Light Dep: How Much Time/resources Required Per Square Foot?

Douglas.C said:

I'm looking for general information on how resource intensive light dep can be.

What are the most common forms of light dep used and how many man hours per season does it use?

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This is my plan next growing season. Light dep gets pretty expensive but you also get 3 harvests per year instead of one, if in a greenhouse. I'm running a 12x20.. upgrading to a 24x24 light dep greenie tho.

Check out FFG light dep greenhouses

Oh God, NO, not Forever Flowering unless you're into getting ripped off.

@Douglas.C -- the person you need to discuss this with is @Blaze

Labor requirements are what you make them so if you make a pvc tunnel like 10x20' you'll need to pull that everyday at the same time and remove once dark everything CAN be automated but they don't always work and ppl hate getting seeds cause of light leaks and stuff like that. But it's basically the same as any other gardening method just requires blackout tarp

It's less intensive than indoor but more intensive than outdoor. You can build cold frames out of PVC and lumber for cheap and manually pull a black out tarp over it and get good results. If you want automation you are looking at a *very* expensive system and set up. The actually 'light depping' does not really take much time, maybe 15 minutes twice a day. The problem is that you *must* pull your covers consistently and reliably every day at the same time for months on end. Tends to get very tedious after a while...

Spoken from the *master* himself. Never done light dep but if I didn't have a timer for my lights I'd be screwed lol and that's just flipping a switch. You need the "tarp time" on point every day. So if you were planning vaca or wanted a day off you'll need to get automated and spend like 20-50k I think? Get a helper for days off or come up with a new plan. Cause once you commit to deping a run there is no turning back.

The Terps said:

Spoken from the *master* himself. Never done light dep but if I didn't have a timer for my lights I'd be screwed lol and that's just flipping a switch. You need the "tarp time" on point every day. So if you were planning vaca or wanted a day off you'll need to get automated and spend like 20-50k I think? Get a helper for days off or come up with a new plan. Cause once you commit to deping a run there is no turning back.

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Automatic systems usually cost almost as much as the greenhouse kit itself. So say if you are looking at a 20k greenhouse, expect the auto dep system to cost 15-20k. For something like a Forever Flowering or Gro Tech greenhouse you are probably going to spend at least $30 per square foot just for the kit - that doesn't include all the labor and additional supplies and materials to build it. If you are looking at an automatic kit assume that the final cost will be a least twice that amount - so a 60k Forever Flowering greenhouse will probably cost at least 120k if not more to build once finished. If you go 'all the way' and built it with engineering, permits, a slab, heating and cooling, etc figure on tripling that initial cost. There are a handful of companies that make dep systems now but I am always a little leery of any new product. It is really important that the automatic system is reliable, and most are not from what I have seen. Gro-Tech, Coneleys and Rimol seem to have their act together at this point.

Thank you for all the replies, greatly appreciated.

Blaze said:

The actually 'light depping' does not really take much time, maybe 15 minutes twice a day. The problem is that you *must* pull your covers consistently and reliably every day at the same time for months on end. Tends to get very tedious after a while...

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I can imagine. You say 15 minutes twice a day, what size greenhouse is this? General yield?

Seems like manual dep a lot of work, when you add it all up.

If you have something like a 'golden arm' or a pulley system to pull the tarp over your greenhouse, the size doesn't really matter too much as far as how long it takes. Go to one side of the greenhouse, pull it over. Go to the other side of the greenhouse, repeat. If you have multiple greenhouses then the time can start to add up.

The ffg s and grotechs are some of the only systems work everytime. Most of my clients that get one of these systems spend about a hour or two a day in the greenhouse. It makes life very easy, yes they are exspensive but one person can manage three times as much space as a normal hoop house.