Abstract

Farmers require initially high input to raise nursery seedling/cuttings. Farmers’ further activity related to cultivation depends on healthy and available seedlings. Once a farmer has prepared the land and cannot get good seedling, he becomes weak for some season. Studying of environment is a must for planning nursery raising according to thermal profile which can be obtained in greenhouse. Keeping this in mind, mathematical model was developed and evaluated for predicting thermal environment inside the 80 km² arch shaped greenhouse. The maximum increase in greenhouse air temperature was 13.92°C for solar radiation of 500 W/m² with 0°C ambient temperature. Experimental and calculated values of greenhouse temperature were almost the same with variation of 2 to 3°C. The theoretical values obtained from model were in reasonably good agreement with the experimental results. Therefore, the mathematical model could be used to predict temperature conditions inside the greenhouse for a variety of climatic parameters. Selection of plants’ nursery inside the greenhouse was determined according to predicted thermal environment. As par the thermal profile found inside the greenhouse, plumery plants’ nursery was selected and its sprouting, survival percentage and economic were calculated for the farmers’ awareness.

Key words: Arch shaped greenhouse, mathematical model, nursery, economics.