Plant Holster Redesign

The image to the right shows the 2nd iteration of the plant holsters I redesigned over my summer internship at Eden Green. These are meant to replace the blue plant holsters seen in the background of this picture. In order to allow Eden Green to 'pulse' their vines, where nutrient rich water would be cut off from the plant for periods lasting up to an hour, I designed a holster to retain water at the base of the plant's roots. When pulsing was tested against a control group of the current plant holsters, this design iteration performed remarkably well, providing a harvest weight nearly double that of the control group.

The main constraints in my design were weight, volume, and manufacturability. I was able to design around these constraints and provide a product that is extremely easy to use (in terms of planting, harvesting, and cleaning) while satisfying the design requirement of retaining 20mL of water at the plant's roots. These cups are compliant; when they are outside a vine, the plant is not tightly constrained. But to fit in a vine you must bend the holster, which secures the plant simultaneously. This was a very good design feature for eden green because it allows for rapid cleaning of left over dirt after a plant is harvested.