A plant cultivation tray for a gravity-driven plant cultivation system includes: (a) a tray body; (b) a plurality of plant cavities in and open to a top of the tray body for holding plants; (c) a nutrient chamber internal the tray body and in fluid communication with the plant cavities for holding plant nutrient solution. The nutrient chamber is bounded from below by a nutrient chamber bottom wall lying in a horizontal plane. The tray body has at least one underside surface for engagement with a sloped gravity conveyor to rollingly support the plant cultivation tray thereon. The at least one underside surface slopes downwards relative to the horizontal plane from a rear to a front of the tray body for maintaining a generally constant depth of the plant nutrient solution across the nutrient chamber bottom wall when the tray is supported on the gravity conveyor.

An assembly line grow pod includes a seeding region, a harvesting region, a track that extends between the seeding region and the harvesting region, a cart including a tray for holding plant matter, and a wheel coupled to the tray, where the wheel is engaged with the track, and a weight sensor positioned on the cart or the track, where the weight sensor is positioned to detect a weight of the plant matter positioned within the cart.

A method and apparatus for hydroponically growing seed and cutting grown plants into more easily digestible pieces. The method and apparatus comprising a seed delivery mechanism, advancing culture belts, at least two distinct environmental zones designed to promote ideal environments for the germination and growth of the seeds, irrigation and lighting systems, an optional recycling system for irrigation water, and a cutter assembly to cut grown plants as they advance into the cutter.

A system for an assembly line grow pod includes a germination hub including a tank, a water source in selective fluid communication with the tank, a pump in selective fluid communication with the tank and the water source, a pod line in selective fluid communication with the germination hub, a seeder assembly in selective fluid communication with the pod line, the seeder assembly including a seeder tank, and a metering device in selective fluid communication with the seeder tank, where the metering device selectively releases seeds from the seeder tank, and a cart positioned below the metering device.

A watering station includes a robotic watering device having a first swing arm having a first end opposite a second end, a rotatable robot arm rotatably coupled to a second end of the first swing arm, a first motor configured to pivot the first swing arm, a second motor configured to rotate the rotatable robot arm with respect to the first swing arm, and pump outlets positioned on the rotatable robot arm, one or more pumps fluidly coupled to the pump outlets positioned on the rotatable robot arm, and a fluid reservoir, where the one or more pumps comprises an inlet and an outlet, and the one or more pumps are fluidly coupled to the fluid reservoir such that when activated the one or more pumps draw fluid from the fluid reservoir and disperse a predetermined amount of fluid out the pump outlets.

A vertically-stacked growing system includes vertical beams and horizontal shelves respectively arranged on different vertical levels, Each horizontal shelf has a length and a width, and includes horizontal structural supports coupled to at least some of the vertical beams, decking coupled to the horizontal structural supports, and multiple walls to form a shallow pond when the horizontal shelf contains a plant nutrient water culture, thereby constituting a growing layer of the growing system. The walls include two side walls along the length and two end walls along the width. Each horizontal shelf further includes a loading and/or unloading apparatus to facilitate loading and/or unloading of a plurality of rafts into and/or out of the shallow pond, via the two end walls, wherein respective rafts of the plurality of rafts include a plurality of germinated plants. At least a first horizontal shelf further comprises a raft conveyance system to move at least a first raft of the plurality of rafts through a first shallow pond contained in the first horizontal shelf.

Devices, systems, and methods for providing and operating a pump control module and pumps in an assembly line grow pod are provided herein. Some embodiments include an assembly line grow pod having a plurality of fluid lines fluidly coupled between a fluid source and a fluid destination within the assembly line grow pod, a plurality of pumps, each coupled to a fluid line such that fluid is moved within the fluid line by the pump, and a master controller communicatively coupled to the pumps. The master controller is programmed to receive information relating to fluid delivery within the assembly line grow pod, determine one or more pumps to deliver the fluid, determine pump parameters for each of the pumps that achieve the fluid delivery, and transmit one or more control signals to the pumps for delivering the fluid within the assembly line grow pod.

A system bypasses harvesting in an assembly line grow pod when it is determined that a plant in a cart is not ready to harvest. The system includes a track, a cart configured to move on the track, one or more sensors and a controller. The cart includes an upper plate that supports a plant. The controller receives information about the plant from the one or more sensors, determines whether the plant in the cart is ready to harvest based on the information; and transmits an instruction for bypassing harvesting the plant in the cart in response to determination that the plant in the cart is not ready to harvest.

A system for removing seeds includes a track, one or more carts moveably disposed on the track, one or more sensors, a removing device, and a controller. The controller includes one or more processors, one or more memory modules, and machine readable instructions stored in the one or more memory modules that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the controller to determine a location of one or more of one or more contaminated seeds and one or more contaminated plants on the one or more carts based on information received from the one or more sensors and instruct the removing device to remove one or more of the one or more contaminated seeds and the one or more contaminated plants based on the location.

Devices, systems, and methods for providing and operating a valve control module and pressure valves in an assembly line grow pod are provided herein. Some embodiments include an assembly line grow pod having a plurality of fluid lines fluidly coupled between a fluid source and a fluid destination within the assembly line grow pod, a plurality of pressure valves, each coupled to a fluid line such that fluid pressure in the fluid lines is selectively controlled by the pressure valves, and a master controller communicatively coupled to the pressure valves. The master controller is programmed to receive information relating to fluid delivery within the assembly line grow pod, determine one or more pressure valves to direct the fluid, determine pressure valve parameters for each of the pressure valves that achieve the fluid pressurization, and transmit one or more control signals to the pressure valves for pressurizing the fluid within the assembly line grow pod.