Water Use Efficiency in Cucumis sativus L. in Response to Daily Short-Term Temperature Drop

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of daily short-term (2 h) low temperature treatment (12 C) (DROP) on photosynthetic water use efficiency (WUE) at leaf level of cucumber plants. The DROP treatment caused an increase of WUE in the leaves treated by DROP during their early growth (D1), but not in leaves which were already mature during the treatment (D2). The WUE increase in D1 compared to D2 leaves was due to higher net photosynthetic rate at low temperature or lower transpiration rate at common temperature. The elongation of the DROP treatment from early growth stage until full maturation of leaves did not lead to an additional increase in WUE compared to the leaves treated by DROP only during their early growth.

Effects of greenhouse microclimate on irrigation scheduling of hydroponic crops under a mediterranean climate

“…The study shows that higher IWUE values in both compartments were obtained for the LID treatments, taking into account the water used by wetted pad evaporative system (mean estimated value of 72 l m -2 d -1 ). The increase of the IWUE values seems to be the result of the lower amount of irrigation water applied or decreased transpiration rates which were observed for the LID in both compartments, as also reported by Ikkonen et al (2015). However, lower water consumption values of 11 l m -2 d -1 for the evaporative pad in a greenhouse filled with a full canopy of tomato plants, and assisted with 40% shading when inside radiation was above 650W m -2 , reported for a typical summer day in Tucson, Arizona, USA, indicating the drastic effect of shading in water consumption as cited in .…”