Plant husbandry – Seed tape or mat – method or apparatus
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-29
2003-08-05
Poon, Peter M (Department: 3643)
Plant husbandry
Seed tape or mat, method or apparatus
Reexamination Certificate
active
06601340
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to a vegetation element for sodding artificial or natural surfaces with dicotyledonous plants and a method of producing same.
A variety of such vegetation elements are known, e.g., those described in German Patent 36 31 716 C2, German Patent 42 19 275 C2, European Patent Application 0 706 753 A1 and German Patent 195 23 406 C1; they are used in particular for extensive sodding of roofs and have proven largely successful. With these vegetation elements, a mat-shaped element which may be made of coconut fibers, mineral wool fibers, synthetic fibers or mats of these mixtures is precultivated either before application to the surface to be sodded and then is cultivated by gardening methods or it is provided with seeds, sprouts, spores or other plant material of germinable dicotyledonous plants only after application to the surface to be sodded. It is also known that mats into which a substrate as well as plant seeds and plant sprouts have been incorporated or where the sprouts are stitched onto the mat may be used, but in either case the mats are otherwise left to themselves, so to speak, when applied to the surface to be sodded.
In particular in the case of vegetation elements which are precultivated before being applied to the surface to be sodded, the cost is high because the support mats themselves are relatively expensive, and the gardening care is labor-intensive and is therefore also associated with a relatively high cost. In addition, there may be high disposal costs in the event the roof must be cleared.
There has thus long been a need to reduce the cost of such vegetation elements.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to create a vegetation element of the type described above so that it will be inexpensive, will require the least possible manual processing and will also be suitable for processing by machine.
This object is achieved with a vegetation element for sodding synthetic or natural surfaces with dicotyledonous plants, as set forth herein.
According to this invention, the support is provided in the form of a net, a woven or knit fabric or a fiber blend which can be applied to a naturally grown or synthetically produced mineral soil, said soil having been prepared to be sterile, and the soil improvement substrate is incorporated under pressure or by mixing into an upper layer of the soil, where the pH of the substrate does deviate or may deviate from the pH of the soil and is coordinated with the physiological needs of the dicotyledonous plants, so that the result is a mixed layer of soil and substrate having a dividing line with the unmixed soil beneath it, and germinable plant material of the dicotyledonous plants is introduced into the mixed layer, so that the developing roots become anchored in the mixed layer and on the support, and furthermore the vegetation element can be stripped off by machine.
To summarize, the object is achieved in a surprisingly simple manner by creating a vegetation element which is advantageously adapted to the morphological conditions of dicotyledonous plants of the known vegetation elements for sodding surfaces with monocotyledonous plants, i.e., ready-to-use grasses or roll-up lawns and to expand it in this way.
In the area of so-called roll-up lawns or ready-to-use grasses such as those known, for example, from German Patent Application 42 30 312 A1, Unexamined German Patent 23 58 931 and German Utility Model 297 12 457 U1, vegetation elements for extensive sodding are created which are extremely inexpensive and can be harvested by machine, i.e., stripped off and rolled up. Monocotyledonous plants, especially grasses, form a so-called root felt which makes it possible for the lawn to be stripped without requiring the use of an expensive fiber mat as a support material for the roll-up lawn. The root felt is so tight and dense that it alone guarantees sufficient stability of the roll-up lawn.
Due to the morphology, such ready-to-use grasses can be implemented only with monocotyledonous plants. Dicotyledonous plants, e.g., species of Sedum such as
Sedum acre, Sedum album, Sedum dasyphyllum, Sedum sexangulare, Sempervivum arachnoideum,
etc. do not form a dense root felt that would guarantee sufficient stability by itself. Therefore, relatively thick and especially expensive supports had to be used in the past to guarantee adequate cohesion of the plant cover and the vegetation element as a whole.
The accomplishment of the inventor can be seen in particular in the fact that he has developed a specific sequence of process steps for achieving a vegetation element which resembles a roll-up lawn in structure but is provided with dicotyledonous plants which are not actually suitable for such cultivation. This apparent paradox is solved in particular by a method according to the invention.
For differentiation from monocotyledonous plants (monocotyledons), in particular grasses, the term “dicotyledonous plants” as used below is understood to refer not only to true dicotyledons but also to spore-bearing plants such as moss, ferns, lycopodium and lichen.
Although these are not true dicotyledonous plants from a biological standpoint, from a technical standpoint they are characterized like dicotyledonous plants in that they do not form a dense root structure.
The inventor has recognized that it is possible to apply the technique used in the production of ready-to-use grasses to the field of artificial sodding with dicotyledonous plants, in particular the succulents (Sedum species), herbs, mosses, ferns, lichen and the like which have a weak root system, although this was previously considered to be impossible. The inventor has recognized in particular that it is important that the mineral soil (mother earth) on which the vegetation element is cultivated must be sterile. Otherwise, unwanted plant species already present in the soil would grow upward into the vegetation support and would thus destroy proper cultivation of the vegetation element. The term sterility as used here is understood to refer not only to disinfection of the soil, because this would only destroy pests such as nematodes in particular and microorganisms, but it is especially important to completely destroy all weed seeds, spores and unwanted plant parts such as plant parts of quick grass (
Agropyron repens
).
To be sure, the possibility of later unwanted secondary growth of grasses and sedges, especially due to airborne seeds, cannot always be ruled out. To this extent, it should be emphasized that after conclusion of the cultivation measures, the finished vegetation element may have less than 100% dicotyledonous plants. In the critical germination and sprouting phase, however, it is extremely important for the soil to be sterile, because grasses of dicotyledonous plants growing into the vegetation support would compete for the root space as well as the available supply of water and nutrients, which could thus destroy the cultivation measures.
In addition, it has also been found that introducing a soil improvement substrate or plant substrate which is formulated specifically for the physiological needs of the dicotyledonous plants is necessary, and the substrate must be introduced in such a way that the substrate penetrates no deeper than approximately 2 cm into the soil. Otherwise the pH of the outcropping soil—usually a field that is otherwise used agriculturally or a synthetically produced and backfilled soil—could be damaged in the long run to such an extent that the outcropping soil would be useless for further agricultural use. Furthermore, limited penetration of the substrate into the outcropping soil is important to create a more or less sharp dividing line between the mixed layer and the unmixed outcropping soil.
This separation line is needed to permit machine stripping of the vegetation element and to maintain the root depth so that as few roots as possible are cut when harvesting the vegetation element.
Furthermore, a limited depth of penetration of the substrate into the mixed layer in compression is important because otherwise the su
Collard & Roe P.C.
Gellner Jeffrey L.
Poon Peter M
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