Monitoring Environmental Factors Associated with Indoor Growth Chambers and Greenhouses for Cannabis Cultivation

Abstract

Greenhouse cultivation has no seasonal limitations and research is being conducted globally to assess control of environmental factors within greenhouses to optimize growing conditions. Attempts to improve the environmental factors in greenhouse cultivation include control of temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, carbon dioxide level, and air flow rate. Furthermore, indoor cultivation systems (growth chambers) have been developed and researched for comparison with greenhouse cultivation. In our study, comparative environmental data were collected in association with cannabis cultivation for a greenhouse and growth chamber, since commercial cannabis cultivation can include such methods. Accordingly, the data in this research were collected by choosing the same cannabis cultivars for both cultivation methods and by controlling the internal growing environments that affected cultivation. Data also were collected on the plant biochemical properties over the same time period and the collected data were analyzed using psychrometric charts. The findings of this research show that if the internal environment of the indoor cultivation method is well-regulated, better results in cannabidiol (CBD) extraction from blossoms can be achieved as compared to greenhouse cultivation, in which environmental regulation is less precise. Therefore, we conclude that if we can control the internal environment of greenhouse cultivation to be similar to the indoor cultivation method, the productivity of the two methods should be similar. The findings of this research can be used to develop greenhouse cultivation methods for other plants in order to improve future productivity and efficiency.