초록 ▼

Nutrient feed regulation systems for automatic control of nutrient flow rates in controlled environment agriculture installations utilizing nutrient film techniques. Such control is provided by feed regulators each including means defining a metering orifice of fixed flow area and means establishing

Nutrient feed regulation systems for automatic control of nutrient flow rates in controlled environment agriculture installations utilizing nutrient film techniques. Such control is provided by feed regulators each including means defining a metering orifice of fixed flow area and means establishing a constant hydrostatic head across the metering orifice, thus enabling the maintenance of a constant nutrient flow rate to all plant growth containers in both vertically tiered and horizontally arrayed container configurations.

대표청구항 ▼

A nutrient film agriculture system comprising: (a) a plurality of elongated and horizontally sloped plant growth containers each accommodating a plurality of plants spaced along its length with the plant roots supplied with liquid nutrient by flow thereof along the bottom of the container in contact

A nutrient film agriculture system comprising: (a) a plurality of elongated and horizontally sloped plant growth containers each accommodating a plurality of plants spaced along its length with the plant roots supplied with liquid nutrient by flow thereof along the bottom of the container in contact with the plant roots; (b) a plurality of nutrient feed regulators each mounted adjacent the higher end of one of said plant growth containers and each comprising: (i) housing means defining a nutrient reservoir and further defining a nutrient inlet and nutrient feed and bypass outlets; (ii) means in said feed outlet defining a metering orifice for controlled flow of nutrient from said reservoir into the adjacent plant growth container in accordance with the metering orifice area and the hydrostatic pressure across said orifice; and (iii) reservoir level control means comprising a weir disposed between said feed outlet and said bypass outlet for bypassing such quantity of nutrient as necessary to control the reservoir level above said feed outlet; (c) and means for supplying nutrient liquid to the inlets of all of said feed regulators in quantities such as to produce bypass flow in each of said regulators to thus maintin constant the reservoir level therein and the hydrostatic head established thereby across said metering orifice thereby to maintain a predetermined nutrient flow rate to each of the plant growth containers of the system.