Vendor Teardown 02 — Tables & Layout

Source: 04_tables_layout.jpeg + 07_pricing_offer.pdf

Read (equipment spec)

Pricing offer fills the gaps

The pricing offer resolves the "unspecified" entries and gives line-item prices:

New information: vegetative table is 3.5 × 1.2 m with two 100 cm-height levels, not 4.5 × 1.2 m as I had inferred. This revises the veg canopy calc from 10.8 m² down to 8.4 m² (2 × 4.2 m²).

Vegetative level spacing (100 cm + 100 cm): 100 cm floor-to-shelf is generous for veg (plants are 40–60 cm tall during veg), and the upper shelf has 100 cm clearance to the ceiling — leaves room for the 50 W LED fixtures and under-shelf fans.

Tables at €729 for 4.5 × 1.2 m: this is reasonable for a commercial ebb-and-flow or flood table. Genuine Botanicare / Active Aqua versions are €900–1 400 — vendor is using an AliExpress / Chinese equivalent at the lower end.

Drainage at €75 per system × 6: these are trough/gully collectors for drain-to-waste runoff, one per table. Matches the "per-table drainage" reading — not "per-room". Good.

Canopy math

• Per flowering room: 3 × (4.5 × 1.2) = 16.2 m²
• Two flowering rooms: 32.4 m² total flowering canopy
• Vegetative (assuming similar table): 4.5 × 1.2 × 2 levels = 10.8 m² veg canopy
• Mothers: unspecified — probably ~6–8 m²

Canopy coverage of the flowering room: 16.2 m² / 24.0 m² = 67 %. Good practice range is 60–75 %, so the vendor is at the upper end — productive but aisles will be tight and walking between canopies during IPM (integrated pest management) inspections is going to be slow.

Finding 1 — Table fit is borderline

Room is 4.53 m × 5.30 m. Tables are 4.5 m × 1.2 m.

• Lengthways along 5.30 m wall: 4.5 m table + 0.8 m total end clearance → workable.
• Across the 4.53 m direction: 4.5 m table + 3 cm end clearance → not workable.

Three tables × 1.2 m = 3.6 m of canopy across the 5.30 m wall. Remaining 1.7 m of floor width is split across four aisle positions (outer + 3 gaps) → ~42 cm per aisle. A person can squeeze through but a wheeled IPM cart cannot, and lollipopping large plants becomes an exercise in contortion.

Recommendation for either vendor or DIY build: drop to 2 tables of 4.5 m × 1.5 m (14.85 m² canopy, 93 % yield of the 3-table layout) for workable 60 cm aisles. Or keep 3 tables but shorten to 4.0 m × 1.2 m (14.4 m² canopy) for the same aisle improvement. The 3-of-full-length layout is a yield-maximising fiction.

Finding 2 — "6 drainage systems" is ambiguous

Two plausible readings:

• Per-table drainage: 3 flowering tables × 2 rooms = 6 drain systems. Most consistent with a drain-to-waste commercial build — each table has its own catch basin and runoff capture for root-zone EC monitoring.
• Per-room drainage: 1 flower + 1 flower + 1 veg + 1 mothers + 1 dry + 1 wet = 6.

Table-level drainage is more expensive but gives the grower per-table runoff EC/pH data, which is essential for catching a dying section before it becomes a crop-wide problem. The customer should confirm which the vendor means.

Finding 3 — Vegetative "2 levels" needs clarification

Two-level vegetative = vertical stacking, which works well for a 4-week veg cycle where plants are short. But:

• Each level needs its own lighting (the 24 × 50 W LED count makes sense: 12 per level, 2 levels)
• Each level needs its own drainage or a shared sloped catchment
• The lower level needs under-shelf ventilation — not in the air circulation spec

The vendor spec for vegetative air circulation is "2 + 2 fans". If each level gets one pair, that's 2 fans per ~5.4 m² level — adequate for a short veg canopy but requires the lower level not to be blocked by the table above, which means the stack must have ≥50 cm vertical gap. Confirm.

Confirmations still needed from vendor

1. Drainage: per-table or per-room?
2. Vegetative level spacing and per-level fan arrangement.
3. Aisle plan drawn on the flowering rooms — can a wheeled cart get through?
4. Mothers table dimensions.