Abstract: A container for seedlings to be grown by the air root pruning method is moulded as a flat plastic blank with walls hinged for folding and base hinged to one of the walls permitting the container to be erected by engaging the walls and the base and attaching one wall to another. The erected containers stand in a tray like carrier and are connected together by a tie which overlies the containers. A handle extends through the tie to engage the carrier allowing a group of containers to be handled.

Abstract: A panel (10) for use as a side wall of a plant growth container is disclosed. In one embodiment the panel (10) comprises an elongate cuspated sheet (11) having apertures formed in at least some of the outwardly projecting cusps to facilitate air root pruning of the root structure of a plant grown within the container. The sheet (11) includes a non-cuspated edge section (12), the non-cuspated edge section (12) being co-operable with a complementary edge section (13) of the same sheet (11) or of an adjacent sheet. The co-operable edge sections (12, 13) form a guideway for holding means (32), the holding means (32) passing along the guideway releasably hold the edge sections (12, 13) in use form a side wall of the container. A plant growth container having at least one panel (10) as described is also disclosed.

Abstract: A container in which plants are to be grown comprised of a flexible strip of material having a length greater than its width and having an inner and an outer surface. The inner surface is formed in part by a lattice of root guiding recesses, at least some of the recesses being of substantially truncated conical form having a wall which converges towards a hole through the strip. The outer surface is formed in part by a lattice of protruberances at the same relative positional arrangement as the recesses so that when the strip is arranged in a cylinder with its opposite ends overlapping, the protruberances on the outer surface of one end nest within the recesses on the inner surface of the other end at the overlap. Fastening means is provided to hold the strip in that overlapping, nested engagement.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of and a machine for substantially automatically positioning root control bags in the ground. The method includes the steps of excavating soil to form a trench, positioning root control bags, supported by formers, in the trench or an adjacent trench, and then filling the trench and the bags with soil excavated by the machine. After the bags have been filled the formers are extracted from the filled bags leaving the bags in an erect and filled condition within the filled trench. The invention extends to a machine for performing these operations, the machine including an excavator, bag positioning means, former extractions means, and soil conveying means for conveying soil excavated by the excavator to a position intermediate the bag positioning means and the extraction means. The various components of the machine can be automated to a greater or lesser extent.

Abstract: A root control bag of the invention is ued to contain the roots of growing plant stock during in-ground cultivation prior to later excavation and transplantation after the plant has reached a desired stage of maturation. The root control bag includes a wall manufactured from a non-woven fabric formed of a multiplicity of substantially continuous, randomly aligned, polymeric fibres, needle puncture bonded together. A standard probe penetration test is defined in the specification and the physical characteristics of the fabric must fall within certain limits as defined with respect to the standard test. The test basically comprises pressing a standard probe through the fabric and recording the load on the probe. For each test an initial puncture reading is taken, as well as a final penetration reading.

Abstract: Snow-shoe with a hingedly divided frame in order to facilitate walking.