TECHNICAU FIEUD

[0001] The present disclosure relates to improving bud break and flowering of plants. In particular, the present disclosure relates to an apparatus for protecting or influencing the growth and development of a plant.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.

[0003] Shade Nets are lightweight knitted Polyethylene fabrics which are brought in use to bring about the protection from Sun's heat and the ultraviolet radiations which we or the plants might be exposed to unknowingly. The growth and development of many plants are strongly influenced by the amount of sunlight they receive. In particular, an appropriate temperature can be important for successful flowering and later fruiting. In general, the art has approached winter chill from the perspective of air temperature, and has paid little or no attention to the direct effects of solar radiation on a plant during its dormancy period. The problem is exacerbated where climatic change, or changes in air composition (such as changes in pollutant levels), is resulting in the warming of existing regions and such regions do not achieve the same degree of temperature experienced in previous seasons.

[0004] An insufficient amount of required shade may lead to delayed or reduced bud break or a longer duration bud break period (and more extended harvest period), resulting in insufficient or inconsistent development of blossoms and subsequent fruiting and more variable fruit quality at harvest. There may also be a lack of the development of non fruiting buds which support fruiting buds. Materials, such as netting materials, may be used to control a plant environment for the purposes of providing protection from sun, wind, hail, insects or birds. They are also used to influence solar radiation incident upon the plants for the purposes of improving plant or fruit development or growth. Such materials often result in a warming of the plant environment due to the properties of the material itself or generate a warmer environment by restricting airflow. The existing nets do not help in regulating temperature in greenhouse, are heavy and do not have a uniform shade factor. Moreover, the existing nets are not UV stabilized and have longer inter nodal distance that do not provide proper protection to buds.

[0005] Therefore, there is a need to provide a simple and a unique net structure which can obviate aforementioned limitations in the art.

SUMMARY

[0006] Aspects of the present disclosure pertain to a device for improving bud break and flowering of plants and particularly to an apparatus for protecting or influencing the growth and development of a plant.

[0007] In an aspect, a net structure for facilitating plant growth, said net structure comprising at least one edge and one or more supports, the one or more supports being configured to hold a yarn skeleton by a plurality of transverse and longitudinal yarns to form a predefined criss cross pattern of a predefined shape and size forming a plurality of nodes at a specific distance from each other.

[0008] In an embodiment, the net structure for facilitating plant growth further may comprise a plurality of webs that are being formed from the transverse and longitudinal yarns connected to the one or more supports interconnected with intervals wide enough to overlap a row of plants in such that the plurality of nodes in the net structure provide shades to one or more buds of plants.

[0009] In an embodiment, the transverse and longitudinal yarns may have a width of 0.1 mm to 1.1 mm.

[0010] In an embodiment, the plurality of websmay deliver a shade factor in a range of 30 to 90.

[0011] In an embodiment, the plurality of transverse and longitudinal yams may be made of a monofilament yarn that is a specialized HDPE monofilament.

[0012] In an embodiment, the monofilament yarn may include a predefined grade of raw material, a plurality of additives and UV stabilizers.

[0013] In an aspect, a method of production of a monofilament yarn is disclosed. The method comprises, making a plurality of monofilament yarn, each yarn comprising a predefined grade of raw material, a plurality of additives and UV stabilizers, passing s specialized HDPE at controlled and predetermined conditions at a pre-defined optimum speed through a monofilament spinneret, knitting the plurality of monofilament yams to form a plurality of webs of predefined shape and size; and, weaving the plurality of monofilament yarns to provide a net structure. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the present disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure. The diagrams are for illustration only, which thus is not a limitation of the present disclosure.

[0015] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary representation of a proposed net structure, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0016] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary representation of an existing net structure.

[0017] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary representation of an implementation of the proposed net structure, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0018] Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details.

[0020] Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the invention disclosed herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified thus fulfilling the written description of all groups used in the appended claims.

[0021] Exemplary embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. These embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those of ordinary skill in the art. Moreover, all statements herein reciting embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future (i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure).

[0022] Embodiments explained herein relate toa net structure. More specifically, it relates to improving bud break and flowering of plants and further protecting or influencing the growth and development of a plant by the use of the proposed net structure.

[0023] Referring to FIG. 1, where the proposed net structure (100) is shown, the net structure may include at least one edge and one or more supports. The one or more supports may be configured to hold ayarn skeleton by a plurality of transverse and longitudinal yams to form a predefined criss cross pattern of predefined shape and size forming a plurality of nodes that may be at a specific distance from each other. A plurality of webs may be formed from the transverse and longitudinal yams connected to the one or more supports interconnected with intervals wide enough to overlap a row of plants in such a way that plurality of nodes in the net structure provide shades to one or more buds of plants.

[0024] The net stmcture may be equipped with a rolling mechanism that may be installed under a mesh on the one or more supports.

[0025] In an embodiment, the yams in the net stmcture may be made of a monofilament yarn but not limited to the like. In a way of example and not as a limitation, a specialized HDPE monofilament produced on an extrusion machine may be used for making the net structure and may provide extra and uniform coverage throughout the net structure. The monofilament yarn is obtained by extrusion under controlled conditions. The extruded monofilament yam is then knitted into a net stmcture.

[0026] In an embodiment, a width of the yarn used may be so made that the yarn may provide a low gsm but high strength of the net. Further, the yammay increase the component of scattered light which in turn helps with better budding/flowering/fmiting of plants.

[0027] In an embodiment, the monofilament yam may include apredefined grade of raw material, a plurality of additives and UV stabilizers to ensure longer life of the net structure. In an exemplary embodiment, the specialized HDPE may be passed at controlled and predetermined conditions at optimum speed through a monofilament spinneret. In yet another exemplary embodiment, the monofilament yarn may be obtained by extmsion. [0028] In an aspect, a method of production of the monofilament yarn may include the steps of making a plurality of monofilament yam, each yarn comprising a predefined grade of raw material, a plurality of additives and UV stabilizers, passing the specialized HDPEat controlled and predetermined conditions at optimum speed through a monofilament spinneret, knitting the plurality of yarns to form a plurality of webs of predefined shape and size, and weaving the plurality of monofilament yarns to provide a net structure. The method may include various other steps in addition and not limited to the above steps.

[0029] In an exemplary embodiment, the plurality of the monofilaments may be then passed through a set of rollers and winding may be carried out to construct the net. The monofilaments may be then sent for knitting machines for making the proposed netstmcture. [0030] Shade Factor relates to the performance of the web that reflects or absorbs visible and invisible light in the 290nm to 770nm range of the spectrum. Essentially, this is the shade that can be seen underneath the net web installations on a sunny day. The present invention, by virtue of the dimensions of the yarn, provide a lighter weight of the overall net structure that provides uniform shade.

[0031] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary representation of an existing net structure (104). With FIG. 2 as reference, the following tables indicate a comparative analysis between the proposed net structure and the existing net structures. TABLE 2 shows total yield

TABLE 3 shows yield data

TABLE 4 shows biometric observations

[0032] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary representation of an implementation of the proposed net structure, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0033] In a way of example and not as a limitation, number of pickings may be 10% more than existing net structure where even inter nodal distance may be 10 to 11% less compared with existing net structure. There may be more number of branches as compared with existing net structure and may give an average number of fruits per plant of 20% more compared with the existing net structure and thus may provide higher yield of at least 20% more compared with existing net structure.

[0034] In an exemplary implementation, temperature measurement of the proposed net structure during November (Winter) showed 0.4°C more temperature compared with the existing net structure while in December (Winter) showed 1.1 °C more temperature compared with theexisting net structure. In January (Winter), the proposed net structure 0.35°C more temperature compared with the existing net structure. In February (Spring), the temperature recorded was 0.43°C more temperature compared with that of the existing net structure. While in March (Summer) 0.25°C less temperature was recorded compared with that of the existing net structure. And in April (Summer) a 0.46°C less temperature was recorded compared with that of the existing net structure.

[0035] Thus, the present disclosure provides a unique net structure that helps in regulating temperature in greenhouse that is cooler in summer - 0.25 to 0.5°C less than the existing net structure and warmer in winter - 0.5 to 1°C more than the existing net structure. Moreover, the net structure is lighter in weight (at par with the existing net structure) and up to 1.5 X stronger than the existing net structure. The proposed net structure is also UV stabilized for longer durability and has uniform shade factor leading to uniform plant growth and more longevity. Furthermore, the proposed net structure has shorter inter nodal distance, more branches, and yields up to 1.2 X more fmits per plant than that of the existing net structure.

[0036] Therefore, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the diagrams, schematics, illustrations, and the like represent conceptual views or processes illustrating systems and methods embodying this invention. The functions of the various elements shown in the figure may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as hardware capable of executing associated software. Similarly, any switches shown in the figures are conceptual only. Their function may be carried out through the operation of program logic, through dedicated logic, through the interaction of program control and dedicated logic, or even manually, the particular technique being selectable by the entity implementing this invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art further understand that the exemplary hardware, software, processes, methods, and/or operating systems described herein are for illustrative purposes and, thus, are not intended to be limited to any particular named.

[0037] In the foregoing description, numerous details are set forth. It will be apparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure, that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well- known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, to avoid obscuring the present invention. ADVANTAGES OF THE PRESENT DISCLOSURE

[0038] The present disclosure provides a net structure that for any given a shade factor is lighter in weight and stronger in comparison due to usage of the multifilament yarn.

[0039] The present disclosure provides a net structure that provides unform shade. [0040] The present disclosure, by virtue of the dimensions of the yam, provide a lighter weight of the overall net structure and provides uniform shade.