AEROPONIC IN VITRO PLANT CULTIVATION UNIT Russian patent published in 2021 - IPC A01G31/00 A01G31/02 

FIELD: agriculture.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to the field of agriculture and biotechnology, particularly, to equipment for non-substractive plant cultivation using the method of aeroponics, and can be used for year-round plant cultivation and production of mini-tubers under controlled conditions and within limited areas. The aeroponic unit for plant cultivation and production og mini-tubers is comprised of a cultivation area with an artificial lighting system, an irrigation unit with a tank and a high-pressure pump, plastic pipelines connected with the irrigation unit, and vegetation containers located therein. The latter are installed symmetrically in two tiers on the supporting structure. Technological holes for introduction of plastic pipes into the vegetation container are made in the upper part of a vegetation container. A drain collector for collection and drainage of the nutrient solution into the tank of the irrigation unit is installed on the lower surface of each vegetation container. The aeroponic unit is equipped with an automatic unit control module connected to the irrigation unit and the artificial lighting system. The control module is based on the Arduino board and configured to activate artificial lighting for 16 hours and deactivate artificial lighting for 8 hours, to ensure irrigation of the root system of plants due to finely dispersed spraying of the nutrient solution in the root area of plants using nozzles. Each nozzle is configured to provide the size of droplets within the range from 5-30 to 10-50 microns depending on the growth phase of the plants and to periodically supply the sprayed nutrient solution at a rate of supply from 0.25 to 0.75 l/sec over the entire volume of each vegetation vessel for determined time periods: 30 seconds spraying, 20 minutes no spraying - aeration. The plastic pipes therein have disassemblable nozzles made configured to adjust the size of the sprayed nutrient solution. The surfaces of each nozzle are coated with an anti-corrosive titanium nitride coating to exclude corrosive effect of the nutrient solution on the structure elements of the nozzle. Each vegetation container is equipped with a cover - a planting plane provided with a hole for planting a plant with elastic inserts and configured to open and allow to remove ripe mini-tubers from the container.

EFFECT: invention allows to achieve the technical result consisting in increasing yield by means of improving mineral nutrition of plants while providing high maintainability due to automation of operation of the aeroponic unit.

2 cl