Creative Edge Nutrition Inc (FITX)

[newmedman]

Indoor growing
Indoor cultivation is water intensive, especially when done hydroponically. An estimate cited by Botec said a 240 square-foot growing room would take about 40 gallons of water per day, or about 98 inches of water per year.
So far, most growers seem fine with staying indoors, according to Brian Smith, a Liquor Control Board spokesman.
Based on a quick check of 260 pending applications, 30 percent are for outdoor grows, he said.
Marco Hoffman — the manager of Evergreen Herbal, which has also applied to grow in Kittitas County — plans on building indoors.
“There’s infinite ways to skin this cat,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said he expects most of the initial growing operations in Washington will be indoors.
“However, I think that the paradigm has shifted and what you’re going to see moving forward is more traditional commercial agricultural techniques being implemented,” he said.
His plans call for a set of raised soil beds inside a greenhouse, which he said will require less water.
His estimate is 4 million gallons of water annually for every 100,000 square feet of canopy space.
The state originally planned to offer growing licenses for farms up to 30,000 square feet, but since cut the cap to 21,000 square feet. Even at the older, higher number, the largest single farms would have about half an acre, which is about the size of a football field, according to the liquor control board. Applicants can apply for multiple licenses, but can’t hold more than a third of the licenses allotted in one county.
On a 21,000-square-foot field, Hoffman’s estimate, like Graham’s, comes out to about 840,000 gallons of water annually.
Hoffman said the land he hopes to use has a water right.
“With the raised bed system, that water just gets reused. It drains out, it ends up recaptured again and we reuse it again,” he said. “As far as water efficiency, raised beds and hydroponics are much more efficient than planting directly into the soil.
Since growing space is so limited, traditional crop rotation would hurt efficiency. Raised beds would allow growers to easily remove, replace or add amendments to the soil as needed.
http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/members/determining-marijuana-s-effect-on-local-agriculture-figuring-out-water/article_0afd517a-b6e0-11e3-9e45-001a4bcf887a.html