JPH1037A - Device for plant culture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device for plant culture which efficiently utilizes energy in the device by which a temperature in the region by a root of plant is controlled, and facilitates the installation of the device for plant culture and the layout change of the equipment. SOLUTION: In this device, an upward opened concave part 8 used as a stationary culture bed 6 is formed on a block body made of a synthetic resin foam material. At the bottom of the concave part 8 for the culture bed 6, a duct 13 vomiting a heat source stream is set up and a container 12 put in a culture medium 11 is also arranged at the upside of the duct 13 in the concave part 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plant cultivation apparatus for cultivating a plant by controlling the temperature of a rhizosphere of the plant.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An example of a plant cultivation apparatus for controlling the temperature of a rhizosphere of a plant is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-71432.

In this plant cultivation apparatus for controlling the temperature in the rhizosphere of a plant, it has been proposed to efficiently utilize cold energy for controlling the temperature in the rhizosphere of the plant.

[0004]

The plant cultivation apparatus disclosed in the above publication uses energy efficiently, but the plant cultivation apparatus is a fixed facility, and the installation of the facility and the installation of the facility are difficult. The layout is complicated, so that the layout can be changed.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to efficiently utilize energy in a plant cultivation apparatus for controlling the temperature in a rhizosphere of a plant. It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that can easily change the layout of equipment and facilities.

[0006]

In order to solve such a problem, the invention according to claim 1 forms a stationary cultivation bed by forming an upwardly open recess in a block made of synthetic resin foam material. A plant cultivation apparatus characterized in that a duct for discharging a heat source airflow is arranged at the bottom of the concave portion of the cultivation bed, and a container containing a culture medium is arranged above the duct in the concave portion. .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the plant cultivating apparatus according to the first aspect, the concave portion of the cultivation bed further opens a space between opposing side surfaces of the block body. Is a plant cultivation apparatus characterized in that the open side faces are arranged in abutment with each other.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the plant cultivation apparatus according to the first or second aspect, the difference between the atmospheric pressure and the static pressure of the heat source airflow is set to a value corresponding to the culture medium of the cultivation bed. It is a plant cultivation apparatus characterized by the following.

[0009]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.
This will be described with reference to the drawings.

[Embodiment 1] Hereinafter, Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, an overall outline of a plant cultivation apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 2, 1 indicates a vinyl house,
In the greenhouse 1, a plant cultivation device 2 is installed.

The plant cultivation apparatus 2 has a cultivation unit 3, a temperature control device 4, and a nutrient solution supply device 5.

The cultivation unit 3 is a unit in which a plurality of cultivation beds 6 formed in a shape to be described later are fixed on a floor surface 7 and aligned in a certain direction.
Are formed in rows.

In the first embodiment, the cultivation bed 6 is formed by forming a block made of a polystyrene foam, which is a synthetic resin foam, into a required shape.

The cultivation beds 6 may be formed by using high-density urethane foam or other various synthetic resin foams.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the cultivation bed 6 is a block having a generally rectangular parallelepiped outer shape, and has a concave portion 8 with an upward opening. Is provided with a container 12 containing a culture medium 11 and a heat source duct 13 described later.

In the first embodiment, the medium 11 is a rock wool medium, and the container 12 has a large number of through holes formed on the bottom surface and has sufficient air permeability.

The concave portion 8 formed in the cultivation bed 6 is open upward as described above, and the concave portion 8 has the same cross-sectional shape between the opposing side surfaces in the rectangular parallelepiped outer shape. (See FIG. 3).

The cross section of the cultivation bed 6 in a direction perpendicular to the communicating direction of the recess 8 is as shown in FIG. 1, and the height of the bottom of the recess 8 is about half the thickness of the cultivation bed 6. The support portion 14 is swelled from the bottom, and this support portion 1
Steps 15 are formed on both side walls so as to coincide with the upper surface of 4.

The containers 12 are stored in the container storage space 16 in a state of being arranged in two rows so as to pass between the support portion 14 and the step portion 15, and are stored in the container storage space 16. The container 12 is entirely covered with the cultivation bed 6 except for the upper surface.

On both sides of the support portion 14, duct accommodation spaces 17 are respectively formed so as to be substantially below the center of each container 12, and accommodate the heat source ducts 13, respectively. In the duct housing space 17, the heat source duct 13 is disposed at the deepest portion, and an intermediate step portion 18 is formed so that the space from the heat source duct 13 to the upper container 12 is enlarged on the container 12 side. Have been.

By forming the intermediate step portion 18, the heat source airflow discharged from the heat source duct 13 can be supplied over a wide area at the bottom of the container 12 located above.

In each row constituting the cultivation unit 3, each cultivation bed 6 is formed by arranging the concave portions 8 so as to be continuous with each other. In FIG. 4 and FIG. 5,
An end plate 25 made of polystyrene foam is fixed to the end surface of the cultivation bed 6 with an adhesive tape 20 and the heat source duct 13
Is supplied intensively to the culture medium 11 of the container 12 installed in the container storage space 16 so that efficient temperature control can be performed.

Further, in the first embodiment, the entire inner surface of the recess 8 of each cultivation bed 6 is covered with a film 19 for each row of the cultivation unit 3 to improve airtightness.

In the first embodiment, the film 19 is made of, for example, a polyethylene sheet, and the edge of the film 19 is fixed to an appropriate position of the cultivation bed 6 using an adhesive tape 20.

In the first embodiment, the adhesive tape 20 is also used between the cultivation beds 6 constituting the cultivation units 3 in each row and between the cultivation beds 6 and the container 12, so that the airtightness is further improved. The loss of the heat source airflow is prevented by improving the performance.

The temperature control device 4 connects the air conditioner 21, the main duct 23, the heat source duct 13 having one end connected to the connecting portion of the branch pipe 22, and the other end of each heat source duct 13. And a communication pipe 24.

The air conditioner 21 is capable of performing cooling and heating operations and has a blowing function, and a signal from a temperature sensor (not shown) embedded in the culture medium 11 of an appropriate container 12 installed in the cultivation unit 3. Driven appropriately according to
The operation of the culture medium 11 is controlled so as to satisfy a required temperature condition.

The main duct 23 is connected to the air conditioner 21.
In this specification, the heat source airflow is a concept including not only a heating heat source airflow by heating but also a cooling heat source airflow by cooling.

The branch pipe 22 distributes the heat source airflow supplied through the main duct 23 to a total of ten heat source ducts 13 installed in the cultivation unit 3.

Each heat source duct 13 is arranged in each of two duct accommodating spaces 17 of each cultivation bed 6 arranged in five rows, and each heat source duct 13 has a container 12 positioned above. Spouts 13a are formed upward so as to respectively correspond to the central portions of the nozzles.

Therefore, in this plant cultivation apparatus 2, for each container 12 stored in the cultivation bed 6, the heat source airflow is blown from the corresponding jet port 13a to the center of the bottom, and the container 12 in the container 12 The culture medium 11 is controlled to required temperature conditions.

In the first embodiment, the other end of each heat source duct 13 is connected to a communication pipe 24.
And are in communication with each other via the communication pipe 24.

This is because the static pressure in all the heat source ducts 13 installed in the cultivation unit 3 is made uniform, and the flow rate of the heat source airflow from the jet port 13a having a constant hole diameter is made constant. This is to make the temperature of the culture medium 11 of each container 12 uniform.

The nutrient solution supply device 5 has a nutrient solution tank 31, a nutrient solution pump 32, a distribution pipe 33, and a nutrient solution supply pipe 34.

The nutrient solution tank 31 stores the nutrient solution to be supplied to the plants planted in the culture medium 11 of the container 12 installed on the cultivation bed 6 of the cultivation unit 3. Then, a required amount of nutrient solution is discharged to the distribution pipe 33 side.

The distribution pipe 33 distributes and feeds the nutrient solution discharged from the nutrient solution pump 32 to each nutrient solution supply pipe 34. The nutrient solution supply pipe 34 is provided for each row of the cultivation unit 3. The nutrient solution supply pipe 34 is provided with a number of nutrient solution supply ports 35 at positions corresponding to the containers 12 installed in the cultivation unit 3.

Therefore, when a nutrient solution should be sprayed,
The nutrient solution pump 32 is driven, and the nutrient solution stored in the nutrient solution tank 31 passes through the distribution pipe 33 and the respective nutrient solution supply pipes 34 from the respective nutrient solution supply ports 35 to the corresponding containers 1.
A predetermined amount is sprayed and supplied to the second medium 11.

The nutrient solution supplied to the culture medium 11 as described above is a rock wool medium as described above and has good drainage.
From the bottom of the cultivation bed 6 to reach the bottom of the recess 8.

The nutrient solution dripping as described above is formed at the bottom of the concave portion 8 by penetrating the film 19 to form a nutrient solution drain port 37. The water is discharged out of the plant cultivation apparatus 2 through the pipe 38.

If a trap is formed in the nutrient solution drain pipe 38, it is possible to prevent the heat source airflow from leaking from the nutrient solution drain pipe 38 and maintain the airtightness of the concave portion 8. Since the invasion of pests and the like from the outside can be prevented, the cleanliness of the plant cultivation apparatus 2 is ensured, and the medium 1
It is also possible to protect the plant cultivated in 1 from plague etc.

When the plant P is cultivated using the plant cultivation apparatus 2 configured as described above, as shown in FIG. 1, the surface of the culture medium 11 of each container 12 is made of synthetic resin foam such as styrene foam. It is preferable that a large number of small pieces 41 are scattered to cover the surface of the culture medium 11.

Thus, the large number of small pieces 41 are located on the surface of the culture medium 11, thereby suppressing an increase in the temperature of the culture medium due to the solar radiation in summer and reducing the thermal loss due to heat radiation from the upper part of the culture medium in winter. Thus, the load on the air conditioner 21 can be reduced.

Further, the supply of the nutrient solution from the nutrient solution supply pipe 34 to the plant P is not obstructed because the nutrient solution is composed of a large number of small pieces 41.

As described above, in the first embodiment, since the cultivation bed 6 is of a stationary type on the floor 7,
The installation work of the plant cultivation apparatus 2 is simple, and the layout change accompanying the change of the cultivation area and the like is also easy.

In addition, since the cultivation bed 6 is made of polystyrene foam, and the periphery of the container 12 is surrounded by a highly heat-insulating polystyrene material during use, thermal loss is small.
Good energy efficiency.

[Second Embodiment] In a second embodiment, the air conditioner shown in FIG. 6 is used as the air conditioner 21 of the first embodiment. The air conditioner 400 in FIG. 6 includes an outdoor unit 410, an indoor unit 420, a refrigerant circuit 430A, and a refrigerant circuit 430B.

The outdoor unit 410 of the air conditioner 400 includes a compressor 411, a fan 412, and a heat exchange device 413. The compressor 411 compresses gaseous refrigerant from the refrigerant circuit 430B. The heat exchange device 413 includes a compressor 411
From the compressed refrigerant from the heat exchanger, and makes the refrigerant liquid. The fan 412 transfers the cooling air to the heat exchange device 413.
send.

[0049] The indoor unit 420 of the air conditioner 400 includes a heat exchange device 421 and a fan 422. The heat exchange device 421 receives the liquid refrigerant from the heat exchange device 413 via the refrigerant circuit 430A. Heat exchange device 413
Cools the outside air sent by the fan 422. Thereby, the refrigerant is vaporized. The heat exchange device 421 transfers the gaseous refrigerant to the air conditioner 4 via the refrigerant circuit 430B.
00 to the compressor 411.

Further, the air conditioner 400 sends the heat source airflow from the outside air whose temperature has been adjusted to the main duct 23. This heat source airflow is sent from the main duct 23 to each heat source duct 13 via the branch pipe 22. The heat source airflow flowing out of the heat source duct 13 passes through the culture medium 11 of the cultivation bed 6 and flows into the atmosphere. At this time, the heat source from the heat source airflow is absorbed by the culture medium 11, and the temperature of the culture medium 11 is maintained at a required temperature condition.

When sending the heat source airflow to the heat source duct 13,
Differential pressure P ₂ is the difference between the static pressure P ₁ in the atmospheric pressure P ₀ and a heat source for the duct 13, so as to maintain the following relationship, an air conditioner 400
Sends the heat source airflow to the main duct 23.

Differential pressure P ₂ = static pressure P ₁ −atmospheric pressure P ₀ Differential pressure P ₂ > 0 The static pressure P ₁ of the heat source airflow is determined by the rotation of the fan 422 that sends the heat source airflow to the main duct 23. Fan 422 is a high speed, the differential pressure P ₂ is large, many quantity of heat airflow blown out from the medium 11. At this time, the cooling and heating of the culture medium 11 by the heat source airflow are not sufficiently performed, and the heat source airflow is released into the atmosphere, so that the efficiency of heat exchange by the heat source airflow is reduced. Conversely, the fan 422 is a low speed, the differential pressure P ₂ is small, the amount of the heat source air flow blown from the medium 11 is small, the cooling and heating effect by the heat source air flow is not sufficient. For this reason, it takes time to maintain the culture medium 11 at a required temperature condition.

Therefore, the pressure difference P ₂ for achieving the required temperature condition in a relatively short time and preventing a decrease in the efficiency of heat exchange.
There is an optimum value according to the air permeability of the culture medium 11. Then, the differential pressure P _2, so as to maintain approximately 5 to 20 [mmAq], adjusting the rotational speed of the fan 422.

[0054] In this way, in the second embodiment, depending on the permeability and water content of the medium 11, so as to satisfy the condition for the differential pressure P _2, the air conditioner 400 sends the heat source air flow in the main duct 23 . At this time, the heat source duct 13 is installed such that the distance from the main duct 23 to the communication pipe 24 of the heat source duct 13, that is, the length of the heat source duct 13 is the same. As a result, the temperature condition of the cultivation bed 6 can be made uniform in the longitudinal direction of the heat source duct 13 without being affected by the installation location of the cultivation bed 6.

[0055] Also, when the air conditioner 400 sends a heat source stream to heat duct 13, depending on the medium 11, since sending the heat source stream in an optimal static pressure P _1, to operate the air conditioner 400 efficiently Thus, the maintenance cost of the air conditioner 400 can be reduced.

The medium 11 usable in the second embodiment
There are the following. That is, the culture medium 1 having air permeability
Examples include rock wool made of an inorganic material, peat moose made of a material such as organic matter and moss, rubble and soil made of a coconut shell material as an organic matter and a gravel material as an inorganic matter.

[0057]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the cultivation bed having the duct for discharging the heat source airflow and the storage portion of the container is configured in a stationary manner, so that the plant cultivation apparatus is provided. The installation of the cultivation bed and the change of the layout are basically the work of keeping the cultivation bed or the work of adjusting the place of the cultivation bed.

In addition, since the stationary cultivation bed is made of synthetic resin foam material and the container containing the culture medium is stored in the recess formed in the block of synthetic resin foam material, the surface area of the container is large. Is covered with a synthetic resin foam having high heat insulation properties, and the energy of the heat source airflow from the duct can be efficiently used for controlling the temperature of the culture medium.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the plant cultivation apparatus is generally configured by arranging a plurality of cultivation beds, so that the cultivation area can be adjusted very easily. . And since the concave part of the cultivation bed is open also between the opposing side surfaces of the block body, the container can be fully stored on the cultivation bed by using the open space, and the length of the cultivation bed can be extended. The dimension in the direction does not become excessive.

Furthermore, according to the third aspect of the present invention, the difference between the atmospheric pressure and the static pressure of the heat source airflow is set to a value corresponding to the culture medium of the cultivation bed, and the optimum heat source airflow passes through the culture medium. Send heat source air flow with static pressure. Thereby, the cooling and heating of the culture medium by the heat source airflow can be performed efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the overall outline of the plant cultivation apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a cultivation bed of a cultivation unit.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a terminal portion of a cultivation bed arranged in a line.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing a basic configuration of a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 plant cultivation device 3 cultivation unit 4 temperature control device 5 nutrient solution supply device 6 cultivation bed 7 floor surface 8 recess 11 medium 12 container 13 heat source duct (duct)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A stationary cultivation bed formed by forming an upward-opening concave portion in a block body made of synthetic resin foam material, and a duct for discharging a heat source airflow is disposed at the bottom of the concave portion of the cultivation bed; A plant cultivation apparatus, wherein a container containing a culture medium is arranged above the duct in the recess. 2. The plant cultivation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recess of the cultivation bed is further opened between opposing side surfaces of the block body, and a plurality of cultivation beds are connected to each other. A plant cultivation device characterized by being arranged in abutment. 3. The plant cultivation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the difference between the atmospheric pressure and the static pressure of the heat source airflow is set to a value corresponding to the culture medium of the cultivation bed.