Living plant growth support system

Abstract

A gravity independent photosynthetic growing system (10) is provided for use in providing an environment conducive to growing plant materials under unusual conditions, such as are encountered in space or in locales isolated from sunlight. The growing system (10) includes a stationary core assembly (26), a rotating drum assembly (28) which is rotated by a motive assembly (30), an enclosing assembly (32), a growth requirements assembly (34) and a control assembly (35). Illumination lamps (42) situated in the central core (20) provide photosynthetic radiation which is transmitted through light transmissive sector walls (52) to be reflected inward from a surrounding cylindrical reflector (64) into growth sectors (50) within which the plants are grown. The growth sectors are adapted to receive seed mats (178), hard shell growth cases (204) and growth bags (188) which provide purchase for the plants. A deluxe growth requirements assembly (340) provides controlled dispensation of flowable materials by way of pneumatically controlled flow paths. The system (10) is adapted to further provide temperature and moisture to non photosynthetic plants in dark zones (174) within the stationary enclosure (24).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.