DETERMINATION OF OPTIMUM HEATING AND COOLING DEGREE-HOUR VALUES FOR PEPPER PLANT

Information on the energy needs of agricultural production activities carried out in any region can be obtained in advance. Many methods are used for this purpose. One of them is a degree-hour method. Kumluca district of Antalya province where pepper cultivation is done intensively was chosen as a study area. The growers prefer autumn production of pepper plants inside the greenhouses in this region. Production starts in early October and last until June. The long-term (1960 - 2015) thermometer temperatures in the study area were obtained from the Turkish State Meteorological Service. In this study, by using only meteorological data, during each growing season (planting, flowering, pollination, fruit ripening and harvesting) were obtained degree-hour values for the pepper plant and evaluated with Student-t test. Regression coefficients were obtained by correlating heating and cooling degree-hour values with different temperature values which are recommended during the vegetative growing season for the pepper plant. Regression analysis was performed between obtaining heating and cooling degree-hour values (dependent variable) and annual mean heating and cooling degree hour values (independent variable) which are suggested basic temperature values. In conclusion, the regression coefficients were determined as 0.99 for out of greenhouse heating degree-hour and as 0.90-0.99 for ...