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The aim of this research is to design and test an appropriate hydroponic system for pepper production in Upper Egypt to overcome the problems associated with expensive models that used high technology. The designed system has the following advantages: simple, available to all people in the upper Egypt to set up, fabricated from commercial available materials in the local market and easy to operate and maintain. The system was installed and tested on the roof ( area 10 m2:5 m length x 2 m height, covered with 20 m2 theran sheet to reduce hazard of sun radiation and high temperature on healthy plant growth and production ) building of Agricultural Engineering Department, Al Azhar University, Assiut branch through two seasons 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, for high quantity and quality pepper crop production with two irrigation cycles number 5 and 10 (cycle time of 15 min.), Flow rates (1.5, 2 and 2.5 L/min), and EC (electrical conductivity 2 and 3 mmhos/cm) with pH range of 5.5 - 6.0. The main results showed that the optimum conditions for pepper crop “Bigmami” production by using the designed HYDROPONIC system were: flow rate of 2 L/min, electrical conductivity “EC” of 3 mmhos/cm and irrigation cycle number of 10 /day. The results obtained in optimum conditions were: Average root length per plant = 18.6 cm, Average total leaves area = 8290.4 cm2,average total fruits yield = 6.0 kg / plant, Maximum consumptive water use = 18 L / plant/season, Average water use efficiency = 333 g / L , and the cost of produce 1 kg of pepper fruits was 1.27 L.E.. |
