Use of Recovered Struvite and Ammonium Nitrate in Fertigation in Tomato ( Lycopersicum esculentum ) Production for boosting Circular and Sustainable Horticulture

Mar Carreras-Sempere, Rafaela Caceres, Marc Viñas and Carmen Biel
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Mar Carreras-Sempere: Sustainable Plant Protection Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), E-08348 Cabrils, Spain
Rafaela Caceres: Sustainability in Biosystems Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), E-08140 Caldes de Montbui, Spain
Marc Viñas: Sustainability in Biosystems Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), E-08140 Caldes de Montbui, Spain
Carmen Biel: Sustainable Plant Protection Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), E-08348 Cabrils, Spain

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: Struvite and ammonium nitrate are products obtained from widely studied processes to remove phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) from waste streams. To boost circularity in horticulture, these recovered products should be applied to edible crops. Particularly, struvite has not been implemented in fertigation as the unique source of P fertilizer. Therefore, a soilless system greenhouse experiment was conducted for tomato crops during two growing seasons. This study aims to compare the agronomic and environmental effectiveness of recovered products used in a nutrient solution for fertigation (NS) to synthetic fertilizer treatment. Moreover, two different N concentrations of the NS were tested to evaluate the impact on the N-leaching. Additionally, struvite dissolution tests were performed to ensure its solubility. Satisfactory results of struvite solubilization were obtained. Results show that both nutrient-recovered products can be used as fertilizers in NS, due to their non-statistical significance in total yield production and fruit quality. However, ammonium nitrate treatment, depending on the crop variety, showed a lower marketable yield. Moreover, the variation on N concentration input exhibited leachate concentration differences, with N leached percentage values from 36 to 13%. These results give deeper insights into the future potential utilization of nutrient-recovered products and technical data to optimize fertigation strategies.

Keywords: phosphorous; nitrogen; struvite; ammonium nitrate; fertigation; circular economy; resource recovery; horticulture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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