IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i9p7314-d1134840.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Growing ‘Genovese’ and ‘Valentino’ Basil in Pots Using Peat Substrate Combined with Phytoremediated Sediment: Effects on Yield and Nutraceutical Content

Author

Listed:
  • Stefania Nin

    (CREA Research Centre for Vegetables and Ornamental Crops, Via dei Fiori 8, 51017 Pescia, Italy)

  • Lorenzo Bini

    (Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment, and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, Viale delle Idee 30, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy)

  • Maurizio Antonetti

    (CREA Research Centre for Vegetables and Ornamental Crops, Via dei Fiori 8, 51017 Pescia, Italy)

  • Davide Manzi

    (National Research Council of Italy CNR, Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems IRET, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy)

  • Daniele Bonetti

    (CREA Research Centre for Vegetables and Ornamental Crops, Via dei Fiori 8, 51017 Pescia, Italy)

Abstract

Climate change is causing a decline in the availability of crucial resources such as water and fertile soil, leading to a detrimental impact on crop yields. Basil ( Ocimum basilicum L.), an annual aromatic plant used worldwide for culinary, cosmetic, and medicinal purposes, is especially at risk due to its high water demand and specific growing requirements typical of the Mediterranean climate. In Italy, basil is an essential part of any herb garden and is also commonly found in households as a potted plant. Nowadays, the conventional practice of growing basil in pots with peat as the primary medium is not environmentally sustainable, which underscores the need for alternative and sustainable cultivation techniques to ensure the continued growth of this majestic king of herbs. A greenhouse factorial experiment was conducted to study the impact of peat replacement and reduced water supply on the growth and biochemical traits of basil plants. The study included two cultivars (‘Genovese’ and ‘Valentino’), three substrate mixes with phytoremediated dredged sediment (TS) at varying volume percentages (0%, 12.5%, and 25%), and three levels of water irrigation (normal, reduced by 25%, and reduced by 37.8%). Increasing the TS percentage resulted in higher germination rates and greater biomass production in both cultivars compared with the control. ‘Valentino’ potted plants produced a higher yield than those of ‘Genovese’, while the latter had higher pigment contents due to its genetic characteristics. All combinations of substrates mixed with the highest water amounts of irrigation positively impacted seed germination and biomass-based outputs, while control peat with reduced water availability led to lower plant yields and germination capacity. Substrates with TS had suitable physicochemical characteristics for plant development. Our findings suggest that using peat–TS mixtures can produce quality results comparable to or even better than conventional soilless culture using only peat. Thus, replacing peat with moderate percentages of TS can be an effective and sustainable practice for recycling phytoremediated sediments.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefania Nin & Lorenzo Bini & Maurizio Antonetti & Davide Manzi & Daniele Bonetti, 2023. "Growing ‘Genovese’ and ‘Valentino’ Basil in Pots Using Peat Substrate Combined with Phytoremediated Sediment: Effects on Yield and Nutraceutical Content," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-28, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:9:p:7314-:d:1134840
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7314/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7314/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bustamante, M.A. & Paredes, C. & Moral, R. & Agulló, E. & Pérez-Murcia, M.D. & Abad, M., 2008. "Composts from distillery wastes as peat substitutes for transplant production," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 52(5), pages 792-799.
    2. Lê, Sébastien & Josse, Julie & Husson, François, 2008. "FactoMineR: An R Package for Multivariate Analysis," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 25(i01).
    3. Hussain, Mubshar & Farooq, Shahid & Hasan, Waseem & Ul-Allah, Sami & Tanveer, Mohsin & Farooq, Muhammad & Nawaz, Ahmad, 2018. "Drought stress in sunflower: Physiological effects and its management through breeding and agronomic alternatives," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 152-166.
    4. Juan José Martínez-Nicolás & Pilar Legua & Francisca Hernández & Rafael Martínez-Font & Edgardo Giordani & Pablo Melgarejo, 2021. "Effect of Phytoremediated Port Sediment as an Agricultural Medium for Pomegranate Cultivation: Mobility of Contaminants in the Plant," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-16, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Edgardo Giordani & Lorenzo Bini & Daniele Bonetti & William Antonio Petrucci & Grazia Masciandaro & Giacomo Chini & Stefania Nin, 2023. "Effect of Innovative Sediment-Based Growing Media on Fruit Quality of Wild Strawberry ( Fragaria vesca L.)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Karin Kauer & Sandra Pärnpuu & Liina Talgre & Viacheslav Eremeev & Anne Luik, 2021. "Soil Particulate and Mineral-Associated Organic Matter Increases in Organic Farming under Cover Cropping and Manure Addition," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Surun, Clément & Drechsler, Martin, 2018. "Effectiveness of Tradable Permits for the Conservation of Metacommunities With Two Competing Species," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 189-196.
    4. Jan Kluge & Sarah Lappöhn & Kerstin Plank, 2023. "Predictors of TFP growth in European countries," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 109-140, February.
    5. Navarro-Miró, D. & Iocola, I. & Persiani, A. & Blanco-Moreno, J.M. & Kristensen, H. Lakkenborg & Hefner, M. & Tamm, K. & Bender, I. & Védie, H. & Willekens, K. & Diacono, M. & Montemurro, F. & Sans, F, 2019. "Energy flows in European organic vegetable systems: Effects of the introduction and management of agroecological service crops," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    6. Alexander Platzer & Thomas Nussbaumer & Thomas Karonitsch & Josef S Smolen & Daniel Aletaha, 2019. "Analysis of gene expression in rheumatoid arthritis and related conditions offers insights into sex-bias, gene biotypes and co-expression patterns," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-23, July.
    7. Baccar, Mariem & Raynal, Hélène & Sekhar, Muddu & Bergez, Jacques-Eric & Willaume, Magali & Casel, Pierre & Giriraj, P. & Murthy, Sanjeeva & Ruiz, Laurent, 2023. "Dynamics of crop category choices reveal strategies and tactics used by smallholder farmers in India to cope with unreliable water availability," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    8. Aditi Sahu & Kivanc Kose & Lukas Kraehenbuehl & Candice Byers & Aliya Holland & Teguru Tembo & Anthony Santella & Anabel Alfonso & Madison Li & Miguel Cordova & Melissa Gill & Christi Fox & Salvador G, 2022. "In vivo tumor immune microenvironment phenotypes correlate with inflammation and vasculature to predict immunotherapy response," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    9. Ibrahim Bolat & Asuman Gundogdu Bakır & Kubra Korkmaz & Gastón Gutiérrez-Gamboa & Ozkan Kaya, 2022. "Silicon and Nitric Oxide Applications Allow Mitigation of Water Stress in Myrobalan 29C Rootstocks ( Prunus cerasifera Ehrh.)," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, August.
    10. Joy R. Petway & Yu-Pin Lin & Rainer F. Wunderlich, 2019. "Analyzing Opinions on Sustainable Agriculture: Toward Increasing Farmer Knowledge of Organic Practices in Taiwan-Yuanli Township," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-27, July.
    11. Pabitra Joshi & Guriqbal Singh Dhillon & Yaotian Gao & Amandeep Kaur & Justin Wheeler & Jianli Chen, 2024. "An Optimal Model to Improve Genomic Prediction for Protein Content and Test Weight in a Diverse Spring Wheat Panel," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-16, February.
    12. Nichiforel, Liviu & Keary, Kevin & Deuffic, Philippe & Weiss, Gerhard & Thorsen, Bo Jellesmark & Winkel, Georg & Avdibegović, Mersudin & Dobšinská, Zuzana & Feliciano, Diana & Gatto, Paola & Gorriz Mi, 2018. "How private are Europe’s private forests? A comparative property rights analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 535-552.
    13. Roopam Shukla & Ankit Agarwal & Kamna Sachdeva & Juergen Kurths & P. K. Joshi, 2019. "Climate change perception: an analysis of climate change and risk perceptions among farmer types of Indian Western Himalayas," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 103-119, January.
    14. Loc, Ho Huu & Park, Edward & Thu, Tran Ngoc & Diep, Nguyen Thi Hong & Can, Nguyen Trong, 2021. "An enhanced analytical framework of participatory GIS for ecosystem services assessment applied to a Ramsar wetland site in the Vietnam Mekong Delta," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    15. Florence Jacquet & A Aboul-Naga & Bernard Hubert, 2020. "The contribution of ARIMNet to address livestock systems resilience in the Mediterranean region," Post-Print hal-03625860, HAL.
    16. Juan García-Quezada & Ricardo Musule-Lagunes & José Angel Prieto-Ruíz & Daniel José Vega-Nieva & Artemio Carrillo-Parra, 2022. "Evaluation of Four Types of Kilns Used to Produce Charcoal from Several Tree Species in Mexico," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, December.
    17. Marika Vitali & Paolo Bosi & Elena Santacroce & Paolo Trevisi, 2021. "The multivariate approach identifies relationships between pre-slaughter factors, body lesions, ham defects and carcass traits in pigs," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(5), pages 1-14, May.
    18. Ariane F. Busso-Lopes & Leandro X. Neves & Guilherme A. Câmara & Daniela C. Granato & Marco Antônio M. Pretti & Henry Heberle & Fábio M. S. Patroni & Jamile Sá & Sami Yokoo & César Rivera & Romênia R., 2022. "Connecting multiple microenvironment proteomes uncovers the biology in head and neck cancer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-24, December.
    19. Silvana Nisgoski & Joielan Xipaia dos Santos & Helena Cristina Vieira & Tawani Lorena Naide & Rafaela Stange & Washington Duarte Silva da Silva & Deivison Venicio Souza & Natally Celestino Gama & Márc, 2023. "Provenance Identification of Leaves and Nuts of Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Color Parameters for Sustainable Extraction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-15, November.
    20. Song, Uhram & Lee, Eun Ju, 2010. "Environmental and economical assessment of sewage sludge compost application on soil and plants in a landfill," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(12), pages 1109-1116.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:9:p:7314-:d:1134840. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.