Nestable and stackable transplanting system

Claim 1

In an assembly adapted for growing a plurality of plants intended to be transplanted, a support tray configured for cooperation with a plurality of plant receiving sleeves integrally interconnected at their upper regions by web means, said support tray being a thin-walled plastic material having integral sidewalls, an open bottom, and grid-like upper structure, said sidewalls taper upwardly and inwardly from their lower edges, which define the perimeter of the open bottom, the grid-like structure comprising a plurality of longitudinal and lateral generally vertically directed wall means extending upwardly from a first horizontal plane which includes the upper extremities of the sidewalls, the plurality of longitudinal and lateral wall means defining, at least in part, a plurality of apertures through which plant receiving sleeves may be inserted, the vertical wall means being generally V-shaped in cross section and defining a first vertical dimension from the upper apex of the V-shaped cross section to the lowermost region of said vertical wall means which is at said first horizontal plane, the vertical distance from the lower edges of the sidewalls to the apex of the V-shaped cross section of said wall means defining a second predetermined vertical dimension, each vertical wall means including a pair of wall sections which are interconnected at the apex and laterally spaced at their intersection with said horizontal plane, the plant receiving sleeves depending downwardly from the web means and arranged in a pattern permitting the web means to be disposed on apices of the V-shaped cross sections with the sleeves depending between said vertical wall means, each of the sleeves having walls tapering downwardly and inwardly from the uppermost extremity to the lowermost extremity, the vertical dimension of each sleeve being substantially greater than said first predetermined vertical dimension and less than said second predetermined vertical dimension.