Horticultural enclosures

#This invention relates to a horticultural enclosure and more particularly, but not exclusively, a cloche.

#The use of horticultural enclosures such as cloches to accelerate plant growth is well known. Recently use of cloches arranged to form a continuous cover for "strip cropping" has been advocated as a means of forcing plants. Such a method of cultivation requires a cloche which is cheap, easy to erect and move and which is capable of admitting air to the plant enclosed thereby, adequate ventilation of plants being a pre-requisite for good growth. There are already available cloches which can be manually adjusted to admit air. The professional grower may be employing many hundreds of cloches, however, and frequent manual adjustment of them would require immense labour.

#It is also necessary that plants enclosed by cloches receive an adequate water supply. At present professional growers rely upon the capillary action of the soil to bring water from outside the cloche to the soil within it since that avoids having to move each cloche to water the plants and enables normal irrigation equipment to be used. Such capillary action is entirely dependent on the soil under the cloche being moist. Once the soil under the cloche dries out the capillary action stops and no amount of wetting of the soil outside the cloche can then moisten the dried soil under the cloche.

#Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a frame;

#FIG. 2 shows the frame of FIG. 1 with a cover fitted thereon;

#Referring to FIG. 1 the frame for an enclosure in this case a cloche, is comprised of two hoops 10 made for example of rod or tube which may be of metal such as steel. The hoops 10 are held in spaced apart relationship by stretcher rods 12 the ends of which are received in sockets 11 on the hoops 10. The sockets are provided at the corners of the hoops and adjacent the ends so that when the rods are in position the frame defines a simple house-like shape but with projecting legs 10a.

#Alternative methods of fixing the rods 12 to the hoops 10 can be used if desired. For example where the hoop is made of tube an aperture may be formed in the wall of the hoop into which one end a short length tube or rod is fitted leaving a part projecting from the hoops. The ends of rods 12 can then be fitted over the said projecting parts. When the hoop is made of solid rod, a recess is formed in the hoop to take the short length of tube or rod over the projecting part of which rod 12 is fitted. In another arrangement spigots which may be of plastics are fixed to the hoops and the rod ends are fitted over the spigots.

#In the embodiment illustrated there are five rods 12. It will be understood that the number of rods can be increased or decreased as desired depending on the size of the enclosure and the shape of the hoops 10.