Patent Application
20120266535
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sprout cultivation device, and more particular to a sprout cultivation device that has an automatic sprinkling to cultivate sprout seeds.
2. Description of Related Art
Because people are getting to pay much attention to health, they are particularly fastidious about personal diet, living, and exercise in all aspects. For diet aspect, many people in this modern society select healthy diet and take organic fruit and vegetable on tables in priority. Because sprouts are popularly marketed and have plenty of nutritious, people use sprouts as one major material in breakfast, juice or vegetarian meal. Therefore, cultivating sprouts in organic measures has economic benefits and even can be developed or popularized in household.
A conventional cultivating method for sprouts is to spread vegetable seeds on a culture dish and then place in a culturing room to cultivate seeds with definite water quantity and moisture. When sprouts in the cultivation room are ready for harvest, cultivators have to take the sprouts one tray by one tray. This conventional cultivation method needs very large space and needs to sprinkle the sprouts during growth so that the cultivators suffer high cost in manpower, farming tools, and factory area for lead time and such cost is not able to be reduced. For an amateur, the cultivation place is a major problem difficult to be overcome.
One main objective of the present invention is to provide a sprout cultivation device, which is suitable for processional cultivators and is even more suitable for amateurs having limited space.
Another main objective of the present invention is to provide a sprout cultivation device, which needs no cultivation tray and is enable to cultivate large amounts of sprouts to reduce cost.
Still another main objective of the present invention is to provide a sprout cultivation device, which has simple structure and easy cultivation operation to regularly water the seeds, to shorten cultivation period and to increase the harvest of sprouts.
To achieve the foregoing objective, the sprout cultivation device comprises:
a carrying body having a reservoir space for accommodating fluid and having an inlet and an outlet communicating to the reservoir space;
a controlling device mounted on the carrying body and electrically connected to a motor attached to the carrying body;
at least one container each defining a cultivation space and multiple supporting pedestals extending inward from an inner sidewall to support a tray;
at least one tube connecting the carrying body and located inside the cultivation space to transport the fluid to the cultivation space; and
a sprinkling device connected to the tube for watering.
Further benefits and advantages of the present invention will become apparent after a careful reading of the detailed description with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.
A sprout cultivation device in accordance with the present invention substantially comprises a carrying body, a controlling device, at least one container, a tube and a sprinkling device, wherein the carrying body controls the amounts of water by a water controller and changes the pumping time by a timer. Moreover, an actuating switch is mounted on the carrying body to start a motor to pump fluid to a cultivation space via the tube. Because seeds of sprouts are embedded in a tray of the container and the fluid is continuously injected into the container via the tube by the motor, the sprout cultivation device is operated automatically without manpower and accelerates mature time of the sprouts to increase harvest. Moreover, the carrying body interiorly defines a reservoir space for accommodating fluids to significantly diminish carrying body's size.
As shown in
A tray 3 with embedded seeds is placed into one container 12 and fixed by multiple supporting pedestals 120 inside the container 12. Then, the container 12 is mounted on the carrying body 10. Because the tube 14 is connected to the carrying body 10 and accommodated inside the cultivation space 122, the tube 14 guides the fluid into the cultivation space 122 to lastly water the seeds by the sprinkling device 16 of the tube 14.
Moreover, the tray 3 has multiple positioning tracks 30 radically arranged thereon to engage multiple tongues 40 of a divider 4 correspondingly. An intersecting center of the multiple positioning tracks 30 has a sleeving portion 32. Multiple ribs 34 are concentrically arranged between adjacent two of the multiple positioning tracks 30. Lastly, the container 12 has a cover 18 mounted on its top to cover the container 12.
Operation of the sprout cultivation device of this invention is illustrated according to
After dividing the tray 3, the tray 3 is accommodated in the container 12 and is supported and located by the multiple supporting pedestals 120 so that the cultivating space 122 defined by the container 12 and the tray 3 is used for growth of sprouts. Then, the container 12 is mounted to or multiple containers 12 are selectively stacked on the carrying body 10. Because the tube 14 attached to the carrying body 10 for watering penetrates the sleeving portion 32 of the tray 3, the tray 3 is fixed by the tube 14. Moreover, the multiple ribs 34 extended between the adjacent two of the multiple positioning tracks 30 have grooves to improve the fluid drain downward to avoid water accumulation which easily causes rotten seeds or unhealthy growth.
After completing the combination of above elements, the controlling device 102 on the carrying body 10 is ready to control the operation of the sprout cultivation device. Because the controlling device 102 mainly combines the timer 1020, the water controller 1022, and the actuating switch 1024 for starting the motor 2, the fluid has to be pumped into the reservoir space 104 via the inlet 106. Then, the timer 1020 and the water controller 1022 are set to adjust the sprinkling conditions before actuating the motor 2. After completing the forgoing setting preparation, the actuating switch 1024 is pressed to make the motor 2 to pump the fluid via the tube 14 upward. Because a distal end of the tube 14 has the sprinkling device 16 (optionally designed in cross shape, T shape or other shapes to evenly spread the fluid within the container 12), the cover 18 is mounted on the top of the container 12. When renewing the fluid, the used fluid is drained out from the reservoir space 104 via the outlet 108 to make the reservoir space 104 have no fluid.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
By having the foregoing structure, the sprout cultivation device 1 is operated automatically, needs no manpower and accelerates the mature time of the sprouts to increase harvest.
As shown in
As shown
Although this invention has been described in its preferred form with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present invention of the preferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts any be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
