Page 20 - IJES Special Issues for AIEC2016

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Effect of Various Shading Methods on Cucumber (Cucumis
sativus L.) Growth and Yield Production

Taleb R. Abu-Zahra* and Mazen A. Ateyyat

Department of Plant Production and Protection, Faculty of Agricultural
Technology, Al-Balqa Applied University, As Salt 19117 Jordan

International Journal of Abstract. Greenhouse shading may have a time-dependent effect on fruit
Environment and production, water and nutrient uptake in plants. A plastic house experiment was
Sustainability [IJES] conducted in Jordan Valley, Jordan to discover the impact of four shading
ISSN 1927-9566 treatments on cucumber “189 Cultivar” growth and yield production. These
Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 10-17 treatments were Green Shadow 1 (GS1), Whitewash (Calcium Carbonate), Mud
(2016) and Control (no shading).

Results showed that permeability was reduced by using GS1 or whitewash as
shading materials. The GS1 treatment produced the highest vegetative growth,
while whitewash produced the highest fruit yield. However, using GS1 improved
fruit freshness and dry weight and maintained fruit quality. Also, as the light
intensity increased, fruit freshness and dry weight increased; while the control
treatment delayed flowering, decreased the production period and increased the
mite infestation. Therefore, there is a need for shading the plastic houses in this
area of Jordan during summer months.

Keywords. Cucumber, GS1, Plastic House, Shading, Whitewash, Mite

*Correspondence:
talebabu@yahoo.com

1. Introduction Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is one of the
most profitable vegetable crops grown under
The use of shadings in vegetable production is protected cultivation systems all over the world,
connected with the limitations of light that and it belongs to the guard family Cucurbitaceae
reaches plants (Siwek and Lipowiecka, 2004). (Ibeawuchi et al., 2008; El-Wanis et al., 2012). It
Shade-houses favor plant growth. Since plants is a sub-tropical vegetable crop that grows suc-
are less stressful, direct sunlight was avoided, cessfully under conditions of high light, high
temperature is lower, humidity is higher and humidity, high soil moisture, temperature and
evapotranspiration is low (Hashem et al., 2011). fertilizers in green houses (El-Aidy et al., 2007).
In hot climates, shade can be applied over a In a study conducted by Siwek (Siwek et al.,
greenhouse to improve fruit quality, increase 2010), cucumber yield was the lowest under
fruit set and improve yield (Gent, 2008). How- shady conditions. Cucumbers grown in shaded
ever, in climates with more moderate temper- plots produced larger marketable yields and a
atures, shade typically reduces the yield of lower percentage of cull fruit than plants grown
vegetables grown in a greenhouse (Cockshull et in the open, but the total number of fruit and
al., 1992). Light is considered to be the most the fruit size of cucumbers was not affected by
important environmental factor for growth and shading in the spring (Valli et al., 1965). Shaded
development, especially in protected farmland plants had greater leaf area, although they had
(Yang et al., 2012; Runkle, 2008). Shading a less vegetative biomass and lower dry matter
greenhouse may have a time-dependent effect than non-shaded plants (Sandri et al., 2003).
on fruit production and water and nutrient Regarding yield, the best results were obtained
uptake in plants. After six weeks of shading using whitewash (Siwek et al., 2010). In another
applications, yield was reduced by 30% experiment, the results showed that white net
compared to no-shade treatments (Gent, 2008).