JPH08130997A - Watering equipment for plant culture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide watering equipment for plant culture which promises the scale expansion and enables uniform watering for the plants without unevenness in a shortened time. CONSTITUTION: A plurality of cell trays having the perforated bottom 1 and floats 2 which have notches on their bottom and are to be set on the outer periphery of the trays 1 are fitted to the culture bed 3. The culture solution is fed to the culture bed 3 with the feeder 4, and the cell trays 1 and the floats 2 are floated near the water level so that the culture solution is fed from the bottom face of cell trays. After passage of a certain time, the solution is discharged through the discharger 5. The feeder 4 is controlled with the watering timer 6 and the discharger with the discharging timer 7.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a irrigation system used for cultivating vegetable seedlings and foliage plants.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, watering methods for cultivating vegetable seedlings and ornamental plants have been conducted by manually sprinkling or spraying water from the top surface of the plant with a watering can or spray, or in the case of a large scale, a watering pipe or water sprinkler near the plant. A method of arranging sprays and automatically spraying and spraying from the top of the plant at a fixed time is adopted. When using a cultivation pot or cell tray with a hole at the bottom, bottom watering may be performed. As an example of this, a cultivation bed provided with a plurality of spacers with a tilted bottom portion is arranged with a cell tray having a perforated portion on the bottom surface and a float provided on the outer periphery thereof, and the nutrient solution is supplied to the cultivation bed for a certain period of time to irrigate the bottom surface. And a irrigation device has been devised which discharges the nutrient solution from the cultivation bed at the end of irrigation.

[0003]

However, this conventional manual work requires a lot of working time and skill. The method of arranging sprinklers and sprays near the plant and automatically irrigating it will significantly reduce the working time, but it will prevent the nutrient solution from reaching the medium evenly in the leaves of the plant, There is a problem of uneven irrigation. In addition, in the conventional bottom watering method, in order to smooth the drainage from the cell tray, it is necessary to install a spacer on the bottom of the water tank or incline the bottom of the water tank. There is a limit to the scale expansion due to the cost and cost.

Therefore, the present invention is intended to allow a plant irrigation system to be expanded in scale and to irrigate plants uniformly in a short time without unevenness of irrigation.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a cell tray having a perforated portion on the bottom surface thereof, and a frame-like float having a cutout portion at the bottom portion for supporting the outer periphery of the cell tray.
In a plant cultivating apparatus having a cultivation bed in which the cell tray with a float is arranged, a water supply device for supplying a nutrient solution to the cultivation bed, a drainer for discharging the nutrient solution from the cultivation bed, and a water supply for controlling the water supply device. A timer and a drainage timer for controlling the drainage device are provided.

[0006]

In the irrigation system of the present invention constructed as described above, the nutrient solution water supply device is operated at the time set by the water supply timer, and the cultivation bed is filled with the nutrient solution. In the cultivation bed, the cell tray gradually floats to the surface of the nutrient solution by the float arranged on the outer periphery. The water supply timer is also set with the stop time of the nutrient solution water supply device, and the water supply device is stopped at the time when all the floats arranged in the cultivation bed are lifted. At this time, due to the buoyancy of the float, the outer periphery of the cell tray is immersed in the nutrient solution from the bottom surface to a predetermined height, and the nutrient solution is absorbed from the perforated portion on the bottom surface of the cell tray into the medium in the cell tray. After a certain period of time, when the time set by the drainage timer comes, the drainer for draining the nutrient solution is operated. In the drainage timer, the stop time of the nutrient solution drainer is also set at the same time, the nutrient solution is discharged outside the system, the bottom of the float reaches the bottom of the cultivation bed, and the water level reaches a predetermined level of the cultivation bed. When it is time to go down, the drain will be stopped.

At this time, a gap is formed between the bottom of the float and the bottom of the cultivation bed by the notch of the float, the supply of outside air to the lower part of the cell tray is not obstructed, and the root bowl is not formed by air pruning in the cell. Be promoted. The water excessively absorbed into the medium in the cell tray drops from the perforated portion on the bottom surface of the cell tray and flows out from the cutout portion of the float, so that the water in the medium is kept in an appropriate amount. By setting the operation start time and operation time of the nutrient solution water supply device and drainage device according to the type of plant, the growth stage and the environmental conditions in the cultivation facility, it is possible to realize irrigation without irrigation unevenness in a short time. can do.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an example of a watering apparatus of the present invention, in which a plurality of cell trays 1 having perforated portions on the bottom surface and a float 2 arranged on the outer periphery thereof and having a cutout portion at the bottom are placed in a cultivation bed 3. It is composed of a water supply device 4 for supplying the nutrient solution into the cultivation bed 3, a drainage device 5 for discharging the same, a water supply timer 6, and a drainage timer 7.

The operation of each device and the fluctuation of the water level in the cultivation bed will be described below with reference to FIG. The plants may be watered once or twice a day at the starting time T1.
And the end time T2 is set in the water supply timer 6.
At the set time T1, the water supply timer 6 operates the water supply timer 6 to supply the nutrient solution to the cultivation bed 3. Regarding the method of watering the bottom surface, in a cell tray having a height of about 5 cm, the bottom 2 to 3 cm may be immersed in the nutrient solution for 10 to 30 seconds. Therefore, the operation end time T2 of the water supply device 4 is set to a time at which all the cell trays 1 are floated on the surface of the nutrient solution by the float 2 in this case. At this time, the water level of the nutrient solution reaches a water level L1 which is 2-3 cm higher than the bottom surface of the cell tray 1. The drainage timer 7 is set with the drainage start time T3 and drainage time T4. Operation start time T of the drainage device 5
3 is 10 to 30 seconds after the water supply device 4 is stopped.
When the nutrient solution is discharged from the drainage device 5, the water level of the nutrient solution decreases.
The time when the bottom surface of the float 2 is drained to the water level L2 when it reaches the bottom of the cultivation bed 3 is the operation end time T4 of the drainage device 5.
Set as. In this state, excess water is discharged from the medium in the cell tray 1 and an appropriate amount of nutrient solution is retained in the medium. A pump or a solenoid valve is used as the water supplier 4 and the drainer 5. An all-day timer or a program controller is used for the water supply timer and the drainage timer. In addition to multiple timer functions, the program controller can also set the date and various conditions. When this is used, it is possible to realize irrigation of a vegetative plant that incorporates the growth stage of the plant and the environmental conditions in the cultivation facility.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show the relationship between the cell tray 1 and the float 2. The cell tray 1 is set inside the float 2. The float 2 may be used alone or in combination. The dimensions of the float 2 are determined so that when the nutrient solution is supplied, the bottom of the cell tray 1 is immersed in the nutrient solution by 2-3 cm due to the buoyancy of the float 2. If the total mass of the cell tray 1 and the float 2 is W, the buoyancy force received by the cell tray 1 is F1 and the buoyancy force received by the float 2 is F2, then W = F1 + F2, and the distance d at which the cell tray 1 is immersed in the nutrient solution is 2 It is 3 cm. When the nutrient solution is discharged from the cultivation bed 3, air is supplied to the bottom of the cell tray 1 through the gap between the cutout portion of the float 2 and the cultivation bed 3, and the formation of a root pot by air pruning is promoted.

FIG. 5 shows the shape of the notch at the bottom of the float 2, and the cross-sectional shape is a triangle or a quadrangle, which is easy to manufacture. For the shape and material of float 2,
A hollow tube may be made of vinyl or plastic to form a float, or the float may be formed of a material having a small specific gravity such as Styrofoam.

[0012]

As described above, according to the present invention, all the plants in the cultivation bed can be uniformly and uniformly watered from the bottom of the plants in a short time. Also, water 1
The amount of water used is small and the scale of the watering system can be easily expanded. By using a program controller that incorporates the growth stage of the plant and the environmental conditions in the cultivation facility into the timer, it is possible to easily realize even more detailed watering of the plant.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an example of a device of the present invention, (A) is a plan view and (B) is a sectional view.

FIG. 2 shows fluctuations in water level in a cultivation bed when the device of the present invention is operated.

FIG. 3 shows a cell tray and float as part of the apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view in which a cell tray and a float float above the water surface of a nutrient solution in a part of the apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a float as part of the apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cell tray 2 Float 3 Cultivation bed 4 Water supply device 5 Drainer 6 Water supply timer 7 Drainage timer T1 Water supply operation start time T2 Water supply operation end time T3 Drainage operation start time T4 Drainage operation end time L1 Water supply stop water level L2 drain stop water level

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location A01G 27/00 504 C 9318-2B

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cell tray having a perforated portion on the bottom surface,
A frame-shaped float having a cutout portion at the bottom and supporting the outer periphery of the cell tray, and a plant cultivating apparatus having a cultivating bed in which the cell tray with the float is arranged, and a water supplier that supplies a nutrient solution to the cultivating bed. A irrigation system for plant cultivation provided with a drainer for discharging the nutrient solution from the cultivation bed, a water supply timer for controlling the water supply device, and a drainage timer for controlling the drainer.