Andalusia, southern Spain, is a major horticultural production region within the Mediterranean, where over 10,000 ha are dedicated to the production of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Approximately two-thirds of the area dedicated to this crop is in a greenhouse and the remaining one-third is comprised of open field crops. Using pepper as a model, we identified and compared the major diseases caus...

Chrysodeixis chalcites, an important pest of banana crops on the Canary Islands, is usually controlled by chemical insecticides. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the most prevalent isolate of the Chrysodeixis chalcites nucleopolyhedrovirus (ChchNPV, Baculoviridae) as a biological insecticide. Overall the prevalence of ChchNPV infection in C. chalcites populations was 2.3% (10...

Greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood was reported for the first time in the South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, and is causing significant damage to field grown potato crops. In an insecticide trial, the tuber yield in infested, untreated plants was reduced by 39%, and the plants had an average number of 68 adult whiteflies per leaflet.

Groundwater overdraft has consequences in the long-run for the economic and ecological sustainability of an agricultural landscape. In response to aquifer depletion, we examine the tradeoff of non-market ecosystem service benefits (e.g., groundwater supply, greenhouse gases, and surface water quality) and market returns from crops in the Lower Mississippi River Delta. Farmers may turn to conjun...

Foreign workers have been an important part of U.S. labor-intensive segments of agriculture throughout U.S. history. Typically, these are specialty crops such as tree crops, vegetables, and nursery and greenhouse crops. Each requires large amounts of labor relative to other resources used in production. Tree crop and vegetable production on only has very large labor requirements, but the requir...

In recent years several classic halls for chamber music were renovated and a few halls of similar capacity were built in Russia. We have selected the most interesting ones and measured their acoustical parameters. Here we are presenting detailed descriptions of five halls in Moscow, Tula, Ufa and Penza in combination with the measurement data. Some of them have long reverberation time and their...

Wireless Sensor Networks are considered an important part of the modern ICT solutions for greenhouse monitoring. Several communication technologies are already available and have been used both in pilot and commercial installations. Their attractiveness is based on their deployment flexibility and low cost. However, some special features of the greenhouses and their cultivations (variable micro...

Dicyphus hesperus Knight has good potential as a biological control agent for greenhouse pests in greenhouse tomato crops. The spatial distribution of D. hesperus was studied and a sampling plan was developed to monitor this species in greenhouse-grown tomatoes. Adults and nymphs are distributed in a more aggregated pattern among plants than within plants. The strong, signiÞcant relationship be...

The use of evolutionary algorithms for calculation of the optimal control of the states of a greenhouse system will be presented. The integrated model employed (greenhouse climate, crop growth, outside weather conditions and control equipment) predicts temperature, air humidity and CO2 concentration in a time interval of 15-60 minutes (short time-scale model). The paper presents the optimizatio...

Growing greenhouse vegetables is one of the most exacting and intense forms of all agricultural enterprises. In combination with greenhouses, hydroponics is becoming increasingly popular, especially in the United States, Canada, western Europe, and Japan. It is high technology and capital intensive. It is highly productive, conservative of water and land and protective of the environment. For p...