PROTECTED CULTIVATION

The course is aimed at training specialists capable to analyse problems and evaluate possible options to get production from crops produced under modified micro-climatic conditions. These specialists will be able to put into practice the skills acquired with the purpose of planning and managing out-of-season production processes through the use of appropriate protection and suitable production techniques.

At the end of the course the student will be able to design and manage crops in a protected environment.

Lectures, practical activity, case study discussion, field visit.

If teaching is given in a mixed formula or remotely, necessary changes may be introduced to what was previously stated in order to comply with the provided and reported syllabus.

As a guarantee of equal opportunities and in compliance with current laws, interested students can ask for a personal interview in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures, based on their specific needs and on teaching objectives of the discipline.
It is also possible to ask the departmental contacts of CInAP (Center for Active and Participatory Integration - Services for Disabilities and/or DSAs), in the persons of professors Giovanna Tropea Garzia and Anna De Angelis.

- The protected cultivation in Italy and in the world . general and historical figures, diffusion and economic importance. - Presupposition and objectives of protected cultivations . biological: the needs of the crops; . environmental: the climate and its variations; . agronomic: quantity and quality of production, stability of yields.

- The microclimate under protected cultivation and its effects on crop response.

- Classification, agronomic meaning and management of mean, techniques and structures of protection.

- Choice of species and cultivars.

- Production scheduling.

- The most significant aspects of the agronomic technique under protected environment: . soil preparation and interventions to change its characteristics; . plant pruning and training; . plant growth regulators; . growing media; . soilless cultivation.

- Specific aspects on the greenhouse cultivation of tomato, melon, chrysanthemum, poinsettia.

1 - Slides presented and discussed during lectures

2 - A.A.V.V. Good agricultural practices for greenhouse vegetable crops. FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper 217. 2013.

3 - Stanghellini C., van't Ooster B., Heuvelink Ep.. Greenhouse horticulture. Wageningen Academic Publisher 2019.

4 - Romano Tesi - Colture protette. Calderini Edagricole