Page 21 - IJES Special Issues for AIEC2016
P. 21
International Journal of Environment and Sustainability, 2016, 5(1): 10-17 11
greenhouse cover optimized growth and yield (Calcium Carbonate; 1 kg/ 10 L water), mud and
of cucumber, recorded the highest vegetative control (no shading). Both GS1 and whitewash
growth (plant height, number of leaves, total were sprayed using a pressure pump and a
leaves area, total fresh and dry weights) and water spout over the three plastic houses’
significantly increased total yield (Hashem et al., cover. The mud treatment was applied by
2011). dissolving a clay soil collected from the farm
area in tap water and was dispersed by hand
Shade density had no significant effect on over the three plastic houses according to the
marketable yield because the marketable method applied by farmers. The control plastic
fraction increased with shade density (Lin and houses were kept without any covering. A few
Jolliffe, 1996). In Spain, mobile shade increased days after applying the shading treatments,
marketable yield by 10 percent when used only cucumber cultivar “189” transplanting was
on days with intense sunlight (Lorenzo et al., done at the beginning of May 2015.
2003). Growers should carefully monitor fertili-
zer salts, light, air temperature, humidity, car- The four treatments were conducted in a
bon dioxide and moisture. Inattention to these randomized complete block design with three
details can result in decreased production and replicates. All data obtained were statistically
poor quality fruit, such as bitter-tasting analyzed according to the design used in this
cucumbers (Vandre, 2014). experiment (Steel and Torrie, 1980). Mean
separation was done using Least Significant
In Jordan Valley, there is a gradual increasing Difference at the 5% significant level.
acreage of cucumber cultivation under covers.
Farmers do shading during hot summer months Measured Parameters
(in May) primarily to limit the temperature rise
in the plastic houses in order to protect the All of the measured parameters that included
quality of some crops from decline when environmental measurements (temperature,
temperature is excessively high and to extend light intensity and relative humidity), vegetative
the production period. This study was conduc- measurements (plant length, plant freshness
ted to compare the traditional plastic houses’ and dry weight, leaf area, number of leaves/
shading methods with the innovation Green plant and leaf length), flowering measurements,
Shadow 1 “GS1” to discover the best shading yield measurements (total yield, yield/month,
method for cucumber growth, yield, quality and yield/plant, average fruit freshness and dry
pest injuries under the Jordan Valley conditions. weight, number of fruits, number of fruits/plant
and length of production period) and fruit
2. Materials and Methods quality measurements (good quality yield %,
deformed fruit %, poor colored fruit % and
Description of the study area average fruit length) were done according to the
first experiment of the high lands (Abu-Zahra
The study was conducted at Mohammad Al- and Ateyyat, 2015). While pest measurements -
Edwan farm in the middle of the Jordan Valley the number of two-spotted spider mites - were
about 50 km from Amman, the capital of Jordan, counted under the dissecting microscope in
(31º76’39.26”N; 35º 59’26.85”E, and 380 m which numbers per 10X magnification were
below the sea level) from the May to July 2015 considered as one field, three fields were taken
season. The climate in this region is hot and dry per leaf. Three leaves were taken per plant, and
during summer and warm and rainy in winter. three plants were chosen per plastic house each
time (Abu-Zahra and Ateyyat, 2015).
Treatments and Experimental Design
Twelve plastic houses (0.5 dun/plastic house)
were installed over the farm area. Three plastic
houses were used for each treatment. Four
shading treatments were applied: Green
Shadow 1 (GS1; 1L/ 10 L water), whitewash
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