Abstract:
Hanging stacked plant holders and watering systems for receiving and supporting a plurality of pots in pot holding rings fastened to the end of a plurality of unit arms. The unit arms are stacked on a structure that includes an upper manifold and a lower manifold. The pots supported by the upper unit arms receive water from the upper manifold, and the pots supported by the lower unit arms receive water seeping through the upper pots, with water seeping through the lower pots being collected for recirculation. various features and construction details are disclosed.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/322,500 filed Apr. 9, 2010. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to the field of plant holders and plant watering systems. 
     2. Prior Art 
     Plant holders of various kinds are well known in the prior art. Of particular importance to the present invention are plant holders that hold multiple plants, each in their own pots. Such plant holders are of use both for commercial growing purposes and for residential use for decorative purposes and for growing vegetables. What is needed for this purpose is a multiple plant holder that is capable of holding multiple plants, each in its own removable standard size pot, with a watering system that may collect water (with fertilizer) passing through the pots for manual or automatic recycling, thereby conserving water and achieving the greatest benefit of the fertilizer. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a side view of one embodiment of the hanging stacked plant holder and watering system of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a view of the embodiment of the hanging stacked plant holder and watering system of  FIG. 1  as seen from below. 
         FIG. 3  is a view of the embodiment of the hanging stacked plant holder and watering system of  FIG. 1  as seen from above. 
         FIG. 4  is an exploded view of the embodiment of the hanging stacked plant holder and watering system of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 5  illustrates the assembly of the holding rings  40  and the manifold  24 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     One embodiment of the hanging stacked plant holders and watering systems of the present invention may be seen in  FIGS. 1 through 3 . The major elements of the system that may be seen in these Figures are the hangar  20  having a water inlet  22 , a manifold assembly generally indicated by the numeral  24 , a plurality of pots  26 , a plurality of distribution hoses  28  and a second manifold assembly generally indicated by the numeral  29 . The overall assembly of this embodiment supplies water to a total of 16 individual pots  26  in four vertical layers of four pots each. The manifold assembly  24  provides water at drip irrigation rates to eight distribution hoses  28 , four of which supply water at drip irrigation rates to the top four pots  26 , with the other four distribution hoses  28  interleaved with the first four distribution hoses supplying water to the second level of pots  26 . Each pot has a catch tray  30  that snaps onto the pot and collects water which seeps through the soil in the pot to collect the same for distribution to the lower pots. In particular, water seeping through the top four pots is supplied through distribution hoses  32  to the third level (from the top) of pots  26 , and water seeping through the second level of pots  26  provides water through distribution hoses  34  to the lowest level of pots  26 . Water which seeps through the lowest level of pots  26 , as well as the level immediately therebelow, is collected through respective catch trays  30  by distribution hoses  36  and lower manifold assembly  29  for output through pipe  38  for collection and recirculation. 
     As mentioned before, water is supplied to the water inlet  22  at drip irrigation rates and at a controlled pressure, preferably through a pressure regulator and a filter, typically using a pump for water recirculation and a time clock to control pump operation time periods to provide the needed watering for whatever plants are growing in the pots. Thus any fertilizers that are in the water are simply collected and recirculated, typically with the filtering avoiding collection or clogging of solid matter in the water circulation system. 
     An exploded view of this embodiment of the invention may be seen in  FIG. 4 . As may be seen toward the upper right of the Figure, a tubular O-ring swivel having a pair of spaced apart O-rings with an opening through the plastic swivel between the O-rings is pushed into an opening in the hangar, with a swivel cap being glued thereto to capture the O-ring swivel in the hangar so that the water inlet  22  ( FIG. 1 ) provides water to the region between the pair of O-rings on the O-ring swivel, and thus into the inner diameter of the swivel. Glued to the bottom of the O-ring swivel is a tubular adapter with a female bayonet coupler glued to the adapter. This allows that upper assembly just described to mate with and be decoupled from the primary assembly of the hanging stacked plant holder about to be described. 
     At the top of the main assembly is a male bayonet coupler with a short inner pipe glued thereto which is glued to a pipe through the manifold. Either the pipe through the manifold or the long inner pipe  39  are plugged, with the manifold pipe having one or more holes therein so that water passing through the male bayonet coupler will be distributed into the manifold, with the manifold cover being cemented to the manifold pipe and the manifold itself so as to prevent leakage. The male bayonet coupler at the top of this assembly has an O-ring at the top thereof so as to provide a watertight seal with respect to the female bayonet coupler when connected thereto. Of course the distribution hoses are flexible plastic hoses and merely press into suitable connections at the bottom of the manifold, but need not be glued thereto as they neither support any significant weight nor are subject to any water pressure. 
     The pots used with one embodiment are 5.5 pots having the catch tray  30  ( FIGS. 1-3 ) snapped thereon and fitting within the 5.5 holding rings shown in  FIG. 4  and also on an expanded scale in  FIG. 5 . The 5.5 holding rings  40  ( FIG. 5 ) having a tab thereon that slides into a slot in the ends  42  of the 5.5 unit arm ( FIG. 4 ), also shown in  FIG. 5  as the 5.5 unit arm member  44 . Four such unit arm assemblies are used, with an indexing extension ( FIG. 4 ) extending therebetween, with indexing protrusions mating with the 5.5 unit arms so that each 5.5 unit arm is rotated with respect to the unit arm thereabove and/or therebelow by 45°. 
     The long inner pipe fits through the entire stack of the 5.5 unit arms and the indexing extensions, with an indexing adapter being glued to the bottom of the long inner pipe to hold the stack together, with another female bayonet connector being glued to the indexing adapter. 
     To the lower right of  FIG. 4  may be seen an exploded assembly of a male bayonet coupler, an indexing adapter, a short inner pipe, a manifold and a manifold cover, all of which are glued together. As before, the male bayonet coupler has an O-ring at the top thereof to prevent water leakage when the same is inserted into the female bayonet coupler. The manifold and manifold cover in this assembly are preferably identical to the manifold and manifold cover near the top of long inner pipe, though mounted upside down for water collection through collection hoses  36  ( FIG. 3 ). Thus in the preferred embodiment, three major assemblies are used, the first being the mounting, the second being the assembly of the distribution manifold, pots, distribution hoses, etc., and the third being the collection manifold assembly. 
     The hangar  20  ( FIGS. 1-3 ) is sized to conveniently hook over a supporting pipe, hook or other member, or hang from cord looped over a beam such as a patio cover beam. The swivel fastened to the hangar allows the assembly to be rotated relative to the hanger, such as perhaps once a day or every other day to equalize sunlight on the plants. In a preferred embodiment, all parts are PVC plastic, having good ultraviolet radiation resistance and being readily glueable through common solvent-type cements, or alternatively in at least some cases, could be spin welded together if desired. The net result is an attractive and highly serviceable hanging stacked plant holders that may be used both as a consumer product and commercially. 
     Note that in alternate embodiments, fewer, or even more layers of pots may be used by simply replicating the pot assemblies, indexing extensions and manifolds. Obviously, units using pots of a different size, etc., or even different number of pots per layer could also be fabricated, depending on the needs of the user, with plants grown commercially in such pots being saleable in the pots used. 
     Thus while certain embodiments of the invention has been described herein, numerous variations may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. By way of one example, additional distribution manifolds and/or collection manifolds may be used so that each layer of pots has its own supply and collection manifold. Of course, these and other variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.