Plant husbandry – Process
Patent
1985-04-24
1987-09-08
Bagwill, Robert E.
Plant husbandry
Process
47 17, A01G 900
Patent
active
046914722
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method for the artificial rearing of epiphytes, particularly orchids, as well as hybrids and/or intergeneric derivatives of these, by using previously cultivated epiphytes or derivatives of these. In addition, the present invention relates to floral arrangements made up with the help of epiphytes, particularly orchids as well as their hybrids and/or intergeneric derivatives of the same. Finally, the present invention relates to a process used to transport the previously cultivated epiphytes, particularly orchids, as well as hybrids and/or intergeneric derivatives of these to their destinations.
Subsequently, in the description of the invention, the term epiphyte will be used in the sense of tree-dwelling plants. Central to this invention, among the tree-dwelling plants, are the orchids; however, other epiphytes and their hybrids or intergeneric derivatives are among the objects of the invention.
STATE OF THE ART
When epiphytes are reared artificially they are set in various mixtures of planting media where they then take root. The mixed planting media are composed of the bark of American conifers, fern roots and fibres, wood charcoal, plastic, lava and other components. The epiphytes can then be arranged in the most varied fashions, e.g., in perforated planter pots, plastic baskets, nets, baskets woven from wooden strips, set on the table, or even suspended from a plastic surface.
Such artificial rearing of epiphytes entails not only the disadvantage that the planting medium, or substrate, is difficult to produce and its components difficult to obtain, but it also entails the disadvantage that the epiphytes that are bedded in the substrate must be replanted every year and the substrate replaced. When such replanting takes place, the roots are damaged and start to rot. This causes considerable setback in the development and blooming vigour of the plants. From this it follows that the replanting that is required on a regular basis is both cost and labour intensive and entails considerable disadvantages from the point of view of the plants. Furthermore, it has been shown that there are many beautiful epiphytes that even when cared for most carefully and the finest substratum is used can only be kept alive artificially for a brief period, or sometimes not at all. It is a generally well-known fact that of the epiphytic orchids themselves only approximately one-third can be kept alive in an artificial substrate. Accordingly, it must be acknowledged that up to the present the problem of rearing and maintaining epiphytes artificially has not been solved satisfactorily.
The same must be said regarding the transportation of epiphytes. It is obvious that the solution is to move the artificially raised epiphytes together with the substrate in which they have put down roots. However, counter to this is the fact that for reasons of plant protection, plant substrates or root balls and the plants in them cannot be moved across the borders of most countries either under no circumstances or only in compliance with the strictest of regulations. Naturally, the epiphytes that cannot be kept alive in artificial substrata can thus not be transported.
But not even the problem of transporting epiphytes grown naturally in their proper habitat has been solved. In the tropics, epiphytes take root in tropical trees. It is, of course, impossible to move these trees and for this reason the epiphytes must be separated from them. On separation, the epiphytes get damaged and this complicates the problem of moving them and, sometimes, even renders it impossible. The plants grow weaker during a move, and many of them die. When epiphytes that have grown in the tropics are to be moved, transportation over great distances is involved, for very often the place of sale and final disposal are located in an area with a non-tropical, for example, a temperate, climate.
Up to now, an increase in aesthetic appeal was frequently the exclusive motive for putting floral arrangements together, for when ornamental plant
REFERENCES:
patent: 4138802 (1979-02-01), Weisner
Art and Craft of Growing Orchids, Bowen, 1977, Batsford Ltd, London, pp. 40-41.
Home Orchid Growing, 3rd Ed., Northen, 1977, Van Nostrand Reinhold, N.Y., p. 342.
Exotica 4, Graf, 1982, Roehrs Co., N.J., pp. 561 and 589.
Bagwill Robert E.
Innovator Mernok Kisszovetkezet
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