Effects of Simple Net House on the Vegetables Production in Summer in Kao-Ping Area

T. M. Su T. C. Chen S. F. Tai ³

Abstract

　For testing the efficiencies of simple net house in order to grow summer leafy vegetables in Kaohsiung and Pingtung area, twenty different leafy vegetables were cultivated at the Chinan Branch Station of Kaohsiung DAIS. The experimental results showed that most of the leafy vegetables cultivated under simple net house were harvested within 23-25 days after sowing, about 2-5 days earlier than that cultivated in the open field. The average yield per unit area under simple net house was about 35％ higher than that under open field. For some crops, such as leaf lettuce and rapeseed obtained more than 60 ton/ha under protection. For water convolvulus, however, cultivation under simple net house did not get yield increase. In fact, without severe storm damage, some leafy vegetables such as pak-choi and rapeseed can produce vegetable over 15 ton/her in the field.

　Based on the data collected from Fengshan Pai-Tsai, green petiole Pai-Tsai, white amaranth and leaf lettuce, the total production cost under simple net house was about 3％higher than that under open field, but their yield increase was about 45％ higher than traditional cultivation, so the net income from net house production increased 130 ％ over the check treatment. Within the production cost, the labor cost occupied 78-80％ of the total cost, in which half of the labor cost paid for grading and packaging expenses. Thus, it is worth while to work out a way to save labor cost for grading and packaging. Besides, after two weeks of continuous rain in August of 1994, we found most of the leafy vegetables were severely damaged in the traditional field, comparing with those leafy vegetables under simple net house, the degree of damages declined about 20％. For the two traditional summer leafy vegetables, water convolvulus and white amaranth, no injury wos found even in the open field.

Keywords：Net house culture, Openfield culture, Summer vegetables.