Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Department of Horticulture, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India to screen ten vegetables for cultivation under shadenet house (33% shade) and open field for year round production of vegetables. Tomato, eggplant, chilli, cucumber, cluster bean, radish, amaranthus, coriander, bhendi and capsicum were grown in the summer and winter. The influence of environmental variables temperature, relative humidity and light intensity were studied. Tomato, eggplant, chilli, cucumber, radish, amaranthus and coriander registered better performance for growth and yield during both seasons. Cluster bean performed well in the open field during both seasons. Relative humidity was always higher under shadenet house than in open field during both seasons. Light intensity in the shadenet house was lower than in the open field. Mean weekly temperature during summer and winter were higher under open field conditions than in the shadenet house. Lower temperature caused plant height, number of branches, internodal length, average fruit weight and yield per plant to be higher in the shadenet house than in the open field. Hence, the growing of tomato, eggplant, chilli, cucumber, radish, amaranthus and coriander under shade house conditions will be more profitable irrespective of the seasons.

Key words: Shadenet cultivation, season, quality.