AU605174B2

AU605174B2 - Improvements in or relating to a support device for plants and/or a method of supporting plants

Info

Publication number: AU605174B2
Application number: AU78406/87A
Authority: AU
Inventors: William Mathieson Barclay; Peter William Francis Stenhouse
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1986-09-16
Filing date: 1987-09-15
Publication date: 1991-01-10
Anticipated expiration: 2007-09-15
Also published as: NL193827C; AU7840687A; NL8702204A; NL193827B

Description

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRAIA l Patents Act 1952 C O M P L E T E S P E.C IFI F A T I O N (ORIGINAL) This document contains the amendments made under Section 49 and is corrcct for printing Application Number Lodged Complete Specification Lodged Accepted Published Priority Related Art Name of Applicant Address of Applicant Actual Inventor/s Address for Service :16 September 1986 :WILLIAM MATHESON BARCLAY and PETER WILLIAM FRANCIS STENHOUSE R.D. 3, Drury, Auckland, New Zealand, and 103 Portland Road, Auckland, New Zealand, respectively William Matheson Barclay and Peter William Francis Stenhouse F.B. RICE CO., Patent Attorneys, 28A Montague Street, Balmain N.S.W. 2041 Complete Specification for the invention entitled: Improvements in or relating to a support device for plants and/or a method of supporting plants The following statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to us:w~ This invention relates to a support device for plants and/or a method of supporting plants, and in particular cut plants.

When transporting cut plants there is a tendency for those plants to lose their freshness at a quick rate.

Attempts have been made to enhance or prolong the freshness of the cut plants, for example, by providing a vial of water with an aperture at the mouth through which aperture the stem of the cut plant is positioned. The aperture may be in a membrane closing the mouth of the solid vial. Such a construction forms part of the disclosure of German patent specification 2232181. Such constructions have disadvantages however, for example, there can be a tendency for the devices to leak, particularly, in the area where the membrane is placed over the rigid structure. Also the device can take up substantial space when the plant is packaged and also it can be awkward to insert the plant into the aperture which may not be of a suitable size.

Thus it is necessary to, in general, make the aperture somewhat smaller than the expected plant stem diameter.

The difficulties make such a construction disadvantageous.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a support device for plants and/or a method of supporting plants which will go at least some distance towards obviating or minimising the foregoing disadvantages or which will at least provide the public with a useful choice.

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Accordingly, in one aspect the invention consists in a support device for plants comprising a flexible walled sachet, a medium within said sachet, the wall of said sachet being formed of a material which will resist accidental tearing or puncturing, yet enable the wall to be punctured at a selected time for insertion of plant material through the puncture in such a manner that the material defining the puncture substantially seals to said plant material.

In a further aspect the invention consists in a method of supporting plants comprising the steps of providing a flexible walled sachet with a medium therein, the wall of said sachet being formed of a material which will resist accidental tearing or puncturing, yet enable the wall to be o punctured at a selected time, puncturing the wall of said •l o o o 00.0 sachet and inserting plant material through the puncture in 000 So a manner such that the material defining the puncture substantially seals to said plant material.

To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing 001 embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest o themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the descriptions herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense n limiting.

-3- 4A One preferred form of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which; Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of a sachet forming a support device according to one preferred form of the invention, Figure 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the sachet of Figure i, and Figure 3 is a view of a sachet according to one preferred form of the invention showing a member inserted therein.

Referring to the drawings a support device for plants and/or a method of supporting plants are provided as follows.

o 0 The support device comprises a container or sachet 1 which contains a medium appropriate to the purpose such as a moisturised gel. The sachet 1 in the disclosed form is 00 rectangular in shape and a suitable size has been found to be 10cm by 5.5cm although clearly different sizes and shapes could be used. The preferred sachet is relatively oflat although of course the contents within the sachet will 0 1 0u cause some bulging of the walls. The sachet is desirably made from an uncoated nylon/polythene laminate. The oo uncoated nylon being, for example, 15 tam in thickness and the polythene being for example, 50,m in thickness. This material has properties which enables it to resist o accidental tearing or puncturing whilst yet allowing the -4-

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material to be punctured if desired at a desired time in a manner such that a substantially liquid and airtight seal will be formed around a plant stem inserted into the aperture formed by puncturing. This material also has properties which enable it to be heat sealed. Thus the sachet may be formed by folding the material substantially in half about a fold line 2 and forming a heat sealed area 3 around the remaining three sides. Alternatively the sachet may be formed by heat sealing around all four sides so that two panels may be connected to form the sachet.

The moisturised gel contained within the sachet desirably is in the form of a liquid formed by a mix of a powder and preferably pure water such as deionized water.

A suitable powder is sold under the trade mark AUSTRASORB 0 0 15 grade 3 and is manufactured by Agrisob Pty. Limited, of 144 o 0 Riley Street, East Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

0 *o00 00o00 This material is a bio-degradable, non toxic, o0 000 environmentally safe, super absorbent material. It is a starch grafted material which an organic filler added and is provided in the form of a white powder. The material 0 will take up moisture but release it on demand to plant material in the immediate vicinity. A suitable mix of this powder and water is obtained by mixing at the rate of 300 grams of powder to 180 litres of water. This forms a mixture having a fluid paste consistency. Each sachet desirably contains between about 15 to 45 ml of the mixture. The grain size of the unmixed powder is about mm. The above is a i suitable material for the medium within the sachet but of course other materials having suitable properties may be used.

In the preferred embodiment, shown in the drawings, rather than requiring the wall of the sachet to be punctured a puncturable insert or membrane is provided in the sachet and this may best be achieved by inserting a strip 4 of puncturable material along one edge of the sachet 1, for example by inserting between the sides of the sachet 1. A closed cell foam plastics material is preferred such as medium density polyethylene foam such as that sold under the trade name JIFFYCELL. The strip 4 can be about 1 cm deep and about 1 cm wide at the widest point. The above material is easily penetrable but will 15 close onto for example a plant stem to the desired degree.

If the foam is too dense penetration may be difficult and if too light then sealing onto the plant stem may not be adequate or the insert 4 may disintegrate in use.

The sachet above described is used by puncturing a hole in the insert 4 thereof, for example, by use of a suitable member such as a sharpened pencil. Into the hole so formed a stem 6 is then inserted and the material has the advantage that it will form substantially a seal around the stem 6 where it passes through the aperture.

25 The sachets can be produced on any suitable machine, for example, a TOYO automatic packaging machine, model which is modified for liquid filling by the addition 3e 00C 00 0C oooc 0 S 0 c0 0oc o o on o

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0 0 C Co O CO 00 0 0 0DC oooo Sa j 0 0 0 1 0 C 800 0 0 0 0 C ra of a fluid pump and pipe work. The apparatus is manufactured by the Toyo Packaging Machine Manufacturing Company Limited, 1-11, 7-Chome, Kaminhigashi, Hirono-ku, Osaka, Japan.

The use of the invention is as follows.

In use, plant material can be inserted through a preformed puncture as above described. The plant material can then be transported or alternatively the construction can be used, for example, for the propagation of plants.

In this use however the insert could be open celled to allow air circulation. For transportation the freshness of the cut plant material is prolonge,. or enhanced because of the supply of moisture to the plant through the cut end 7 of the stem 6.

15 Where used for propagation purposes it is desirable to o add suitable nutrients and material such as a root growth 00 hormone to the gel so as to assist the propagation of the o plant material.

Thus it can be seen that at least in the preferred form of the invention a supporting device for plants, and/or a o0o method of supporting plants is provided which has some advantages. Because of the properties of the material from which the package can be formed there is little tendency for leakage to occur at the joint between the material defining the boundaries of the puncture and the stem. The tendency to leak is reduced by the fact that it is a gel material within the sachet. For transportation also the rl package because it is flexible will tend to mould into the available space which makes the sachet more easily accommodated than a rigid vial.

The sachet is also substantially straight-forward to apply to a plant requiring only a simple puncturing movement to form a hole and the pushing of a stem therethrough.

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Claims

2. A support device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said punricturable panel is provided along one edge of said flexible walled sachet.
3. A support device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said puncturable panel is formed from a foam plastics material. 4 4. A support device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said medium is moisturised gel. 9 i A support device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said wall material comprises uncoated nylon/polythene laminate material.
6. A support device as claimed in claim 5 wherein said uncoated nylon layer is about 15 .m in thickness.
7. A support device as claimed in claim 5 wherein said polythene layer is substantially 50 /m in thickness.
8. A support device as claimed in claim 4 wherein said moisturised gel comprises a mixture of water and starch material.
9. A support device as claimed in claim 8 wherein, said moisturised gel further includes nutrients and hormone material. A method of supporting plants using a support device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9 comprising the steps of puncturing said puncturable wall panel and inserting plant material through the puncture wherein the material defining the puncture substantially seals to said plant material.
11. A method as claimed in claim 10 when using a support device as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 3 wherein said step of So puncturing a wall comprises the step of puncturing said 1ooo puncturable panel.
12. A support device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any one of the accompanying figures.
13. A method substantially as hereinbefore described. DATED this 4th day of July 1990 WILLIAM MATHIESON BARCLAY and PETER WILLIAM FRANCIS STENHOUSE Patent Attorneys for the Applicant: F.B. RICE CO. 10 r I