A hydroponic apparatus includes: a cultivation tank inside which a plant is held, and into a lower portion of which a nutrient solution is introduced; a separator that separates a first space where aboveground portions of the plant are positioned and a second space where underground portions of the plant are positioned; an environmental control unit that performs control of adjusting a temperature of the first space to a first temperature in a first period and adjusting the temperature of the first space to a second temperature lower than the first temperature in a second period; and a humidity control unit that performs control to decrease a humidity of the second space when the growing period for the plant shifts from the first period to the second period.

The present invention is directed to hydroponic systems that can be used in an environment with large daily fluctuations in temperature and to the use of those systems for growing plants.

A process for conditioning the air within a greenhouse comprising transparent walls and a structure including one or more ridge beams as part of a roof of the greenhouse. The process comprises maintaining a pressure difference between an average pressure within the greenhouse and a pressure exterior to the greenhouse, taking in air from the exterior of the greenhouse and mixing this air with air taken from the interior of the greenhouse to obtain conditioned air, distributing the conditioned air via a forced flow to the interior of the greenhouse, and discharging a volume of air from the interior of the greenhouse via openings present in the one or more ridge beams such to maintain the pressure difference.

A horticultural environment system includes a controlled environment for accommodating plants, including sensors that respectively monitor an environmental condition of the controlled environment and an external environment, an actuator operable to open or close the controlled environment to the external environment and a control system configured to receive sensor data from a first and a second sensor, to identify a difference in the environmental condition between the controlled environment and a setpoint. If the difference is greater than a predetermined amount, the control system is configured to determine, from the sensor data from the second sensor, a change to the difference upon the controlled environment being opened to the environmental condition of the external environment. If the control system determining the change reduces the difference, the control system is configured to trigger operation of the actuator to open the controlled environment to the external environment.

A control apparatus includes: a determiner configured to determine, for each indicator of a plurality of indicators, whether an event relevant to a change in the respective indicator has occurred, the plurality of indicators relating to an environment in which crops are grown, each indicator of the plurality of indicators being detected by one or more sensors of a plurality of sensors; an identifier configured to identify, based on a result of a determination executed by the determiner, a plurality of target sensors from among the plurality of sensors, a number of the plurality of target sensors being less than a number of the plurality of sensors; and a transmission instructor configured to instruct each target sensor of the plurality of target sensors to transmit a respective detection result.

An atrium hybrid greenhouse. The greenhouse employs the skeleton structure of columns, girders, and joists of an industrial metal building on which are spaced external and internal walls, and spaced roof and ceiling. The spaced walls form a wall cavity therebetween, and the roof and ceiling form a ceiling cavity there between. A radius cave channel is used to connect the wall cavity and the ceiling cavity for fluid flow therebetween. The external and internal wall and roof/ceiling panels are formed of relatively stiff light transmissive material such as polycarbonate. The formed cavity also provides insulation value.

The invention provides a method for sensing a plant-related parameter in a horticulture space (115), wherein (i) a radio transmitter (151) and a radio receiver (152) are arranged such that a radio path (153) between the radio transmitter (151) and the radio receiver (152) passes through at least part of the horticulture space (115), and (ii) the radio receiver (152) is configured in a radio signal receiving relationship with the radio transmitter (151), wherein the method comprises a sensing stage comprising: emitting a radio signal with the radio transmitter (151); detecting the radio signal with the radio receiver (152) and providing a related receiver signal; and determining the plant-related parameter based on the receiver signal.

Described is an insect net strip produced from a wide insect net which has been cut in a warp direction (xnet) by means of a one-step ultrasonic cutting and welding process. The insect net strip includes warp yarns and weft yarns extending substantially perpendicular to each other and at least 90% of the warp and weft yarns are monofilament yarns made of a thermoplastic material. After cutting and welding process the insect net strip has a first and a second edge extending parallel to said warp yarns each including a deformation zone being constituted by consolidated thermoplastic material deriving at least from said weft yarns. The deformation zone has a width (wdz) in the transverse direction (ystrip) of between 0.5-35 times the weft yarn diameter (we). At least 90% of gaps between adjacent weft yarns in the deformation zone are closed by consolidated thermoplastic material at least from the weft yarns which has been melted together to form a continuous or substantially continuous reinforced band-shaped edge portion of said insect net strip. The insect net strip is suitable for use in accordion-style constructions in greenhouse ventilation openings. A method for producing the insect strips is also described.

A tunnel structure (10) is described comprising a plurality of cover support members (14) and a cover material (16) supported by and extending over the cover support members (14), the cover support members (14) being of generally arcuate profile and including an upwardly projecting hump (14c), the humps (14c) of the cover support members (14) being aligned with one another such that the cover material (16) defines a ridge (16a) having sides that are more steeply sloped, in use, than the parts of the cover material (16) adjacent the ridge (16a).

An insect netting for a greenhouse includes a front panel merging into two side panels. The insect netting is pleated having bellows sections. Each bellows section has two parallel side bellows portions and a front bellows portion. Each side bellows portion comprises a first side gauze web and a second side gauze web connected to each other at a longitudinal side thereof, each having a first short side and a second short side. Each of the front bellows portions comprises a first front gauze web and a second front gauze web connected to each other along a longitudinal side thereof. The second short side of the first and second side gauze webs of the side bellows portions is connected to the longitudinal side of the first and second front gauze webs facing towards the hinging axis of the ventilation panel, respectively.