Plant husbandry – Receptacle for growing medium – Irrigator
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-21
2002-05-21
Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3644)
Plant husbandry
Receptacle for growing medium
Irrigator
Reexamination Certificate
active
06389751
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of cultivating a plant using a subirrigating method and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method of cultivating a plant using a subirrigating method, which continuously provides the root of the plant with a nutritive solution and air, thereby maintaining their growth environments in optimum conditions.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In general, methods of cultivating ornamental plants or edible plants includes a culture medium cultivation method of planting and growing the plants in culture medium and a nutriculture method of providing the plants with a nutritive solution mixed with nutrients required for the growth of plants. The culture medium cultivation method uses general soil or artificial culture medium. Conventional methods of planting do not rapidly grow plants because their roots are not actively provided with moisture, nutritive substances and air. Accordingly, the nutriculture method of supplying the nutritive solution mixed with the nutritive substances needed for the growth of the plant is employed when a forcing culture or special culture is required. The nutriculture method includes a water culture which grows the plant, their roots directly being in contact with the nutritive solution, and a culture medium culture which plants the plant in the culture medium to be supported. In the culture medium culture, a method for supplying the nutritive solution required for the growth of the plant includes a spray irrigation of spraying water down on the leaves of the plant, a dipping method of dropping water only on the root of the plant, and a subirrigation of supplying water to the plant from the bottom of them.
In conventional spray irrigation, a portion of constituents included in the nutritive solution may affect the leaves of the plant when it comes into contact with them. Furthermore, this method must precisely control the period of supply of water required for the roots. Drip irrigation requires equipment for dropping the nutritive solution only on the root of the plant, resulting in the demand for an additional expense for the equipment. This method also has the inconvenience of precisely controlling the time of supplying water required for the root of the plant.
The subirrigating method which provides water only to the root of the plant when it is required is effective and practical because it does not need lots of equipment and allows the roots to breathe. The root of the plant should be provided with air together with water, to be able to breathe, thereby being grown normally or even rapidly. Accordingly, it is very important that the roots are supplied with sufficient air together with moisture in cultivating the plant with the nutriculture using the subirrigating method. As described above, to cultivate the plant using the subirrigation requires various environments. These environments cannot be obtained when an artificial culture medium used for the general nutriculture is employed. Thus, the subirrigating method cannot be effectively applied.
Conventionally, the plant is cultivated, being planted in the artificial culture medium filled in a container having a predetermined shape, such as planting pot or flowerpot. When it is required that the seed or seedling of the plant grows in the artificial culture medium and then they are transferred to be planted in other places, the artificial culture medium should be changed because it does not have a predetermined shape. The conventional artificial culture medium is in the bulk state as the general soil, or easily crushed even if it has a specific shape. Thus, the artificial culture medium in which the plant is planted cannot be moved. Accordingly, in case of a flower garden which produces flowering plants, the seeds or seedlings of the flowering plants should be grown in a producing district from the beginning. Thus, the flowering plants cannot be produced from the producing district until their seeds or seedlings are completely grown. This problem is caused by difficulty in moving the culture medium in which the grown flowering plants are planted to other places.
Meanwhile, the plant growth needs sufficient air as well as moisture and nutrients. That is, the subirrigating method requires time for the roots to breathe. The roots may be damaged when they do not breathe for several minutes in an extreme case although it depends on the season, temperature and kind of plant. Accordingly, the nutritive solution and air must be alternately supplied to the root of the plant with the precise supplying time in order to effectively cultivate the plant using the subirrigation.
For this, there has been proposed a method constructed in such a manner that a space through which the nutritive solution is supplied is prepared under a planting pot and the nutritive solution is provided or discharged through the space with a predetermined period of time, or planting pots where plants are planted are arranged on the nutritive solution filled in a container at a predetermined interval and a wick having a good moisture absorptiveness is inserted into the lower part of each planting pot, the lower part of the wick being dipped in the nutritive solution, to absorb the nutritive solution, thereby supplying it to the culture medium in the planting pots. This method can let the plants absorb the moisture and nutrients whenever they need them because the nutritive solution is being provided all the time. However, it cannot completely solve the problem of supplying air into the culture medium, and requires a structure for setting the planting pots into which the wicks are inserted on the nutritive solution container. In case that various plants are needed to be simultaneously planted, especially, a special structure for setting the planting pots is required.
Temperature is an essential element in the growth environment of a plant. In most cases, the plant is cultivated in a greenhouse when the temperature is lower, for example, in the winter time. Because the temperature of the root is very important in the growth of a plant, a general heating method sets the temperature of the greenhouse to the temperature of the root, required for the plant growth. Accordingly, this needs lots of expense for heating the entire greenhouse. To solve this problem, it is preferable that only the root temperature is raised while the temperature inside the greenhouse is appropriately maintained.
When plants are cultivated using a nutrient solution, the temperature of the nutrient solution increases when the temperature rises in the summer, reducing the dissolved oxygen contained in the nutrient solution. Furthermore, the respiration of the roots becomes prosperous according to high temperature due to intensive sunshine of the summer time. When the dissolved oxygen contained in the nutrient solution is insufficient, the oxygen absorbed by the root is reduced, resulting in poor growth of the root. This fades or suffocates the plant, harming its growth. In case of roses, for example, it is impossible to produce high quality roses in the summer time because of the aforementioned phenomenon. To solve this problem, there has been proposed a method of mingling the nutrient solution with hydrogen peroxide mixed with distilled water so as to provide the nutrient solution with a large amount of oxygen. However, this method is very complicated process and is not suitable for large-scale farms.
In general, the respiration of the root of a plant increases several times when the temperature rises by 10° C., and the dissolved oxygen contained in the nutritive solution is considerably reduced with increasing temperature. This results in deficiency of oxygen in the root. Specifically, the plant growth becomes remarkably poor when the dissolved oxygen at the root is less than 2 ppm, and the plant stops its growth and its root is blighted when it becomes lower than 0.5 ppm, deteriorating the productivity.
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Jordan Charles T.
Palo Francis T.
Roth & Goldman, P.A.
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