Effect of irrigation frequency on growth and production of a cucumber crop under soilless culture

Abstract

Three irrigation frequencies were applied on a soilless cucumber crop, in a greenhouse located in the coastal area of southern Cyprus. Irrigation scheduling was based on solar radiation and performed whenever accumulated solar radiation energy outside the greenhouse reached 1.3 MJ m-2 [High Irrigation Frequency (HIF)], 1.9 MJ m-2 [Medium Irrigation Frequency (MIF)] and 3.0 MJ m-2 [Low Irrigation Frequency (LIF)]. The amount of water applied was 0.192 Kg m-2, 0.288 Kg m-2 and 0.448 Kg m-2 for high, medium and low irrigation frequencies, respectively. Appropriately, the total volume of water applied was identical in each of the three cases. In order to study the effects of irrigation frequency on cucumber crops, multiple measurements were taken; the fresh and dry weight of plant organs (i.e. leaves, stem and fruit), marketable fresh yield production, and microclimate variables for a 75 day period, beginning in April and ending in June. The results revealed that the irrigation frequency did not influence the cucumber crop’s growth and production. Plants at LIF were facing water stress conditions, as estimated from leaf temperature and stem micro variation measurements. However, HIF increased the transpiration rate of the plants, resulting in less water and nutrient losses.

Water footprint and irrigation use efficiency of important crops in Northern Cyprus from an environmental, economic and dietary perspective

“…However, soilless culture was found to be less effective than the greenhouse production and open field production. Contrary to our results, many studies (Nikolaou et al, 2017, Eiasu et al, 2012, Wang and Xing, 2017) reported that soilless culture is very effective in terms of water use efficiency. The main reason for this low impact is that soilless culture in Northern Cyprus is not a closed system.…”

“…These practices include selecting suitable crops for the climatic conditions and optimizing the planting distance (Pascale et al, 2011). Crop breeding (Mateos and Araus, 2016), high-density cropping (Pellegrini et al, 2016), soilless culture (Nikolaou et al, 2017), automatic irrigation systems (Prabhushankar et al, 2015) and partial root drying (Casa and Rouphael, 2014) are some of the opportunities for conserving water while maintaining or improving productivity, thus improving IUE. There is very little research on the effects of these methods in Northern Cyprus.…”

Irrigation of Greenhouse Crops

“…However, for rockwool substrate in a free drainage system, Lee [111] recommended accumulated values of 0.8 MJ m −2 with a minimum rest time set (i.e., not irrigated if the target value is reached) between 20 min in bright and 50 min on dark days according to the crop growth phase. Additionally, for bell pepper in container growth with peat mix, perlite, and pine bark media, Jovicich et al [61] indicated that the first-quality fruit weight was enhanced at solar radiation integral levels of 0.34 MJ m −2 , while Lizarraga et al [52] proposed indoor values of 0.81 MJ m −2 for tomatoes grown in perlite in bags of 40 L. In addition, Nikolaou et al [60], working with cucumber in rockwool, indicated a 9% lower drainage amount between high and low irrigation frequency treatments (i.e., accumulated radiation outside greenhouse 1.3 MJ m −2 as opposed to 3 MJ m −2 ), with no negative impact on production.…”

“…For soilless greenhouse cucumber, between transplanting and flowering, irrigation should be scheduled so as to induce slight water stress and increase root growth, while tomatoes should be stressed for a longer period (i.e., about three weeks) in order to set the first and second trusses [81]. In addition, several authors [53,60,[82][83][84] indicated that increasing the irrigation intervals in soilless culture with the same daily amount of water applied positively influenced crop growth and production and minimized the outflow of water and nutrients from the greenhouse into the environment. However, that is not always the case, because results are often crop and substrate specific, and are also dependent on the experimental conditions and the limiting growth factor(s) [85].…”

Production components of sunflower plants irrigated with treated domestic wastewater and drinking water in semiarid region

“…Water scarcity and quality have become a worldwide concern. The increase in the world population requires to increase food production, which generates greater water demand for agricultural activities (Savvas et al, 2007;Cunha et al, 2011;Nikolaou et al, 2017).…”