Plant husbandry – Receptacle for growing medium – Sheet of plants
Patent
1998-01-21
1999-09-07
Price, Thomas
Plant husbandry
Receptacle for growing medium
Sheet of plants
47 658, A01G 902
Patent
active
059468548
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention concerns methods of soilless growth of plants using growth media in the form of bags containing a growth substrate that can be enriched with nutrients. The bags are placed side by side to constitute a mat on which the plants can grow.
The bags usually employed are made of impermeable plastics materials, for example as described in documents FR-A-2 402 401 and EP-A-0 230 799.
One possible use of such mats is to produce decorative flowerbeds in towns. It is then necessary to conceal the top surface of the bags by mulching, i.e. by laying down a decorative top layer. The problem is that the mulching top layer tends to slide over the smooth plastics material surface of the bag and, due to the progressive action of watering water or rain and wind, the bags are sooner or later uncovered, which is detrimental to the esthetics of the mat.
Document FR-A-2 680 948 describes a method of industrial manufacture of soilless growth mats in which a machine makes, in situ, a set of sleeves each made from strips of flexible material attached together at their lateral edges and containing a growth substrate. This document teaches cutting the sleeves to the required dimensions and then installing them at the required place. Transportation to and installation on a site are difficult because of the length of the sleeves. As the sleeves are not closed at their ends, substrate that is not retained by the roots can escape during transportation. The mulching layer is also easily blown away by the wind and carried away by surface water as it is not fixed to the mat, which is very smooth. The flexible material used transmits light and seedlings and does not oppose the premature growth of weeds. This method also requires costly, heavy and bulky tools that are difficult to use. It would seem virtually impossible to prefabricate the mats economically by this method. The same goes for the continuous sleeves of document WO-A-94 22287.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention proposes to design a new modular soilless growth medium based on bags that are easy to handle and contain a growth substrate and which of itself assures subsequent good retention of a mulching or decorative layer placed on the medium in use. The bags must be easy to handle so that they can be prefabricated and then transported to the site of use.
The problem is that the decorative layer is retained effectively only if the surface of the growth medium is highly irregular, preferably with direct contact between the mulch and the growth substrate, while manipulation and transportation of the bag necessitate a continuous and therefore smooth wall to prevent particles of the growth substrate escaping, which necessarily excludes subsequent direct contact between the mulch and the interior growth substrate.
To reconcile these contradictory requirements, the invention provides a bag having a special construction containing a growth substrate: during handling and transportation, the bag and formed of at least two associated materials comprising a wide-mesh first material adapted to assure good retention of a decorative layer subsequently placed on the medium and a second material that is rapidly biodegraded on exposure to water and temporarily blocks the mesh of said first material to retain the growth substrate temporarily during handling and transportation of the bag.
The second material can be chosen to degrade after 10 to 15 days of growth, for example.
In a first embodiment, the top wall is formed of at least two superposed sheets possibly sticked to each other comprising a wide-mesh first sheet of said first material and a second sheet of said rapidly biodegradable second material.
In a first variant, the first sheet forms the top wall outside layer. In this case the first sheet contributes to effective mechanical retention of the second sheet, which is generally more fragile because it is biodegradable.
In a second variant the second sheet forms the top wall outside layer. This favors access to inscriptions on the
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Bibollet Jean-Claude
Guillemain Fran.cedilla.oise
Guillemain Jean-Sylvain
Eilberg William H.
French III Fredrick T.
Guillemain Jean-Sylvain
Price Thomas
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