Growth of selected ornamental plants under aluminized polyester sheet tunnels

Growth of selected ornamental plants has been studied under the designed Aluminized Polyester Sheet (APS) tunnels during the extreme summer months. Experiments conducted for two consecutive years reveal that the designed tunnels are capable of improving the micro-climate required for the selected ornamental plants namely chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium) and balsam (Impatient balasamina) in extreme summer conditions. It was observed that the total average solar radiation and light intensity entering the APS tunnels reduced by about 78% & 68% and 80% & 67.7%, respectively in the year 2002 and 2003 as compared to open field conditions. The average plant and soil temperature was also observed to be 5.5°C & about 2°C lower as compared to open field conditions. However, the average airtemperature remained almost same as compared to open field conditions. The average plant height of chrysanthemum and balsam was about 27% and 40% more as compared to the plants in the open field conditions.