Fodder Systems come in a variety of designs as you will see below. At first, it can be a bit daunting to try and classify all of the diffrent designs of Hydronic Fodder Growing systems and to understand the difference between them all. An easy way to classify the systems and the main difference between them is by the irrigation method that they use.
One is the Overhead irrigation systems, or in the hydroponic world known as Foliar feeding.
Two is the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) systems, where water runs through the seed to flood and drain or it is recycled.
Out of all of the systems we have built and tested in various countries around the world, our team prefers the overhead irrigation systems and seeding on large trays, for various reasons such as:
- Simple process of construction
- Low cost of construction.
- Ease of maintenance.
The overhead irrigation sprays can be used as climate control to raise or lower the temperature and humidity of the systems.
They are easy to scale up for more production.
Easy to seed … Easy harvest … Extremely ergonomic.
Nutrient film technique
The nutrient film technique (NFT) is similar to the ebb and flow system in that it utilizes a pump to move nutrients in a continuous, constant flow.
The difference with NFT is that the solution flows directly over the roots.
The nutrient film technique use shallow tubes that are slightly angled so that the pump moves the nutrient solution to the higher portion of the system.
The nutrient solution gradually moves by gravity to the lower portion.
NFT if done correctly can produce great yields of hydroponic fodder.
The down side in our opinion is the labour intensive harvesting of the fodder and reseeding of these systems.
In other words we find they are not as ergonomic as a Tray based system.
Fodder Wheel
The fodder wheels are like a Ferris wheel type or arrangement.
The downside to these systems are that they only produce a small yield in the same amount of space as a tray based systems due to the large areas unused between the trays.
Conveyor Based systems
Conveyors based systems sounds great and sound like they will be virtually labour free.
The downsides are the high start up costs due to the components that need to be used in a high humidity environment.
They are fantastic when they are new and if the preventative maintenance routine is kept up.
Unfortunately it only take a couple of months and then the components start to fail.
And the components are expensive
Robotic System
Again , The downsides are the high start up costs due to the components that need to be used in a high humidity environment.
They are fantastic when they are new and if the preventative maintenance routine is kept up.
Unfortunately it only take a couple of months and then the components start to fail.
And the components are expensive
There are also other styles that are not quite common for fodder production, but more for human consumption sprouting systems
such as the tumbling drums for broccoli sprouts and tumbling malting drums.