BIO- ENGINEERING APPROACH TO EXPLORE GREENHOUSE PLANT RESPONSES TO ROOT ZONE  HEATING

Abdel- Rahman, G. M.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2020.110165

BIO- ENGINEERING APPROACH TO EXPLORE GREENHOUSE PLANT RESPONSES TO ROOT ZONE HEATING

Document Type : Original Article

Author

G. M. Abdel- Rahman

Associate Prof., Ag. Eng. Dept., Faculty of Ag., Cairo University, Egypt.

10.21608/mjae.2020.110165

Abstract

The present work was carried out through winter seasons 2005-2006 to investigate the effect of root zone heating of plants behavior and yield under greenhouse conditions. This work aimed to explain the increases in plant fresh mass due to root zone heating. The two cultivars of snap beans were used. Seeds were sown directly on 15^th of October 2005 to May 2006, respectively. Four treatments were used, hot water tube, plastic mulch, straw mulch and control (without any especial preparation). The average soil temperature recorded for each previously mentioned treatment were 26, 20.8, 19.9and 18.9 ^oC respectively. Plant growth, yield and quality of pods in addition to carbohydrates and fiber content of pods were determined in response to soil heating treatments compared to the control. Results indicated that using hot water treatment gave the highest mean fresh mass (47 gm/pod), the average leaves numbers (24.17 leaf/ plant), the maximum mean plant height was153 cm and plant dry mass (14.3 gm). The tallest plant height was obtained using plastic mulch treatment. There were no significant differences found in the number of shoots per plant and stem diameter in all treatments. No significant differences were found in pod fresh mass, pod diameter and pod length among treatments. The lowest value of total fiber content of pods was found in straw mulch treatment. The highest value of carbohydrates content of pods (15.6 gm) was observed in hot water tube treatment.

Main Subjects

Biosystems Engineering

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