RavenQuest BioMed Inc (CNSX:RQB) (OTCMKTS:RVVQF) (FRA:1IT) is taking rotational growth technology to the next level. The Vancouver-based company’s ‘orbital gardens’ will use the previously only home-based growing method in its cannabis production facilities.

Cannabis LPs are looking for ways to take advantage of vertical growing space. Many are using racked shelves to maximize their square footage. RavenQuest’s orbital gardens are the first to do so while also using a cutting edge rotational technology.

While the technique has been used in commercially sold home growing chambers, RavenQuest is the first to use and prove the technology in a large scale LP. The grower positions plants in a 360 degree circle which vertically surrounds a central bulb.

RavenQuest’s goal has been to scale that rotational architecture to large-scale production facilities. To achieve this, the company’s orbital garden structure is 8 feet long, 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide. The growing surface of each tube is 82 square feet.

Moreover, the stackable design of each garden compounds the surface-to-footprint ratio even further.

RavenQuest’s facilities allow the company to stack six orbital gardens together. The company can grow a 500 square foot surface with just a 64 square footprint on the floor.

“There’s been an interesting phase of large producers who are building out massive facilities, which may or may not work out, depending on what the economics turn out to be. All that adds up to lower realized per-gram revenues for big producers, so that just highlights the importance of being able to produce efficiently.” – Mathieu McDonald, RavenQuest Corporate Communications

Huge Cost Cutting for RavenQuest

The technology serves as a major cost cutting measure for the company. While square footage is of ACMPR-licensed floor space is expensive for for LP’s to acquire and maintain, it gets at other costs too. With the innovative technique, the company can keep the costs of wages, electricity for the lighting, ventilation, and environmental systems low.

“These gardens reduce your electricity costs by 65 percent,” said McDonald, “because the plants rotate around one light.”

Moreover, The company’s orbital gardens cut nutrient costs by 90 percent. While the average 60,000 uses 40,000 litres of water per day, RavenQuest’s Orbital Garden design drips zero water to waste.

In terms of wages, a remote controlled human-machine interface controls the entire grow space. This furthermore diminishes the threat of infection and mildew from entering the grow space.

“The more people that go in and out of any grow room, the greater your risk is, as a producer, for infection. We’ve done security for several existing licensed producers, and with any given grow cycle we were seeing potentially hundreds of entries by individuals into the grow site.”

And, it seems the plants are taking to their new home design. The drums’ rotation seems to strengthen the plants, resulting in robust plants with thick stalks.

RavenQuest recently entered a research partnership with McGill University. Their research seeks to stabilize cannabis by identifying genetic markers for traits like height and flower expression and to focus on improving yields using orbital gardens.