Mechanical method for separating and planting out plants propagated in vitro in the form of clumps (tufts) and device for its implementation

摘要

The microcuttings (25) to be planted out are placed in the funnel-shaped openings (14) in a gridwork plate (13). The latter is then inserted into a flask and placed on a frame (11) mounted on a set of four shock absorbers (12). This flask undergoes a first centrifuging process. This has the effect of sending the microcuttings towards the growing medium, guided as they are by the mouth of the funnel (16); the opening of the latter, consisting of flexible strips, is then forced by the microcuttings which continue their path towards the growing medium (26). Once they have arrived there, these microcuttings then become impaled on needles (10) fixed to the blocks (9) of a grid located at the base of the flask (8). After production of daughter microcuttings (27) by multiplication, a new centrifuging operation is carried out which has the effect, on the one hand, of discharging the growing medium (26) through the gridwork plate (8) into a removable bottom of the flask (6) and, on the other hand, of lowering the gridwork plate with funnels (13). The cutting ends of these funnels (16), which have arrived at the base of the microcuttings then carry out separation thereof by cutting through the axilla of the latter. IMAGE