Farm product protecting bag

Abstract

A farm product protecting bag adapted to be placed over a farm product, such as fruit, vegetable or flower, to protect it from diseases or harmful insects, wherein the bag contributes to improvement of quality, such as sugar content, color or external appearance of the farm product, the bag mount efficiency being increased to facilitate quality control. The bag is in the form of a transparent or semitransparent and / or light-transmitting porous film of plastic material with at least part or all of the surface of the bag being air-permeable or gas-permeable and having many fine pores impermeable to water, the bag comprising a bag main body having an opening that opens in one direction, and an attaching section for attaching the bag main body to the support portion of the farm product, it being preferable that the diameter of the largest of the fine pores be in the range of 50-500 μm and that the void area percentage be in the range of 0.7-10%, the fine holes being through-holes or closed holes closed at one end, it being preferable that the surface formed with irregularities in the peripheral edge of the fine holes be directed to at least the inside of the bag.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a bag for protecting a farm product from harmful insects by placing the bag over the farm product during the cultivation of fruit such as graves and pears, vegetables or flowers, and more particularly to a farm product protecting bag contributing to improvement of quality such as sugar content, color or external appearance of a farm product by not only preventing the farm product from burns due to hot air with an air-permeable or gas-permeable film of plastic material but also increasing bag mounting efficiency to facilitate quality control. BACKGROUND ART [0002] Heretofore, paper bags have been used for protecting farm products, for example, fruit such as grapes, pears, apples, peaches and any other kinds of fruit during the cultivation of them. However, because water-repellent finishing is added to the paper bag with paraffin or olefin resin coated thereon so that it is not broken by becoming wet with water, the bag loses gas...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006] In order to solve the foregoing problems, the present inventor, on persistent study, has arrived at this invention, wherein fine pores provided in a bag main body are air-permeable or gas-permeable and about the size of allowing no water to pass therethrough. Consequently, as long as the opening of the bag main body is sealed up, water never infiltrates into the bag and water drain holes need not be provided, whereupon there is no fear that the bag is invaded by harmful insects through the water drain holes. The inventor reasoned that when the air inside the bag was replaced with the air outside by letting air pass through the fine pores, the replacement of air was closely related to the fine pore density as well the pore opening and the inventor provided the diameter of fine pores and a range of void area percentages or a range of opening rates that create the best environmental conditions for farm products. An object of the invention made to solve the foregoing problems is to provide a farm product protecting bag which is notable for its effect of promoting and protecting farm products in farming without insecticides or cultivation using reduced amount of agricultural chemicals in particular and contributes to improvement of quality and yield of fruit and increasing the bag mounting efficiency.

Problems solved by technology

However, because water-repellent finishing is added to the paper bag with paraffin or olefin resin coated thereon so that it is not broken by becoming wet with water, the bag loses gas-permeability with the interior thereof losing contact with the air outside, thus causing mold and unwanted bacteria to breed.

Not only this problem above but also another problem exists in that the hot air left in the bag during the heat of the day in summer causes burns to be produced in part of the fruit kept in contact with the upper portion of the bag.

During the growth of fruit, moreover, a paper bag of the sort mentioned above lacks transparency, which necessitates time and labor when work of thinning out the fruit is done while the condition of the fruit inside the paper bag is observed as it has to be broken so as to observe the inside of the fruit.

Although there is a paper bag, part of which is made of a transparent film, the spread of the paper bag has not yet been attained partly because the paper bag is costly and partly because it is still inconvenient in that the transparent portions are attached such that they are directed to one and the same direction whereby to allow the inside of the bag to be observed from one direction.

Still another problem is that the fruit has to be protected from bird damage by covering the upper portion of the paper bag with an umbrella-like plastic film because the conventional paper bag is easily broken when the bird pecks at it, thus allowing the fruit to be eaten away, that is, resulting in doubling trouble.

It has also brought up a further problem that farm products other than the aforementioned fruit; for example, vegetables such as tomatoes, mini-tomatoes, cabbages, Chinese cabbages and asparagus; mushrooms such as enoki mushrooms and hens-of-the-woods; and flowering plants such as roses and phalaenopsises often suffer from damage by harmful such as extremely small harmful insects called thrips that eat pollen, leaves, flowers, fruit and young branches during their growth.

Nevertheless, the problem is that harmful insects such as ants, cockroaches, thrips and so on may march into the bag body through the water vent holes.

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