Development and implementation of cooling system in a controlled environment for romaine lettuce crop

• Main Author: Magsumbol, Jo-Ann V.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Lettuce > Effect of temperature on; Greenhouses > Climate; Greenhouses > Environmental engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5437
• Institution: De La Salle University

Temperature extremes brought about by climate change has great impact in the production of crops worldwide. With the advent of technology, several methods have been developed to adapt to an ever changing world climate. One of these is to provide a microclimate technology that can provide an environment suitable for the growth and development of a plant all year round. Among the abiotic growth factors that has a major impact on crop production is temperature, and temperature variations plays a very vital role in growing lettuce crop. Different cooling techniques could be applied to control microclimatic parameters particularly air temperature. Appropriate microclimatic air temperature should be available inside the growth chamber, for optimum yield and fruit quality of a crop, considering energy efficiency, as well. Lettuce is one of the most in demand crop worldwide, since it is a major ingredient of an all-time favorite green salad, thus production must at least be maintained or much better if the supply in the market would be increased. Since lettuce, is a temperature sensitive crop, a cool season crop, it is advisable that it will be grown in a controlled environment. Thus, the focus of this research is to provide an environment that can monitor and control the temperature inside a Bamboo-style greenhouse for growing lettuce crop. The input parameters that will be used to monitor and control microclimatic conditions are growth stage of the lettuce crop, inside air temperature and time of the day. Based on these parameters, fuzzy logic system will be used to make decisions to control the temperature setting and fan speed of the air-conditioning unit inside the chamber.