Effects of Climatic Factors varied due to the Type of Plastic House, Cultural Season and Locations in the Plastic House on the Growth of Cucumber Plants Grown in Rockwool

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of climatic factors varied due to the type of plastic house, cultural season and location in the house on the growth of cucumber plants grown by nutrient solution. There were two growing periods, summer culture and retarding culture, two types of plastic houses, 1-2W type house and post-less house. Air temperature, relative humidity and amount of solar radiation in the plastic houses were measured. Also, dry weight of leaves and stems, plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf area per plant and fresh weight of fruits per plant were observed. Plant growth analysis were conducted and interrelationships between climatic factors and physiological characteristics were investigated. The results were as follows. There were no differences between the type of plastic houses in the average air temperature and average relative humidity in the plastic house, but amount of solar radiation in 1-2W type house was significantly higher than that of postless house. Daily cumulative solar radiation were highest in southwest side of 1-2W type house and northwest side of postless house. Plant height and number of leaves per plant were higher in summer culture than retarding culture, while leaf area per plant was higher in retarding culture than summer culture. Relative growth rate (RGR) showed highly significantly positive correlations with net assimilation rate (WAR) and leaf area ratio (LAR). Contribution of NAR to RGR was much higher than that of LAR. Crop growth rate (CGR) showed highly significantly positive correlations with leaf area index (LAI). It appeared that increase of LAI was important to increase productivity of cucumber. Average daily air temperature for the whole growing period showed highly significantly positive correlations with RGR and NAR. Furthermore, cumulative solar radiation for the whole growing period in retarded culture showed significantly positive correlation with RGR and NAR.