Spectro-radiometrical characterization of plastic nets for protected cultivation

In the last years a wide dissemination of agricultural plastic nets was recorded because they have beneficial effects on the crops. Their use sets some technical problems connected with their spectro-radiometrical characteristics and the consequent microclimatic performance. In the present paper the spectro-radiometrical characteristics of n° 6 different agricultural nets, for shading and photo-selective application, produced by four different European industries, were analysed. The results obtained by the laboratory tests showed that, as expected, there is a relationship among the porosity of a net and its transmittance in the solar range, but that many other parameters compete to give diffusion effects of the incident radiation and, consequently, different shading and transmittance effects.