The Effect of Greenhouse Size on Energy Balance in Greenhouse Cucumber Production of Tehran (Cucumis sativus)

Subject Areas : Sustainable production technologies

Bardia Bayat ¹ , Mohammad Hossein Ansari ² , Marjan Diyanat ³ , Ali Mohammadi Torkashvand ⁴

1 - Department of Agronomy and Horticultural Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Department of Agronomy, Islamic Azad ‎University, Rasht, Iran
3 - Department of Agronomy and Horticultural Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
4 - Department of Agronomy and Horticultural Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2023-06-10 Accepted : 2023-06-25 Published : 2023-05-22

Keywords: "energy balance", "size of greenhouses", "output energy, " input energy", greenhouse cucumber",

Abstract :

The energy balance of greenhouse cucumbers was calculated during a research in the east of Tehran province for one year (2016-2017). The results showed that the size of greenhouses is very influential in the energy balance, so that in large-scale greenhouses, electricity consumption has the largest share of input energy with 43.2%, but in medium-scale greenhouses, this amount is only 34.7% and Small scale is 1.32% of the input energy and it is next in the consumption of chemical fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) which share of this factor in large, medium and small scale greenhouses is 15.9%, 18.9%, and 20% of the input energy respectively. Input and output energy also change significantly with the size of greenhouses, so that in large, medium and small scale greenhouses, these values are equal to (325,222 and 173,136 MJ/ha), (231,802 and 147,801 MJ/ha), and (210,491 and 133,040 MJ/ha) respectively. After this the energy balance of large-scale greenhouses was calculated as 0.532, medium-scale 0.638 and small-scale 0.632. , produced the lowest possible yield, which is the reason for the inefficiency of this level of cultivation. After that, the energy balance of large-scale greenhouses was calculated as 0.532, medium-scale 0.638, and small-scale 0.632. Meanwhile, large-scale greenhouses produced the lowest possible yield by spending the most input energy, which is the reason for inefficiency. This is the level of cultivation.