System and method for growing plants and monitoring growth of plants

Abstract

A system for growing plants and monitoring the growth of plants, comprising a gardening system and a server. The gardening system comprises a frame that defines a housing for receiving a tray of plants. The gardening system also has a lighting subsystem and watering subsystem to provide light and water to the plants. Sensors and cameras of the gardening system may capture data corresponding to the conditions of the gardening system and health of the plant. Based on the captured data, the server may use machine learning to determine optimal plant growing thresholds, and may send a control command to a controller of the gardening system to change one or more conditions of the gardening system. The plants grown by the system may be nutritious, and the bioavailability of the nutrients of the plants may be increased.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A gardening system for growing plants and monitoring growth of the plants, comprising:
 a frame defining a housing for receiving a tray of plants;   a lighting subsystem mounted to the frame for illuminating the housing;   a water subsystem, comprising:
 a water reservoir mounted to the frame; 
 a water distribution tray fluidly communicable with the water reservoir, the water distribution tray defining one or more channels for receiving water from the water reservoir; 
   one or more sensors for capturing data corresponding to conditions of the housing; and   a controller for selectively activating the lighting subsystem based on lighting conditions of the housing.   
     
     
         2 . The gardening system of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to, based on the sensor data, generate a control command corresponding to a message and transmitting the control command to a user device. 
     
     
         3 . The gardening system of  claim 1 , wherein one or more wicking coils is received in the one or more channels for fluidly communicating the one or more channels with the housing. 
     
     
         4 . The gardening system of  claim 1 , wherein the water reservoir is a first water reservoir, and the gardening system comprising a second water reservoir, wherein the first and second water reservoirs are fluidly communicable with the water distribution tray. 
     
     
         5 . The gardening system of  claim 4 , wherein the first water reservoir and the second fluid reservoir are mounted on opposing sides of the frame. 
     
     
         6 . The gardening system of  claim 4 , wherein the first water reservoir and the second water reservoir are mounted centrally on the frame and separate the housing into a first housing and a second housing. 
     
     
         7 . The gardening system of  claim 4 , wherein the water distribution tray defines a first channel for receiving water from the first water reservoir, and the water distribution tray defines a second channel for receiving water from the second water reservoir. 
     
     
         8 . The gardening system of  claim 1 , wherein the lighting subsystem is configured to emit light ranging from ultraviolet light to infrared light. 
     
     
         9 . The gardening system of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to, based on the sensor data, generate a control command corresponding to a spectrum of light and transmitting the control command to the lighting subsystem to change the light emitted by the lighting subsystem. 
     
     
         10 . The gardening system of  claim 1 , wherein the frame is modular. 
     
     
         11 . The gardening system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise oxygen sensors and carbon dioxide sensors, the gardening system comprising an oxygen and carbon dioxide emitter that is selectively activated by a control command transmitted from the controller to the oxygen and carbon dioxide emitter based on data captured by the oxygen sensors and carbon dioxide sensors. 
     
     
         12 . The gardening system of  claim 1 , comprising:
 an imaging component mounted to the frame and configured to capture image data corresponding to plants in the housing; and   at least one network interface configured to transmit the captured image data.   
     
     
         13 . The gardening system of  claim 12 , wherein the imaging component comprises an infrared radiation sensitive camera. 
     
     
         14 . The gardening system of  claim 12 , wherein the imaging component comprises a visible light sensitive camera. 
     
     
         15 . A system for growing plants and monitoring growth of the plants, comprising:
 a server;   at least one network interface;   wherein the server comprises at least one memory and at least one processor configured for:
 receiving sensor data from a vertical gardening system; 
 based on the sensor data, determining optimal plant growing thresholds; 
 receiving additional data from the vertical gardening system; 
 comparing the additional data with the optimal plant growing thresholds; and 
 based on the comparing, generating a control command corresponding to an optimization recommendation and transmitting the control command to a user device.