Plant husbandry – Process
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-13
2001-01-16
Lankford, Jr., Leon B. (Department: 1651)
Plant husbandry
Process
C435S243000, C435S244000, C435S254600, C111S118000, C422S032000, C210S760000, C210S764000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06173527
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method of treatment of agricultural top soil to increase the growth of living organisms, and in particular to a method of treating top soil with an ozone containing gas to increase the growth of plants in the top soil.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the agricultural industry, weeds, insects, nematodes, bacteria and other single celled or multi-celled living organisms in the top soil of a field, are killed immediately prior to growing crops, for example by application of methyl bromide. Methyl bromide destroys living cells once transported across the cell walls. However, methyl bromide is being phased out of agricultural use due to deleterious effect on the ozone layer of earth and due to a hazard to human health.
Ozone dissolved in aqueous solutions (also called “aqueous ozone”) is used for inhibition or reduction of biological life forms such as molds, fungi, bacteria, algae, in numerous applications including swimming pools, potable water, bottled water, aquaria, fish hatcheries, and cooling towers. However, application of aqueous ozone to soil is not expected to be effective to kill living organisms because aqueous ozone has the drawback of slow dispersion of water into and through the soil of a field. Also, aqueous ozone suffers from rapid breakdown of ozone, so that maintaining sufficiently high concentrations of ozone in the water in soil can be difficult. Aqueous ozone has a half life on the order of minutes in ambient conditions.
Moreover, according to traditional thinking, if gaseous ozone were used for soil treatment, ozone would quickly dissolve in the entrapped soil moisture and rapidly break down. Furthermore, conventional thinking suggests that dispersion of gaseous ozone would be inhibited by the compacted, compressed nature of soil in a field or that untoward emissions of ozone gas would escape from a field into the atmosphere and so minimize ozone's effectiveness. Traditional thinking also indicated that the sometimes high concentration of naturally occurring organic compounds in soil close to the surface of a field can consume large amounts of ozone and so result in insufficient exposure of living organisms to ozone.
To “increase the stability of the ozone in the soil environment,” prior art teaches that an “ozone containing gas is treated with acid” (see abstract of U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,943 to Wickramanayake). Regarding untreated ozone, Wickramanayake states that “long-term treatment of soils to remove contaminants with untreated ozone is not feasible since ozone decomposes too rapidly” (column 6, lines 31-33), and that “ozone that was not acidified was not expected to be useful especially for the treatment of larger quantities of soils” (column 8, lines 25-27).
Wickramanayake also states that his “treatment results in degradation of the organic compounds to less hazardous compound or compounds that are more readily biodegradable than the parent compound” (column 1, lines 14-17). Wickramanayake further states that “[a]fter the decontamination process, if the soil is found to be too acidic, the pH may be increased to the required level by applying unacidified gas ozone mixture for some time” (column 9, lines 65-68).
However, for “field applications,” Wickramanayake requires “injecting of a stabilized gas-ozone mixture . . . into one or more injection wells in the contaminated areas. The distribution of the well bank is to be determined by the effective ozonation zone in the subsurface” (column 9, lines 45-50). In contrast, U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,627 describes the “agricultural use of ozone (O
3
) to sanitize, i.e. kill or weaken living organisms in top soil suitable for plant growth purposes” (column 2, lines 31-34). See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,635.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the invention, ozone in gaseous form is injected into top soil that is suitable for plant growth purposes (in a step called “top soil ozonation”) to increase the growth of plants in the top soil. The injected ozone creates byproducts, e.g. by oxidizing molecules (also called “parent molecules”) in the top soil.
The byproducts are smaller than (and in some embodiments carry more electrical charge than) the parent molecules. The byproducts increase the growth of plants (such as chlorophyll-deficient plants e.g. fungi, or chlorophyll-bearing plants e.g. tomatoes) by several times (e.g. 64 times) as compared to the parent molecules. Specifically, the smaller size and the greater charge of a byproduct are believed to cause a byproduct to more easily interact with (e.g. be digested by) living cells of a plant, as compared to the parent molecule. The interaction can be by (1) stimulation wherein the byproduct contacts a cell wall of the plant, or (2) nutrition wherein the byproduct passes through the cell wall of the plant and gets assimilated, or both.
In an example of stimulation, the byproducts of top soil ozonation cause growth of fungi that in turn cause an increase in the growth of chlorophyll-bearing plants. In another example of stimulation, a byproduct causes growth of a first fungus that is fungicidal to a second fungus that in turn is pathogenic to plants (e.g. tomato) to be grown in the top soil. In yet another example of stimulation, certain molecules in the top soil bind and retain various compounds, and the bound compounds are released on ozonation of the top soil. Such released compounds have, on the whole, a stimulatory effect on various living organisms (although depending on the soil composition some of the released compounds can be toxic to plant cells).
In examples of nutrition, molecules that occur naturally in top soil, such as organic and inorganic compounds, are broken down by ozone into byproducts that are consumed as nutrients by plants grown in the top soil. Moreover, on ozonation, organic compounds that contain nitrogen release ammonia that acts as a nutrient for chlorophyll-bearing plants or fungi or both.
The above-described ozonation of top soil can be performed (1) prior to seeding or planting (e.g. at the time of fertilization), or (2) after seeding or planting or (3) both. Moreover, top soil ozonation can be used in conjunction with traditional agricultural operations such as (1) tilling, (2) applying microorganisms to the soil, (3) fertilization, (4) irrigation, (5) sowing seeds or transplanting plants, (6) spraying herbicides or pesticides, and (7) harvesting crops.
Also, ozone has a negligible deleterious effect on the environment because ozone breaks down into simple diatomic oxygen on reaction with an organic or inorganic compound or due to ozone's inherent instability. Hence, ozonation of top soil as described herein can be applied repeatedly, as often as necessary. Top soil ozonation can be performed once per season or even several times per season. Therefore, ozonation of top soil to increase the growth of plants as described herein is functionally effective, environmentally benign, and easy to use.
In one embodiment, a gas (hereinafter “ozone containing gas”) that contains ozone and a carrier gas is generated by an ozone supplier, and is injected through a soil injector into the top soil. The ozone supplier can be moved over the field by a structure, such as a trailer or a vehicle. The ozone supplier includes an ozone containing chamber in one implementation, and a corona ozone generator in another implementation. The ozone containing gas can be injected into the top soil immediately subsequent to ozone generation. Alternatively, the ozone containing gas can be injected after pretreatment to stabilize the ozone, thereby causing byproducts to be generated over a larger distance from the point of application, as compared to the distance for untreated ozone.
In another embodiment, the ozone containing gas is injected into top soil using an arrangement of conduits buried in a field. Such an arrangement of conduits allows easy, timely, and frequent application of ozone, and is especially suited for multiple ozone treatments of top soil during a growing season when field a
Lankford , Jr. Leon B.
Skjerven, Morrill, MacPherson, Franklin & Friel LLP
Soilzone, Inc.
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