We developed a new culture system to facilitate the indoor use of bedding plants. In this system, lightweight organic culture medium is wrapped in a flat cloth container made of a discarded school uniform. In this study, the composition and volume of culture medium appropriate for this culture system were investigated. Marigold and dianthus planted in coir or a mixture of coir and peat moss grew as well as those in the standard mixed red clay soil, while peat moss alone inhibited growth. Plants grown in the cloth container were slightly smaller than those grown in a usual plastic pot, presenting no problem for practical production. The appropriate volume of the medium was 200 mL or more, because a smaller volume such as 100 mL caused growth inhibition. Fungus often grew on the cloth container, which should be controlled to maintain the commercial value. It was classified as the genus Simplicillium on the basis of ITS sequence analysis.

We have developed the ways to utilize a large amount of abandoned uniform materials. We found out that through the PVA soaking process, uniform materials are strengthened and get the new functions, such as water permeability, moisture absorption and durability against ultraviolet rays. These are the suitable functions of materials for agriculture and for the garden greening, and it is possible to divert it to the multi sheet for agriculture, because of its durability. Moreover, by making use of scrapped materials, we have devised the flower mat which is light , easy to

The purpose of this research is to develop the recycling methods of the uniform material, which is the mixture of wool and polyester and had been abandoned up to now because the way of reuse had not been developed. As a basic research, we repeated the experiment to make uniform materials compound by soaking them in the mixture of PVA(polyvinyl alcohol) of the high polymerization degree and biomass oil (i.e. Hiba Japanese cypress oil and wood vinegar oil) in various densities. As a result it turned out that the characteristic changes variously by the difference of PVA consistency and biomass anti-bacterial oil, and that it brings the positive multiplier effect to the qualities of uniform material

; 2-32-1 Ogawa Kodaira-shi, Tokyo 3) Ibaraki Polytechnic Center; 591 Aza Manadare, Mitsukaido-koya-machi, Joso City, Ibaraki 4) Tombow Co., Ltd.; Kameido 2-33-1, Kotou-ku, Tokyo 5) Aomori Prefectural Industrial Technology Research Center; Daini-Tonya-machi 4-11-6, Aomori-shi, Aomori,The concept of greening is well understood and is now widely applied to commercial facilities and office buildings. However, greening requires the use of specific waterproof materials and construction methods, which makes it costly. Therefore, greening is seldom used in general residential houses.In this study, flower mats made of garden greening fabric were used to study the effects of roof and wall greening on two mimic houses. The material was obtained by recycling discarded cloth used for school uniforms and was effective for garden greening. The temperature in a mimic house to which greening was applied was approximately 1ºC lower than in a similar house without greening; i.e., greening had an insulating effect. Therefore, greening is predicted to shorten the time required for running air conditioners. A polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) sponge was added to half of the greening mats placed on the roof and water (2 ℓ per m 2 of the roof area) was sprayed on all the greening mats once a day. The sponges improved moisture retention and the plants grown with these sponges showed stronger growth than plants grown without the sponges. The greening of buildings can be easily achieved at low cost by using flower mats made of garden greening fabric. The mats are lightweight, so the load of the flower mats on the building is small and greening can be accomplished without large-scale installation requirements. Flower mats therefore appear to be quite useful for greening of conventional residential houses.