NFT CONTROLLED – ENVIRONMENT FACTORS AFFECTING PRODUCTION OF GREEN FODDER

A Nutrient-Film Technique NFT and A semi- Environmental control chamber were used to detect the effect of slope and environmental parameters affecting the NFT. The environmental parameters are : concentration of the nutrient solution NS , lighting type and light exposure and air change per hour. Four slopes were tested ; from: 5 to 25%. Three concentrations were tested: from: 0.5 to 1.5% in addition to tap water as control. Three types of lighting were tested: light- emitting diodes (LEDS) , fluorescent lamps and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLS) in addition a natural light as control. Four lighting times were tested: from: 6 to 24 h/day. Four airing rates were tested: from 30 to 60 times per hour. The optimal parameters for transplanting fodder are: the slope of NS channel of 5%, the feed pump discharge of 4.66 L/min under cultivating density of 1.6 kg/m^2 and the discharge corresponds to an empirical depth and an empirical speed of the NS(measured from a previous study of NFT unit without cultivation, Mosallam et al.,2015) this depth and this speed are 3mm 0.1m/s , respectively, concentrations of the nutrient solution 1 % , lighting type :light-emitting diodes (LEDS) , lighting exposure: 12h/day and air change rate of 40 times/h.