ISHS Acta Horticulturae 148: III International Symposium on Energy in Protected Cultivation
THE INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT TEMPERATURE PATTERNS HAVING THE SAME INTEGRAL ON THE EARLINESS AND YIELD OF TOMATOES |
| Authors: | R.G. Hurd, C.J. Graves |
| Abstract:
Tomatoes were grown in three aerial temperature regimes: the first was a "square-wave" regime resembling the day/night temperature patterns obtained with analogue control; the second was based on the outdoor diurnal temperature periodicity and the third had superimposed on this periodicity an adjustment for wind speed (lower temperatures at high wind speed and vice versa). All three regimes were repeatedly adjusted to keep them at a similar temperature integral. Crop growth and yield in all three regimes were essentially similar although a slight delay in cropping in the wind-related regime was associated with a period of lower temperature integrals soon after flowering. It was concluded that growth and earliness were not dependent on diurnal temperature variation but rather on the temperature integral. This simplifies the planning of computer-based temperature treatments designed to improve yield or energy saving. | |
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