Home List your patent My account Help Support us
RAISED CONTAINER WICKING IRRIGATION SYSTEM
[Category : - Agriculture- Lawn and Garden- RENEWABLE ENERGY]
[Viewed 78 times]
responsibly and sustainably and to provide households
and communities with a means to supplement their
food source through cultivation of their own food plants
has become increasingly important, in particular in
countries where there is a limited availability of food
and water. Many mechanisms to save and/or recycle
water, particularly non-potable water or grey water
from household use, are available and are increasingly
popular, particularly in countries where there have
been severe droughts and water is a scarce resource.
Examples of some of these mechanisms include the use
of rainwater tanks to capture rain water when possible
for later use, the use of grey water or rainwater irrigation
systems to water the garden and the like.
Furthermore, there is increasing interest among
gardeners to include food gardens in their garden design
and in providing for edible landscaping. Communities
are also encouraged, wherever possible, to establish
community or household food gardens, which can help
to provide food for the community or family.
Land is not always available or suitable for establishing
food gardens, and so the use of containers for food
gardening is also popular. Unfortunately, water is often
in short supply, particularly in countries such as South
Africa, which is a water scarce region.
This can have a detrimental impact on the ability of
communities and households to provide water for their
food gardens and possibly even to feed themselves.
Raised beds are known and provide the advantage to
users, in particular to those who are elderly or disabled,
of not requiring the user to bend down to the ground, or
to kneel or sit on the ground in order to prepare, tend or
harvest from their garden.
Raised beds also have the advantage that insect pests
can be fewer than beds that are set out at ground
level. These may, as in the case of ground level garden
beds, be adapted to include the use of a covering
or tunnel which protects the plants planted in the
covered bed, keeps out pests, and which can maintain
the environment within the covered bed at a desired
temperature and humidity more effectively than when
there is no covering. Wicking beds have also been in
use for generations. These provide for the subterranean
watering of plants, where the water is wicked up through
the soil to the roots of plants from the subterranean
water supply by capillary action.
However, once established, both raised and wicking
beds are heavy and remain where they have been
established. They can also be fairly costly to construct.
Furthermore, although such wicking beds are more
water-wise than regular containers and garden beds,
they still require a fairly regular supply of water. On the
other hand, too much water added will result in the
base of the wicking bed soil becoming waterlogged and anoxic, which can lead to the growth of anaerobic
bacteria and result in root disease of the plants growing
in the bed.
There is therefore a need to provide a solution that not
only facilitates container gardening, in particular raised
container gardening, which could be used for plants,
in particular for food plants, but that also facilitates the
saving and reuse or recycling of water, particularly non-
potable water or grey water from household appliances
use such as washing machine, dishwashers and/or sinks.
It would be further beneficial if such a system was cheap
and simple to manufacture, made use of recycled or
upcycled materials and was portable and versatile.
Product Overview
The self-watering system (SWS) includes many
materials; cotton, wool, geo-textile, soil, gravel and even
wood to some degree. Every material has different SWS
properties which you can test by placing that material
into a glass of water and watching the water “climb” up.
When one end of the SWS is saturated and the other
end is dry, it creates a moisture gradient, which drives
the SWS until the gradient no longer exists or you run
out of water.
With the personal garden, the soil is suspended above
the reservoir with SWS dangling into the reservoir
pulling up moisture. As the plants use the moisture in
the soil, it creates a moisture gradient (the soil is drier
than the reservoir) which drives moisture through the
wicking into the soil like a vacuum effect.
Product benefits
1. They are water-efficient! Watering from the bottom
up prevents evaporation of surface water (which
occurs when you water beds from the top).
2. They are self-watering! They are an especially great
system to use in community gardens or household
gardening. Because they save people from driving
every day during hot weeks to water their beds. A
full PAGE should irrigate itself for about a week or
two.
3. They can be placed close to the house without
risking flooding your basement, since the water is
contained in the bed.
4. No evaporation means no salting of soil. If you
are watering your soils from the top with hard
water, you risk accumulating salts, because the
water evaporates and leaves the minerals behind.
Eventually your soil will struggle to support plant
life.
5. They provide a lot of drainage in the event of a large
downpour.
6. Since they’re raised, they will warm up quicker in the
spring.
7. You can easily attach climbing frames to them (e.g.
for beans).
8. They are great for people with less mobility and
strength as you don’t have to haul heavy water
containers.
Financial information
We looking for a licencing agreement for this invention. Who can manufacture the product. Although we wouldn't mind assigning it at a good enough price.
This invention has been sold on ecommerce platforms such as Facebook marketplace, gumtree and Takealot.com.
Patent publications:
ZA 202005589
Asking price:
Make an offer
Make an offer
Great invention[ Home | List a patent | Manage your account | F.A.Q.|Terms of use | Contact us]
Copyright PatentAuction.com 2004-2017
Page created at 2024-05-19 12:39:17, Patent Auction Time.