How To Build A Successful Plant Factory?

The development of indoor crop cultivation in plant factories is receiving increasing attention. Some investors believe that simply buying an empty warehouse and installing a plant growth lamp can produce a perfect lettuce product for profit, which often disappoints them. Next, let's share the important lessons that plant factory experts have learned in some successful plant factory projects.

Part 1: Suitable climate, lighting, and space

The key to the success of a plant factory is whether you have a grower and a deep understanding of indoor planting. New technologies and the Internet of Things bring significant opportunities for the development of plant factories, but without good growers, they will not be profitable. You can have good packaging and a very attractive marketing strategy, but ultimately the product itself will determine whether it is successful. Here are some key factors:
Crop selection
Lighting selection and design
Airflow design and environmental control
Plant planting density setting
Crop logistics and automation
Irrigation and nutrients
Data, sensors, controls and software systems
Matrix selection

Part II: Target Audience and Sales Channels

When we consider how to get the highest return on investment from a plant factory, we tend to focus on using the optimal light level (in moles or mol) in the facility to achieve the highest yield (in grams). Keep in mind that LED lighting is one of the highest parts of plant facility facilities and operating costs. Here are some valuable suggestions that can help you increase your lighting output and achieve higher yields.
Step 1: Determine the right climate
Many new plant growers tend to ignore the best climatic conditions for indoor planting. Assuming 50% of the electrical energy is converted into light, the other 50% is directly converted into heat. Proper air flow can remove this direct heat production, but the light absorbed by the crop is also indirectly converted to heat. Typically, crops remove this heat by evaporating water into the air, a process that causes the air to rise in humidity. In order to control the rise in humidity and temperature, it is necessary to start with the ventilation and air handling system of the plant factory. The lack of proper climate control and air handling systems can reduce crop yields, resulting in additional costs and later troubles for inefficient production.

Step 2: Set precise lighting
After getting the right climatic conditions, how can you get the highest yield based on this? To this end, we have conducted hundreds of indoor planting research projects focusing on the relationship between yield and optimal light intensity for a particular crop or variety. However, production is not always the most critical or only important. Let's take red oak lettuce as an example. When this lettuce is planted in the wild, it is red due to strong sunlight or large temperature difference, and its yield is lower than that of the corresponding green variety. When the same variety is grown indoors, most of it will remain green due to the absence of UV light, but it does grow rapidly and exhibits a growth comparable to or better than green products.

Step 3: Set the appropriate spacing
The indoor planting spacing strategy is another way to increase the yield/light output ratio. It is necessary to make room for the plants so that each plant can obtain the best amount of light and actually, provide the plants with fill light instead of on the growth rack. Understanding the ideal spacing avoids wasted investment in pitch-adjusting robots, which can be derived by comparing automation inputs with the yield gains.

I believe that through the sharing of our plant factory experts, everyone will have a deeper understanding of the plant factory. Want to know more about plant factories? You can browse the following articles:

《How To Grow The Plants With LED Grow Lights?》
《Winter Is Coming,How Can Indoor Plants Survive?》
《How To Improve The Output of Greenhouse Vegetables?》