COMPARISON OF ASYMMETRICAL GREENHOUSE TYPES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA OF SPAIN

In the Mediterranean coast of Spain, most low-cost plastic greenhouses have very small roof slopes and, therefore, low light transmission in autumn and winter.
A three-year study was conducted to compare a conventional east-west oriented asymmetrical multispan greenhouse (11°/24°, south/north roof slopes) with a high roof slope multispan prototype (45°/27°, south/north roof slopes). The autumn-winter cucumber crops grown in the high slope prototype reached significantly higher total, commercial and first quality yields than the conventional greenhouse cucumber.
The spring-cycle indeterminate snap bean yields were significantly higher in the high slope greenhouse, following the radiation differences in the first part of the growing cycles.
Only very small differences were recorded in other climatic parameters.
It was concluded that the higher radiation transmission in the prototype greenhouse, during these cycles, is the main responsible for these differences.

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

N. Castilla, J. Hernández, F.M. Quesada, M.I. Morales, A. Guillén, M.T. Soriano, I. Escobar, A. Antón, J.I. Montero

Radiation, transmission, cucumber, snap bean, gross income

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2001.559.26