Effect of Repeated Plant Debris Reutilization as Organic Amendment on Greenhouse Soil Fertility

Francisco José Castillo-Díaz, José Ignacio Marín-Guirao, Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña and Julio César Tello-Marquina
Additional contact information
Francisco José Castillo-Díaz: Department of Agronomy, Research Centre for Mediterranean Intensive Agrosystems and Agrifood Biotechnology, University of Almería, 04120 Almería, Spain
José Ignacio Marín-Guirao: Department of Sustainable Plant Protection, Institute for Research and Training in Agriculture and Fisheries, 04745 Almería, Spain
Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña: Department of Economy and Business, Research Centre for Mediterranean Intensive Agrosystems and Agrifood Biotechnology, University of Almería, 04120 Almería, Spain
Julio César Tello-Marquina: Department of Agronomy, Research Centre for Mediterranean Intensive Agrosystems and Agrifood Biotechnology, University of Almería, 04120 Almería, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-21

Abstract: Greenhouse agriculture typically generates large amounts of waste with plant residue (agricultural biomass) being the most abundant. This residue is generated on a seasonal basis, which complicates the external management of the material. Recently, the European Union (EU) has been implementing a policy based on sustainability through the circular economy that seeks to minimize waste generation. The effect of reusing 3.5 kg·m ?2 tomato plants from the previous season as the only fertilizer versus no fertilization and inorganic fertilization in 215-day tomato cycles after transplanting was studied in this trial. The study was carried out during three seasons in greenhouse agriculture in Almeria (Spain) with the repeated use of the solarization technique. The plant debris had similar production results during two of the three seasons and fruit quality parameters were similar to inorganic fertilization. In addition, some physicochemical variables improved and the biological depressive effect of solarization was mitigated. The results suggest that the reuse of the tomato plant debris as the only fertilizer could be an alternative to conventional fertilization under the conditions tested.

Keywords: circular economy; bioeconomy; waste management; tomato crop; agriculture; organic fertilizer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11544/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11544/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11544-:d:671141

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().