In order to investigate the effects of water treated with “Bakuhan-seki”, which are igneous rocks composed mainly of silica and aluminum oxide belonging to the quartz -porphyry, on the growth in plants, the ultrasonic activation of purified water in presence of “Bakuhan-seki” was examined. As the results, the mineral compositions of “Bakuhan-seki” were dissolved efficiently by ultrasonic treatment. The germination rate and seedling growth for wheat seeds increased remarkably under mineral components with a constant constrations.

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The purpose of the studies lay in finding the efficient cultivation method for obtaining high quality cut floweres by clarifying the requirements for break of dormancy, propagation and thickening of tubers of Sandersonia aurantiaca.
In order to find out the optimun temperature and its period for for break of dormancy of tubers by low temperature treatment, a series of experiments were conducted by providing for low temperature storages at 2.5 and 10°C for 1, 2, 3 as well as 4 month storage and control area where no tubers have been subjected to low temperature treatment. As a result of these experiments, a period of 3 months at 5° C was found effective. After treatment, if placed at 25°C constantly, growth of bud and roots would be accelerated.
For checking the influence of thickening of new tubers by the dividing method of tubers, we subjected tubers of 4 years of real life to treatment at 5°C for 3 months and then, prompted budding for 14 days at 255°C. Then, we divided them by 4 different methods. As a result of observation of thickening of these new tubers, if 2 “arms” are divided symmetrically at the time of division of tubers, prompting ratio of budding, length of tubers and thickening of new tubers were found good. As for thickening of new tubers by the number of remained leaves, tubers of 3 years of real life were subjected to the same treatment. Then, they were planted permanently in a bed without dividing. After flowering, observation was made on thickening of new tubers with 2, 4, 6 and 8 leaves remained respectively. As a result of the observation, we found that the more the leaves, the better the new tubers were thickened. Based on the results of the experiments, we prepared a relative equation between the number of leaves remained and thickening of tubers. In order to obtain new tubers heavier than their mother tuber, 2 leaves had to remain at the least. For obtaining more thickened new tubers, more than 4 leaves had to remain.
In the process of cultivation, we made investigation on whether we had to adopt the bed cultivation for tubers of 2 years real life or pot cultivation. As a result of this observation, we found that as compared with pot cultivation, the soil temperature was lower and growth was slower but the stem was robust and the wintering of leaves was slower, resulting in being superior in thickening ratio of new tubers.
In view of the abovementioned, tubers of 4 years real life were required for harvesting such cut flowers as having commercial value. Until then, a condition of prompting thickening of tubers must be given for growth of high quality bulbs. After permanent planting of tubers of 4 years real life, cultivation must be completed in approx. 6 months. So far as possible, 4 leaves must remain and flowers, be harvested as cut flowers for shipment. Preparing spare tubers, if the low temperature treatment period is adjusted, we think it possible to harvest flowers twice a year.

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The present work attempted to apply an intelligent control technique including neural networks and genetic algorithms to the optimization of fruit storage process. In the method, water loss of a fruit as affected by relative humidity was first identified using neural networks, and then the optimal setpoints of relative humidity which minimize the objective functions were searched for through simulation of the identified model. Two sorts of objective functions were considered. One is the sum of water loss and the degree of disease of a fruit. The other is the error between the desired values and the current values of water loss. Both are minimization problems. A three layer neural network was effective for building the dynamic model of the water loss of a fruit to relative humidity. A genetic algorithm with high crossover and mutation rates allowed the optimal setpoints of relative humidity to be quickly sought from simulation of the identified model. Thus, a new intelligent control technique combining with neural networks and genetic algorithms was shown to be effective for the optimization of fruit storage process.

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This research examined the effect of Ca and Na artificial zeolites obtained from industrial waste, coal ash in nutrient solution on the amount of element taken up of tomato plants. To variety the nutrition solution was conducting by make 9 treatments of nutrient solution concentration with and without zeolite. The zeolite added to treatment (Ca zeolite, Na zeolite) by 4 g/liter. The coal ash as industrial waste used for hydroponics by zeolite conversion. The result showed that dry weight and nutrient element of the tomato plants were increase. pH and nutrient ions of nutrient solution became stable by adding the zeolite to the solution. The result showed that dry weight becomes an increase by the zeolite added. Absorption of phosphoric acid increased by adding zeolite to nutrient solution, and sodium concentration of medium increased to 40-80 ppm. Zeolite could improving plants growth too. Growth obstruction of sodium was not identify. It became clear that coal ash as industrial waste was potential resources that can use wish hydroponics effectively.

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In this study, we made a three-dimensional laser-measurement system for crops. This system composed of two units. One is a laser distance meter for measuring z axis, which apply the laser of 670 nm wave length, and has the resolving power of 0.01 μm. The other is x-y axis robot for measuring the position of x and y, whose accuracy is 0.01 mm. This system is available for the measurement of 40 mm length (x axis), 40 mm width (y axis) and 20 mm height (z axis).
By using this system, we measured the three-dimensional shapes of flowers and leaves under 20 mm length. These data were inverted to neutral file format (NFF) data which had the information of x-y-z positions and polygons which was characterized by triangle points and used for the construction plane. The NFF data was processed by a workstation with graphics system which has 84 K polygon/sec. We could measure and construct the three-dimensional image of such a complex shape as flowers and leaves, with successful results.

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Virtual reality (VR) is applied to the animation of shadow change as effected by light condition in plant factory. To study VR, we used work station which have a three-dimensional graphic system and three functions of shading, rendering and animation. Shading function was to add shade of structure, rendering function was to display shading object, animation function was to show moving object made by rendering.
We made three types of animation. First is the view of plant factory using the rendering function, second is the animation of movement of view point using animation function, third is the animation of moving shadow based on the sun and artificial light. We showed the animation of three structures based on VR. It took 48 hours to make the animation of 200 frames.

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