Method and apparatus for hydroponic farming
AssigneeKraft, Inc.
InventorsFrank Gething, Edward P. Glenn
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Plants are hydroponically grown on rafts that float on an aqueous nutrient medium. The rafts have arrays of openings that extend from their upper surface to their lower surface for receiving plant-containing collars that dip into the aqueous medium. To provide efficient plant thinning without plant destruction, a fraction of the openings of the array of each raft is filled directly with plant-containing collars and the remaining plant collars are placed in a grid that overlies the raft and has openings aligned with a fraction of the openings of the array.
Claims13
A system for the hydroponic growth of plants within at least one tank containing aqueous nutrient medium, the system comprising
- a generally flat raft having an upper face and a lower face and sufficient buoyancy to float while supporting a plurality of plants, said raft having a substantially regular array of openings extending between said upper face and said lower face,
- grid means having a plurality of interconnected holders which align with a regular pattern of said openings distributed substantially evenly among said array when said grid is laid over said upper face without obstructing access to the remaining openings, and
- a plurality of plant collars adapted to be held either directly in said openings or by said holders extending into said raft openings when said grid means is laid on said upper face, whereby said plants held in said grid means may be simultaneously removed from said raft.
A method of growing plants comprising
- providing a tank filled with aqueous nutrient medium,
- floating a plurality of rafts within said tank, each raft having an upper face and a lower face and a plurality of openings in a substantially regular array extending between said upper face and said lower face,
- placing said grid means on each of said rafts, each grid means having holders alignable with a regular pattern of said openings distributed substantially evenly among said array of said openings in each of said rafts,
- inserting plant-containing collars in said opening-aligned holders and in the remaining raft openings, said collars each having a lower end with substantial open area that extends to said aqueous medium when said collars are received in said openings, and
- upon said plants reaching a certain stage of maturity, transferring said grid means-held collars to other rafts to reduce plant density.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.