does not mean that you can squeeze as many plants as you want. The layout that you settle for should be able to allow each plant to receive adequate light. It should also encourage better airflow within the space.
A poor layout will lead to a poor yield simply because the crops will have been starved of light. Since crowding makes it harder for air to move in the space, a layout that encourages crowding will make it harder for you to regulate the humidity and temperature of the space. As a result, in order to get the yields that you desire, you may have to spend extra on climate control equipment, something that may end up eating into your profits.
Your Choice of Grow Lights
Different crops have different lighting needs. As a result, you can only get a great yield when the spectrum of the vertical farming lighting solution that you are using on your farm is tailored to the needs of your crops.
Your choice of grow lights will also affect the odds of turning a profit. This is because of the fact that different lighting technologies command different prices. For example, fluorescent lights tend to be cheaper than HID lights. Therefore, if you have a few plants, going for fluorescent lights instead of HID lights will make more financial sense.
However, when determining which lighting technology to use, it is alway advisable that you consider the long term effects of the lighting on your day-to-day operational costs. This is because lights that cost less to purchase may end up leading to higher operational costs mainly because of their efficiency.
A good example is fluorescent lights. While these lights are usually the cheapest among commonly used grow lights, they tend to be more expensive to use on a vertical farm because when compared to LED grow lights, they are incredibly inefficient. And with some LED companies like led ibond manufacturing superior growing lights that last longer and are incredibly efficient, going for the cheaper fluorescent lights isn’t financially prudent.
Your Ability to Control Heat and Humidity
Plants thrive under specific conditions. In order to give the best yield possible, they need to grow under temperatures and humidity that is tailored to their needs.
Unfortunately, the grow lights that you use on your farm emit heat, and this heat will definitely affect the indoor temperature. Increased heat, and moisture that is produced as a byproduct of the plants’ natural biological processes, also lead to an increase in humidity. Both of these things could ruin your yield and as a result affect your farm’s financial viability.
Therefore,if you want to succeed in vertical farming, you need to figure out how to make it easier to control the environment in your farm. Making sure that the crops have adequate spacing, installing an aerator, and using a dehumidifier are some of the things that you can do to make it easier to control the climate in your farm.
However, while investing in climate control equipment and fixtures is great in that it increases the odds of getting a better yield, you should always keep an eye on your total costs. Trying to create a perfect environment for your crops could lead to the costs of running your farm getting out of control, and this could ruin its financial viability. It is because of this reason that it is generally advisable that you invest in energy-efficient lighting solutions like LED grow lights that do not produce a lot of heat.
