EFFECT OF A SOIL CONDITIONER FFC-ACE^© ON GROWTH OF SUGARCANE AND QUALITY OF SOIL PENETRATION WATER^©

Since 1984, at Akatsuka Garden Company we have focused our attention on the behavior of certain ions, especially the iron ions in water and interactions of water molecules with them. We have continued research on various solutions to not only accelerate plant growth but also activate physiological functions of plants. Based on this research, we have developed FFC materials such as “FFC-Ceramics” (a water improvement device), “FFC-Ace” (a soil conditioner) and others. In addition, many agricultural producers in Japan have been utilizing FFC materials to rejuvenate plants and increase profits. Those producers have also explored many other original methods for using FFC materials, and consequently found good ways to fit them into their actual production sites. As a result, they have obtained many advantages over years of use, such as, productivity enhancement, cost reduction, decreased amount of agricultural chemicals required among others. In addition, it has been reported that “FFC-Ace” enhances the growth of plants under laboratory conditions while improving disease resistance, and drought and salt stress tolerance of plants (Ichikawa et al., 2013; Fujita et al., 2010; Hasegawa et al., 2006; Konkol et al., 2012; Shiraishi et al., 2010; Toyoda et al., 2010). In this short paper, we will report on a portion of the results on the effectiveness of FFC-Ace applied to agricultural products under field conditions.
We researched the effects of FFC-Ace on growth and yield of sugar cane in Miyakojima city, Okinawa Prefecture. In addition, Miyakojima City has a major eutrophication problem that groundwater is polluted mainly by chemical fertilizer and livestock manure. Therefore we also examined the influence of the FFC-Ace on leaching of nitrate nitrogen, which is in fertilizer, from soil.