Increased Carbon Dioxide by Occupants Promotes Growth of Leafy Vegetables Grown in Indoor Cultivation System

Kyungdeok Noh and Byoung Ryong Jeong
Additional contact information
Kyungdeok Noh: Department of Horticulture, Division of Applied Life Science (BK21 Four Program), Graduate School of Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Korea
Byoung Ryong Jeong: Department of Horticulture, Division of Applied Life Science (BK21 Four Program), Graduate School of Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Korea

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-19

Abstract: The development of various types of plant factories is central to improving agriculture. In one form, it is expanding from the existing commercial plant factories to home cultivation systems or cultivators. The plant cultivation system grafted into the living space for people produces differences in the growth of the plant depending on the lifestyle (cooling and heating, residence time, number of residents, etc.) of the resident. In this study, identical home cultivation systems that automatically adjust environmental conditions (temperature, photoperiod, light, and nutrient solution supply) other than the carbon dioxide level were set in an office and warehouse. The study confirmed how plant growth can differ depending on the amount of carbon dioxide generated by humans occupying the space. In addition, it was confirmed whether the growth of plants can be further promoted depending on the external air exchange speed by a ventilation fan even if the indoor carbon dioxide concentration is the same. Due to the nature of the cultivation system that controls the temperature, the type and speed of the fan were set to minimize heat loss in the cultivator. The airspeed from ventilation fans attached to the indoor cultivation systems of an office and warehouse was adjusted to one of three levels (0.7, 1.0, or 1.3 m·s −1 ). In this study with two species, Ssamchoo and Romaine, it was confirmed that the office space was significantly advantageous for the growth of Ssamchoo, especially in terms of the fresh weight, root activity, and chlorophyll content. Romaine also had a significantly higher fresh weight when grown in the office. Shoot length, leaf length, and leaf width were longer, and there were more leaves. When comparing the relative yield based on an airspeed of 1.0 m·s −1 , the yield increased up to 156.9% more in the office than in the warehouse. The fan airspeed had an important influence on Ssamchoo. The higher the fan airspeed, the greater the yield, root activity, and chlorophyll. However, fan airspeed had no consistent effect on the growth tendencies of Romaine. In conclusion, carbon dioxide produced by humans occupying the space is a significant source of carbon dioxide for plants grown in the home cultivation system, although both the speed of the ventilation fan that can promote growth without heat loss and delayed growth caused by the photorespiration in a carbon dioxide-limited situation require additional experiments.

Keywords: home cultivation system; home hydroponics; indoor cultivation; small plant factory; CO 2 concentration; office; vegetable; Romaine; Ssamchoo; fan speed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13288/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13288/ (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:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:13288-:d:692330

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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