GB2272355A - Improvements relating to flowerpots - Google Patents

Abstract

The specification lists various features of a flowerpot. Inter alia the sides of the pot are (nearly) parallel. The bottom panel is removable. A height to width ratio of about four to one is given. The pot can be circular, but the preferred profile is hexagonal. Lifting means (Figure 2) are attachable to the top and pushing means (Figure 3) are placed onto the soil within enabling the pot to be withdrawn upwards over the plant and leaving it in its new place. <IMAGE>

Description

Improvements relating to flowerpots.

Flowerpots, as generally understood, are pots made in a large range of sizes into which soil or other suitable material may be put so that seeds, bulbs, cuttings, plants, shrubs and small trees, planted in the soil or ather material, may survive and grow.

Flowerpots are generally in the form cf a frustrum of a hollow cone whose proportions are normally such that the large diameteris approximately equal to the height and where the small diameter is closed with a disclike panel, usually with a small hole at it's centre, which forms the base of the pot and prevents it's contents falling out. Traditionally, most pots have been made of fired red clay, earthenware, but they can be, and have been, made of any suitable material and many are now made of moulded thermoplastics.

The traditional form, as described above, is very satisfactory in every respect except one and that is when a seedling or a cutting has to be re-potted or ' planted out '.

An established plant or shrub normally has a dense ' root ball so that when they are removed from the pot their roots and the attendant soil remain in one piece and they can be repotted or planted out with very little damage to the ' root system.

Seedlings or cuttings, on the other hand, tend to have little more than a single ' tap root ' with nothing more to bind the soil than a thin fuzz of root hairs so that it is almost impossible to remove them from the pot without some damage to their root systems when most of the soil falls off.

This dan age is compounded by further damage which is almost inevitable when they are re-potted or planted out.

It is the object of the present invention to eliminate this damage and make the work of re-potting or planting out both quicker and simpler and this is achieved in the following manner. According to the present invention the pots have :1. Parallel sides. ( Or as close to parallel as the manufacturing process will allow. ) 2. A bottom panel which is removable.

3. A height to width ratio larger than usual. About four to one for most applications but could be made larger, perhaps up to ten to one or lower to suit particular plant varieties.

4. Any suitable cross section which could be circular but is preferably hexagonal. Hexagonal pots would contain more soil for a given overall area.

5. Holes or flanges on opposite sides at the top, Fig 1, to facilitate the attachment of ' lifting means" , Fig 2.

When flanges are made on hexagonal pots the sides that they are on are made higher than the other four sides so that they do not interfere with the sideways ' stacking '.

7. The bottom edge of the pot could be flat but preferably is slightly undulate or notched to help avoid the possibility of the pot becoming waterlogged as well as allowing the tap root to grow unconfined. These spaces also form a ' thumbnail slot ' to facilitate the removal of the bottom panel.

The lifting means could take many forms and one form is shown in Fig. 2 being a pair of tongs, sprung to close, with suitable lugs to engage the holes or flanges on the pot.

The ' pushing means ', Fig 3, consists of an incomplete annulus with a handle normal to the plane of the annulus and preferably opposite to the gap in it. The profile of the outside of the annulus matches that of the pot in which it is used and is a smooth sliding fit within it.

In use if a large number of hexagonal pots are ' stacked ' together, with their lifting flanges placed alternately, all their top edges will sit together with no gaps between them and looking rather like a honeycomb. So they can be filled with soil or other ' potting ' material very simply by just spreading it all over them with only the material which falls off the sides of the stack of pots needing to be recovered. Trying to fill conventional pots in the same manner would result in far more of the potting material falling outside the pots than inside them and the number of these pots per unit of area would be much less while the number filled per unit of time would be less still.

And these pots, having been filled, have seeds or cuttings planted in them.

Later.

The seeds have sprouted and the cuttings have ' taken and the time has come for the seedlings and the cuttings to be ' re-potted ' or ' planted out '.has arrived.

Consider one pot. It's bottom panel, if one is fitted, is removed. The pot is then held in the appropriate position in relation to either the new larger pot or the hole in the ground where it is to be planted out. Then soil or other appropriate material is packed round it and tamped down.

The top surface of the soil in the pot should be level with, or preferably slightly lower than, the level of the new soil being placed around the outside of the pot.

Then the lifting means is clipped onto the holes or flanges at the top of the pot and the annulus of the pushing means is slipped round the stalk of the plant and is pushed down wards against the soil in the pot. Then the lifting means are pulled gently upwards bringing the pot out of the ground and up and over the plant and the handle of the pusing means Then the pushing means is moved sideways to clear the stalk of the plant and the plant is ready to be watered.

And the planting has been accomplished with absolutely no disturbance or damage to the plant or it's root system.

Claims (10)

I claim That this invention of a new flowerpot is characterised by the following features.

1. A flowerpot, hereafter referred to as the ' pot whose sides are parallel or nearly parallel.

2. A pot having a bottom panel which is a separate component which may be attached to it or removed from it quickly and easily.

3. Apt whose ratio of height to diameter or width is much larger than is usual being perhaps about four or five to one for normal purposes but can be varied either way to suit particular varieties of plant.

4. A pot whose horizontal cross section may be circular or square or almost any other shape but whose preferred cross section is hexagonal.

5. A number of hexagonal pots ' nesting ' together in a fashion similar to a honeycomb can be filled with soil or other material faster and more easily than any conventional pots.

6. A pot of any cross section and as described above having holes or lugs or flanges on opposite sides at the top to allow the engagement of ' lifting means '.

7. Lifting means of whatever form to engage the top of the pot so that the pot can be lifted.

8. Pushing means of whatever form to hold the contents of the pot in place while the pot is lifted upwards and off it.

9. A seed and cuttings potting system using parallel sided, preferably hexagonal pots and very long in relation to their widths with removable bottoms and tops arranged to engage with lifting means so that, after it has been planted ' in soil, it can be lifted out while pushing means ensure that the contents remain in place.

10. A potting and planting system that enables the new roots to be planted much deeper than with conventional pots and completely undamaged.