US 12,514,181 B2Granted

Apparatus and methods for plant pollination

AssigneeMjnn LLC

InventorsDamon Smith, Kevin Grauberger, Aunders Hallsten, Michael Baldwin, Lucas Woodbury

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Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to apparatus and methods for mechanized pollination. Grow towers vertically disposed on a grow line are moved into a pollination chamber and mechanized pollination is performed utilizing pneumatic, acoustic, or mechanical methods to pollinate plants growing in the grow towers. In one embodiment, a plurality of rotatable brush towers are disposed on opposite sides of the grow line and bristles from the brush towers are rotated over the plants to facilitate pollination as the grow towers traverse along the grow line. In another embodiment, a plurality of conduits internal to the grow towers are coupled to one or more nozzles on a face of the grow towers. Pollen is delivered through the nozzles toward the plants utilizing pressurized gas.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A system, comprising:

a grow line having a plurality of grow towers disposed thereon;
a chamber defining a volume, the chamber coupled to the grow line and operable to isolate one or more grow towers within the volume, the volume at least partially defined by:
a plurality of walls;
a ceiling coupled to the plurality of walls;
a base coupled to the plurality of walls opposite the ceiling;
a screen coupled to each wall of the plurality of walls, extending across the volume, and in contact with the base, the screen having a mesh size of substantially 1 μm to substantially 100 μm;
a blower in fluid communication with the volume via an outlet formed in the base, wherein the screen separates the blower from the volume;
and
a pollen source in fluid communication with the volume via a conduit extending through the base with an opening formed in the screen, wherein the screen separates the pollen source from the volume.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.