Nutrient film technique (NFT)

A thin recirculating film of nutrient solution flowing over bare roots in shallow channels. Efficient, scalable, water-thrifty — and completely dependent on a running pump. A power cut is a crop-loss event measured in hours.

In resilience terms this is Tier 2: worth running for the yield, but only once the failure modes are designed for — battery backup, fail-safe reservoir, or acceptance that the crop is the price of an outage.

Start here — 5 curated links

NFT system design fundamentals Extension guide edis.ifas.ufl.edu

Channel slope, flow rates and spacing from trial data, not folklore.
Home-scale NFT build with failure-mode planning Video youtube.com

One of the few builds that treats power loss as a design input rather than bad luck.
NFT vs DWC vs Kratky — honest comparison Article scienceinhydroponics.com

Chemistry-literate comparison of the three main home approaches.
Pump sizing and redundancy thread Community reddit.com/r/hydro

Real-world pump lifespans and what actually fails first.
Commercial NFT crop scheduling Research cea.cals.cornell.edu

How the professionals stagger plantings for continuous harvest.

entry added 2026-06-05 · links last verified 2026-06-18 · 5 links