Compost of vitiviniculture residues. Closing the loop of the wine industry

Abstract

In a circular vitiviniculture, by composting organic materials, nutrients, structure and diversity of the vineyard soil are preserved, and industrial waste is valorized. The objective of this work was to optimize the efficiency and quality of compost production. In a collaborative project among 3 wineries, a traditional turning composting was evaluated in conjunction with a permeable cover technology, alternative substrates such as tomato and apple residues, as well as manure and urea as an additional source of nitrogen, and furthermore the effect of commercial organisms in the composting of wine residues were assessed. The use of permeable cover reduced the water requirement by 17%. The addition of apple and tomato pomace generated significant positive differences in pH and N content, and led to significantly more stable compost compared to systems using only wine pomace. The application of manure and urea increased mainly in the respective content of P and N. Additional inoculation with commercial microorganisms did not lead to differences in the compost. Regarding the populations of natural microorganisms, no differences were found among the treatments in beneficial nitrogen fixing bacteria such as Nitrospira and Nitrosomas.