阅读说明：本技术 水耕栽培用种子纸和该种子纸制造装置 (Seed paper for hydroponics and apparatus for manufacturing the same ) 是由 宫原隆和 O·J·C·维拉努瓦 于 2018-05-10 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明廉价地提供一种用于在基于水耕栽培的未成熟蔬菜等的生产中使播种作业大幅度地省力化的种子纸。从衬纸供给部(A)供给由卫生纸那样的、可水解纸构成的薄纸的纵长衬纸,利用粘接剂适用部(C)以预定的间隔使水溶性粘接剂附着于该纵长衬纸的一面。通过将多个种子(13)载置于该纵长衬纸(11)的一面上,并提升纵长衬纸(11),从而从纵长衬纸去除未附着于粘接剂的种子。之后,在衬纸输送、种子压接部(E)利用比种子(13)柔软的1对辊(51、52)夹着并压接纵长衬纸(11),而制造种子纸(15)。对于该种子纸(15),在该纵长衬纸(11)设置有多个凹部,该凹部具有与对象种子(13)大致等同的俯视形状,并具有该对象种子的高度的1/10倍～1倍的深度,在各凹部的内部利用水溶性粘接剂粘接有该对象种子。(The invention provides seed paper for greatly saving seeding operation in the production of immature vegetables based on hydroponic culture at low cost. A longitudinal base paper of a thin paper made of a hydrolyzable paper such as toilet paper is fed from a base paper feeding section (A), and a water-soluble adhesive is attached to one surface of the longitudinal base paper at a predetermined interval by an adhesive applying section (C). The plurality of seeds (13) are placed on one surface of the longitudinal interleaving paper (11), and the longitudinal interleaving paper (11) is lifted, so that the seeds which are not adhered to the adhesive are removed from the longitudinal interleaving paper. Then, the seed paper (15) is manufactured by sandwiching and pressing the lengthwise base paper (11) between 1 pair of rollers (51, 52) softer than the seed (13) in the base paper conveyance and seed pressing section (E). The seed paper (15) is provided with a plurality of recesses in the longitudinal base paper (11), the recesses having a shape substantially equivalent to the shape of the target seed (13) in plan view and having a depth of 1/10 to 1 times the height of the target seed, and the target seed is bonded inside each recess by a water-soluble adhesive.)

1. A seed paper for hydroponics, characterized in that,

the seed paper for hydroponics adheres a target seed to the inside of each of a plurality of recesses provided in a base paper made of a water-soluble paper, and has a shape substantially equivalent to the target seed in a plan view, and a depth of 1/10 to 1 times the height of the target seed, by means of a water-soluble adhesive.

2. The seed paper for hydroponic culture according to claim 1,

the liner paper is toilet paper.

3. A device for manufacturing seed paper for hydroponics is characterized in that,

the seed paper manufacturing device for hydroponics comprises:

a) a backing paper supply unit for supplying a longitudinal backing paper;

b) an adhesive applying section for attaching a water-soluble adhesive to one surface of the lengthwise interleaving paper supplied from the interleaving paper supplying section at a predetermined interval;

c) a seed mounting portion for mounting a plurality of seeds on the one surface of the longitudinal mount;

d) a removing portion for removing seeds not attached to the lengthwise interleaving paper from the lengthwise interleaving paper; and

e) and a seed fixing section configured to convey the lengthwise interleaving paper while sandwiching the lengthwise interleaving paper that has passed through the removing section, by 1 pair of rollers that are softer than the seeds.

4. The device for manufacturing seed paper for hydroponics culture according to claim 3,

the hardness of the seed side roller is harder than that of the longitudinal liner paper side roller for 1 pair of rollers of the seed fixing portion.

5. The device for manufacturing seed paper for hydroponics culture according to claim 3 or 4,

the seed fixing portion rotates to intermittently convey the longitudinal interleaving paper in units of a predetermined conveyance pitch.

6. The device for manufacturing seed paper for hydroponics culture according to claim 5,

the hydroponic seed sheet manufacturing apparatus further includes a buffer section for loosening the longitudinal base sheet between the base sheet supply section and the seed fixing section.

7. The device for manufacturing seed paper for hydroponics culture according to claim 5 or 6,

the hydroponic seed sheet manufacturing apparatus further includes a liner sheet holding section for sucking the long-length liner sheet to a conveyance surface between the liner sheet supply section and the seed fixing section.

8. The device for manufacturing seed paper for hydroponics culture according to any one of claims 3 to 7,

the hydroponic seed paper manufacturing apparatus further includes an active removing portion for actively removing the seeds from the longitudinal base paper, after the seed fixing portion.

9. A hydroponic method using seed paper, characterized in that,

the object seed is adhered to the inside of each of a plurality of concave portions provided in a base paper made of a water-soluble paper, having a shape in plan view substantially equivalent to the object seed, and having a depth 1/10 to 1 times as large as the height of the object seed, by a water-soluble adhesive.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to seed paper used for greatly saving labor in sowing work in hydroponics using a carpet-like medium, hydroponics requiring uniform sowing of a large number of seeds, and hydroponics requiring young leaves and the like.

Background

In recent years, immature vegetables such as young leaves, which have rapidly spread, are small in plant size, and therefore waste is large at normal sowing intervals, and the yield per unit area is low. Therefore, in order to improve cultivation efficiency and increase yield, it is necessary to sow seeds at a narrower pitch than general vegetables. If the seeds are sown at a pitch of, for example, 15mm, 4400 seeds are sown per 1 square meter, but if the sowing is performed by manpower, a large labor cost is required. Therefore, labor saving techniques are particularly required in such fields.

In order to solve this problem, a tape called a seeding tape, which is a tape made of a PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) film dissolved in water and in which seeds are fixed at substantially equal intervals, a seeding device using a plate with holes formed at equal intervals, and the like are used. However, only 1 strip and 1 strip can be sown with the belt, and therefore, the efficiency is not improved, and when the belt is used for hydroponics, PVA that is difficult to decompose is dissolved in water and adversely affects the water.

On the other hand, the sowing by the sowing device can significantly improve the work efficiency in the soil cultivation, but in the case of cultivation without using soil such as hydroponics, there is a problem that it is difficult to improve the efficiency compared to the soil cultivation, such as the work of pressing the sown seeds into the culture medium is required.

As shown in patent documents 1 to 7, the following is formed: an adhesive of a desired size and shape is applied to a base material formed of roll-like or sheet-like paper or the like, seeds are fixed to the base material with the adhesive, and the sheet is placed in a field or a cultivation container, whereby seeding can be performed with a great effort. However, in any of the methods, an adhesive is applied to a relatively strong paper base material, seeds are fixed by the adhesive, and a protective layer made of PVA or paper is provided on the surface to prevent detachment of the seeds, which is a main object of soil cultivation.

Disclosure of Invention

Problems to be solved by the invention

In hydroponics in which immature vegetables are produced in a sheet-like medium for approximately 1 to 3 weeks of growth, if the interleaving paper of the seed paper is strong, the vegetables may remain on the medium until shipment and may be mixed in. Further, since PVA in the protective layer is dissolved in water and is not decomposed, the concentration in the culture solution gradually increases, and problems such as adverse effect on the flow of the culture solution and leakage due to foaming occur, and there is a concern that the PVA may affect growth inhibition of vegetables in addition to the above problems. Furthermore, if the amount of raw materials is large, the material cost and the manufacturing cost are high, and it is not suitable for the cultivation of immature vegetables having a low added value per 1 root.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide seed paper for drastically saving the labor for sowing in the production of immature vegetables and the like by hydroponic cultivation at low cost.

Means for solving the problems

The seed paper of the present invention, which is made to solve the above-mentioned problems, is characterized in that a target seed is adhered to the inside of each of a plurality of concave portions provided in a base paper made of a hydrolyzable paper by a water-soluble adhesive, has a shape substantially equivalent to the target seed in a plan view, and has a depth of 1/10 to 1 times the height of the target seed.

The backing paper used in the seed paper of the present invention is a hydrolyzable paper, and can be used, for example, one having a quality (grammage 18 g/m) specified in JIS4501-1993 as JIS standard of toilet paper²Above, breaking strength of 78kPa (10 sheets) or more, and ease of decomposition within 100 s).

The seeds to be treated with the seed paper of the present invention are all kinds of seeds that can be hydroponically cultivated and have a size of approximately 0.3mm to 5 mm. For example, in recent years, watercress, romaine lettuce (English: Lollo rossa), and the like, which have been in great demand as young leaves, can be suitably used as the seed paper of the present invention.

In the seed paper of the present invention, the seeds are stored in the plurality of recesses provided in the interleaving paper, but since the shape of each recess is the shape described above, the seeds are covered with the interleaving paper at least 1/10 of the height thereof and are adhered to the interleaving paper with the adhesive, so that the adhesion to the interleaving paper is secured, and a situation in which the seeds are detached from the interleaving paper during transportation or installation in a hydroponic medium (which can be done mechanically) is avoided.

The lining paper of the seed paper of the present invention is hydrolyzable, and therefore, the lining paper is gradually decomposed in hydroponics. Here, the decomposition by water can be carried out in two ways: physically separated due to the presence of water; decomposed by microorganisms and the like in the water. The interleaving paper components decomposed by water disappear from the surface of the medium and are removed from the medium by water. The decomposed paper components are not dissolved in water and can therefore be removed from water by a filter or the like without accumulating in water as does PVA or the like. Therefore, for hydroponics, a long-term water circulation treatment can be performed.

Further, since the adhesive for fixing the seeds to the liner paper uses a water-soluble adhesive, the liner paper attached to the seeds and the adhesive itself are washed away by water. In the present invention, the amount of the adhesive used (the area of the adhesive) is small in view of the entire area of the seed paper, and therefore, the long-term recycling of water is not hindered.

Next, an apparatus preferable for manufacturing the seed paper as described above is provided below. The seed paper manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is characterized in that,

the seed paper manufacturing device comprises:

a) an interleaving paper supply section for supplying an elongated interleaving paper composed of a hydrolyzable paper;

b) an adhesive applying section for attaching a water-soluble adhesive to one surface of the lengthwise interleaving paper supplied from the interleaving paper supplying section at a predetermined interval;

c) a seed mounting portion for mounting a plurality of seeds on the one surface of the longitudinal mount;

d) a removing portion for removing seeds not attached to the lengthwise interleaving paper from the lengthwise interleaving paper; and

e) and a seed fixing section configured to convey the lengthwise interleaving paper while sandwiching the lengthwise interleaving paper that has passed through the removing section, by 1 pair of rollers that are softer than the seeds.

When a plurality of seeds are placed on the longitudinal base paper to which the adhesive is attached in the seed placement section, the seeds located at the portions of the longitudinal base paper to which the adhesive is attached adhere to the longitudinal base paper, and the seeds located at the other portions do not adhere to the longitudinal base paper. Therefore, the seed that is not attached is removed from the lengthwise backing paper by the removing portion, and the lengthwise backing paper that has passed through the removing portion is in a state where the seed is attached only to the portion where the adhesive is attached. The method of removing the non-adhering seeds as the removal portion is the simplest method using gravity. That is, the non-adhering seeds can be removed only by inclining the longitudinal mount, turning the longitudinal mount upside down, or the like. In addition, active removing means such as wind force and vibration may be used. The seeds removed here can be reused at the seed placement portion.

The seed fixing section rotates so as to pinch the lengthwise interleaving paper having passed through the removing section by 1 pair of rollers that are softer than the seeds, thereby conveying the lengthwise interleaving paper. By setting the hardness of 1 pair of rollers in this manner, the seed adhered to the longitudinal interleaving paper is buried between the two rollers without being crushed by the rollers. Thus, the longitudinal base paper is formed with a recess, and the seed is buried in the recess to a height of at least 1/10. In this case, the pressure between the two rollers spreads the adhesive existing between the seeds and the longitudinal base paper, and the adhesive area becomes larger, so that the adhesion of the seeds to the longitudinal base paper becomes more reliable.

Here, it is desirable that the relative hardness of the two rollers constituting 1 pair of rollers is set so that the roller on the seed side is hard and the roller on the longitudinal paper-liner side is soft. Thus, the resin adhering to the longitudinal base paper is pushed into the longitudinal base paper more strongly, and the longitudinal base paper is formed with the recessed portion having a depth 1/3 to 1 times the height of the seed, and the seed is embedded in the recessed portion.

Further, the base paper supply unit may pull out a long base paper in a roll shape (or folded shape) by a conveying force generated by 1 pair of rollers of the seed fixing unit.

The lengthwise interleaving paper (seed paper) to which the seeds are attached, which has passed through the seed fixing portion, may be wound up or cut into a sheet shape with an appropriate size.

ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECTS OF INVENTION

Since the lining paper of the seed paper of the present invention is hydrolyzable, the lining paper is physically decomposed during hydroponics, or gradually decomposed by microorganisms, disappears from the surface of the culture medium, and is washed away by water. This decomposed product can be removed from water by a filter or the like without accumulating in water as in PVA or the like, and therefore, water circulation treatment can be performed for a long period of time in hydroponics. In addition, although the hydroponics water is also mixed with the water-soluble adhesive for fixing the seeds to the interleaving paper, the amount of the adhesive used (the area of the adhesive) is small in view of the area of the entire seed paper, and therefore, the long-term circulation of water is not hindered.

According to these features, the seed paper of the present invention is suitable for hydroponic cultivation, and particularly, in the production of immature vegetables such as young leaves, the seeding operation can be greatly reduced in labor and cost.

The seed paper manufacturing apparatus of the present invention can manufacture such seed paper in large quantities with high efficiency and at low cost.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of a seed paper manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic structure of the first buffer portion B and the second buffer portion G of the seed paper manufacturing apparatus according to the embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a schematic plan view of an adhesive printing portion C of the seed paper manufacturing apparatus according to the embodiment.

Fig. 4 is a schematic side view of the adhesive printing portion C and the base paper holding portion J1 of the seed paper manufacturing apparatus according to the embodiment.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of an example of a suction substrate of the seed attaching portion D of the seed paper manufacturing apparatus according to the embodiment.

Fig. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the backing paper conveyance and seed pressure-bonding section E of the seed paper manufacturing apparatus according to the embodiment.

Fig. 7 is a plan view of an example of seed paper produced by the seed paper production apparatus according to the embodiment.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of an example of a hydroponic tray on which a plurality of seed papers manufactured by the seed paper manufacturing apparatus of the embodiment are laid.

Detailed Description

An embodiment of a seed paper manufacturing apparatus for hydroponics according to the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 1 to 6. As shown in fig. 1, the seed paper manufacturing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment is composed of the following components.

An interleaving paper supply part A for supplying a longitudinal interleaving paper 11 composed of a hydrolyzable paper

A first buffer portion B for feeding the lengthwise base paper 11 without applying an excessive pressure (tension) to the lengthwise base paper 11 in accordance with the intermittent movement request of the second half of the adhesive printing portion C and the base paper conveyance, the seed pressure-bonding portion E for the lengthwise base paper 11;

an adhesive printing section C for applying an adhesive 12 at predetermined intervals so as to fix the seeds 13 to the longitudinal base paper 11;

a seed attaching portion D for attaching the seeds 13 to the adhesive dots applied to the longitudinal interleaving paper 11;

the backing paper conveyance and seed crimping section E has the following functions: a backing paper conveyance for intermittently conveying the longitudinal backing paper 11 by a predetermined distance (this is referred to as a conveyance pitch) in order to print adhesive dots on the longitudinal backing paper 11 at a predetermined interval in the longitudinal direction of the longitudinal backing paper 11; and a seed press-contact for pressing the seeds 13 into the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 in order to reliably fix the attached seeds 13 to the longitudinal interleaving paper 11;

an active removing unit F for removing seeds adhering to the longitudinal base paper 11 and excess seeds adhering to the adhesive agent overflowing due to static electricity, using a soft rotating brush or the like;

a second buffer portion G for buffering sudden movement of the longitudinal base paper 11 so as to wind the seed paper 15, which is intermittently conveyed and has the seeds 13 adhered to the longitudinal base paper 11 at predetermined intervals, without applying excessive pressure;

a liner paper winding unit H for winding the seed paper 15; and

the interleaving paper holders J1 to J3 are provided at appropriate multiple locations, and use negative pressure so that the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 (or the seed paper 15) is held with an appropriate holding force when the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 (or the seed paper 15) is stopped without applying excessive pressure to the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 (or the seed paper 15) when the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 (or the seed paper 15) is moved.

As shown in fig. 2, the first buffer portion B and the second buffer portion G are configured as follows: the longitudinal base paper 11 is slackened and hung inward so that an unnecessary force is not applied to the longitudinal base paper 11 when the longitudinal base paper 11 is intermittently conveyed. Therefore, each of the first buffer portion B and the second buffer portion G has a cylindrical main body 21, the cylindrical main body 21 has a width slightly larger than the width of the longitudinal base paper 11, a length (thickness) in the conveyance direction of the longitudinal base paper 11 is several cm, a height (depth) is about 20cm to 30cm, and the cylindrical main body 21 is opened upward. The main body 21 has, in a lower portion thereof: a fan 22 for discharging air inside; a motor 23 for driving the fan to rotate; and a sensor 24 capable of measuring the height of the lower end (bottom surface) of the slack portion of the sucked longitudinal interleaving paper 11.

The longitudinal cardboard 11 is delivered from the cardboard supply portion a to the cardboard winding portion H through the respective components B to G in the middle, and when the first buffer portion B and the second buffer portion G are operated, the fan 22 below the buffer portions B, G is rotated to draw the longitudinal cardboard 11 into the main body 21. Then, the sensor 24 measures the distance to the bottom surface of the longitudinal mount 11.

When the bottom surface of the longitudinal base paper 11 is above the upper limit (upper limit) UL (broken line), the brake of the base paper feeding unit a is released, or the feeding motor is rotated to feed the longitudinal base paper 11, and when the lower end of the longitudinal base paper 11 reaches the lower limit (lower limit) LL, the base paper feeding of the base paper feeding unit a is stopped, and the base paper feeding amount of the base paper feeding unit a at this time (the length of the longitudinal base paper 11 pulled out by the base paper feeding unit a) has no relation with the conveyance pitch described later.

The sensor 24 is assumed to be an ultrasonic distance sensor and illustrated and described, but a similar function can be achieved even if a reflection-type or transmission-type optical sensor is placed at a position (lower limit portion) of LL and a position (upper limit portion) of UL of the side wall of the main body 21. Although fig. 2 shows an example in which the sensor 24 is provided on the lower side of the main body 21, the same function can be achieved even if the sensor is provided on the upper side. Further, as long as the suction force by the fan 22 is sufficiently ensured, even if the overall direction of both the first buffer portion B and the second buffer portion G is set to a direction (direction of suction to the upper side) which is opposite to the left and right direction, not only by the longitudinal base paper 11 hanging downward as shown in fig. 2, the function thereof is not affected (the longitudinal base paper 11 is thin paper such as toilet paper as will be described later, and therefore, even in these cases, the motor 23 having a strength is not required).

In fig. 2, a case is shown in which the small fans 22 are provided in the first buffer portion B and the second buffer portion G, respectively, and are used independently, but one large fan may be used, and the suction force of the fan may be distributed by a pipe or the like.

In this way, the long interleaving paper 11 having a length necessary for the rear stroke is supplied at a necessary timing by coordinating the interleaving paper supply section a and the first buffer section B, but the tension applied to the long interleaving paper 11 by the first buffer section B depends on the weak suction force of the fan 22, and there is no mass that affects inertia other than the mass of the long interleaving paper 11 when the long interleaving paper 11 is moved, so that even if the rear adhesive printing section C applies an intermittent force to the long interleaving paper 11, a strong tension is not applied to the long interleaving paper 11, and even if the long interleaving paper 11 is thin and easily broken, such as a single-layered toilet paper, it can be stably used.

Next, the operation of the adhesive printing portion C will be described with reference to fig. 3.

The seed paper 15 of the present invention is mainly used for hydroponics of immature vegetables growing in a short time, and therefore, when used with the side of the slip sheet positioned above, it is necessary to make the germinated buds easily pierce the slip sheet and extend upward, and when used with the side of the slip sheet positioned below, the roots that have to have rooted can easily pierce the slip sheet and extend toward the culture medium. Therefore, the longitudinal base paper 11 is suitable for thin and sparse paper that is easily decomposed by water. For example, as described above, a sanitary napkin having the quality (grammage of 18 g/m) prescribed in JIS4501-1993, which is a JIS standard of toilet paper, can be used²Above, breakStrength of 78kPa (10 sheets) or more, and ease of decomposition within 100 s).

When a general adhesive is applied to such thin and sparse paper, the following problems occur: since the adhesive instantly penetrates into the paper and spreads, a desired amount of the adhesive does not remain on the paper surface, and the force for adhering the seed is weakened. In addition, the following problems also arise: the adhesive spreads to widen the application surface, and the plurality of seeds are attached to the mount.

In order to solve these problems, it is necessary to print an adhesive having a high viscosity, which is not easily penetrated into or spread on paper, precisely in an area corresponding to one seed amount so that a plurality of seeds are not attached. For this reason, a method generally called screen printing is most preferable.

Further, by fabricating the mask 32 of a metal thin plate or a plastic sheet according to the size of the seed and the implantation pitch by the screen printing method, it is possible to print a plurality of lines (an example of 12 × 2 lines is shown in fig. 3) of the adhesive at a time as shown in fig. 3, and therefore, the efficiency is good.

However, when the adhesive 12 is printed on the longitudinal base paper 11 by such a method, the printer 31 and the mask 32 need to have a certain size in the conveyance direction, and the size is difficult to be smaller than the conveyance amount (conveyance pitch) of the intermittent conveyance of the longitudinal base paper 11. In this case, the adhesive printed first comes into contact with the mask 32 at the time of the next printing. To prevent this contact, as shown in fig. 4, the longitudinal base paper 11 is lifted by using the lifting body 33 having a width (a dimension in the conveying direction) substantially equal to the conveying pitch at the time of printing, and the lifting body 33 is lowered to the broken line position when the longitudinal base paper 11 is moved. This prevents the adhesive 12 printed on the lengthwise base paper 11 from rubbing against the mask 32 or the like and changing the shape of the adhesive 12.

The configuration of the printer 31 is not directly related to the object of the present invention, and therefore, details thereof are not shown, but it is a printer as follows: the printing machine is designed and manufactured in various configurations by holding an appropriate amount of adhesive on the upper side of the mask 32, repeatedly moving a squeegee-type mechanism element called a squeegee in the width direction of the longitudinal base paper 11 every time printing is performed, and printing the adhesive 12 on the longitudinal base paper 11 through the holes of the mask 32.

As the adhesive used in the adhesive printing portion C, a plant-derived water-soluble adhesive such as starch paste or xanthan gum is used. These pastes are derived from plants and, therefore, are easily decomposed by microorganisms and the like in water.

In this way, the liner paper 11 on which the adhesive 12 is printed at predetermined intervals is then conveyed to the seed attaching portion D.

The seed attaching portion D is provided with a horizontal back plate 41 and a vertical back plate 42 which are provided in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction along the conveyance direction of the longitudinal base paper 11, and a suction substrate 43 having a plurality of conveyance direction slits for suction is provided therebetween. In addition, guide plates 44 are provided on both sides in the width direction thereof, respectively. The backing paper holding portion J2 is provided on the back of the suction substrate 43. Fig. 5 shows an example of the suction substrate 43. The longitudinal interleaving paper 11 is sucked by the interleaving paper holding portion J2 while traveling along the horizontal back plate 41, the suction base plate 43, and the vertical back plate 42, and the orientation is changed from the horizontal direction to the vertical direction, so that the seeds 13 are supplied to the space formed by the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 whose orientation is changed by 90 degrees by the two guide plates 44. Thereby, the seeds 13 are attached to the adhesive 12 printed on the adhesive dots of the longitudinal base paper 11.

The seeds 13 are conveyed to the left side of fig. 1 by the horizontal movement of the longitudinal mount 11, and the seeds 13 are lifted upward by changing the orientation of the longitudinal mount 11 to the vertical direction, and when lifted to a certain extent, fall down by gravity to form a stack as shown in fig. 1. In this stack, since the seeds 13 roll and move on the longitudinal base paper 11 and may pass through the adhesive dots a plurality of times, the probability that the seeds 13 adhere to the adhesive 12 on the adhesive dots of the longitudinal base paper 11 becomes very high. On the other hand, the seeds 13 are basically excluded from the portions of the longitudinal mount paper 11 other than the adhesive dots. In this regard, the seed attaching portion D also serves as the removing portion of the present invention.

The structure of the seed attaching portion D is not important as an element of the invention, except for the points where the guide plates 44 provided on the left and right sides and the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 change the moving direction from substantially horizontal to substantially vertical. In addition, although the suction force by the fan is used in the present embodiment in order to more reliably hold the longitudinal interleaving papers 11 along the change of the angle, the stack of seeds 13 can continuously maintain the state as shown in fig. 1 without the suction force by the fan due to the movement of the longitudinal interleaving papers 11 in the conveying direction, the self weight of the stack of seeds 13, and the friction between the two.

Next, the lengthwise base paper 11 with the seeds 13 attached thereto reaches the base paper conveyance/seed pressure-bonding section E, which is located above and serves both to pressure-bond the seeds that are attached to the adhesive dots to the lengthwise base paper 11 reliably and to convey the base paper for accurately moving the lengthwise base paper 11 at a predetermined conveyance pitch. The backing paper conveyance and the seed pressure-bonding section E will be described with reference to fig. 6.

The seeds 13 attached to the longitudinal base paper 11 by the seed attaching portion D are partially attached to the adhesive 12 printed on the surface of the longitudinal base paper 11 as shown in the enlarged view 6A of fig. 6, and therefore easily come off.

In order to eliminate this problem, in the present apparatus, while pressing the two rollers 51 and 52 made of a material such as a soft sponge, the two rollers 51 and 52 are rotated in synchronization (only one roller may be driven, and the other roller may be a driven roller), and the lengthwise interleaving paper 11 is passed between the two rollers. As a result, as shown in enlarged view 6B, the seeds 13 are pressed against the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 to recess the longitudinal interleaving paper 11, and the adhering surface between the adhesive 12 and the seeds 13 is enlarged, thereby securely fixing the seeds 13 to the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 (enlarged view 6C).

Further, in order to press the seeds 13 into the longitudinal backing paper 11 by the rollers 51 and 52, it is preferable that the hardness E1 of the backing paper side roller 51 is lower than the hardness E2 of the seed side roller 52 (E2. gtoreq.E 1 in terms of hardness). However, if the hardness E2 of the seed-side roller 52 is too high and the strength of the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 is too weak, the seeds 13 may pierce the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 and fall off, and therefore the hardness E2 of the seed-side roller 52 needs to have appropriate softness according to the type of the target seeds 13.

In the present apparatus, the rollers 51 and 52 are used on both sides, but the same function can be achieved by using at least one of the rollers as a belt.

Thus, the seeds 13 are reliably adhered and fixed to the adhesive dots of the longitudinal base paper 11, but there are cases where the seeds adhere to the longitudinal base paper 11 at a portion other than the adhesive dots due to static electricity or the like, or where a plurality of seeds adhere to 1 adhesive dot due to the adhesive that has overflowed. Therefore, in order to remove these excess seeds 13, it is preferable to provide an active removing portion F formed of a soft brush or the like. While fig. 1 shows an example of a rotating brush, a fixed brush such as a soft brush may be used.

In some cases, such an active removal portion F may not be necessary depending on the type of the seed 13.

The seed paper manufacturing apparatus of the present embodiment is provided with base paper holders J1 to J3 that use suction force generated by a fan to hold the longitudinal base paper 11. Fig. 3 and 4 show the interleaving paper holder J1 disposed immediately after the adhesive printing section C. In order to uniformly adhere the seeds 13 to the longitudinal base paper 11, it is necessary to accurately move the longitudinal base paper 11 by a predetermined conveyance pitch and reliably hold the longitudinal base paper 11, but as described above, the longitudinal base paper 11 of the seed paper 15 of the present embodiment is a thin and sparse material similar to a single-ply toilet paper, and therefore, it is very difficult to press the seed paper with a roller or the like without breaking the seed paper. Further, the increase in friction and inertia is not preferable because a large tension is applied during movement. Therefore, in the apparatus of the present embodiment, the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 is left to stand at the interval of the intermittent conveyance, and interleaving paper holders J1 to J3 are provided. The base paper holders J1 to J3 are provided with a plurality of holes or slits 36 on the conveyance surface 35 on which the longitudinal base paper 11 is conveyed, and the longitudinal base paper 11 is sucked and held on the conveyance surface 35 by sucking air from the holes or slits 36 by the fan 37. The holding force can be set arbitrarily according to the shape of the slit 36, the size of the hole, and the number of holes, and can be easily adjusted according to the rotation speed (intake force) of the fan 37. According to this embodiment, since a force other than the frictional force (friction) with the conveyance surface 35 due to the weight of the longitudinal base paper 11 is not applied along the longitudinal direction of the longitudinal base paper 11, even if the longitudinal base paper 11 is intermittently conveyed, a strong tension is not applied, and even if the longitudinal base paper is thin and thin, the handling can be performed without breaking.

In fig. 1, a case is shown in which a small fan 37 is used independently for each of the mount paper holders J1 to J3, but a single large fan may be used and the suction force of the fan may be distributed by a pipe or the like. Further, the suction by static electricity may be performed instead of the suction by the fan.

In the apparatus of the above embodiment, the width of the longitudinal interleaving paper 11 can be freely determined from the width of toilet paper to several tens of cm according to the cultivation method and the demand of the apparatus side without greatly changing the basic structure of the apparatus.

Next, an example of seed paper produced by the seed paper production apparatus of the present embodiment and cultivation using the seed paper will be described with reference to fig. 7 and 8.

Fig. 7 shows an example of a seed sheet 60, in which seeds 62 are adhered to a base sheet 61 having a width (w: 110mm) substantially the same as that of toilet paper at equal intervals in the horizontal and vertical directions. The bonding pitch p of the seeds 62 can be freely determined according to the type of the plant to be cultivated and the cultivation method (cultivation period), and the optimum seed paper is manufactured and provided according to the type of the vegetable, the cultivation purpose and the period as follows, so that the productivity of vegetable production can be greatly improved: the spacing was 14mm for immature vegetable production of a fast-growing, upwardly-extending water vegetable, 18mm for the case of a horizontally-widening romaine which is also for immature vegetable production, and 28mm for the case of the same romaine which is not used as a young leaf but for vegetable shipment. In addition, the vertical and horizontal pitches do not necessarily need to be the same.

Next, an example of cultivating young leaves by hydroponics in a tray 71 having a width L (1200mm) and a depth D (600mm) as shown in FIG. 8 will be described. When vegetables are grown by laying seed paper having a pitch p of 14mm on a medium in the tray 71, the tray 71 needs to have a width L of 1200mm and a depth D of 600mm, and about 3300 seeds need to be sown, and when sowing is performed manually, it takes about 1 hour as an operation time. In addition, even when various types of seeding instruments are used, in the case where the culture medium is a raw material in which only the seeds are placed on the culture medium and the seeds move, an operation such as pressing the seeds into the culture medium is required, and thus, it is difficult to significantly save labor.

In recent years, vegetable factories have become widespread and the cultivation itself can be made considerably labor-saving, but the profitability is not improved at all because seeding, harvesting, and adjustment require manpower. In addition, in the case of immature vegetables such as young leaves, in particular, since the plant bodies are small, many seeds need to be sown, and since the number of harvests is large, labor productivity related to sowing and harvesting is low, and the plants are traded in the market at a high price.

However, when young leaves are cultivated by hydroponic cultivation using the seed paper of the present invention, labor cost required for sowing can be significantly reduced.

When the seed paper 60 having a width w of 110mm shown in fig. 7 is used, for example, 8 seeds are arranged in the width direction, and therefore, when the length w is 1160mm, for example, 8 × 82 656 seeds are present on the seed paper 60. By cutting the seed into a desired length and placing the cut seed in the tray 71 in a lateral arrangement (5 rows in the case of the tray of fig. 8), 656 seeds × 5-3280 seeds can be sown in several seconds to several tens of seconds.

In order to further efficiently perform seeding, the width of the seed paper 60 may be widened, and if seed paper having a width of 570mm is used, for example, seeding into 1 tray 71 is completed only by placing 1 seed paper.

In fig. 8, by changing the kind of 5 seed paper sheets 60 (the kind of vegetables), mixed young leaves based on the ratio of desired vegetables can be efficiently produced according to market demand.

Description of the reference numerals

10. A seed paper manufacturing device; A. a lining paper supply section; B. a first buffer section; C. an adhesive printing section; D. a seed attachment section; E. conveying lining paper and pressing a seed part; F. an active removal section; G. a second buffer section; H. a lining paper winding section; 11. a lengthwise interleaving paper; 12. an adhesive; 13. seeds; 15. seed paper; j1, J2, J3, cardboard holding section; 21. a buffer part main body; 22. a buffer fan; 23. a buffer motor; 24. a buffer sensor; 31. a printing press; 32. a mask; 33. a lifting body; 35. a conveying surface; 36. holes, slits; 37. a fan; 41. a horizontal back plate; 42. a vertical back plate; 43. attracting the substrate; 44. a guide plate; 51. 52, a roller; 60. seed paper; 61. lining paper; 62. seeds; 71. a tray.