Interlocking raft for deepwater culture hydroponics
First Claim
1. A raft for hydroponics comprising:
- a plurality of opaque raft segments, each segment comprising a plurality of plant holes therethrough, at least one of said plant holes having a narrower bottom dimension than a top dimension, said raft segments reversibly attached together to form a raft to completely cover the surface of a pond, at least one of said segments having a plurality of thermal chimneys arrayed diagonally surrounding a plant hole, at least one of said thermal chimneys having a wider bottom dimension than a top dimension; and
one or more attachment devices to reversibly secure a raft segment to an adjacent raft segment with no gaps between them.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments of a hydroponic growing system include raft segments that can be reversibly attached together to form a raft. Rafts can have one or more plant holes to support a plant body, and one or more thermal chimneys to provide for gas transport from underneath the raft to the upper surface, to control temperature and humidity of the plant. Additional embodiments include wireless sensors that may or may not be part of a raft, and a growing environment control system that can receive data from one or more sensors of environmental conditions of a plant and in other embodiments, can detect discrepancies between the actual environmental conditions and desired conditions. In still further embodiments, a growing environment control system can automatically adjust an actuator to return an environmental condition to a desired state.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A raft for hydroponics comprising:
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a plurality of opaque raft segments, each segment comprising a plurality of plant holes therethrough, at least one of said plant holes having a narrower bottom dimension than a top dimension, said raft segments reversibly attached together to form a raft to completely cover the surface of a pond, at least one of said segments having a plurality of thermal chimneys arrayed diagonally surrounding a plant hole, at least one of said thermal chimneys having a wider bottom dimension than a top dimension; and one or more attachment devices to reversibly secure a raft segment to an adjacent raft segment with no gaps between them. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13)
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6. A system for hydroponics, comprising:
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a plurality of opaque raft segments, each segment comprising a plurality of plant holes therethrough, at least one of said plant holes having a narrower bottom dimension than a top dimension, said raft segments reversibly attached together to form a raft to completely cover the surface of a pond, at least one of said segments having a plurality of thermal chimneys arrayed diagonally surrounding a plant hole, at least one of said thermal chimneys having a wider bottom dimension than a top dimension; one or more attachment devices to reversibly secure a raft segment to an adjacent raft segment with no gaps between them;
a source of aeration bubbles;one or more environmental sensors, each of said sensors to measure an environmental variable of the environment of said raft; and a platform control system to; a) store or transmit to a remote location information captured by said one or more environmental sensors; and b) compare said information with previously stored benchmark data; and c) identify discrepancies between said information and said benchmark data; and d) transmit one or more signals to a solenoid, and actuator, or other controlling device to adjust the environment to bring it into benchmark tolerances. - View Dependent Claims (7, 11)
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8. A method for hydroponic culture, comprising the steps:
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providing a raft comprising a plurality of opaque raft segments, each segment comprising a plurality of plant holes therethrough, at least one of said plant holes having a narrower bottom dimension than a top dimension, at least one of said segments having a plurality of thermal chimneys arrayed diagonally surrounding a plant hole, at least one of said thermal chimneys having a wider bottom dimension than a top dimension; providing one or more attachment devices to reversibly secure a raft segment to an adjacent raft segment; placing one or more plant plugs in one or more of said plant holes; placing said raft segments on the surface of a tank or pond containing water; connecting said raft segments together to form a raft completely covering the surface of said water with no gaps between them; providing a source of aeration bubbles in said tank or pond; measuring one or more environmental variables using one or more sensors; and if the level of at least one of said environmental variables is outside a desired range, using an actuator to adjust the level of said environmental variable to return said variable to within a desired benchmark range. - View Dependent Claims (9)
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Specification