CO2 enrichment in greenhouse production:: Practice and bottlenecks

Many crops respond positively to elevated CO2 levels. During the years, various enriching methods and operational protocols have been tested in different places in the world. These were widely Variable in efficiency and methods of implementation, respective to the given constraints in different parts of the world. The constraints can be divided into engineering bottlenecks, such as method cost, climate, CO2 quality, and CO2 distribution; and physiologic bottlenecks, such as crop response, shoot-fruit competition, quality of fruit, and nighttime heating requirement. Combining CO2 enrichment with nighttime heating resulted in muskmelon yields of up to twice as much as the control. Prolonged CO2 enrichment caused to acclimation of fruit growth, which was somehow compensated by nighttime heating. Acclimation to prolonged CO2 enrichment was related to the accumulation of a non-structural carbon in leaf tissue. It is suggested that using a carbon balance model can improve crop performance.