The Effect of Air Relative Humidity on the Crop Water Requirement of Basil in the Greenhouse

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Water Engineering and Management, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Due to strategic location in the vicinity of the sea, Iran has a unique capacity to benefit from this great potential for development in different fields. In the field of agricultural development in coastal areas, various ideas have been developed in the world, one of the successful examples of which is the coastal greenhouse system. This system, by simulating the hydrological cycle, enables the simultaneous production of crops and freshwater. In this regard, in the present study, by simulating the functional principles of the coastal greenhouse system, a physical modeling of a similar cultivation media was conducted with smart equipment. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of high air relative humidity (more than 80%) on the crop water requirement and crop yield of Basil in greenhouses cultivation media and compare it with the corresponding values in controlled cultivation media with normal relative humidity, such as conventional greenhouse conditions. In this study, plant cultivation was carried out by randomized complete block design in pots, and the crop water requirement were determined using the micro-lysimeter method. By the results, the crop yield by wet weight in the conventional and coastal greenhouse cultivation medias was 15.98 and 15.83, by dry weight was 1.62 and 1.53 grams, respectively, and no significant difference was observed. However, the total and average of Basil water requirement during the cultivation period were 45.20 mm and 1.33 mm/day in the coastal greenhouse, and 87.66 mm and 2.58 mm/day in the conventional greenhouse, respectively.

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