Patent Application
20170105362
Exemplary inventive embodiments are directed generally to devices designed to facilitate the potting of plants.
A plant residing in a planting container is likely a familiar sight to most people. A variety of plant material is, of course, available from nurseries and other establishments in temporary growing containers, which are designed to be removed at a time when the plant is transferred to a larger container, planted in the ground, etc. Of more interest here, however, is the placement of a plant into a planting container that is intended, in lieu of the ground, to serve as the plant's permanent or perhaps at least, seasonal, home.
While a planting container as mentioned above may certainly be a growing container used by a nursery, etc., more often than not such a planting container will be primarily decorative in nature. Consequently, the selection of a given planting container may or may not take into consideration the size of the plant to be potted.
When the volume of a selected planting container is at least relatively similar to the volume occupied by the root material and soil required to support a plant to be potted therein, the potting process may be quite simple. However, when the volume of a selected planting container is substantially larger than the root material and accompanying soil associated with a plant to be potted therein, the potting process becomes much more complicated because the excess container volume must be filled in order to properly support and secure the plant. This is true whether the planting container is wider, taller, or both wider and taller than necessary. In the case of a planting container having excess height, however, maintaining the proper planting depth of a plant may be particularly challenging.
There are many commonly employed—but poor—techniques for dealing with a planting container that is substantially larger in volume than the portion of a plant that is to be set therein. The most obvious technique is to simply fill the excess volume with soil. Another technique is to fill a portion of the excess volume with other materials such as Styrofoam packing peanuts, rocks, or plastic (e.g., water bottles, milk containers), and to subsequently fill the remainder of the excess volume with soil.
Each of the aforementioned known techniques has significant drawbacks. Using soil to fill the excess volume within a planting container can be expensive, is wasteful, and may also add a significant amount of weight to the container. Like soil, rocks will increase the weight of the container—perhaps to the point of preventing movement thereof in the case of sufficiently large containers. The use of Styrofoam or plastic container filler materials generally eliminates the issue of increased weight but, without adequate forethought and time, such materials are frequently not on hand in sufficient quantities at the time of planting. Likewise, Styrofoam and plastic container filler materials are not environmentally friendly. Furthermore, the irregular shape of Styrofoam and plastic filler materials tends to form an unstable base on which to pot plant material. Both rocks and Styrofoam/plastic filler materials may also interfere with any digging that is required during the potting process, and may act as a barrier to water drainage.
It should be understood from the foregoing remarks that there is a need for a device and method that simplifies the potting of a plant(s) into a planting container having an interior volume that exceeds the volume required by the root material and supporting soil associated with the plant. Exemplary device and method embodiments described herein are such devices and methods.
Exemplary planting container potting insert devices and methods of use described herein simplify the potting of a plant(s) in a planting container having an interior volume that exceeds the volume required by the root material and supporting soil associated with the plant. As will become apparent, the benefit of using such exemplary devices and methods increases as the difference between the interior volume of a given planting container and the volume encompassed by the root material and supporting soil associated with a plant(s) to be potted therein increases.
Generally speaking, an exemplary planting container potting insert device embodiment will include a suspendible plant receiving and supporting component and an associated suspension assembly designed to suspend the plant receiving and supporting component within the interior volume of a planting container. The suspendible plant receiving and supporting component may be a mesh bag. The suspension assembly may comprise a plurality of support hooks and related connection elements. During use of an exemplary planting container potting insert, the suspension assembly acts to suspend the plant receiving and supporting component within the interior volume of a given planting container. For example, the support hooks of the suspension assembly may be affixed to the mesh bag and adapted to releasably engage the rim of a planting container within which the planting container potting insert will be installed, such that the mesh bag is suspended within the volume of the planting container.
The mesh bags of exemplary planting container potting inserts are designed and constructed to retain soil but to allow the passage of water. Consequently, the root material of a selected plant may be placed within a suspended mesh bag of an exemplary planting container potting insert along with a sufficient amount of soil, whereby the plant will be securely potted in the planting container to which the planting container potting insert is installed without the need to fill any excess volume of the planting container with one or more filler materials. A plant potted in an exemplary planting container potting insert may be watered, fed and allowed to grow as if planted in the ground or potted in a container completely filled with soil. Alternatively, to removing a plant from the temporary pot in which it is purchased from a greenhouse, etc., before potting, it is also possible to leave the plant in the temporary pot and to place the already potted plant into the mesh bag of an exemplary planting container potting insert.
The suspendible plant receiving and supporting component and suspension assembly of an exemplary planting container potting insert may be dimensioned and otherwise adapted to permit the use of the planting container potting insert with planting containers of many different sizes. Nonetheless, exemplary planting container potting inserts may also be provided in various sizes for use with planting containers within different size ranges.
Other aspects and features of the general inventive concept will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments along with the accompanying drawing figures.
In the following descriptions of the drawings and exemplary embodiments, like reference numerals across the several views refer to identical or equivalent features, and:
The terms “plant”, “plant material” or “planting material” as used herein are intended to include trees, vines, shrubs, herbs, flowers, and other similar living things that commonly grow in the ground, and which may live either temporarily or permanently in a planting container.
“Potting” or “potted” as used herein with respect to a planting container potting insert device is intended to include the placement of a plant into any type of container in which the plant may temporarily or permanently live. Thus, nothing herein is to be interpreted as limiting the described exemplary devices or methods to use with only what might be traditionally considered a plant pot.
Certain exemplary planting container potting insert device embodiments described herein include a suspendible plant receiving and supporting component and an associated suspension assembly designed to suspend the plant receiving and supporting component within the interior volume of a planting container. One exemplary planting container potting insert device 5 is depicted in
The planting container potting insert device 5 can be observed in
The mesh bag 15 is shown in
Referring now also to
The support hooks of other planting container potting insert device embodiments may be affixed to the mesh bag 15 in other ways—including by any means known to one of skill in the art. For example, adhesive, a hook and loop fastening system, threaded fastener assemblies, rivets, clamps, and/or other means of hook-to-bag attachment may be employed in other embodiments.
As shown in
The planting container potting insert device 5 of
As is apparent from an observation of
As may be further observed in
An alternative planting container potting insert device embodiment 100 is schematically represented in
The planting material receiving and supporting container 105 is supported at an elevated position within the planting container 115, such as but not necessarily, in a position near the opening 120 of the planting container. A plurality of support legs 125 are employed for maintaining the planting material receiving and supporting container 105 in an elevated position. While three support legs 125 are shown in
The planting container potting insert device 100 of
Another alternative planting container potting insert device 200 embodiment is schematically depicted in
As with the exemplary embodiment described above and shown in
While certain embodiments of the invention are described in detail above, the scope of the invention is not considered limited by such disclosure, and modifications are possible without departing from the spirit of the invention as evidenced by the following claims:
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/242,376, filed on Oct. 16, 2015, which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully recited herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62242376 | Oct 2015 | US |
