Creating Grow Locations

If you have already checked out the My Crops section of the software, you can think of the Grow Location feature as a companion for it. My Crops defines what you grow, while Grow Locations defines where you grow it. Whether you're managing large fields, raised beds, greenhouses, hydroponic towers, indoor grow rooms, or even pastures for grazing and hay production, Grow Locations give you a flexible way to map, organize, and track the areas that make up your farm. You'll create them to define unique attributes like their size, planting format, and other characteristics, and then associate your plantings and animal grazing moves with them. You'll also be able to work with them to add notes, tasks, treatments, expenses, photos, and more! 

What Are Grow Locations?

Grow Locations represent any physical area where plants are grown or land is managed on your farm. They are fully customizable, allowing you to model your operation however you'd like.

Your Grow Locations might include:

• Traditional crop fields

• Raised beds or market garden plots

• Greenhouses, hoop houses, or high tunnels

• Hydroponic towers, flood tables, or vertical grow racks

• Indoor cultivation rooms

• Pastures for grazing livestock

• Fields planted for hay, rye, wheat, or other cover crops

There is no limit to how many Grow Locations you can create. You can define the areas of your property exactly as you use them in real life on your farm. These are foundational for your crop plan, reports, and more; you can update and edit them in the future if you want to add more. 

Creating Grow Locations

To start working with Grow Locations, navigate to Planting in the main menu and select Grow Locations.You';ll see any existing locations here, and the ability to create new ones. You can do that in 2 ways. 

• Use the New Location button to create one manually. We'll outline this process in the steps below, going over each step and all of your options. 
  
  
• Import multiple grow locations at once using a spreadsheet. You can read more about importing data here. All Farmbrite imports follow the same core concept, where you can upload a spreadsheet, map your data fields, and then review your successful records. 

Adding Grow Locations Manually

After clicking New Location, you'll see many fields for you to add data about this specific grow location. 

• Name - Name the field for your records; this identifies the field. 
• Internal ID - Another identifier, if you'd like to add a shorthand or numeric designation as well. 
• Electronic ID - This is used to scan a barcode for the field and work with it in Farmbrite. 
• Location Type - What is this location used for? Is it a field, greenhouse, grow room, or maybe a pasture for grazing? 
• Planting Format -  This option defines the layout and structure of your grow location. There are a few selections here for us to discuss. 
  • Planted in Beds - This option gives you "sublocations" to the main grow location. It is designed for "beds in a field", but could be used for racks in a hydroponic grow tower, sections of a greenhouse, or really any use where you need a "location within a location". You'll define the number of beds, and the size of each. A good example might be a market garden with separate beds for each crop, e.g. Tomato Bed 1, Pepper Bed B, etc. This also keeps track of the number of plants, not just the area planted. Note: You can edit and update the sizes later if not all beds are the same size. 
    
    
  • Cover Crop - Used for complete field coverage with no spacing, usually for a crop like wheat, rye, or barley. You might be broadcasting direct sown seeds for this type of field. It could also be used for a pasture where you graze animals that is planted with pasture grass. You won't track a plant quantity with this one, it is done by the amount of acreage/square area you have planted. 
    
    
  • Row Crop - Similar to a cover crop, but with a row width taken into account. This would be great for things like corn, beans, etc. If you have one large area divided into rows planted with the same crop type, this one is for you! This is also area based and generally used for planting large areas with a single crop. 
    
    
  • Other - If what we outlined above does not fit your situation, you can always create a generic grow location as "other". The plantings will be created based on plant count; you will manually enter the quantity of plants you have planted to track plantings in this location type. Maybe you have an Orchard with 24 apple trees and simply want to note that without having to define the spacing and rows for the trees. 

• Size - How large is the field? Define it by acres/hectares. 
• Value - Used for your Balance Sheet land value, you can add how much you think the field is worth so it gets added to your assets.
• Status - Are you currently using this field? Is it fallow, or have you maybe leased it to a neighbor? 
• Light Profile - How much light does this field get? 
• Grazing Rest Days - If you are using this grow location to graze animals, how many days should the field rest before it is grazed again? This will be indicated with a green or red highlight letting you know if it is ready to be grazed. 
• Description - A custom box for you to write whatever you want to describe this field! Add any additional details you might need to keep for it. 

Once you are done, click save and your Grow Location will be created. In our example below, you'll see us create a half acre field that contains 12 separate beds, each 50x5 feet for 250 sqft of planting area in each!

After saving, you'll have the option to map your grow location. This won't be required, but could be a nice visual companion to the location record. If you are ready, move on now to learn more about adding plantings to the location in this article.