Generation and evaluation of typical meteorological year datasets for greenhouse and external conditions on the Mediterranean coast

Mathematical Determination of the Upper and Lower Limits of the Diffuse Fraction at Any Site

A mathematical method for accurately determining the upper and lower diffuse-fraction (kd) limits that divide the sky into clear, intermediate, and overcast is developed. Fourteen sites around the world are selected for demonstrating the methodology. The upper and lower kd values for these sites are determined from scatter plots of direct-normal solar radiation vs. kd pairs over the typical meteorological year of each site. They vary between 0.73 and 0.80 for the upper and between 0.24 and 0.27 for the lower kd limits. Plots of sunshine duration (SSD) vs. kd are prepared for 12 of the 14 sites. These plots show a decreasing trend in SSD with increasing values of kd, as anticipated. According to local climatology, the number of the SSD values in each sky-condition classification varies from site-to-site.

Heat Unit Requirements of "Flame Seedless" Table Grape: A Tool to Predict Its Harvest Period in Protected Cultivation

Greenhouse cultivation of table grapes is a challenge due to difficulties imposed by their perennial habit and chilling requirements. Despite difficulties, greenhouse cultivation allows ripening long before that in the open field. Nonetheless, for harvesting “Flame Seedless” in the most profitable periods, a cultural practices timetable has to be established. In this context, an estimation of development rate as a function of temperature becomes essential. This work puts forward a procedure to determine “Flame Seedless” threshold temperatures and heat requirements from bud break to ripening. “Flame Seedless” required an average of 1633 growing degree days (GDD) in the open field with a base temperature of 5 °C and an upper threshold temperature of 30 °C. Strikingly, only 1542 GDD were required within the greenhouse. This procedure forecast “Flame Seedless” ripening with an accuracy of three and six days in the open field and greenhouse, improving predictions based on the average number of days between bud break and ripening. The procedure to predict oncoming harvest date was found satisfactory, just four days earlier than the real date. If we used the typical meteorological year instead of the average year, then the prediction was greatly improved since harvest was forecast just one day before its occurrence.