A multiple produce growth support apparatus comprises a plurality of growth supports having a growth substrate and produce arranged to grow within said respective growth substrate; a connection assembly, each of said plurality of growth supports connected to said connection assembly; an irrigation assembly arranged to irrigate said plurality of growth supports; and a rotation mechanism coupled to said connection assembly and arranged to rotate said plurality of growth supports about a predetermined rotation axis, wherein, when at least one of said growth support provides at least one growth substrate that is ready to be sold to the consumers said at least one growth substrate is moved to the section that is visible to present and deliver the produce to said consumers; whereby, said apparatus provides consumers with fresh produce directly from said growth substrate.

The present invention relates to an indoor farming management system comprising at least one sensor; a central processing unit arranged in signal communication with the at least one sensor; a device adapted to operate between an operative state and a non-operative state; the central processing unit is operable to control at least one indoor environmental parameter of a farming system based on data received from the sensor; the central processing unit further operable to send a control signal to the device to operate the device between the operative state and the non-operative state.

A plant growing apparatus is disclosed that enables users to grow edible vegetation and other plants in all climates and year round. The plant growing apparatus includes a framework, a solar assembly coupled to said framework at a predetermined angle, the solar assembly including at least one photovoltaic panel operable to receive solar energy. A planting bed is coupled to said framework. A lighting assembly is connected to the photovoltaic panel and operably directed to emit light toward said planting bed. The plant growing apparatus includes a watering assembly having a misting conduit in fluid communication with a water source and positioned proximate the photovoltaic panel and defining an aperture and a wiper assembly operably coupled to said at least one photovoltaic panel, said wiper assembly including a pulley system and a wiper blade movable along the photovoltaic panel when said pulley system is actuated.

The disclosure relates to technology for hydroponics. An aspect includes a hydroponic system comprising a tray having a drain opening in a bottom of the tray. The hydroponic system comprises a water re-circulation system configured to re-circulate water containing plant nutrients through the hydroponic system. The water re-circulation system is configured to provide the water containing the plant nutrients to the tray. The tray is configured to convey the water along the bottom the tray to the drain opening, the drain opening configured to drain the water from the tray. The hydroponic system comprises different types of removable growing structures that are configured to provide corresponding different vertical distances between a top of a hydroponic growing medium and the bottom of the tray.

Some embodiments of apparatuses and methods according to the present invention control the growth of plants in indoor systems. In some embodiments, an electronic device is provided that wirelessly discovers, couples to and controls one or more peripheral devices, the one or more peripheral devices including one or more of a light for illuminating a grow, a water pump for supplying water to the grow, a fan for circulating air to the grow, an air pump for oxygenating water for the grow, a heater for increasing a temperature ambient to the grow, and a chiller for decreasing a temperature ambient to the grow. The electronic device may also wireless couple to one or more sensors, including one or more of a temperature sensor, camera, light sensor, pH sensor, electrical conductivity sensor, and/or any other environmental, plant, biology, water, electrical, light, and/or power sensor.

A system and a method for growing trellised plants are disclosed. The method may include growing the trellised plants downwards on rotatable tubes, letting gravity replace trellising and leaning and lowering of the plants may be replaced by wrapping their stems on the rotatable tubes, by rotating the tubes. The system may include: one or more cultivation systems; a plurality of angularly driving belts, for supporting and driving the one or more cultivation systems; and a rotatable shaft configured to rotate and carry the one or more cultivation systems hanging from the rotatable shaft by the driving belts. Each cultivation system may include a cultivation tube having a plurality of holes for planting the trellised plants; and an irrigation system for providing irrigation to the trellised plants.

A load handling device for operating in a farming system, and an associated method of using the farming system to produce a crop are provided. The floor of the farming system includes a network of tracks based on a grid system. The load handling device includes: a first set of wheels, and a second set of wheels; and a support for receiving a growing tray, wherein the support pad can be raised and or lowered in a vertical direction to lift and lower a received growing tray. The method includes: preparing growing trays; depositing a growing tray in a growing booth; retrieving a growing tray from a growing booth; arranging growing trays in growing aisles according to life-cycle phase of the crop; controlling the environment using a hood; harvesting a crop; and/or transferring a harvested crop from the farming system to an integrated second system.

A process to grow plants in a greenhouse includes supplying cooled air to the interior of the greenhouse and supplying irrigation water to the plants. The cooled air is obtained by directly cooling air against evaporating water in one or more cooling pads where water flows downwardly via an open structure and in which open structure the air directly contacts the evaporating water to obtain cooled air and non-evaporated water. Part of the non-evaporated water is used as irrigation water and part is reused in the one or more cooling pads.

A hydroponic growing system is presented. The system can include multiple growing trays in a vertical arrangement, where a pump supplies the top-most tray and each lower tray is supplied by the overlying tray, and where the plumbing elements for supply and drainage are arranged to one side of the system. The system includes variations to support different crop types within the same system, including removable growing structures for root vegetable, microgreens and supports for vining crops. The system can monitor and adjust the nutrients and other features of the systems water profile to concurrently group multiple crops in differing developing stages.

An indoor gardening appliance includes a liner defining a grow chamber and a grow tower mounted within the grow chamber for receiving a plurality of plant pods. A hydration assembly is positioned within a root chamber and includes an upper nozzle mounted to a top wall of the root chamber, an inverted tripod mounted to the top wall of the root chamber for supporting a lower fluid conduit, a lower nozzle mounted on the lower fluid conduit proximate a bottom of the root chamber, and a valve assembly for selectively and independently regulating the flow of fluid through the upper nozzle and the lower nozzle.