GB2333221A

GB2333221A - Plant support

Info

Publication number: GB2333221A
Application number: GB9900826A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Andrew Thomas Moore
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1998-01-14
Filing date: 1999-01-14
Publication date: 1999-07-21
Anticipated expiration: 2019-01-14
Also published as: GB2333221B; GB9800773D0

Abstract

A support for a plant comprises a base member 14 and a support shaft 12. A spike 16 extends from the base 14, and the shaft 12 has a socketed portion which receives the spike 16 and is retained thereon by friction. The device may be placed at the bottom of a plant pot and covered with soil or other growing medium. The weight of the medium on the base member 14 provides the shaft 12, and any plant it supports, with great lateral support. Alternatively, the spike 16 may be used to puncture the bottom of a grow bag (18, fig.7) and extend through the bag and out the other side. The weight of the grow bag (18, fig.7) on the base provides the necessary lateral support for the shaft 12 and any plants planted in the grow bag. The spike 16 may be made integrally with the base, or it may be separate. All of the pieces are preferably made from plastic. The base may be circular in shape, or it may be cruciform (fig. 2). The cruciform base may be made from two sections (32, 34, fig.2) which slot together and allow the spike (36, fig.2) to extend through the upper section.

Description

PLANT SUPPORT This invention relates to a plant support for supporting a plant growing in soil or other plant growing medium, particularly where the growing medium is contained in a shallow plastic growing bag or in a shallow window box or pot.

Such a support is intended to provide when in use lateral support for a plant growing alongside it, thereby to prevent the plant bending over and collapsing under the weight of its foliage, flowers and/or fruits.

Such a support has an upper part to which the growing plant may secure itself (or otherwise be secured), and a lower part which in use is intended to be engaged in the growing medium to derive lateral support therefrom for itself and thus for any plant secured to the upper part. The lateral support depends upon the density of the growing medium and the degree of compaction therein, and the depth to which the lower part of the support can be buried in the growing medium.

Where the depth of penetration of the said lower part in the growing medium is relatively small, as in shallow growing bags (such as are nowadays commonly used for growing tomato plants) and in window boxes and terracotta plant pots, the growing medium provides only minimal lateral restraint for the plant support.

The present invention seeks to provide a plant support which in comparison with conventional plant support sticks or rods will provide a much greater lateral restraint for a plant growing alongside and secured thereto. Hence, the present invention finds its widest application in relation to plant supports for use in plastic growing bags, or otherwise in a growing medium of minimal depth, as for example in a window box or terracotta plant pot.

According to the present invention a plant supoort for providing lateral support for a plant when growing alongside it in a growing medium of shallow depth comprises (a) a base member for burial transversely below the growing medium (or at a suitable depth in the growing medium) and carrying an upwardly directed spike member, and (b) a plant support shaft having at one end a socketed portion for engagement on the spike member, the base member having an area such that when in use the weight of the growing medium above and resting on the base member provides the desired lateral restraint of the plant support shaft and any plant secured thereto.

The base member may be of circular configuration, though more advantageously, it comprises a cruciform structure.

The cruciform structure preferably comprises two bar members which are separable, one such bar member carrying the spike member centrally thereon, and the other bar member having a hole disposed centrally therein for receiving the spike member on assembly of the two bar members together.

Each bar member is preferably recessed centrally so that the two bar members engage one another in the manner of a half-lap joint.

Advantageously, the spike member is separable from the rest of the base member. Also, the respective parts thereof are of a plastics material.

According to another aspect of the present invention a plant support according to the present invention has a plant growing bag impaled upon the spike member, with the base member disposed adjacent one surface of the bag and with the free end of the spike member emerging from the opposite surface of the bag and having impaled thereon adjacent that surface the plant support shaft. In practice, the base member lies beneath the growing bag and is held down by the weight of the grouwing bag.

Other features of the present invention will appear from a reading of the description that follows hereafter and of the claims appended at the end of that description.

Two plant supports and various modifications thereof, all according to the present invention, will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which Figures 1 and 2 show respectively in a pictorial manner first and second plant supports, in each case with their constituent component parts separated vertically for the purposes of illustration and explanation; Figures 3 to 6 show details of two base member parts employed in the plant support shown in Figure 2, Figures 3 and 5 being side elevations of those base member parts respectively, and Figures 4 and 6 being plan views of those base member parts respectively; and Figure 7 shows a partly-sectioned side elevation of a plastic plant-growing bag in which two plant supports according to the present invention have been incorporated.

Referring now to Figure 1, the plant support there shown comprises a base member generally indicated by reference 10, and a plant support shaft 12, shown separated from the base member for convenience only. The base member 10 comprises a circular base plate 14 having upstanding from its central position a pointed and fluted spike member 16.

In use, the support shaft 12 is impaled on the spike member 16 and is retained thereon by friction between the opposed surfaces and edges of the two parts. The shaft 12 is illustrated as a hollow tube, though it may take any other form (e.g. a solid rod - as is shown in the Figure 2) which has at its lower end a socket portion for engagement on the spike member 16.

It is intended that in use with a plastic growing bag 18 as shown in Figure 7, the spike member 16 be pushed upwardly through the base skin of the growing bag so as to cause the upper end of the spike member to project from the upper skin of the bag in the manner shown in the Figure 7.

Thereafter, the support shaft 12 is impaled on that upper end and is retained thereon by the frictional engagement of the the cooperating surfaces and edges of the spike member 16 and the support shaft 12.

The weight of the growing bag resting on the circular base plate 14 prevents movement of the base member and so provides adequate lateral restraint for the spike member 16 and hence for the upright support shaft 12 impaled thereon, so that a plant 20 growing alongside the support shaft is also well restrained against lateral movement.

The plant support just described can be used in any other context where the depth of growing medium available is not deep enough to provide proper lateral support for a plant using simply a conventional support cane or stick. Where such is the case, the growing medium is scooped out to form a hole for receiving the the base member, which is then buried by replacing the growing medium on top of it, but with the tip of the spike member projecting above the surface of the growing medium. This technique is useful in window boxes and plant pots of shallow depth.

Referring now to the plant support shown in Figure 2, the base member 10 there shown comprises a cruciform structure 30 composed of two bar members 32,34 which are cut away at respective central positions so as to form when put together in the manner shown a conventional half-lap joint.

The bar member 32 having its upper central portion cut away carries at a central position thereon a pointed and fluted upstanding spike member 36. The other bar member 34 having its lower central portion cut away is pierced at a central position by a hole 38, in which the spike member 36 is engaged when the two bar members are assembled together.

In this Figure the plant support shaft 40 is shown as a solid rod having a tubular socket portion 42 at its lower end for engagement on the spike member 36.

The manner of using this second plant support is the same as that already described in relation to the plant support of Figure 1.

Preferably, the plant supports described above are made from a suitable plastics material, for example by injection moulding, though any other suitably strong and corrosionresistant material may be used instead.

The base member may be of any other convenient form provided that it has a suitable shape, configuration and/or size to provide under the weight of growing medium sitting thereon the necessary lateral restraint of the support shaft engaged on the spike member of the base member.

In each of the embodiments of Figures 1 and 2, the spike member may if desired be separate from the base member, and be arranged for securing in place thereon by any convenient securing means, for example by a screw-threaded fitting, or by a bayonet-type fitting.

The embodiment of Figure 2 has the advantage, particularly when the spike member is separable from the associated bar member, that it can be reduced to a quite small size ready for packaging.

Plant supports according to the present invention are particulary advantageous for use with growing bags in which tomatoes are to be grown, since they are able to support the plants even when they are heavily loaded with tomatoes.

For use with plant growing bags, the plant support shafts 12 and 40 are typically two feet long (approx 0. 61 metre).

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A plant support for providing lateral support for a plant when growing alongside it in a growing medium of shallow depth comprising (a) a base member for burial transversely below the growing medium (or at a suitable depth in the growing medium) and carrying an upwardly directed spike member, and (b) a plant support shaft having at one end a socketed portion for engagement on the spike member, the base member having an area such that when in use the weight of the growing medium above and resting on the base member provides the desired lateral restraint of the plant support shaft and any plant secured thereto.
2. A plant support according to claim 1, wherein the base member is of circular configuration.
3. A plant support according to claim 1, wherein the base member comprises a cruciform structure.
4. A plant support according to claim 3, wherein the cruciform structure comprises two bar members which are separable, one such bar member carrying the spike member centrally thereon, and the other bar member having a hole disposed centrally therein for receiving the spike member on assembly of the two bar members together.
5. A plant support according to claim 4, wherein each bar member is recessed centrally so that the two bar members engage one another in the manner of a half-lap joint.
6. A plant support according to any preceding claim, wherein the spike member is separable from the rest of the base member.
7. A plant support according to any preceding claim, wherein the respective parts thereof are of a plastics material.
8. A plant support according to claim 7, wherein the respective parts thereof comprise injection mouldings.
9. A plant support according any preceding claim, wherein there is impaled upon the spike member a plant growing bag, the base member being disposed adjacent one surface of the bag and the free end of the spike member emerging from the opposite surface of the bag and having impaled thereon adjacent that surface the plant support shaft.
10. A plant support according claim 1, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated by Figures 1 and 7 of the accompanying diagrammatic drawings.
11. A plant support according claim 1, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated by the Figures 2 to 7 of the accompanying diagrammatic drawings.
12. A plant support comprising any novel and inventive combination of features described in the accompanying description and/or shown in the accompanying drawings, other than a combination as claimed in any one of the preceding claims.