A belt conveyor system for the transporting of plant containers over a cultivation floor including an endless belt on which the plant containers are adapted to be placed, a mobile unit, provided with a buffer which is adapted to buffer the endless belt, and a drive unit to place the endless belt in operation, a reversal device provided with a reversal member, which reversal device is adapted to be placed on the field of the cultivation floor at a distance from the mobile unit; and a temporarily arranged belt guide which is adapted to be placed between the mobile unit and the reversal device on the field of the cultivation floor; wherein the reversal device turns the belt, and wherein the belt runs between the mobile unit and the reversal device across the belt guide.

A seedling transplanting system is provided that utilizes a seedling feeder that is configured to fit between a tray of seedlings contained within a series of chain pots and a hydroponic trough. The feeder includes a ramp and a chute that direct the seedlings from the tray into the trough. A pair of guide surfaces, which form ramp sidewalls, help the seedlings to self-right as they are drawn into the hydroponic trough. A restraining jig aids in establishing and maintaining the relative positions of the seedling tray, feeder and trough during the transplanting process. A pulling tool simplifies the transplanting process by providing means for pulling a pair of media strips along with the captured chain pots into the hydroponic trough.

A system for sowing seeds in cells of a germination tray or other container and related methods of operation. The system may include a conveyor configured to move the germination tray in a conveying direction, a seed storage container configured to hold a plurality of seeds, a seed sowing machine, and a seed diverting mechanism. The seed sowing machine may be configured to transfer the seeds from the seed storage container along at least one seed transport path and into respective cells of the germination tray as the conveyor moves the germination tray in the conveying direction. The seed diverting mechanism may be configured to selectively divert seeds from the at least one seed transport path such that the diverted seeds are not deposited in cells of the germination tray during operation.

A seeding device is provided. That seeding device includes a seeding paddle having a plurality of seed holders and a seed tray having a channel. The channel receives the seeding paddle so that seeds in the seed tray are easily directed into the plurality of seed holders. The paddle may then be removed from the seeding tray for planting seeds in a desired quantity at the desired spaced locations.

Devices, systems, and methods for providing and operating crop control hardware are provided herein. Some embodiments include an assembly line grow pod having a master controller with a plurality of bays and being communicatively coupled to components of the grow pod, a crop control module within one of the bays such that the crop control module is communicatively coupled to the master controller and the components of the grow pod, and a second control module in one of the bays, which is removably insertable such that it is removable from the bay without altering the assembly line grow pod functionality. The crop control module is programmed to sense a removal of the second control module, determine control signals necessary to maintain an operation of the grow pod and the components of the grow pod, and provide the control signals to the grow pod or the components of the grow pod.

A full-automatic system and operation method of integrated sorting-transplanting-replanting for plug seedlings includes a frame, feeding units for a target tray and source tray, a discarding seedling tray bin, a single-claw for replanting unit, a multi-claw for sorting and transplanting unit, seedling picking claws and a monitoring module. During transportation, the seedling picking claws pass through a seedling picking zone, seedling monitoring zone, seedling discarding zone and seedling releasing zone in turn. The monitoring module and the single-claw for replanting unit are located behind and in the front of the vertical movement plane of the multi-claw, respectively. Along a tray feeding direction, a first row of the source tray is set as a source area for replanting, and other rows of the source tray are all set as the source area for transplanting. The monitoring and sorting is finished during the transportation without stopping.

A planting system for use with a vertical hydroponic tower. The planting system includes a payload transport system and a planter. The payload transport system, which is configured to be positioned at a location adjacent to the hydroponic tower, includes a base and a lift tower, the lift tower including a motorized lift system configured to move the planter upward and downward. The planter is configured to insert plant containers containing seedlings into the hydroponic tower as the motorized payload lift system moves the planter upwards along the face of the tower.

A vertical pole (2) holds plant growing containers (3, 50, 54), at multiple heights. Some containers may be mounted at a given height (H1-H9) in a circular array around the pole. Each container may occupy a V-shaped region about the pole in a top view. The pole may be moveable by a conveyor system (4, 5). The pole may have a fluid reservoir (30), and a fluid distribution system (31-35) extending from the fluid reservoir to plant growing containers at different vertical locations on the pole. Each plant growing container may integrate a soil containment portion (51), a bottom drain portion (61) that collects fluid draining through the soil, and a bypass drain portion (64, 70, 72, 75, 79), that interconnects with higher and lower like containers on the pole and bypasses the soil in the containers for rinsing the soils individually.

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 method for moving wetted seeds from a tank includes positioning a first batch of seeds within a tank, directing water from a water source to the tank, wetting the first batch of seeds within the tank with the water from the water source to initiate germination of the first batch of seeds, releasing the first batch of seeds from the tank to a pod line in fluid communication with an assembly line grow pod after a predetermined time, and subsequent to releasing the first batch of seeds from the tank, detecting a level of seeds remaining in the tank.