Greenhouse Climate Control: An Integrated Approach

Crop environment control is one of the tools for manipulating crop growth and influencing the greenhouse production process according to the objectives of the grower. Greenhouse climate control has been dealt with traditionally by separate disciplines: control engineering, crop eco-physiology, horticulture and greenhouse physics. This comprehensive treatise provides background information from each of these disciplines and incorporates this knowledge into an analysis of current trends in greenhouse environmental control. Moreover, it discusses the shortcomings of this tradition and describes a possible new approach. The various areas of competence are integrated into a new philosophy developed to handle this complex problem. The text provides a theoretical background to the disciplines necessary for an integrated approach to greenhouse climate control. Examples are drawn from the contemporary Dutch greenhouse industry. As a result, much otherwise inaccessible information on methods and techniques employed in the world's leading greenhouse industry has been made available. The treatise is intended for use in research, education and extension work concerning greenhouse climate, its control, its effect on crop growth and the underlying processes. It should be of use to specialists and students in each of the disciplines. However, it also provides a thorough background to other relevant disciplines, thereby forming a suitable basis for joint interdisciplinary research.