Hydroponic Cultivation of Vine Leaves with Reduced Carbon Footprint in a Mediterranean Greenhouse

Ioanna Chatzigeorgiou, Georgios Liantas, Petros Spanos, Vasiliki Gkriniari, Eleni Maloupa and Georgios K. Ntinas
Additional contact information
Ioanna Chatzigeorgiou: Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, ELGO-DIMITRA, Thermi, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
Georgios Liantas: Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, ELGO-DIMITRA, Thermi, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
Petros Spanos: Paliria S.A, 2nd km Psahna—Politika Country Road, Politika, 34400 Evia, Greece
Vasiliki Gkriniari: Paliria S.A, 2nd km Psahna—Politika Country Road, Politika, 34400 Evia, Greece
Eleni Maloupa: Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, ELGO-DIMITRA, Thermi, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
Georgios K. Ntinas: Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, ELGO-DIMITRA, Thermi, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 13, 1-15

Abstract: Vine leaves are considered a delicacy food however they are only produced as a byproduct for a short harvest period due to grape cultivation practices and numerous chemical applications. In this work, vine plants were cultivated hydroponically in a greenhouse, to extend the cultivation period and along with high plant density, maximize fresh leaves yield. Four different substrates were tested—Perlite, Perlite-Attapulgite, Perlite-Zeolite, 1.7Perlite-higher density planting—with soil treatment as a control, and the experimental cultivation lasted a total of about seven months in the year 2021. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics such as leaves number and weight, color of leaves, nitrates, photosynthetic parameters, total phenols, and plant nutrient concentrations were assessed, while the product’s environmental impact was calculated. The 1.7Perlite treatment produced a 1.6–2.0 times higher number of leaves per hectare than the other hydroponic treatments and 8.7 times higher than the soil treatment, while no statistically significant differences were found regarding qualitative characteristics. Consequently, the 1.7P treatment resulted in a 1.4 to 7.6 times lower product carbon footprint compared to the other treatments. In future research, substrates water and nutrient retention will be further studied along with year-round production in a heated greenhouse with full climate control so that plants are kept evergreen.

Keywords: greenhouse; vine leaves; hydroponics; product carbon footprint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/8011/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/8011/ (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:14:y:2022:i:13:p:8011-:d:853037

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 ().