CUCUMBER GROWTH AND YIELD AS AFFECTED BY MULCHING IN SOILLESS CULTURE IN UNHEATED GREENHOUSE

Along an autumn-winter and a spring cycles, white polyetylene ( PE) mulching was compared with conventional bare soil, in soilless culture with a cucumber crop in unheated plastic greenhouse in Almería (Spain).
The mulch alters the soil energy balance, reflecting part of the incident radiation.
The lower air and substrate temperatures in the mulched cucumber during the vegetative development phase, in both cycles, limited growth inducing a lower leaf area index (LAI) than in bare soil.
In spite of the increase in available radiation in the mulched treatment, specially during the first part of the cycle with limited canopy, the lower LAI in the mulched treatment induced a lower radiation absorbed by the crop.
Significantly higher early cucumber yields were recorded in bare soil, in both cycles.
In addition the whole yield was higher also in bare soil in the autumn-winter cycle.
In the spring crop, yield differences were not significant.

V International Symposium on Protected Cultivation in Mild Winter Climates: Current Trends for Suistainable Technologies

P. Lorenzo, E. Medrano, J. Pérez, N. Castilla

Radiation, temperature, Leaf Area Index

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2001.559.13