Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 6.5
NFT Wall Garden growing strawberries. (Courtesy of American
Hydroponics, Arcata, California.)
channel to the next with a drainpipe to the next lower channel and finally a
return line to the nutrient reservoir. A submersible pump can circulate the
solution to the top channel and drain from the bottom one. Three to four
tiers of channels would be enough with about 16 to 18 inches between the
NFT channels. This would, of course, be for summer use in your backyard.
This system would use the standard 2 × 4 inch gullies.
American Hydroponics also has a 612 Herb/Lettuce NFT System that
is designed for a small commercial grower or a hobby grower with a large
appetite for lettuce and herbs. This unit measures 6 × 12 feet on a bench
34 to 38 inches high (Figure 6.6). It has eight 2 × 4 inch finishing gullies
with 18 holes each for a total of 144 plant sites and two 2 × 4 inch nursery
gullies with 144 plant sites, which allow you to rotate new seedlings into
the system with less space occupied. The finishing channels have 1¾-inch
holes at 8-inch centers and the nursery channels have these same diameter
holes at 2-inch centers. For a price of approximately $1500 the kit has
the 10 channels, the plumbing, galvanized steel table frame, submersible
pump, and a 35-gallon reservoir with cover.
Another company, North American Hydroponics, makes small NFT
systems from PVC pipes. They come in various sizes from a single pipe
system for 6 to 11 plants (Figure 6.7) for about $400 to larger systems con-
sisting of 6 pipes each holding 11 plant sites (total of 66 plants) (Figure 6.8)
for about $1500. The modular design of the system allows any size sys-
tem to be assembled. The reservoir is the PVC pipe base of the growing
channels so when expanding the number of channels, the reservoir is also
