Mobile light-deprivation greenhouse
An excerpt from our Canadian patent application #2,984,932
Background of the Invention
The trend towards legalizing marijuana is creating new markets for high-quality cannabis; commercial growing facilities are springing up to meet the demand. More importantly, individuals are gaining the freedom to legally cultivate a small number of cannabis plants for personal use. Their legal situation is quite similar to that which governs people wishing to brew their own
beer or to grow their own
tobacco.
Expert cannabis growers utilize a horticultural technique known as “light-deprivation”. Light-deprivation exploits the plant’s natural “ short-day photoperiodicity” trait by subjecting it to periods of artificial darkness, thereby simulating late-season (short-day) growing conditions. The plant’s natural response is to prematurely sprout flowers, thereby exposing the buds to optimal, mid-summer conditions. Light-deprivation can advance flowering by approximately 2 months so practicing it rewards the grower with a much better harvest than if the same plants had spent their peak mid-summer growth period producing leafy foliage instead of high-value flowers.
Both cannabis and tobacco are short-day photoperiodic plants suitable for cultivating with the present invention. Other useful or decorative plants exhibit short-day photoperiodism (basil, green onion, coffee, chrysanthemum, poinsettia and many more). The mobile greenhouse described below is therefore a multi-purpose gardening tool and its use is not limited to cultivating cannabis. Cannabis (like tobacco) is one of many short-day photoperiodic plants and is used herein as an illustrative example to describe and claim the present invention. Users located in jurisdictions where growing cannabis with this device is still illegal may use it for growing other plants.
Ideal growing conditions
Since cannabis
evolved under a hot tropical sun, its genetic makeup responds optimally to intense natural sunlight shining directly onto its flower buds. No horticultural system based on artificial indoor lighting can match the full-spectrum energy and intensity of the sun so outdoor growing is inherently better-suited to producing a higher-quality product, particularly if it is combined with the use of light-deprivation to lengthen the period during which the flower buds are exposed to the more intense light.
Over 100 “cannabinoids” have been identified and while the psychoactive effect of THC has been the focus of public attention, the cannabis plant’s full array of cannabinoids has great potential for providing humanity with beneficial medicines. Furthermore; the complex mix of cannabinoids and terpenes contained in sun-ripened and organically-grown cannabis provides recreational users with a more enjoyable and savory experience than ingesting indoor-grown, commercial-grade marijuana.
Highest-quality cannabis can only be grown under ideal conditions. Therefore, in order to maximize the plant’s benefit to society, it must be grown in a light-deprivation greenhouse that can provide the following 3 modes of operation:
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The greenhouse must include a cloaking mechanism that can deploy an opaque light-deprivation membrane over the plants in a manner that triggers the plant’s short-day photoperiodic flowering response. .
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The greenhouse must also be able to deploy a translucent membrane over the plants that protects them from wind and cold while still allowing photosynthesis to proceed.
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Since translucent greenhouse coverings attenuate at least 10% of the light passing through them; and since an impermeable membrane also inhibits proper plant ventilation; the ideal light-deprivation greenhouse must also be able to retract both its opaque and its translucent membranes, thereby enabling complete ventilation and allowing the sun to shine directly onto the plant’s prematurely-sprouted flowers.
Indoor cannabis producers who cultivate their plants in a light-tight room can easily practise light-deprivation; simply by turning off their grow-lights to simulate shorter days. Practicing light-deprivation in a greenhouse or outdoors is a much more difficult task; a grower relying on solar illumination must deploy some sort of light-cloaking device over their plants to shorten the period during which sunlight can shine on them.
Prior art devices
To accomplish that light-cloaking task, one relevant prior-art device is US patent number
9295202: “Automated canopy greenhouse” by Wallace et al. The Wallace light-occlusion mechanism (seen at
www.cgs420.com) provides a means for selectively darkening the growing space inside a large greenhouse; it utilizes a stationary electric motor, in combination with a torsion spring to control the travel of cable-driven trolleys constrained to travel over a semicircular path, thereby deploying an opaque planar sheet or over a quonset-style greenhouse structure. It cannot provide all three of the environmental conditions listed above.
Another relevant prior-art cloaking device is US application number 20170071139 entitled: “Greenhouse with synchronizing cover assembly and method for inducing plant photoperiodism in plants” by Fence, Johah et al. Their light-cloaking mechanism (seen at www.emeraldkingdomgreenhouse.com) operates quite differently; it utilizes a pair of mobile electric motors that move in concert to rotate an end of two rolls of opaque planar sheet material such that each roll deploys over a curved side of a greenhouse structure. It too cannot provide all three of the conditions required for optimal growth.
Goals of the invention
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Given that the prior-art greenhouse cloaking devices cannot provide all three of the environmental conditions needed for optimal yield and quality of a short-day photoperiodic crop.
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And given that the prior art light-deprivation devices conceived for commercial-scale growing are too big, complex and expensive to scale down to the modest needs of an individual wishing to grow a small number of high-quality plants for personal use.
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And given that, due to shading from nearby buildings, small backyard growers are often challenged by a lack of sunlight. During each day, the sunlit portion of their property moves so stationary plants cannot enjoy optimal growth. That problem can only be solved by moving each plant to a location that maintains its exposure to direct sunlight. Alternatively, the problem can be addressed by augmenting weakened natural sunlight with artificial lighting.
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And given that, the external shading problem caused by nearby buildings is compounded by internal shading from within each plant’s dense foliage. Internal shading can be mitigated by pruning and attaching the growing foliage onto a trellis in a manner that allows more sunlight to penetrate past the plant’s low-value leafy foliage onto its higher-value flower buds.
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And given that, in temperate climates far from the equator, even when the sun is shining directly onto a plant, its intensity is not sufficient for optimal growth. Ideally, the intensity of sunlight falling on each plant is somehow amplified to simulate the solar conditions it would experience in its native habitat nearer the equator.
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And given that, small-scale cannabis growers will be challenged by stringent legal requirement to provide security around their plants in order to prevent their crop from being stolen by thieves or accessed by underaged users.
The overall goal of the present invention is to provide a light-deprivation greenhouse that eliminates all of the drawbacks and challenges noted above.
The invention in its general form will first be succinctly summarized, and then its implementation in terms of specific embodiments will be detailed with reference to the drawings following hereafter. These embodiments are intended to demonstrate the principle of the invention, and the manner of its implementation. The invention in its broadest and more specific forms will then be further described, and defined, in each of the individual claims which conclude this Specification.
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