Plant husbandry – Receptacle for growing medium – Irrigator
Patent
1985-04-02
1986-04-15
Hafer, Robert A.
Plant husbandry
Receptacle for growing medium
Irrigator
A01G 3102
Patent
active
045818487
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a hydro-tank for hydroponics, comprising a closed storage tank which extends down below the level of nutritive solution desired in the cultivating pot, having a separating filling channel in or on the storage vessel, the outlet of which is located near the bottom of the cultivating pot and communicates with the storage tank, and having a connection between the storage tank and the cultivating pot.
As every lover of flowers knows, it is good for plants to dry out, so to speak, every now and then instead of being constantly kept wet; and all business enterprises for hydroponics point out in their water instructions that the water level should sink to the bottom before the tank is filled up anew. Neither prior art nor the market does justice to this fact when it comes to the water supply for house plants. All proposals and all systems on the market aim at maintaining a certain water level.
Examples of this kind of outer pot, albeit for earth culture, can be found, for example, in utility model prints U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,506,994 and 7,506,993. The common feature of all these proposals is the constant water level in the plant vessel proper. Various proposals are furthermore disadvantageous in that they do not allow for the tank to be filled up intermediately or require a particularly elaborate airtight closure construction for the tank.
It is explained in a standard work dealing with matters of hydroponics (Margot Schubert, Mehr Blumenfreude durch Hydrokultur (More Pleasure in Plants with Hydroponics), BLV Verlagsgemeinschaft Munich, Bern, Vienna, 6th edition, 1979) that the basic problem involved in using hydroponics consists in the water supply. To solve this precarious problem the standard work suggests a sort of bird trough comprising a closed cylinder which rotates around its principal axis and is turned downward in a full state, thus keeping the liquid level in the plant vessel constant at a certain height. It is obvious that this solution has an unfavorable effect on the shape of the cultivating pot. Lovers of flowers, however, usually also make certain aesthetic demands and tend to refuse a shape of cultivating pot which is determined purely by technical considerations.
The invention is thus based on the problem of providing a hydro-tank for hydroponics which interferes as little as possible with the aesthetic design of cultivating pots and furthermore does justice to the peculiarities of plants insofar as it generates an automatically interrupted liquid level in the cultivating pot.
This problem is solved according to the invention for a hydro-tank as described at the outset by providing a separate filling chamber which communicates with the storage tank by means of an overflow and communicates with the cultivating pot by means of vertical slots in its lower area, the height of the slots defining the liquid level in the cultivating pot, and further by a small throttling opening provided near the bottom of the cultivating pot between the storage tank and the cultivating pot, or the storage tank and the filling chamber.
Further advantageous embodiments of the invention are the subject-matter of the subclaims.
Designing the hydro-tank as a separate element is advantageous in that cultivating pots already on the market can subsequently be equipped with the inventive hydro-tank any time. The tank can be sunk in the substrate filling practically invisibly.
Designing the hydro-tank as an element with a circular cross-section is mainly advantageous in that it is possible to accommodate the tank practically invisibly when using round, cylindrical pots. Storage of this kind of hydro-tank is also simplified since tanks of different diameters may be telescoped.
The width of the slots should preferably be such that the nutritive solution forms a meniscus between the edges of the slots due to its surface tension. This meniscus virtually seals off the volume contained in the filling chamber to start with, and prevents it from flowing into the cultivating pot before the level in the latter has su
REFERENCES:
patent: 3557490 (1971-01-01), Delaney
patent: 3753315 (1973-08-01), Adam
patent: 4085546 (1978-04-01), Hallar
patent: 4148155 (1979-04-01), Allen
"Mehr Blumenfrude durch Hydrokultur" mentioned in last paragraph of p. 1 of the English Specification.
DeMille Danton
Hafer Robert A.
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