Transpiration of greenhouse crops : an aid to climate management

In this book some physical aspects of greenhouse climate are analyzed to show the direct interrelation between microclimate and crop transpiration. The energy balance of a greenhouse crop is shown to provide a sound physical framework to quantify the impact of microclimate on transpiration and to identify the constraints set on climate management by the termodynamic behaviour of the canopy. Before the relationship among microclimate, canopy temperature and transpiration is rendered in mathematical terms, a good deal of experimental work is necessary to establish sub-models for the heat transfer of the foliage, for the radiative transfer within the canopy and for the canopy resistance to vapour transfer. The sub-models are merged in a combination-type equation to obtain the temperature of a greenhouse crop and its transpiration. The resulting estimates are shown to reproduce accurately the temperature and transpiration of a greenhouse tomato crop, as measured at time intervals of a few minutes.

To illustrate the practical application of the model thus developed a number of examples are presented. In particular, it is shown that defining the transpiration rate as the criterion for the control of air humidity within a greenhouse would deliver a quantitative framework for that control. That would largely enhance the efficiency of the (expensive) procedures applied at present for the control of humidity in greenhouses.