Microclimate Characteristics and Evapotranspiration Estimates of Cucumber Plants in a Newly Developed Sunken Solar Greenhouse

Abstract

In north China, vegetables are always cultivated in conventional solar greenhouses (SG), however, these structures cannot be used during most of the winter due to extremely low temperatures. In this study, a new type of a solar greenhouse named sunken solar greenhouse (SSG), where the inside soil surface is lowered 1–2 m below outside and the back wall is 5–8 m width at the bottom and 1.5–2 m on top, was investigated. Inside climatic variables were recorded and compared with those outside during seven cucumber cultivation seasons. Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) was estimated using the Penman–Monteith method. Results show that inside solar radiation was reduced by approximately 40%, however days with a daily maximum inside temperature higher than 20 °C accounted for 80–90% of the days during the winter, which greatly enhanced cucumber fruit production compared to common SGs. The reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) inside the SSG was reduced by 27% compared to outside. The estimated ETc was generally lower than 4 mm day−1, which resulted in a basal crop coefficient of 0.83. In conclusion, the SSG is environmental-friendly, preferable for winter vegetable cultivation in north China, and can be useful for other regions of the world with cold winter conditions.

Crop Hydroponics, Phyto-hydroponics, Crop Production, and Factors Affecting Soilless Culture

“…153 Agricultural and horticultural crops require distinct light duration (hours) per day for regulation of growth and physiological processes in open systems, closed systems, protected cultivation, vertical farming, soil affected areas, stress areas, and prone areas. 154 While artificial light is also provided in vertical farming, protected cultivation, and closed systems for soilless farm-ing, 155 natural light is used in open system farming. 156 Optimum requirements of light intensity in soilless cultivation of crops are reported in the literature: 12 h per day for spinach in a growth chamber, 158 12−13 h for green bean in a transparent roof, 159 14−18 h for Cucumber in closed chambers, 160 8−10 h for watermelon in a greenhouse, 161 14−18 h for mustard in a vertical growth chamber, 162 12−13 h for brinjal/eggplant in a greenhouse, 163 10−12 h for potato in aeroponics based culture, 164 14−18 h for bell pepper in a greenhouse, 165 18 h for ginger in a greenhouse, 166 6 h for kohlrabi in a closed plant factory system, 166 12 h for chili in a greenhouse, 167 8−10 h for radish in a greenhouse, 168 10−12 h for onion in a greenhouse, 169 and 12 h for okra in a greenhouse.…”

AgDataBox-IoT - application development for agrometeorological stations in smart

“…The industrial agriculture paradigm significantly improves yield, but a series of challenges have gradually emerged, which have worsened in recent years. Industry 4.0 is expected to reshape the agricultural sector and promote the fourth agricultural revolution, agriculture 4.0, or digital agriculture (DA) [10] . Among many of its branches, agriculture 4.0 uses sensors and equipment capable of monitoring in real-time climate and water conditions at all stages of a plant in a management zone (microclimate), from planting to harvesting, calculating the degree-days, evapotranspiration, and generating data and information that allow the producer to manage the crop in a localized way and avoid water deficit and pesticide application if possible.…”

A Comparative Analysis of Adopters and Non‐adopters of Drip Irrigation under Plastic Tunnels for Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Production in Balochistan, Pakistan

“…The water requirements for cucumber in m 3 ha À1 for some other South Asian countries including India, Iran, Nepal and Saudi Arabia are about 6120, 8000, 3000 and 6200, respectively (Hoekstra, 2003). The evapotranspiration value for cucumber fruits in a greenhouse environment in China is about 4 mm day À1 (Liu et al, 2020).…”