Water Productivity of Cucumber and Tomato Crops as Affected by Different Cultural Substrates under Greenhouses Conditions at Bustan Area

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Horticulture Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center.

2 Soil, Water and Environment Research Institute, Agricultural Research center.

Abstract

Greenhouses are considered as one of the feasible technologies for improving and    propagating vegetables productivity per a unit of soil and water as well as for off-season productivity with higher net returns to the farmer. Two successive experiments were conducted at Abdel-Monem Reyad Village at El-Bustan area in 2005 and 2006 seasons to study the effects of using different agricultural media on water productivity of cucumber and tomato and the economics of their production. The objective of these experiments was to study the effect of polyethylene ditches (30X0.3X0.2 m ditch dug in the soil, coated with polyethylene film and filled with fertile compost), the polyethylene beds (close polyethylene film and contain fertile compost with the dimensions of 3.0X0.3X0.2 m. and punched for cucumber or tomato on 0.3m. and 0.5 m.) and the polyethylene bags (bags from polyethylene each with the capacity of 4 kg of fertile compost on applied water, vegetative parameters and economical factors of cucumber and tomato under greenhouse conditions. Also, to find a solution to avoid using chemicals for sterilizing seedlings bed such as methyl bromide in sterilizing the soil, which is costly and a source of environmental pollution.
Results revealed that:
v There were some significant differences between the used treatments and the control on leaf area and dry matter parameters.
v Soil ditches Treatment had the highest significant yield for both cucumber and tomato crops.
v Applied water for both cucumber and tomato was measured and it increases with the vegetative growth increasing till the physiological maturity stage then decreased.
v Water productivity reached the highest value for polyethylene ditches treatment for cucumber and tomato greenhouse production.
v The net income for polyethylene ditches treatment reached 73.2 fold more than the traditional treatment for tomato, while, it reached 11.5 fold for cucumber.

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