Patents by Inventor David N. Stearns

David N. Stearns has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20100077662
    Abstract: A container-grown seedling protective device includes a flexible expanse including an array of generally cylindrical pods or pockets, each pod in the array of pods configured for holding a container-grown seedling root ball therein. Each pod is configured for holding a single seedling therein separate from one or more adjacent seedling root balls held by adjacent pockets, and each of the plural pods is detachably connected to an adjacent one of the plural pockets by a frangible web extending therebetween. Each pod can be perforated in at least a bottom region thereof to provide permeability and each pod can be infused with fertilizer of the like.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 9, 2007
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Inventors: Roger D. Wimer, David N. Stearns
  • Publication number: 20070277433
    Abstract: A seedling protection device includes a flexible strip of thin flat material having opposing surfaces and opposing ends, the strip being flexible to define an interior one of the opposing surfaces and to produce an intermediate overlapping interior region thereof, the strip including an adhesive at least in the intermediate overlapping interior region, the strip having a laminar cover extending substantially over the interior one of the opposing surfaces to protect the adhesive, pre-deployment, the laminar cover being removable from the interior one of the opposing surfaces in a deployment phase of use, the strip including on at least one surface region adjacent one or more opposing ends thereof a scented compound, the strip with the laminar cover removed and when flexed, during deployment, forming a collar configured to extend around and affix to a seedling stem near an extremity thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 1, 2006
    Publication date: December 6, 2007
    Inventor: David N. Stearns
  • Patent number: 6843187
    Abstract: The novel seedling bud capping device is easily deployed on a bud of a seedling due to the use of adherent on either edge (rather than a staple), and more particularly due to its predefinedly selective use of adherent to form an inverted conic space around the bud for receiving sunlight and for capturing the bud stem near its base. The paper stock or the adherent used in the bud capping device may be impregnated with a repellent scent to further ward away browsers to protect the seedling. Preferably, the bud capping device is made from a small, e.g. ˜5 inch, square piece of water-repellent paper stock having a layer of glue adjacent at least one edge. The stock is protected on the adherent side by another layer of material to be selectively removed. This protective layer is scored and a free segment of the protective backing layer is removed to expose a region of adherent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2005
    Assignee: IF A Nurseries, Inc.
    Inventors: Roger Dale Wimer, David N. Stearns
  • Publication number: 20030177693
    Abstract: The novel seedling bud capping device is easily deployed on a bud of a seedling due to the use of adherent on either edge (rather than a staple), and more particularly due to its predefinedly selective use of adherent to form an inverted conic space around the bud for receiving sunlight and for capturing the bud stem near its base. The paper stock or the adherent used in the bud capping device may be impregnated with a repellent scent to further ward away browsers to protect the seedling. Preferably, the bud capping device is made from a small, e.g. ˜5 inch, square piece of water-repellent paper stock having a layer of glue adjacent at least one edge. The stock is protected on the adherent side by another layer of material to be selectively removed. This protective layer is scored and a free segment of the protective backing layer is removed to expose a region of adherent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 3, 2003
    Publication date: September 25, 2003
    Inventors: Roger Dale Wimer, David N. Stearns