Determination of Harvesting and Storage Capacity of Rain Water in Greenhouse Establishments

Abstract

In areas where water resources are not sufficient, rainwater is collected and used in greenhouse irrigation and this opportunity of nature has great importance for sustainability. In order to determine the amount of precipitation to be stored, the amount of precipitation and plant water consumption should be known. In the narrow coastal strip around Mediterranean region, the water resources are insufficient and the greenhouse producers‘ carries water with pipes from very long distances. In this study, daily water consumption of tomatoes grown in greenhouses not regularly heated in Mersin climate conditions is calculated according to different methods. Then, the storage capacity of the remaining part of the precipitation used in the greenhouse has been determined. According to FAO-Radiation method in Mersin climatic conditions, the storage capacity is determined as 0.25 m3.m-2 by using water consumption and precipitation amount. With this water, it was determined that the plant water requirement could be supplied for 7 months between November-May. Greenhouse water consumption is calculated according to the FAO-Blaney - Criddle method and the storage capacity determined to be 0.19 m3.m-2 and the plant water consumption will be supplied during the 6 months period between November - April.