The present invention relates to the technical field of soilless culture, and in particular to a device suitable for automatically harvesting soilless culture sprouts. The device includes a bottom supporting frame, a conveying mechanism and a cutting mechanism, where the conveying mechanism is arranged on the bottom supporting frame, the cutting mechanism is arranged on the conveying mechanism, the conveying mechanism moves horizontally, an included angle α is formed between the conveying mechanism and a horizontal plane, and the included angle α is larger than or equal to 30° and less than or equal to 90°. According to the present invention, a lifting mechanism lifts a longer side edge of one end of the conveying mechanism up, such that an included angle is formed between the conveying mechanism and the bottom supporting frame, and the sprouts cut by the cutting mechanism incline to fall down into a sprout collecting box. Thus, the sprouts are effectively prevented from directly falling onto a culture plate, thereby reducing later treatment procedures and increasing production efficiency.

The invention is a customizable, slidable shelving and support apparati and system for supporting, storing and accessing horticultural and agricultural specimens within growing spaces, allowing growers to utilize the maximum amount of their linear horizontal and vertical grow space and service specific areas of the garden enterprise while also allowing for maximum workspace through the use of a table and track system that provides stackable options of multiple grow layers. A method of using this slidable shelving and support apparati and system is also included.

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 grow system. The system includes growing plants in grow modules that are individually moveable. The plants grow in trays where roots never touch the water supply. The plumbing to the grow modules is a low flow, one way flow continual drip system that is hands free. A mobile robot can navigate around a growspace, bring any grow module from one location to another, and perform growspace operations. The growspace is a control space with data source zones and a control space manager. The control space manager can collect data and control different variables across different data source zones in order to determine optimal policies and conditions for data source growth and generation.

A method of growing plants using a water-layer system, said method making use of a moveable container comprising a water-layer unit comprising a water tray, and a rectangular frame, said rectangular frame comprising two spaced apart wheel support beams, and support beams for supporting the water tray of the water-layer unit. The water-layer unit is provided with plants, and said plants are grown with access to the layer of water in the water tray. Furthermore, to grow plants more uniformly across the container, the wheel support beams have upper surface areas, and the support beams provide support areas for the water tray of the water-layer unit that in an empty first state are higher than the upper surface areas of the wheel support beams.

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.

A system for automated farming of potted plants is disclosed and includes a closed-loop conveyor system configured to facilitate gradual cyclic mobility and storage of a plurality of potted plants. The system also includes at least one centralized processing zone disposed along the conveyor system and configured to perform at least one operation such as fertilization, irrigation, treatment, instrumentation, repotting, seeding, and inspection on each individual pot. The processing zone includes at least one sensor configured to detect at least one property of a potted plant. The system also includes a processing unit in communication with the at least one sensor, the processing unit configured to determine a state of each potted plant based on the at least one detected property. The state describes a physical state of the potted plant. The system also includes at least one loading station coupled to the conveyor system and configured to feed (input) potted plants to the conveyor system, and at least one unloading station coupled to the conveyor system and configured to unload (output) potted plants from the conveyor system.

The invention is a customizable, slidable shelving and support apparati and system for supporting, storing and accessing horticultural and agricultural specimens within growing spaces, allowing growers to utilize the maximum amount of their linear horizontal and vertical grow space and service specific areas of the garden enterprise while also allowing for maximum workspace through the use of a table and track system that provides stackable options of multiple grow layers. A method of using this slidable shelving and support apparati and system is also included.

An automatic cart transport system. A track located in a factory working floor provides a trackway for an endless flexible conveyor chain. A plurality of chain units including a first chain portion having vertical rollers and a second chain portion having horizontal rollers are flexibly coupled, and the chain is advanced along the trackway by a drive motor. The chain units support thereabove, but within the track, a coupling plate having therein an aperture for accepting and capturing a chain connection shaft which is detachably connected to a cart. The cart is automatically towed along a defined pathway on the working floor of a factory by the chain, when connected to the coupling plate on the endless flexible conveyor chain.