Valorization of Spent Coffee Grounds, Biochar and other residues to Produce Lightweight Clay Ceramic Aggregates Suitable for Nursery Grapevine Production

Domenico Ronga,Cristina Bignami,Luisa Barbieri,Mario Parisi,Isabella Lancellotti,Fernanda Andreola

doi:10.3390/horticulturae6040058

Abstract

The valorization of agro-industrial by-products is one of the key strategies to improve agricultural sustainability. In the present study, spent coffee grounds and biochar were used as pore forming agents in the realization of lightweight clay ceramic aggregates that were used as sustainable fertilizers, in addition to tailored glass fertilizer containing phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) and nitrogen (N) synthetic fertilizer, for nursery grapevine production. The obtained fertilizers were assessed in a pot experiment for the fertilization of bare-rooted vines. Unfertilized (T0) and fertilized plants (T1, using NPK-containing commercial fertilizer) were used as controls. Plants fertilized by spent coffee grounds and spent coffee grounds + biochar-containing lightweight aggregates and added with 30 wt% of the above-mentioned glass and N fertilizers (T2 and T3, respectively) recorded higher values of plant height, shoot diameter, leaf and node numbers. Moreover, T2 treatment induced the highest chlorophyll content, shoot and root dry weights. The present study shows that lightweight clay ceramic aggregates containing spent coffee grounds and glass and N fertilizers can be used for nursery grapevine production, in turn improving the agricultural sustainability.

Highlights

The increasing request of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) planting materials, due to the expansion of global viticulture and vineyard renewal, is encouraging research studies to increase sustainability of this crop already starting from the nursery phase [1]
Lightweight aggregates were obtained by powder sintering of a local (Modena, Italy) ferruginous red clay (85 wt%) with the addition of spent coffee grounds (SCGs) or spent coffee grounds (Modena, Italy) + biochar (B) (15 wt%) (Emilia Romagna Region, Italy) as poring agents to reduce both density and sintering temperature
The samples were codified as reported: red clay (C) + pore forming agent [spent coffee ground (SCG) or biochar (B) followed by a number indicating the percentage introduced 15% + fertilizer glass (FG) followed by a number indicating the percentage of fertilizer glass added 30%]

Summary

Introduction

The increasing request of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) planting materials, due to the expansion of global viticulture and vineyard renewal, is encouraging research studies to increase sustainability of this crop already starting from the nursery phase [1]. Different grapevine planting materials are available in commerce. For the planting of a new vineyard, the 1-year-old dormant bare-rooted vines are the most adopted material [2]. It is produced by bench grafting at the end of winter-early spring the dormant one-bud cuttings of the scion onto hardwood cuttings of the rootstock collected during plant dormancy phase, subsequently growing the grafted vines in a greenhouse to achieve the callusing and thereafter transferring them in the open field for the growth and development of roots and shoot.

Objectives

Methods

Results