In the field of hydroponic production of plants, a system is provided for line production of hydroponic systems. In addition, the hydroponic systems produced by the system for line production of hydroponic systems are also provided herein.

There is provided a pick-and-plant head for planting plant cuttings in a cultivation medium. The pick-and-plant head is provided with a grasper comprising opposed grasping surfaces for grasping a portion of a cutting between them and with an abutment that abuts a cutting. The grasper and abutment are moveable relative to one another and are arranged so that during release of a cutting from the grasper the abutment passes between the opposed grasping surfaces and the cutting is abutted by the abutment.

A method of potting a tree, wherein the method includes the steps of inserting the root system of the tree into the lumen of the pot, and supplying a particulate substrate to the pot to cover the root system using an apparatus including a supply system. To pot trees quicker, the supply system includes i) a buffer, and ii) at least one chute, wherein the method includes providing the buffer with a predetermined amount of particulate substrate, and batch-wise release of the particulate material in the buffer to provide the pot with the particulate material from the buffer via the at least one chute by gravity.

A pick-and-plant head for planting plant cuttings in a cultivation medium. The pick-and-plant head is provided with a grasper including opposed grasping surfaces for grasping a portion of a cutting between them and with an abutment that abuts a cutting. The grasper and abutment are moveable relative to one another and are arranged so that during release of a cutting from the grasper the abutment passes between the opposed grasping surfaces and the cutting is abutted by the abutment.

The invention relates to a method for producing a stabilized growing medium for cultivation of a plant or seedling. The method comprises the steps of providing a receiving unit for containing the rooting plug to be formed and placing a root structure of a plant or seedling in the receiving unit. Further, the method includes the steps of filling the receiving unit with slurry material forming a stabilized growing medium and curing the slurry material in the receiving unit while holding the root structure of the plant or seedling in the receiving unit.

A plantlet holder (25) is formed of nutrient solution-absorbing, open celled, phenolic foam, with an upper handling portion (55), an insertion well (60) for a plantlet and a lower portion (56) adapted to laterally locate in a ring (30) in a work stand (24), the handling portion (55) adapted to be frictionally gripped for robotic or manual handling. Robotic handling apparatus includes a pair of plantlet holder gripper manipulator arms (40) adapted to engage the handling portion (55) for movement of a plantlet holder (25) between a material source portion, an operator work portion (14), and a material delivery portion. The operator work portion (14) is characterised by the work stands (24) locating the plantlet holders vertically by a step portion (32).

The present invention relates to the technical field of hydroponic culture, in particular to an auxiliary root placement device for hydroponic transplanting. The auxiliary root placement device includes an underframe, a repeated horizontal moving mechanism, a jacking mechanism and a vacuum adsorption mechanism, wherein the repeated horizontal moving mechanism is disposed on the underframe, the jacking mechanism is slidingly connected with the underframe, an output end of the repeated horizontal moving mechanism is fixedly connected with the jacking mechanism, an output end of the jacking mechanism is fixedly connected with the vacuum adsorption mechanism. In the present invention, the jacking mechanism is pushed by the repeated horizontal moving mechanism to drive the vacuum adsorption mechanism to move directly below the cultivation hole on the cultivation plate, and then the vacuum adsorption mechanism is driven to rise upwards by the jacking mechanism, so that the output end of the vacuum adsorption mechanism touches the root hairs of the hydroponic plant through the cultivation hole to adsorb the root hairs tightly to the vacuum suction rod, and then retracts through the jacking mechanism, so that the root hairs smoothly pass through the cultivation hole without being stuck on the cultivation plate, resulting in rotting of the root hairs, and thus ensuring the stable growth of the hydroponic plants.

A seeding apparatus for seeding agricultural seeds, seedlings and/or clones into a manufactured growth media of an indoor hydroponic growth system. The seeding apparatus including a media strip supply line configured to supply a quantity of consumable media strip for positioning within a linear aperture of a manufactured growth media, a depth gauge configured to fold the consumable media strip into a first part and a second part with a fold positioned therebetween, and to force the fold towards a bottom of the linear aperture of the manufactured growth media with the first part and the second part of the consumable media strip residing against walls defined by the linear aperture, and a seed supply line configured to introduce a metered quantity of agricultural seeds, seedlings and/or clones into the folded, consumable media strip.

An adjustable seedling pick-up end effector for automatically transplanting plug seedlings includes two clamping fingers installed symmetrically along a direction of a center line, support frames respectively connected adjustably to the clamping fingers, and a mechanical arm fixedly connected to the support frames. The mechanical arm is constructed to drive a clamping pin mechanism to execute actions of prying, grabbing, and quickly releasing the plug seedlings, and the adjustment of the opening degree and the clamping angle of the clamping pin mechanism is realized by adopting the adjustably connected support frames. The end effector can be actively opened and closed to grab and release the plug seedlings, provide a larger space to accommodate the plug seedlings so as not to damage the seedlings, and adjust the opening degree and the clamping angle, which can meet the seedling pick-up requirements for automatic transplanting of plug seedlings of various specifications.

There is discussed a method of picking and placing bulbs, in which bulbs are supplied on a supply surface of a bulbs supply system; the bulbs being identified and picked from the supply surface with a pick-and-place head; wherein picked bulbs are transferred from the pick-and-place head, shoot-first and roots-last to a transfer-receptacle comprising at least one bulb-receptor, wherein the bulb-receptor temporarily clutches said bulb.