Page 24 - IJES Special Issues for AIEC2016

14 © Abu-Zahra and Ateyyat 2016 | Effect of Various Shading Methods

Table 4

Effect of shading methods on cucumber fruit parameter measurements and number of production
days*

Treatments Av. fruit fresh wt. Av. fruit dry wt. Total no. of Total no. of Production period
(gm) (gm) fruits/rep fruits/plant (days)/rep

GS1 88.9 a** 20.6 a 34548 b 21 c 53.3 a

Whitewash 78.5 a 19.7 ab 33407 b 24 b 51.0 a

Mud 57.9 b 19.4 bc 26027 c 21.3 c 53.7 a

Control 44.0 c 18.3 c 49063 a 27 a 43.7 b

LSD 0.05 12.1 1.2 4304 1.9 2.9

* Values are the mean of four replicates.
**: Means within each column having different letters are significantly different according to LSD at 5 % level.

Table 5
Effect of shading methods on cucumber fruit quality measurements*

Treatments Qualified fruit (%)/rep Deformed fruit (%)/rep Poor colored fruit (%)/rep Av. Fruit length (cm)

GS1 99.5 a ** 0.37 c 0.14 b 16.3 a

Whitewash 99.4 b 0.48 b 0.17 ab 15.0 b

Mud 99.2 c 0.58 a 0.19 a 14.5 b

Control 99.4 ab 0.42 bc 0.15 b 12.8 c

LSD 0.05 0.11 0.086 0.035 1.05

* Values are the mean of four replicates.
**: Means within each column having different letters are significantly different according to LSD at 5 % level.

However, they are not in agreement with the (Table 4), while the lowest number was
results obtained in the high land experiment obtained by the mud shading treatment. The
(Abu-Zahra and Ateyyat, 2015) due to differ- results obtained showed that there is a reduc-
ences in environmental conditions. tion in the number of fruits in the shaded plastic
houses compared to non-shaded ones, which
Fruit Weight and Number may be due to shading causing a reduction in
uptake of water and nutrients and less photo-
The highest significant fruit freshness and dry synthesis associated with less radiation under
weight were obtained by the GS1 shading shaded plants that reflects on the number of
treatment (Table 4) but without significant fruits (Gent, 2008; (El-Nemr, 2006).
difference with the whitewash treatment. On
the other hand, the lowest fruit freshness and Production Period
dry weight were obtained by the control
treatment. The high temperature and light Shading treatments extended the production
intensity in the control treated plastic houses period length (Table 4) compared to the control
are responsible for the decrease in fruit treatment, which decreased the production
freshness and dry weight. These results period. This may be due to shading protecting
coincide with those obtained by Valli (Valli et chlorophyll from degradation by the high light
al., 1965). On the other hand, the opposite trend intensity and temperature (Zervoudakis et al.,
was observed in the number of fruits per rep or 2012). The same results were also observed in
per plant in which the highest total number of the previous experiment (Abu-Zahra and Atey-
fruits were obtained by the control treatment yat, 2015).

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