Saitama Urawa Komaba StadiumTotsuka Country Club (Yokohama City) 

Saitama City’s Urawa Komaba Stadium was the original home stadium for the Japan professional soccer league (J-League) team, the Urawa Red Diamonds. Since the J-League started in 1993, many enthusiastic spectators have enjoyed games in this stadium. We spoke to groundkeeper Tomoyuki Arai, who has been in charge of managing the stadium’s turf since 1991.

Currently, soccer ground management in Japan is mainly W.O.S. in the Kanto region and south of it. But in 1992, the year before the J-League started up, I looked at the model of soccer ground management in Europe, where soccer was really advanced, and used only cold climate turf south of Kanto, where management is particularly difficult. Turf resilience is weaker for cold climate turf only than for W.O.S., so of course the turf was damaged during matches. Faced with that, I made a tour of stadiums all around Japan in order to figure out how constantly to maintain the best turf condition for championship matches. I also incorporated preventive application of fungicides.
But at the same time I wondered if it was really a good thing (for the turf and the environment) to spread large amounts of fungicide when the turf wasn’t even diseased in the first place.
Then, during the third round of repair work in 2012 (and introduction of W.O.S.), the turf was really wilted, like nothing I’d ever seen before, and the chemical fertilizer that I always used didn’t work at all. What could be causing this?

Soil analysis showed that the pH was almost 9. So, instead of chemical fertilizer, we tried to improve the soil using Bio-genics Product N, Bio-genics Product O and others.

After continuing to apply Bio-genics Product D and others for a while, algae growth gradually came under control. And when we apply Bio-genics Product A in spring and autumn, we can speed up thatch decomposition even when

For Mr. Arai, who aimed to use the smallest amount of agrochemicals possible in his turf management, the Biobusiness Promotion Group’s products made sense.
Starting with Bio-genics Product and Bio-genics Product O, he used the Bio-genic products according to the purpose, whether it be stress reduction, turf color, stronger leaves, seasonal nutrients supplementation, inhibiting winter freezing or improving the soil.
Gradually the soil’s fertility (immunity, in animals) improved, and he could see the turf getting healthier.

Interview

In the past, I always applied fungicides “preventively”, because when the turf is diseased there’s a lot of damage. It brings peace of mind to the groundkeeper, but on the other hand, I always wondered if it was really a good thing to apply large amounts of fungicide when the turf wasn’t even diseased.

Then I discovered the Biobusiness Promotion Group’s products and I feel confident about using them. You can tell that they use natural ingredients. Some products take time to work, while some work as soon as you spread them, so I like being able to use different products depending on the application. This, finally, was the ideal I had been searching for over the past 10+ years.