Looking for breakthrough ideas for innovation challenges? Try Patsnap Eureka!

Plant growth medium

a technology of growth medium and plant, applied in the field of plant husbandry, can solve the problems of poor aeration, heavy soil, and general unsuitability of natural soil for growing plants, and achieve the effects of enhancing the growth of a wide range of commercially important plants, and reducing the amount of water availabl

Active Publication Date: 2013-01-24
SHPAK NAHUM +1
View PDF24 Cites 7 Cited by
  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent is about a new plant growth medium made from shredded bark of coastal redwoods. This medium is superior to traditional options like coconut coir as it has a longer lifespan, contains more water, and promotes better root growth and product production. This results in healthier plants and a larger commercial yield with less labor and treatment.

Problems solved by technology

Natural soils are generally unsuitable for growing plants, seeds, seedlings, cuttings in containers in commercial applications.
For example, ordinary soils are often heavy, provide poor aeration, are difficult to maintain physiochemical uniformity and may introduce pathogens or other biological or chemical agents which impact the healthy growth of plants.
These and other deficiencies increase labor, irrigation and treatment costs which impact commercial aspects of the growing enterprise.
However, use of non-soil growth substrates introduces other deficiencies which are difficult to manage particularly on a commercial scale.
For example, coconut coir is suitable as a general purpose plant growth medium but requires importation from overseas suppliers which makes this growth medium particularly vulnerable to increases in fuel costs and import / export requirements.
Likewise, rock wool may be used as a non-soil growth medium but tends to be high in pH requiring chemical pretreatment, lacks sufficient elasticity for compaction which increases transportation costs, requires significant energy input in its production and may otherwise leach metal or other undesirable ions which requires additional chemical additives to be included in irrigation water for certain sensitive plant species.

Method used

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
View more

Image

Smart Image Click on the blue labels to locate them in the text.
Viewing Examples
Smart Image
  • Plant growth medium
  • Plant growth medium
  • Plant growth medium

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

example 1

[0033] Referring to FIGS. 1A&B, root structures of plants of the variety Gerbera (“Yanara,”) planted in coconut coir and the inventive growth mediums are depicted. This variety of Gerbera produces large ornamental red daisy flowers. In FIG. 1A, the root structures after approximately 90 days of growth of the Gerbera using coconut coir as a plant growth medium are comparatively less well developed or prolific than the Gerbera grown in the inventive growth medium as depicted in FIG. 1B for an equivalent time period of approximately 90 days. The tests were grown in a traditional greenhouse environment using normal irrigation without attempts to optimize for either the coconut coir or the inventive growth medium and under controlled growing conditions in terms of temperature and solar illumination. A greenhouse environment is not required in the use of the inventive growth medium.

example 2

[0034] Referring to FIGS. 2A&B, leaf and flower structures of plants of the variety Gerbera (“Yanara,”) planted in coconut coir and the inventive growth mediums are depicted. In FIG. 2A, the leaf and flower structures after approximately 90 days of growth of the Gerbera using coconut coir as a plant growth medium are less extensive with far fewer flowers than the Gerbera grown in the inventive growth medium as depicted in FIG. 2B for an equivalent time period of approximately 90 days. As before, the tests were grown in a traditional greenhouse environment using normal irrigation without attempts to optimize for either the coconut coir or the inventive growth medium and under controlled growing conditions in terms of temperature and solar illumination. A greenhouse environment is not required in the use of the inventive growth medium.

example 3

[0035] Referring to FIGS. 3A&B, root structures of plants of another variety of Gerbera (“Dream,”) planted in coconut coir and the inventive growth mediums are depicted. This variety of Gerbera produces ornamental pink daisy flowers. In FIG. 3A, the root structures after approximately 2 years of growth of the Gerbera using coconut coir as a plant growth medium are about the same as the Gerbera grown in the inventive growth medium depicted in FIG. 3B for an equivalent time period of approximately 2 years. However, as is evident in FIG. 3A, the coconut coir growth medium has deteriorated to a more vegetative state with considerably higher water content of approximately 80% by volume while the inventive growth medium depicted in FIG. 3B remains steerable and generally intact, with a water content of approximately 55% by volume. As before, the tests were grown in a traditional greenhouse environment using normal irrigation without attempts to optimize for either the coconut coir or the ...

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

PUM

PropertyMeasurementUnit
lengthsaaaaaaaaaa
densityaaaaaaaaaa
lengthsaaaaaaaaaa
Login to View More

Abstract

A general purpose plant growth medium incorporating shredded coastal redwood bark.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application takes priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) from co-pending provisional patent application 61 / 389,880 filed Oct. 5, 2010 to the instant inventors, said provisional application is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.RELEVANT FIELD [0002] This application is directed generally toward plant husbandry and more specifically toward plant growth mediums. RELEVANT ART [0003] Natural soils are generally unsuitable for growing plants, seeds, seedlings, cuttings in containers in commercial applications. For example, ordinary soils are often heavy, provide poor aeration, are difficult to maintain physiochemical uniformity and may introduce pathogens or other biological or chemical agents which impact the healthy growth of plants. These and other deficiencies increase labor, irrigation and treatment costs which impact commercial aspects of the growing enterprise. [0004] To address the deficiencies of natural soi...

Claims

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

Application Information

Patent Timeline
no application Login to View More
Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): A01G31/00C05F11/00
CPCC05F11/00A01G9/1086A01G24/23A01G24/25
Inventor SHPAK, NAHUMSHPAK, DONNA
Owner SHPAK NAHUM
Who we serve
  • R&D Engineer
  • R&D Manager
  • IP Professional
Why Patsnap Eureka
  • Industry Leading Data Capabilities
  • Powerful AI technology
  • Patent DNA Extraction
Social media
Patsnap Eureka Blog
Learn More
PatSnap group products

Browse by: Latest US Patents, China's latest patents, Technical Efficacy Thesaurus, Application Domain, Technology Topic, Popular Technical Reports.

© 2024 PatSnap. All rights reserved.Legal|Privacy policy|Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement|Sitemap|About US| Contact US: help@patsnap.com