Portable Marijuana Farm Gives New Meaning to "Mobile Technology"
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Inside GrowOp Technology's 'Big Bud' mobile hydroponics farm.
CREDIT: GrowOp Technology Ltd. |
It may look like a regular trailer from the outside, but on the inside, GrowOp Technology Ltd.'s "Big Bud" uses an array of advanced gadgets to create a self-contained, fully mobile, hydroponic marijuana farm. Special air conditioners control the temperature and humidity, robotic lights adjust as the plants grow and users can monitor their operation through their iPhone. Talk about your mobile technology.
With marijuana still illegal in most of the United States, weed on wheels is only one of the many functions these mobile farms can provide. By encasing the ability to grow a lot of plants quickly, these mobile units could provide relief organizations the ability to quickly bridge the gap between handing out aid and growing new food in disaster stricken areas, said Russel Winnett, manager of product development at GrowOp Technology.
"In Japan, a lot of their farms are destroyed, and food might be hard to attain. This is one of the areas where we see a prefab trailer like this might come into play," Winnett told InnovationNewsDaily.
To produce a quality agricultural product in such a small space, GrowOp Technology needs to find a technological replacement for every aspect of the environment. The air inside the 53-foot long trailers gets circulated through an internal air conditioning system, robotic lights raise, lower and pivot to provide the most efficient approximation of sunlight, and special pumps keep the air filled with three-times the natural level of carbon dioxide.
"All of the trailers share the same goal: create a controlled agricultural environment. You control the humidity, the light levels, the temperature, to control the efficiency and the product," Winnet said. "Some of the equipment we use creates a closed environment so you don't need to worry about pesticides. You don't have to worry about pests entering the environment, so you don't have to control them. You can go beyond what Mother Nature can provide. When you think about what Mother Nature does, its rainy one day, sunny the next. Plants don't like that."
Users can adjust the trailer's lights to their specific marijuana harvesting schedule. Additionally, a programmable nutrient injector can mix custom blends of up to eight nutrients into the plant's water supply.
Right now, the trailer's computer can only report back to the users smart phone with details about conditions within. However, GrowOp Technology's is currently working on an app that will let users adjust those perimeters from their phone or computer.
GrowOp Technology sells the Big Bud trailer for $79,900, and also sells a smaller version, the 24-foot "Little Bud" for $39,500.
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