Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags Aktiebolag

Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags Ab

Bengt G Qvarnstrom

Heimo H Kuvaja

Gustav O Andreason

Ulf R Friberg

Method and device designed for arranging and packing plants and their respective root lumps. The method and device are employed in relation to plants which have grown in a seedling unit containing a large number of plants and soil lumps arranged in a plurality of rows and lines adjacent each other and in uniform rectilinear check pattern. After removal of void soil lumps containing no plants and soil lumps containing badly developed plants, the remaining healthy plants are gripped and placed in channels in the same pattern they were in in the seedling unit with a separate channel for each row. The plants are then conveyed in the channels from an input end towards an output end, and gaps between the plants are eliminated in the channels not later than upon reaching the output end. A certain number of plants so collected are then removed from the channels and placed in a transport container.

Method and a device designed to arrange and pack seedlings

Apparatus for automatically inspecting seedling units containing growth medium and arranged in rows and columns in the form of a matrix of pot-cells tray like containers, uses a retractable gang-sensor unit which is in the form of a sensor bridge to identify individual pot cells which do not contain an acceptable seedling or do not have any germination. Pot cells so identified are remembered as to their location in the matrix and are evacuated by vertically downward moving plungers. Pot cells which are thus emptied may be filled with acceptable seedlings together with the growth medium, so that each tray contains a totality of acceptable seedlings. Trays thus processed can be used for elevated growing of seedlings with maximum utility of space in the green house where the seedlings are grown. The tray like container is advanced each time a sensing and evacuating operation is completed. Advantageously, if any plunger malfunctions and does not retract after an evacuating operation, the malfunctioning plunger actuates a switch controlled by a laser beam and stops the operation, thereby calling for manual intervention.

Method and apparatus for automatically handling reusable seedling units

Seedling flat

Disclosed herein is a method and apparatus for mass growing of seedlings in a controlled atmosphere, for later transplanting into a permanent site, e.g. for reforestation. A growing system is disclosed wherein seeds are germinated into seedlings in a growth medium arranged in trays containing compartmentalized recesses or pots all joined together to form a seedling unit. Seedling units in mass growing systems have invariably several pots wherein either the seedlings are dead, or the inserted seeds never germinate; depending on the percentage success of seed germination in the individual pots of each seedling unit, the overall efficiency of utilization of the available room and manpower spent at the growing station is considerably affected. Those pots wherein the seedlings are dead or the seeds have not germinated are identified by automatically scanning the trays; the location of such pots is noted and the pots having no germination nor a usable seedling are emptied automatically and filled with a germinated seedling along with the required growth medium. Having thus ensured that all the pots in all the trays for final stages of growing are occupied by a proper seedling, the efficiency of space utilization is maximized, thereby obviating wastage of manpower, and resulting in increased economy.

Method for transplanting of seedlings

A reusable seedling transplant unit for elevated growing, by germinating several seedlings simultaneously in a growth medium, contains a plurality of pot-shaped cells all joined together; each cell has an open top and bottom and is structured with a plurality of ribs extending downwardly from the open cell top to converge to the bottom. The ribs are closely spaced forming narrow slits therebetween so as to retain the growth medium in the cell during elevated growing and during transportation to a site, e.g., for reforestation. The ribs can be resiliently deformed to release each seedling for replanting in soil along with its root lump and associated growth medium, without detrimentally affecting the root lump.

Growing community of inventors

Falun, Sweden

Bengt G Qvarnstrom