The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 29, 1994
Filed:
Jan. 22, 1991
Barney K Huang, Raleigh, NC (US);
Barney K. Huang, Raleigh, NC (US);
Abstract
The present invention entails a plant tray that includes a plurality of individual plant cells with each cell having an open top and bottom. Each plant cell is designed to contain and hold a plant growing medium such as peat cake or peat-soil mix. A detachable screen secured to the bottom of the plant tray to provide air-pruning of plant roots can be conveniently removed from the plant tray to facilitate extraction of the individual plants from the plant tray. Air-pruning is the phenomenon in which plant roots emerging through the screen base of the plant tray shrivel due to contacting drier air. This promotes secondary root growth or root branching and eliminates root binding and root tangling resulting in enhanced plant growth. A number of different structural designs are provided for detachably securing the screen to the plant tray. For example, in one embodiment, the plant tray is provided with a plurality of spaced apart openings while the detachable screen is provided with a series of projecting pins that are designed to project into and through the various openings so as to detachably secure the screen to the plant tray structure.