Patent ID: 11895954
Assignee: LOCAL BOUNTI OPERATING COMPANY, LLC
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC A  Y | IPC A

Claim 13:
14. A system for farming plants, comprising:
one or more germination stations configured to receive a plurality of seeds or seedlings on one or more plant trays in a germination phase and configured to accommodate a plurality of plants in the one or more plant trays at an end of the germination phase, wherein the seeds or seedlings grow into a plurality of plants during the germination phase;
one or more nurseries, wherein each of the nurseries are configured to have a predetermined plant density, wherein each of the nurseries comprises a plurality of vertically aligned shelving units configured to store the plurality of plants in a vertical arrangement, and wherein each of the nurseries further comprises a plurality of artificial light sources configured to supply the plurality of plants with artificial light during a nursery phase;
a greenhouse, the greenhouse configured to supply the plurality of plants with natural and/or artificial sunlight during a greenhouse phase lasting until harvesting of the plurality of plants from the greenhouse, wherein the plants are arranged according to an optimized plant density identified from monitoring the plants within the one or more nurseries;
at least one sensor or monitoring device configured to identify a plurality of plant parameters including at least a plant size; and
a control unit configured to receive the plurality of plant parameters from the at least one sensor or monitoring device throughout each of the germination phase, nursery phase, and greenhouse phase and configured to control one or more systems relating to the plants, wherein the control unit is configured to adjust a plurality of environmental parameters differently according to a plurality of requirements of each of the germination phase, nursery phase(s), and greenhouse phase and the identified plant parameters of each of the plurality of plants,
wherein the predetermined plant density of each of the nurseries and the optimized plant density of the greenhouse is determined based on the plant size identified by the at least one sensor or monitoring device during a previous phase and is determined to minimize an area between the plants prior to transferring to the greenhouse.