INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON POTENTIAL PRODUCTIVITY IN PROTECTED CULTIVATION JAPAN

In desert areas there are lots of sand storms and the air is laden with salts from the sea. Therefore, any plants to be grown has to be protected by growing them inside the greenhouses. In our case, the greenhouses have fiberglass sides and polythelene tops to provide maximum light penetration during the winter. In the Summer, the plastic is sprayed with a mixture of glue plus water plus gypsum for shading. The shading material could be washed easily from the plastic but not from the fiberglass. The greenhouses are evaporatively cooled by sea water.

The growing medium is composed of natural calcarious wind blown sands which results from the degrandation of sea shells and is composed from over 95% calcium carbonate. The PH is 8.2.

Since the sand does not contain any available nutrients to the plants, nutrients are dissolved in desalted irrigation water and supplied to the plants through a trickle irrigation system. Most of the plant beds are lined with plastic to conserve nutrients and water, plants are irrigated 3–4 times daily depending on the crops and stage of growth, each time the plant is irrigated a completely balanced nutrient solution is supplied.

Production of power and water is achieved by the use of diesel engines which give off excess heat through their exhaust. This excess heat is captured through the use of heat exchanges and used in desalting sea water. There are 3 diesel Blackstone Diesel Engines (400 KW/h each) and two desalting plants, are An Aqua Chem Desalting plant with 60000 gallons water per day capacity, and the second Malting Stage Flash (M.S.F.) plant is 65000 gallons per day capacity.

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