STUDY OF NEW TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTING DESIGN OF HOME USE PLANT FACTORY

Abstract

With growing demand of planting vegetables at home in China, home plant factory presents huge development potential and broad market prospect. In this paper, a new technology of plant factory for home use was described in this research. This technology is an improvement of conventional aeroponics and it cannot only help grow vegetables easily and quickly, but also requires less water and energy than conventional hydroponics. In the research,the UNPF (Ultrasonic Nebulizer Plant Factory) was compared with conventional hydroponics in the environment of indoor, and to discuss the technology application of the UNPF for the design of home plant factory. It was found that the Potherb Mustard and Lettuce grew better in UNPF than in control group. The growth of the Potherb Mustard expressed by plant longest leaf length and the number of leaves and dry weight was significantly affected by the culture system used. The Leaf number and the Dry weight of Lettuce had significant difference between the two systems. By taking comprehensive view of experiment result, we can see that the growth efficiency of vegetables in UNPF was better than conventional hydroponics. This technology brings innovative feature to plant factory and inspiration for designers because the design of plant factory are no more limited by the tank in the bottom, theoretically UNPF can be designed with any performance, such as round, spiral and column. The new technique brings innovative feature to plant factory and inspiration for designers.