DEVICE FOR HYDROPONICS Russian patent published in 1995 - IPC

FIELD: agriculture. SUBSTANCE: device has containers with substrate. The containers have holes for planting and inlets for nutritive solution. Perforated branch pipes are inserted in the containers at an angle of 15-45 deg relative to the container central axis at an interval of 1/3-1/4 of the container height. The containers are arranged indoors at an interval of 3-4 container diameters. The holes for planting are staggered on the container surface, every hole is 90 deg displaced relative to its neighbor. The upper row of the holes is level with the substrate surface, and the lower row is at a distance of 1/8-1/12 of the container height from its bottom. The containers are fabricated from opaque polyethylene or reinforced PVC, and they are filled with substrate that is a mixture of swollen perlite and wood sawdust (ratio 3: 1-4:1 vol.). The nutritive solution flows from a tank to the containers by gravity. With the use of this device the yielding ability of strawberries may be as high as 6-7 kg/m², 5-10 times that with the use of other systems. EFFECT: higher yields. 4 cl, 3 dwg