Increasingly, cannabis cultivators and processors are receiving complaints from neighbors and warnings from local regulators about odor control. Denver is a case in point: The city recently passed an ordinance requiring that cannabis growers, as well as other non-cannabis businesses, eliminate odors rather than release them into the neighborhood’s air.
Urban-Gro recently released a product that can help: It’s called FOGCO; an odor control system for cannabis cultivation facilities. While FOGCO isn’t an exhaust system itself, it is designed to be added to an existing exhaust system to provide sufficient odor control. This keeps growers in compliance and out of trouble with neighbors.
All of the chemicals used in FOGCO are biodegradable. The product releases billions of atomized droplets through its high pressure fog system, which doesn’t affect plant growth and doesn’t enter the plant. So the chemicals don’t negatively affect product quality.
According to John Chandler, Urban-Gro’s Vice President of Cultivation, it might cost $8,000 to $10,000 to install FOGCO in a half-acre greenhouse. But, considering the fines that many localities are imposing in response to citizen complaints, investing in FOGCO could produce a strong return on investment.
Chandler reported that you can stand three feet from an outside exhaust vent on a grow facility with FOGCO and not smell cannabis at all.
In addition to odor control, FOGCO also acts as a humidifier, which can help offset heat from lights as well as add humidity to the grow room—something that’s very important in some climates.
“In colder places, such as Boston and north of there, where they do a lot of heating during the winter, the FOGCO system can be set up to add humidity without the water suppression chemical added to it,” Chandler said. “So it just adds fog—plain water—which helps with the overheating of plants.”
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