Vertical Plant Suspension System for Continuous Stem Growth
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing greenhouse plant cultivation methods are complex, labor-intensive, and inefficient due to the need for horizontal watering tubes and support wires, leading to increased energy consumption and impracticalities in maintaining plant height, which results in reduced productivity and difficulty in installing and moving plants.
Innovation Solution
A method involving suspending plants vertically by their stem, with the root portion hanging in a closed compartment without growth medium, allowing for continuous growth and pruning to maintain a consistent stem length, utilizing gravitational forces to promote root growth and reduce energy needs, and enabling easier plant movement and installation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If plants are cultivated using conventional horizontal watering tubes and support wires, then plants can be supported and watered, but the system becomes complex and labor-intensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the complex horizontal watering tubes and support wire loop system from the cultivation setup. Instead, plants are suspended vertically from a simple overhead support structure, and roots hang freely in air or water without requiring horizontal containment structures. This extraction of unnecessary components directly reduces device complexity while maintaining cultivation functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent inverts the conventional cultivation orientation by suspending plants vertically from overhead supports rather than placing them horizontally on ground or benches. This inversion eliminates the need for horizontal support wires and watering tubes, simplifying the overall system structure and reducing operational complexity.
2Productivity
If stem length increases over time during plant growth, then plants continue to grow, but energy consumption increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic stem length management system where the supported stem length is kept constant through periodic cutting of new growth. As plants grow and new stem extends beyond the support point, the excess stem is removed, maintaining a consistent stem length. This dynamic adjustment prevents energy waste on excessive stem growth while preserving continuous productivity throughout the cultivation cycle.
3Adaptability or versatility
If plants are suspended vertically with roots hanging freely, then plant movement and positioning become easier, but root support and containment become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the horizontal watering tube and root containment structure from the system. Roots are allowed to hang freely in air or dip into water reservoirs without requiring enclosed horizontal channels. This elimination of complex root containment structures enables easy plant movement and repositioning while providing adequate root support through simple vertical arrangements.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach reduces energy consumption, minimizes root entanglement, eliminates the need for growth medium, and allows for flexible plant positioning and movement, enhancing productivity and ease of operation while maintaining consistent plant height and promoting efficient root growth.
Implementation Method 1
it requires more energy for the plant to transport nutrients from the root portion to the produce
Implementation Method 2
This upward tilting forces any hormones towards the newly-lowered and horizontal part of the stem under influence of gravity
Data Source
AI summary
A method of cultivating plants includes suspending a plant, where step of suspending includes freely hanging the plant by a top portion of a stem and where a root portion freely hangs from the stem in a substantially enclosed root compartment in the absence of growth medium, providing water with nutrients and/or oxygen to the root portion, lowering the plant after growth by re suspending of the plant by a newly grown portion of the stem above the top portion of the stem, and where, after the step of lowering, a bottom portion of the stem becomes freely hanging in the root compartment, to allow new roots to grow on the bottom portion of the stem in the root compartment, pruning the root portion at least partially at a bottom end thereof, and repeating the steps of lowering and root pruning after each time the plant has been allowed to grow.