Plant husbandry – Miscellaneous
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-02
2003-09-02
Poon, Peter M. (Department: 3643)
Plant husbandry
Miscellaneous
Reexamination Certificate
active
06612069
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to a novel plant growth accelerating device, more particularly to a retrofitting aerating root pruner (hereinafter called “RARP”) which is adapted to be retrofitted onto the inner face of a conventional plant container which has one or more drain holes at the bottom of the side wall thereof, to form a perforated vertical conduit for aerating planting medium in the plant container in which a plant is grown, to achieve an air root pruning effect and optionally to mechanically prune the roots of a plant which penetrate the RARP, thereby accelerating and enhancing the development and growth rates of the root ball and subsequent vegetative growth of a plant grown in the plant container; to combinations of an RARP of this invention and a root cutting tool (Cutter) adapted to sever roots which have grown into the interior of the RARP; to a kit comprising a plant container with at least one drain hole at the bottom of the side wall thereof and a plurality of the RARPS and optionally also a root cutting tool adapted to sever roots which have grown into the interior of the RARP; and to methods of enhancing the growth rate of plants grown in a plant container on which one or more of the RARP's which optionally contain such a root cutting tool inserted therein are mounted.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Air root pruning devices and methods are well known in the prior art. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,442,628; 4,497,132; 4,510,712; 4,574,522; 4,716,680; 4,753,037; 5,222,326; 5,301,465; 5,557,886 and 5,761,848. In each of these devices the air root pruning structure and function is an integral element of the container in which the plant is to be grown, thereby contributing significantly to the cost of its production. U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,784 discloses a slotted air root pruning plant root container that is inserted into a plant container. None of these prior art air root pruning devices has achieved continuing commercial success, for a variety of reasons which include the need for the use of customized containers and one or more of difficulty in removing the mature plant from the plant container; higher production cost of such customized plant containers; loss of planting medium from the plant containers; increased shipping costs because of their lack of stackability; and incompatibility with automatic equipment used by commercial growers for filling plant containers with planting medium.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,175,356 discloses a plant aerator tube with radial apertures in it whose purpose is to reduce the undesirable effects upon the health of the plant of top watering and over watering. Structurally, the aerating tube of the '356 patent lacks a significant air root pruning effect because only a very limited number of roots of a plant growing in a container in which it is inserted would be affected in an air root pruning way by its presence in the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,550 discloses an apparatus for loosening, aerating and fertilizing soil plant roots intended for temporary insertion into a predrilled hole in soil for injecting fertilizer, high pressure air and water into the soil. U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,822 discloses a slotted physically or biologically degradable plant container adapted to block growth of roots through the slots thereof when a plurality thereof are positioned side-by-side and to permit growth therethrough when the containers are separately imbedded in the ground.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,517 discloses perforated deflector ribs which are bonded to the inner wall of an open ended, water retaining, root barrier envelope which is placed around the root system of a plant to improve delivery of water, aeration and fertilizer to the root system of plants or are integrally formed with the envelope during its construction and impart additional reinforcement to the barrier envelope. The ribs are an integral part of the root barrier envelope and differ structurally in many respects from the aerating root pruning device of this invention.
In our prior issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,782,035 and 5,918,415 we disclose an air root pruner adapted to be fitted in an automatic watering garden container.
The RARP of this invention differs inter alia from the air root pruners of the prior art by being dismountably vertically mountable at their top end onto the upper edge of the side wall of a conventional 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or larger conventional plastic plant container which has at least one drain hole positioned at the bottom of the side wall thereof and at their bottom end through the drain hole and onto the edge of thereof, and, in preferred aspects thereof, by employing the inner face of the side wall of the plant container as an integral element of the air root pruner; and comprising means for limiting the amount of water which can flow directly from the upper surface of planting medium in the plant container through the RARP and out the drain hole. The RARP's are easily and rapidly mountable on the side wall thereof, they can be used repeatedly because their durable construction and polypropylene or other polymer material renders them virtually indestructible; they are inexpensive to manufacture; and they have a dramatic effect upon the rate of root ball and vegetative growth of a plant grown in a plant container containing one or more thereof mounted on the inner face of the side wall thereof. They differ structurally from the perforated stakes of U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,822, inter alia, by providing a much larger number of apertures in the portion of the wall thereof which faces the plant, thereby achieving an enhanced aeration of the root ball, and additionally they are structured so that mechanical pruning of roots as well as a passive air root pruning effect can be achieved. Because they are mounted on the side wall of a conventional side wall ported round plastic container, they do not require sacrificing sidewall strength and durability of the planting container by requiring aerating apertures in the plant container in order to achieve an aeration effect, a deficiency which has impaired the commercializing of prior art air root pruning planting containers with aeration apertures in their side wall.
The method of this invention provides an economical way of increasing the rate of fine hair and lateral root development and thus the vegetative growth rate of a plant, using inexpensive and reusable devices and plant containers of conventional construction.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a RARP adapted to be mounted on the side wall of a side wall drain ported plant container and which lacks most or all of the deficiencies of the above-described prior art aerating and air root pruning devices. It is another object to provide a combination of such a RARP and such a plant container which, when the former is mounted on the inner face of the side wall of the latter, provides a high level of ambient air access to the planting medium along the length of the conduit. A further object is to provide such a combination which promotes uniform distribution of water in the planting medium from its surface to the bottom of the RARP and which has both an air root pruning effect on the roots of a plant grown in planting medium in the plant container. A further object is to provide such a RARP, which comprises means for diverting the tips of the roots of a plant grown in planting medium in the plant container into the interior of the conduit formed by such a combination. Yet another object is to provide such a RARP which is adapted to permit mechanical severing of roots which have penetrated the interior of the conduit formed by the combination of the RARP and the plant container. A still further object is to provide a method of accelerating the rate of growth of a plant which comprises the step of growing the plant in a plant container to which at least one of the RARP's of this invention is mounted on the inner surface of the side wall thereof. Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains.
SUMMA
Dunbar Daniel Paul
Locke Randal D. A.
Locke Teresa Marie
Griles Bethany L.
Poon Peter M.
LandOfFree
Retrofitting aerating root pruner does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Retrofitting aerating root pruner, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Retrofitting aerating root pruner will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3039857