Plants use nitrogen as one of the essential elements required in their metabolism. Although the atmosphere is composed predominantly of molecular nitrogen, plants cannot break these nitrogen molecules into the elemental nitrogen required by the plants. In nature, bacteria “fix” the nitrogen in the atmosphere by using it to produce ammonia, which can be metabolized by plants. Nitrogen can also be introduced to the plants artificially, using natural or artificial fertilizer or even by direct injection of nitrogen into the soil. In all these cases, nitrogen is delivered to the plant via its roots. The present invention delivers instead ammonia to the leaves of the plants through foliar spraying by infusing water used in foliar spraying with ammonia. This is more efficient than delivery through roots of the plant, and greatly reduces the problem of fertilizer run-off.

Apparatuses and methods for collecting and irrigating water for plant growth in dry regions. Exemplary apparatus has appearance of a plant having leaves and stems, and operates same way plants grow and irrigate rain water and/or dew. Includes at least one water harvesting device for condensing moisture in air and collecting yield water. Device includes at least one device-body having a hydrophobic shell, and an internal-body-core surrounded by and enclosed within the hydrophobic shell; and plurality of condensation-protrusions disposed on the hydrophobic shell, each having internal-core and hydrophilic-shell surrounding and enclosing internal core. Device-body internal-body-core, in an integral manner, continuously extends to device-body hydrophobic shell and into (within) hydrophilic shell of each condensation-protrusion. When condensation-protrusions are cooler than moist air, hydrophilic-shell condenses and extracts moisture from air, becoming harvested water. When hydrophilic-shell is saturated, water flows on hydrophobic shell surface, and irrigates flowing water towards at least one target location.

The invention provides a method for cultivating Sphagnum. The method comprises supplying the Sphagnum with a nutrient composition. The nutrient composition comprises nitrogen, phosphorus, and/or potassium.

Embodiments of the invention are directed to a sub-surface irrigation system configured to operate in a plant-responsive mode, and further configured to make certain adaptations in response to plant stress. Stress adaptations may include, for example, selectively increasing source pressure of irrigation fluid, heating or chilling the irrigation fluid, and/or injecting fertilizer and/or non-fertilizer amendments into the irrigation fluid.

A system for the fertigation of a plant vessel and method of use for the same is disclosed. The system comprises a grow module containing a plurality of growing trays additionally containing plants, and/or shoots of plants in various stages of development. The growing trays are individually extracted from the grow module via a tray movement system and tray elevator controlled by a control system and precisely placed in a fertigation system, wherein they are aligned over and lowered onto an at least one nozzle which penetrate the plant vessels containing the plants and fertigate them with a combination of water, nutrients, and/or pressurized air. The individual growing tray is then replaced in the grow module and the process is repeated for all growing trays and plant vessels in the grow module.

An automated growing facility for plants, seeds, or seedlings is disclosed. The facility comprises a growing chamber, a fertigation station, a load/unload station, a device such as an automated guided vehicle (AGV) configured to transport grow modules, and a control system configured to control at least one of the grow modules, the fertigation station, the load/unload station, and the AGV. The grow modules are transported from the growing chamber to the fertigation station using the AGV for fertigating plant vessels in growing trays of the grow modules, and the fertigated plants vessels are transported from the fertigation station to the growing chamber using the AGV. Further, the plant vessels are loaded into the growing trays and unloaded from the growing trays at the load/unload station.

A plant growing tray system, and a method of using the same, the system comprising a growing tray including a plurality of tray insert openings configured to accept tray inserts, a pallet stop, and a transfer catch. The system further comprises a plurality of tray inserts comprising a plurality of tray locking points configured to secure each of the plurality of tray inserts within the plurality of tray insert openings, a vessel cavity to hold a plant vessel, a plurality of fertigation holes on the bottom of the vessel cavity configured to receive fertigation needles, and a plurality of plant vessel securement points configured to secure the plant vessel within the vessel cavity.

A method for applying a liquid fertilizer with a liquid fertilizer manufacturing system is disclosed. The method includes the steps of providing a liquid fertilizer manufacturing system, injecting an ammonia into a sulfurous acid to form the liquid fertilizer, and transferring the liquid fertilizer to an irrigation system. The liquid fertilizer manufacturing system contains a liquid fertilizer generator having an upstream portion and a downstream portion. A sulfurous acid injection port is fluidly connected to a sulfurous acid source that is disposed in the upstream portion of the liquid fertilizer generator. An ammonia injection port is fluidly connected to an ammonia source to in an ammonia into the liquid fertilizer generator. An aerator may be disposed downstream of the ammonia injection port. A withdraw port disposed in the downstream portion of the liquid fertilizer generator is fluidly connected to an irrigation system.

A system and method for managing nutrient concentrate in water-based solutions is disclosed. The method includes receiving nutrient information of water-based solution from a data measurement unit at real-time and receiving a set of desired parameters associated with the crops from one or more sources. The method further generating a set of nutrients recommendations corresponding to one or more additional nutrients required in the water-based solution for maximum crop yield and determining a set of dosing parameters to inject the one or more additional nutrients in the water-based solution based on the nutrient information, the set of desired parameters and the set of nutrients recommendations by using a nutrient management based AI model. Further, the method includes the nutrient information, the set of desired parameters, the set of nutrients recommendation and the set of dosing parameters on user interface screen of one or more electronic devices.

A grow module, a plant growing system, and methods for using the same are disclosed herein. The grow module comprises a plurality of tray modules including a light tray over a growing tray. The light tray includes a lighting array and at least one sensor. The growing tray is adapted to hold a plurality of plant vessels. The grow module comprises a machine-readable identification. The grow module is configured to hold the plurality of tray modules in a vertically stacked configuration. The lighting array on the light tray is configured to provide light to the plurality of plant vessels on the growing tray in the grow module directly under said light tray.