JPS5850690B2 - cultivation equipment - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a device for growing plants such as canola and flowers.

In recent years, something called veranda gardening or planter gardening has become rapidly popular! The biggest bottleneck is obtaining soil and proper cultivation management.

Irrigation required for container cultivation not only supplies nutrients and moisture to the roots of plants, but also replaces the carbon dioxide gas produced by metabolism in the soil, providing sufficient water to the roots. It has the role of supplying oxygen.

For this reason, use materials with good drainage as the soil, and
Normally, it is desirable to water for about 5 minutes every two hours, in other words, to perform intermittent watering.

Next, sunlight intensity is cited as the factor most closely related to plant growth.

In this case, the number of times of irrigation needs to be increased or decreased depending on the summer period when the daylight hours are long and the winter period when the daylight hours are short.

In addition, the photosynthetic action of plants begins at sunrise, and the rate of photosynthesis is closely related to the water content within the plant body, and increasing the water content within the plant body immediately after sunrise will lead to good growth. .

However, watering after sunset leads to a decrease in the temperature around the roots, which is a negative factor for crop growth, so it is not preferable to water after sunset.

Next, in addition to water and light, temperature is another essential factor for plant growth.

Temperature is specific to each type of cultivated plant, but although low temperature damage is likely to occur in normal cases, it is rare for growth to be harmed by too high a temperature, so it is necessary to increase growth by heating. many.

For this reason, heating is necessary, and it is often desirable to cultivate at a constant temperature, especially for fertilizer efficacy tests and research on plant physiology.

Similarly, in order to maintain constant conditions such as light, temperature, and humidity, or to support the growing plant, it is possible to cover it with an attached covering material or tie it to a support rod to prevent it from lodging. These are things that are needed.

The present invention was made in response to such demands, and includes a culture medium container 1 having a water-permeable bottom surface and an open top surface, a culture solution storage tank 2 stacked below it, and A pump for supplying the culture solution to the supply pipe 4 of the container 1, and an electric controller 10 combined with a photosensitive device 5 to perform the supply intermittently, are connected to the pump switch, and The culture solution storage tank 2, which supports the culture soil container 1 and stores the culture solution inside, has a plurality of small chambers 2c2d, 2e whose top surface is open and whose bottom surface contacts the base.
This cultivation device is characterized in that the upper edges of adjacent chambers are connected by a groove at a height below the surface of the culture solution.

The attached drawing shows an example of the implementation of this device, and in the drawing, 1
is a culture soil container, which is a box with an open top surface and a water permeable bottom surface, and is equipped with a culture solution supply pipe 4.

The reason why the upper part is open is to allow the plants planted in the soil 7 to grow, receive sunlight and ventilation, or have room for the culture solution to be sprayed as shown in Figure 2. The reason why the bottom surface is water permeable is to prevent excess culture solution from accumulating in the container 1 and causing root rot.

In the figure, the bottom surface is inclined toward the center, and water permeable holes 1a are provided at the lowest part of the bottom surface, but it may also be a perforated plate or a mesh plate.

The reason why the container 1 is placed on the culture solution storage tank 2 is because it is most advantageous in terms of saving floor space.

The soil to be stored in the container 1 may include synthetic resin beads (balls or lumps with a diameter of l to several meters), synthetic resin foam materials, artificial materials such as inorganic foam materials, pearlite, vermiculite, and rice husk. A semi-artificial object (Momigarakuntan) that is a fired product,
Natural materials such as Kanuma soil, Akadama soil, Kiryu sand, mountain sand, and gravel alone or in combinations thereof are suitable.

In particular, since the device of the present invention is suitable for use in cultivation experiments, it is often required that components do not elute from the soil, but in such cases, sand, gravel, synthetic The use of resin beads is recommended.

The culture solution that has naturally permeated the culture soil layer 7 passes through 1a and enters the storage tank 2.
The culture solution falls into the tank and is temporarily stored there, and is connected to the suction side of the pump 3 via a pipe 8 at the lower part thereof, and the delivery side supplies the culture solution to the supply pipe 4 via a pipe 9.

In other words, the culture solution forms a circulation system in the direction of the arrows 9→4→7→2→8→3→9.

This storage tank 2 has multiple chambers 2c whose bottom surfaces are in contact with the base,
2d and 2e, and these multiple chambers are connected by a groove that also serves as a lip structure.

At this time, it is desirable to keep the heater immersed in the culture solution stored in the chamber or groove.

The heater 16 is, of course, for heating the culture solution to an appropriate temperature for cultivation, and is usually a string-like, coil-like nichrome wire coated with silicone rubber or other covering material.

Although not shown, its end is connected to a temperature controller such as a bimetal or thermostat so that it can be centrally controlled in the mechanical section indicated by S in FIG.

When the heater is installed in the culture medium storage part of the groove 2b of the small chamber or step, it will not be exposed from the culture medium due to an unexpected accident, so damage to the culture vessel itself due to overheating will be prevented. Further, the temperature of the circulating culture solution can be maintained at an accurate temperature.

The storage tank 2, together with the container 1, is usually made of synthetic resin, especially polyolefin, polyvinyl chloride, and especially ABS resin, from the viewpoints of light weight, low cost, and durability.
In terms of reducing the amount of resin used and maintaining the necessary strength,
As shown in FIG. 3, the storage tank has a plurality of pit-shaped chambers 2c, 2d, and 2e whose bottom surfaces are in contact with the base plate P, and the connecting portion is connected to the groove 2b of the step part which also serves as a lip structure. Do as you please.

In this case, not only can the necessary strength be obtained with less material due to the lip effect, but also there will be many spaces called 2A between the base and the base, which will provide an insulation effect between the base and the To reduce the risk of the culture solution heating up due to excessive temperature rise due to sunlight and high-temperature watering, or algae growing in the solution and obstructing the circulation by the pump, and using a heater in winter, etc. When this occurs, the generated heat is difficult to escape to the base, so a high heat retention effect can be obtained with less electricity.

Next, the present invention requires that irrigation (actually, culture solution) be performed intermittently.

For this reason, the pump 3 is also intermittently commanded to start and close its operation based on the illuminance.

That is, an electric controller 10 combined with a pump 3 and a photosensitive device 5 is housed in the part indicated by S in FIG. The pump is configured to operate the pump intermittently only during a certain amount of illumination.

As the photosensitive device, one using a semiconductor such as a CDS phototube cell, or a known technique using a photoelectric effect using a type of old vacuum tube such as a phototube is used.

Such a photoreceptor 5, in conjunction with an electric controller, for example a known timer or Ic circuit, commands the pump 3 to start and stop.

Once again, the starting and closing of the pump depends solely on the illuminance and will only operate intermittently when the device of the invention is placed at the defined illuminance.

it is. For example, it is based on the same principle that the blinking of street lights is currently carried out by means of CDS photocells.

In this way, when the degree of sunlight in the place where the device of the present invention is placed reaches the set value of about 10 to 50 lux,
By setting the electric control so that it commands the start of the pump for the first time, and by configuring the 5Ic circuit so that the Ic circuit will perform irrigation for 5 minutes every 2 hours, from 10am onwards at sunrise.
The first irrigation is done at 50 lux and 10-50 lux before sunset.
When the illuminance reaches below Lux, the intermittent irrigation is automatically interrupted.

Therefore, if a lighting device that replaces sunlight, such as a garden lamp, is nearby, intermittent watering will be repeated as long as it is detected by 10 to 50 lux or more.

Of course, the illuminance, intermittent watering, irrigation time, etc. should be set to be appropriate for the type of cultivated plants.

As shown above, all of the watering, temperature control, etc. are done automatically, but if you want to use this device for research purposes, you may want to use it like a greenhouse with as little influence from the outside world as possible. You may want to add support rods to prevent plants from lodging.

Such covering materials and support rods can be solved by providing attachment parts 15 for them at appropriate positions on the container 1 and the storage tank 2.

There is no particular limitation on the size of this cultivation device, but when the cultivated plants are flowers and canola, the thickness of the soil layer is usually about 10 to 20 CrrI, so the height of the container 1 is It is sufficient to set the value to about 2 to 3 Crr1 higher than that.

On the other hand, the capacity of the storage tank 2 is, for example, in the case of tomatoes, the amount of water transpiration during the peak season is about 1 to 211 per day, so even if several tomatoes are planted, the amount of water transpiration is about 5 to 101 per day. As expected, if the size of the storage tank is set to about 301, there is no risk of running out of water even if it is neglected for 2 to 3 days.

Therefore, with a device of the scale of growing several tomatoes, the height from the floor to the top of the container 1 is at most 30 to 50 Cr.
Since the pump capacity is approximately r1, and the pump is operated intermittently, the power consumption is naturally low.

In addition, as for the irrigation equipment, in the figure, the supply pipe 4 is branched from the pipe 9 and installed on both upper edges of the container 10, and the nozzle 4a is also shown spraying the culture solution toward the center. The liquid level gauge 12 (a float is used as an example) is installed in the storage tank 2.
A replenishment port 13 or the like may be provided to facilitate replenishment of the culture solution, or a drain port 14 may be provided to facilitate cleaning.

In the above, the terms "culture solution supply" and "irrigation" are often used interchangeably, but the culture solution in cultivation is N.

In addition to P, Ca s Mgs Mn * Bo
* In many cases, it is sufficient to use a material that contains a very small amount of minerals such as Fe (about 1 mmμ).
There is no need to consider natural concentration during use, and it can be handled in the same way as water.

As mentioned above, the device of the present invention is mostly configured automatically, so any amateur can cultivate it without making mistakes, and it can uniformize the cultivation conditions, making it suitable for cultivation research and testing. It is.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Attached Figure 1 is a perspective view of the device of the present invention, and Figure 2 is its A-A.
A diagram in which a schematic diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention is added to a cross-sectional diagram,
FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along line B-8 in FIG. 1. In the figure, 1 is a soil container, 2 is a culture solution storage tank, 2b is a groove, and 3
1 is a pump, 5 is a photosensitive device, 10 is an electric controller, 15 is an attachment attachment part, and 16 is a heater.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Cultivating soil container 1 with a permeable bottom and an open top
, a culture solution storage tank 2 stacked below it, a pump 3 for supplying the culture solution to the supply pipe 4 of the container 1,
In order to perform the supply intermittently, an electric controller 10 combined with a photosensitive device 5 is connected to a pump switch, and supports a culture soil container 1 on its upper four circumferences, and stores a culture solution therein. The culture solution storage tank is made up of a plurality of small chambers 2c, 2d, and 2e, each of which has an open top and a bottom that touches the substrate.The upper edges of adjacent chambers are located below the surface of the culture solution. A cultivation device characterized by being connected by height grooves.