Patent ID: 9565812
Date: 2017-02-14
CPC Classifications: A01C,A01G,G01N,G06K,Y02B,Y02P

Claim:
1. A growing system for promoting the rapid growth of a plurality of seedlings, comprising: a substantially closed container for one or more seedlings of the plurality of seedlings; a nutrient solution within the closed container; a first seedling positioned within the nutrient solution; a grow light; at least one sensor adapted to observe growth of the first seedling; and a controller coupled to the grow light and the at least one sensor, the controller programmed to: read information from the sensor to determine when growth has occurred; calculate a seedling stress duration, wherein the seedling stress duration commences with the positioning of the first seedling in the growing system and terminates when growth is observed in the first seedling; divide the seedling stress duration into a plurality of subphases; determine a subphase factor for each of the plurality of subphases for a second seedling positioned in the growing system based on which subphase of the plurality of subphases the second seedling has reached based on an elapsed time; calculate a total number of on/off light cycles and a duration for each on/off cycle, wherein one cycle is turning the lights on and off; and control the grow light to execute the total number of calculated on/off light cycles for the calculated duration of time the lights are on and time the lights are off during each cycle in the growing system.