Designing and building a research greenhouse can be tremendously complex. The endeavor involves unique needs that are often underestimated and have a major impact on the success of a project. The requirements include much more than a typical agricultural production greenhouse.

There are a number of critical considerations project owners must address when developing a quality greenhouse plan to deliver a functional, flexible research facility. They can be classified into three main groups: crop, purpose/function, and location. When you and your greenhouse design and construction company (or full-service AgTech consulting firm) plan for each of these areas, you can streamline your project – which means saving time and money.

Optimal Greenhouse Design and Cost

What Are Your Crop Needs?

The most involved element to consider when building a greenhouse is the crop you will be growing. All plants come with their own requirements for temperature, humidity, photoperiod, light intensity, day-light-integral (DLI), irrigation, fertilization, soil requirements, etc. So, building a one-size-fits-all greenhouse is not going to yield optimal results. The following list highlights just a few of the many specifics you should incorporate into your planning.

Types and number of crops. The greenhouse you design for a single crop will be different from a greenhouse built to house multiple dissimilar crops. As you add the ability to accommodate more dissimilar crops in the same facility, the cost of intrinsic flexibility of the greenhouse design and construction will increase.

Heating and Humidity. Each crop has its requirements for optimal plant growth. Environmental controls such as temperature, airflow, and humidity within the greenhouse become critical specific to the type of crop you are growing. Depending on the location of the greenhouse, heaters or air conditioners may be needed to keep crops comfortable. For example, some plants do not flower until the temperature drops below a certain level. So any facility designed to grow those types of plants will need to be able to vernalize. Other crops like corn thrive with temperatures in the 80s during the day and in the 60s and 70s at night.

Lighting. Most plants have optimal light levels and day-light-integral (DLI). It is important to understand the requirements for your specific crops to be able to design your greenhouse correctly. The number of supplemental lights and how they are controlled and operated will be determined by understanding your crop’s light needs.

Growing media. Some crops grow well in sandy soil. Others need a richer clay mixture. And still, others thrive in hydroponic pods. The nature of your research and the crop you are working with will determine what works best for your specific variety of crops. It is important to understand that certain types of growing media will require specialized spaces that must be factored into your facility’s design.

Carbon dioxide. Maintaining adequate levels of CO2 for your research and your crop will help you adequately time your greenhouse growth cycle.

Space and layout needs. There are associated space and layout needs that go along with the type of crop you are growing. Height is another factor to think about. The height needs of corn will be vastly different than a greenhouse growing Arabidopsis for plant research.

l What is the Purpose of Your Greenhouse?

l  What is the Location for Your Greenhouse?    （Next article）

The diffuse glass and AR-coated diffuse glass produced by Yuhua have cooperated with many large commercial greenhouses in agriculture, horticulture, nurseries and experiments. We have cooperated with large greenhouse project companies such as Havecon, Van Der Hoeven, Kubo, etc. for many years. Yuhua greenhouse glass has a light transmittance of up to 99%, and haze 5/10/20/30/50/70/75 greenhouse diffuse glass is available!

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