The use of shading nets for the greenhouse cultivation

of sweet pepper in the Mediterranean area
D. Castronuovo, D. Statutoa, N. Muro, P. Picuno and V. Candido
School of Agricultural, Forestry, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Basilicata, Viale dell'Ateneo
Lucano n. 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy.

Abstract
The Mediterranean area is characterized by hot summers that, especially inside
greenhouses, can determine non-optimal conditions for the growth of vegetable
crops. In Southern Italy, the use of shading nets or the application of calcium
hydroxide (whitening) on the cover material of the greenhouse is often used by
farmers to improve micro-climatic conditions for crops and to obtain a healthier
environment for workers. In recent years, thanks to their cheaper price accompanied
by improved photo selective properties, plastic nets are often used for shading
purposes, combining the shade effect with their specific features useful for the crop
growth. Like other vegetable crops in the Mediterranean area, sweet pepper
cultivation in greenhouses can benefit by shading during the late spring and summer
months. With the aim of determining the effects of different greenhouse shading
methods on the cultivation of sweet pepper, a trial was carried out in Battipaglia
(Campania Region - Southern Italy), comparing cover whitening, made by slaked lime,
with two plastic nets, a reflective aluminized cloth having 50% of shade level
(Aluminet) and a photo-selective red net having 30% of shade level (red
Chromatinet), resulting the colored shading nets most used by farmers in the study
area. In addition, an unshaded greenhouse was utilized as a control. The plastic nets,
as well as allowing a shading effect, contributed to avoid the decrease in the
greenhouse temperature overnight (Aluminet), as well as to modify the spectrum of
the transmitted light (Chromatinet). In order to investigate the influence of the
studied nets on the growth of sweet pepper, yield quantitative and qualitative traits
were performed. Furthermore, spectro-radiometrical and mechanical
characterizations of nets, through laboratory tests, were carried-out. The results
obtained by these tests, confirming the relationship between the porosity of a net and
its transmittance in the solar range, allow to evaluate the different shading and
transmittance effects.

Keywords: Aluminet, red Chromatinet, PAR, earliness, physiological disorders, yield

INTRODUCTION
Protected cultivation has traditionally been based on greenhouse technologies
(Shahak, 2014). The principal aim of a greenhouse is to create an optimal indoor
microclimate for the best growth and yield of crops. Nevertheless, especially in hot summer
climates, such those in the Mediterranean area, they can generate a too hot indoor air
temperature, that contributes to negative effects on the growth of plants, decreasing also the
quantity and quality of the yield (Ló pez-Marı́n et al., 2012). Moreover, indoor high
temperature can cause unhealthy conditions for workers both during the crop growing
phase and the harvest period.
One of the most common solutions utilized by growers in Southern Europe, especially
in Italy and Spain, is the application of calcium hydroxide (i.e., slaked lime) or other
chemicals on the cover of the greenhouse (so-called, “whitening”) to have some shade, and
then to limit the raising of the air temperature (Gá zqueza et al., 2012). In the last years, the

                                                                 
a
E‐mail: dina.statuto@unibas.it 

  Acta Hortic. 1170. ISHS 2017. DOI 10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1170.46  373
Proc. Int. Symp. on New Tech. and Mgt. for Greenhouses – GreenSys2015 
  Eds.: F.J. Baptista, J.F. Meneses and L.L. Silva
 

use of plastic shading nets has become a suitable technique to control late spring and
summer greenhouse climate (Kitta et al., 2012). Besides the use of traditional plastic shade
nets, nowadays also innovative materials, such as photo-selective and reflective nets, are
often used by growers (Ilić et al., 2012; Rigakis et al., 2012; Tinyane et al., 2013). Each plastic
net modifies the solar radiation that arrives on the crop, by reducing the light flow and
varying the available radiant spectrum. Apart from the net structure, the spectrum of the
transmittance is also influenced by the diameter of the thread, colour and thickness of the
net, and the properties of absorbance, transmittance and reflectance of the plastic material
(Sica and Oicuno, 2008).
In the Mediterranean area the production of sweet pepper, typically cultivated in
greenhouse during the spring-summer period, can benefit from the use of shade nets in
order to control indoor high air temperature and therefore to avoid, or at least limit, some
diseases and physiological disorders, including the sunburn and blossom-end rot, that can
be very dangerous for sweet peppers grown in greenhouse, deeply decreasing the quality of
fruits (Ló pez-Marı́n et al., 2012).
In this paper, three typologies of shading methods, i.e.: an innovative photo-selective
net, an innovative reflective aluminized one and traditional whitening made by calcium
hydroxide, were considered. Moreover, an unshaded greenhouse was utilized as control. The
results in terms of the agronomic effects of these three different shading methodologies are
reported, together with the results of laboratory tests of the spectro-radiometrical and
mechanical properties of the shading nets, with an evaluation of their influence on the crop.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The trials were carried out in an unheated 16-span greenhouse, having a
volume/surface ratio of 2.8 m3 m-2, covered with an EVA plastic film 200 µm thick, located in
Campania Region (Southern Italy - 40°34’N; 14°55’E; 5 m a.s.l.).
On 19th February 2008, 5-6 leaved seedlings of a red fruit sweet pepper, Capsicum
annuum L. ‘Almuden F1’ (Syngenta Italia Spa, Milan, Italy), were transplanted spaced 0.4 m
in rows 1.25 m apart (2.0 plants m-2) in a mulched (black LDPE 50 µm thick) soil.
Fertilization and irrigation were applied at typical rates for local commercial sweet pepper
cultivation. In particular, before the transplant, 100 kg ha-1 of 15-9-15 fertilizer was provided
and after the transplant fertigation, by means of a drip irrigation system with emitters
spaced 0.30 m apart (1.5 L h-1 water flow rate), was dispensed in order to ensure an optimal
availability of water and nutrients to plants during the whole crop cycle.
On 15th May 2008, when air temperature in the greenhouse began to be high and
sweet peppers plants had the first fruits, some spans of the greenhouse were shaded using
three different shade methods: whitening made by calcium hydroxide and two innovative
plastic shade cloths (Table 1). In particular, four spans were whitened using a calcium
hydroxide suspension (20 kg of slaked lime per 100 L of water) at the dose of 60 L ha-1; four
spans were covered by an HDPE reflective aluminized cloth having 50% of shading level
(Aluminet, Tenax Spa, Italy); four spans were covered by a HDPE red photo-selective plastic
net having 30% of shading level (red Chromatinet, Tenax Spa, Italy); the remaining four
spans were left without any shade and considered as control. Therefore, four experimental
factors, i.e. the four shading methods (including the unshaded span), were compared among
themselves, according to a randomized block design with four reps. Although the studied
nets had different shading levels, resulting also not equal to the mean shade performance of
the whitening, the choice to test these nets was performed because red Chromatinet and
Aluminet are the most used innovative nets in the study area.
In order to evaluate the shading performances of the studied methods, during the
cultivation, greenhouse air temperature and relative humidity were recorded by air
temperature and relative humidity probes (CS500-L modified version of Vaisala’s 50Y
Humitter, Campbell Scientific Inc, Utah, USA) and relevant data recorded by a CR 10x data-
logger (Campbell Scientific Inc, Utah, USA). Moreover, spectro-radiometric measurements of
the analyzed shading materials were carried out on a representative sunny day of the
cultivation (8th August 2008) by using inside the greenhouse a portable LI-1800 radiometer

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(Li-Cor Inc., NE, USA).

Table 1. Tested shading materials.

Shade level Weight Dose
Shade methods Polymer Color
(%) (g m-2) (L ha-1)
Aluminet HDPE 50 Alumined 76 -
Red Chromatinet HDPE 30 Red 58 -
Calcium hydroxide whitening - - White - 60
From 12th June to 8th October 2008, seventeen harvests have been done at full ripening
of fruits, considering a sample of 10 m2 for each plot. Harvested fruits were classified by
marketable and waste, and measured for yield traits. Then, morphological and qualitative
parameters on five marketable fruits per each plot were determined. The color of the fruit
epicarp was measured (data not here reported) in the CIELAB color system by means of a
Minolta CR-400 Chroma Meter (Minolta Corp., Osaka, Japan). Statistical analysis was
performed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with SAS software (SAS Institute, NC, USA). A
Student-Newman-Keuls (SNK) test was performed for the comparison of means at P≤0.05.
Each plastic net modifies the solar radiation that arrives on the crop, changing the
visible and/or UV range spectrum, then it is possible to produce particular physiological
responses on the crop, i.e., early or late maturation. With this aim, the spectro-radiometrical
properties in the UV-VIS-NIR range (190 ÷ 2500 nm), of the two nets, were detected in the
Laboratory for Testing Material of the SAFE School of the University of Basilicata. The
laboratory analysis were performed on the two plastic nets using a Jasco V-570 modular
spectro-photometer, in order to link the porosity of nets to the transmittance in the solar
range and analyze their influence on the microclimatic performance.
Furthermore, to assess the mechanical performances of these two shading nets tensile
tests were carried out in the same laboratory, using a universal computerized testing
machine Galdabini PMA 10 (Galdabini Spa, Italy), according to the Italian Standard UNI 9405
(UNI 9405, 1989). For each investigated agricultural net, five specimens in the warp
direction and five specimens in the weft direction were tested, and the results expressed in
terms of average value and bilateral confidence interval with 95% probability (UNI 5309,
1966). The tests have been carried out with a constant deformation speed equal to 200 mm
min-1 (Picuno et al., 2008).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

As shown in Table 2, during the summer months spans covered by the studied shade
nets had values of minimum, mean and maximum air temperature not statistically different
form each other. The whitening performed similarly but having air temperature values of
mean and maximum in June and in July lower than shading nets environment but, in August,
is statistically different.

Table 2. Air temperature1 (°C) in greenhouse during June, July and August.
June July August
Treatment2
Min. Mean Max. Min. Mean Max. Min. Mean Max.
Aluminet 17.4 a 25.0 b 34.3 b 19.0 a 26.1 b 34.7 b 18.9 a 25.6 b 33.5 b
Red Chromat. 17.4 a 25.1 b 34.1 b 18.9 a 26.0 b 34.6 b 18.9 a 25.5 b 33.4 b
Whitening 17.3 a 24.8 c 33.8 c 18.7 b 26.0 b 34.4 b 18.6 b 25.7 b 33.9 b
Control 17.3 a 25.5 a 35. 8 a 18.7 b 26.9 a 36.9 a 18.8 ab 26.3 a 35.6 a
Significance ns ** ** * ** ** * ** **
1Reported air temperatures are calculated as the mean of the daily registered min., mean and maxi. air temperatures values; 2For
each column and treatments, mean values followed by a different lower-case letter are significantly different at P≤0.05 according to
Student-Neuman-Keul's test; *Significance at 0.05P; **Significance at 0.01P; ns = not significant differences.

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The control had mean and maximum air temperature always higher than those
recorded in the span shaded using Aluminet, red Chromatinet and slaked lime; mostly the
values of maximum air temperature were characterized by differences about 2 °C higher
than the analyzed shading treatments.
The radiometric measurements, taken on a representative sunny day during the
cultivation period (8th August 2008), pointed out that both Aluminet and red Chromatinet
had a transmissibility in the PAR range (400-700 nm) lower with respect to whitening and
the control (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Radiometric measurements inside differently shaded spans of the experimental
greenhouse, on a representative sunny day of the cultivation (8th August 2008).
Yield traits were significantly affected by treatments (Table 3). In particular, the
whitening, among the tested shading methods, had showed the largest yield levels with 19.6
and 17.8 total and marketable fruits per plant respectively. Although the shade cloths
showed similar yields, the red Chromatinet led to a larger production with a total yield of
86.0 t ha-1 of which 82.3 t ha-1 were marketable fruits. On the other hand, Aluminet was
more efficacious to control sunburn.

Table 3. Shading effects on some yield traits of sweet pepper ‘Almuden F1’.
Yield Physiological disorders
Blossom-end
Sunburn
Total Marketable Waste rot
Treatment1 (% on waste)
(% on waste)
Fruits Fruits Fruits Fruits Fruits
Weight Weight Weight Weight Weight
plant-1 plant-1 plant -1 plant -1 plant -1
(t ha-1) (t ha-1) (t ha-1) (%) (%)
(n.) (n.) (n.) (%) (%)
Aluminet 15.9 c 83.5 c 14.7 c 78.4 c 1.2 c 5.1 c 0.0 c 0.0 c 0.6 a 0.6 a
Chromatinet 16.4 c 86.0 c 15.5 c 82.3 c 0.9 c 3.7 c 0.3 c 0.2 c 0.3 a 0.2 a
Whitening 19.6 b 106.6 b 17.8 b 98.4 b 1.8 b 8.1 b 0.7 b 0.5 b 0.5 a 0.5 a
Control 24.8 a 118.5 a 19.5 a 97.5 a 5.3 a 20,9 a 4.7 a 4.8 a 1.0 a 0.6 a
Significance ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ns ns
1For each column and treatments, mean values followed by a different lower-case letter are significantly different at P≤0.05
according to Student-Neuman-Keul's test.
*Significance at 0.05P; **Significance at 0.01P; ns = not significant differences.

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Earliness of yield was positively affected by Aluminet and red Chromatinet (Table 4).
The mean harvesting time was earlier and the yield of the first five harvests larger than
whitening and control. The mean fruit weight was largest in the whitening treatment,
followed by the red Chromatinet and the Aluminet. The best pericarp thickness was also
largest in the whitening treatment, while both shade nets had values similar to the control.
The soluble solids content did not statistically differ amongst the different treatments (Table
4).

Table 4. Shading effects on earliness and some qualitative traits of sweet pepper ‘Almuden
F1’.
Earliness Fruit quality traits
Yield at first Mean Pericarp Soluble
Treatment1 MHT2
5 harvests weight thickness solids
(d)
(t ha-1) (%) (g) (mm) (°Brix)
Aluminet 167.0 b 25.7 a 32.8 a 273.0 b 7.1 b 6.4 a
Red Chromatinet 166.4 b 26.7 a 32.5 a 274.7 b 6.8 b 6.4 a
Whitening 170.5 a 25.6 a 26.2 c 286.2 a 7.4 a 6.4 a
Control 169.6 a 28.6 a 29.4 b 261.1 c 6.8 b 6.5 a
Significance ** ns ** ** * ns
1For each column and treatments, mean values followed by a different lower-case letter are significantly different at P≤0.05
according to Student-Neuman-Keul's test.
2MHT = Mean Harvesting Time.

*Significance at 0.05P; **Significance at 0.01P; ns = not significant differences.

The most important mechanical characteristics of nets are defined by Italian Standard
UNI 9405 (UNI, 1989). The results obtained from the mechanical tests (Figures 2 and 3) are
expressed in terms of maximum load (Fm) and the elongation at break (A%) and considering
also the 2-sided 95% confidence interval. The mechanical performance during the tensile
test is specific for this kind of material, due to the lack of homogeneity and isotropy, if
compared with a continuous material. The elongation at break in the warp direction results
higher that the elongation in weft direction, but the maximum load is greater in the weft
direction (Table 5).
Finally, the spectro-radiometrical properties of the two plastic nets, in terms of
absorbance, transmittance and reflectance are expressed in Table 6.

Table 5. Traction tests on nets in warp and weft direction.

Name Fm (N) At (%)
Aluminet warp 228.7±17.9 149.6±52.6
Aluminet weft 361.2±21.2 119.4±31.4
Chromatinet warp 365.7±51.9 177.8±41.9
Chromatinet weft 514.2±31.3 158.9±48.3

Table 6. Spectro-radiometrical properties of new nets in terms of absorbance,

transmittance and reflectance in the UV-VIS-NIR range (190 ÷ 2500 nm).
Transmittance Reflectance Absorbance
Name
τ (%) ρ (%) α (%)
Aluminet 46 29 25
Red Chromatinet 60 10 30

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Figure 2. Tensile test on an Aluminet net on warp and weft side.

Figure 3. Tensile test on a red Chromatinet net on warp and weft side.
Shading methods, starting from the middle of May, when the plants were fully
developed and presented the first ripe fruits, changed climatic parameters inside the
greenhouse and influenced the yield response of the crop. The analyzed shading methods
led to a reduction of the daily maximum temperature that, on average, decreased by
approximately 2°C compared to the control. Also the quantity and quality of light that
reached the sweet pepper canopy was affected by the different shading methods (Shahak et
al., 2004), having the shade cloth deeply reduced the radiation especially in the PAR range
(Ferreira et al., 2014). This can explain the low yield performances recorded for the
cultivation of sweet pepper shaded by Aluminet and red Chromatinet. In particular, these
plants have become elongated and thin and therefore with a low productivity of fruits.

CONCLUSIONS
This research highlighted the role of shading nets for sweet pepper cultivation in
greenhouses in the Mediterranean area, their use helps to have a better environment for the
plant growth, especially during the hot season. On the other hand, the studied shade nets did

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not have the expected yield increase and, considering this study, the whitening is still a fine
shade method to reach a good quantitative and qualitative sweet pepper production.
Therefore, in order to confirm and better generalize the results obtained, the investigations
considered the production cycles performed at different times of the year comparing
shading methods having the same shade level.
Concerning the engineering characteristics of plastic nets, it seems necessary to define
suitable standards for the definition of their properties, aimed to guarantee the quality of
the product and considering their application, both to the producers and to the final
customers, taking into account the cost/performance analysis during the period of use, in
order to allow a choice of the more suitable material in relation with the specific
requirements of the farmers. Therefore, the lack of a specific Standard for determining the
spectro-radiometrical characteristics of agricultural nets - with the consequence that
laboratory test may be conducted on the basis of Standards applicable to different materials
(e.g. glass, or transparent film) – still asks further analysis, aimed to obtain an improvement
of the technical properties of the plastic nets to make them more adequate to the biological
necessity of the crops. This could guarantee all the stakeholders of the protected cultivation
market (cladding material producers, growers and their associations, post-consume
collectors and recyclers, final consumers) the quality of the nets and their efficiency in the
application for protected cultivation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authors thank Mr. Cosimo Marano for his valuable help in conducting the mechanical
and spectro-radiometrical characterization of shading nets.

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