Kwantificeren effecten CO2 doseren bij Anthurium

CO2 enrichment is not a year round practice in the cultivation of Anthurium andreanum in The Netherlands, but is mostly related to the heat demand in the greenhouse, which means that there is only sufficient CO2 available when the heating is on. Because of great efforts on energy saving measures, the number of hours in which CO2 is supplied has been only declining in the recent years. The expected benefits of CO2 dosage, based on growers experience, are too low to justify the investment and running costs of a system with continuous CO2 dosage, especially in times of very low flower prices. To evaluate whether the actual cost of continuous CO2 supply can be paid back by extra production and quality, a one year lasting greenhouse experiment was designed in which 2 levels of CO2 (500 ppm and 800 ppm) were continuously supplied to the varieties of Anthurium andreanum ‘Tropical’ and ‘Midori’ and compared to ambient level (+/- 380 ppm). The experiment has shown that CO2 enrichment with 800 ppm significantly affects the number of harvested ‘Midori’ flowers (+10%), but does not significantly affects production numbers in ‘Tropical’. However, flower diameter, stem length, flower fresh and dry weight are positively affected in both cultivars. Because of the better prices paid for the flowers with bigger diameters, is the CO2 enrichment economically interesting for ‘Tropical’. ‘Midori’ prices are less affected by the flower diameter, and therefore is the economic result of enrichment only economically interesting for the 800 ppm, Supply of 500 ppm has too little impact on production and quality to be interesting. The results suggest also that there might be room for improvement of the CO2 supply (a better match between demand and supply).