Abstract
It has been known that Tetsuta spring water found in Tetsuta village in Okayama prefecture has some positive effects on germination and elongation of plants (radish sprout). Functional water which has a similar effect on plant growth to Tetsuta spring water can be made from Tetsuta stone (calcium rich granite) and water with the addition of an appropriate amount of organic acid. The apparent characteristics of the functional water can be determined by such conditions as processing temperature, stone size, duration of treatment (soaking time) and organic acid concentration. The objective of this study was to develop a basic processing system for producing Tetsuta functional water. Since the treatment conditions are nonlinearly related to the features of the functional water, a neural network was used to model the nonlinear relationship. Functional water produced under the neural net based processing system increased the growth of hydroponically cultured plants.
