Lecture No.

Climatic Requirement
Climate is the most important factor on which choice of the crop for a region depends and
therefore, understanding about climate and its requirement for different crops for optimum
production on sustainable basis is important for horticulturists.

Climate is defined as the whole of average atmospheric phenomena for a certain region
calculated for a period of thirty years. These phenomena are light, heat, water and air.

Light:

Electromagnetic radiation to which the organs of plant react ranging in wavelength from
4000 to 7700 angstrom units, and is propagated at a speed of about 540 kilometres per second. It
is essential for the process of photosynthesis and therefore, for growth and development of
plants. There are two aspects of light, its intensity and duration which are important for plant
development. The light intensity can be estimated from the number of hours of bright sunlight or
from the cloudiness of sky. Generally horticultural crops need a lot of light and must be grown in
sunny climate, but there are some crops which can tolerate shade eg. turmeric and ginger. There
are others like young mangosteen, coffee, cocoa and tea need shade during part of their
development. A third group requires permanent shade like salak palm, duku, and carambola.

The duration of light for the time elapsing between dawn and dusk referred as
photoperiod or day length.This exert considerable influence on flowering.
Based on the response by plants we classify plants in nine classes (Table 2.2) but the
major classes are following. However, fruit crops for such categories are not known.

(i) Long day plants: Cabbage, Cauliflower, Onion, Beet, Radish, Carrot, Spinach, Potato, Dill
and Plantago.
(ii) Short day plants: Strawberry, Pineapple, Chrysanthemum, Poinsettia, Aster, Balsam, Salvia,
Euphorbia andXanthium.
(iii) Day neutral plants: Tomato, most fruit crops, Pepper, Cucumber, Snapdragon, Mirabilis
and certain varieties of peas.
Heat:
Heat is a non-mechanical energy transfer with reference to a temperature difference
between a system and its environmental surrounding. It is measured as temperature by
thermometers. Daily, monthly and yearly averages as-well as, mean low and high temperatures
and their extremes are computed. The yearly average at sea level on equator is 26-27°C and the
range is small; it usually accounts to 2-3°C between months and 6-10°C between day and night.
Further away from equator range increases and altitude also has the effect on lowering the
temperature by 5-6o C for every 1000 m. The growth of the plants depends primarily on
temperature. This means a plant which grows normally at sea level will grow slowly in the
mountains e.g. ‘Lacatan’ banana has a growth cycle of 13 months at sea level but takes one more
month at 100m altitude. Availability of heat units decide the crop for a given place and the
average temperature of a place gives an idea about heat units available on the basis of which crop
can be decided.
Temperate fruit crops like apple, pear, peach, plum and almond become dormant due to
short day conditions in the region and need chilling of various lengths to break dormancy. Frost
and chilling are harmful for tropical and subtropical plants. On the other hand extremely high
temperatures found in arid region cause wilting, sunscald, necrotic spot and even death of plants.
Therefore, under such conditions appropriate choice of plants and provision of protection
become important.

Based on the temperature variations on the surface of the earth we have the
following climates.
 Tropical equable climate with no distinct winter.
 Subtropical Climate with distinct winter and summer.
Temperate: Distinct winter, summer and autumn with temperature below freezing during winter
is common.
Tropical : Mango, Banana, Papaya, Sapota, Pineapple, Coconut, Cashew, Arecanut, Breadfruit,
Jackfruit and Avocado.
Subtropical: Guava, Grape, Citrus, Date palm, Phalsa, Pomegranate, Litchi and Loquat.
Temperate: Apple, Pear, Peach, Plum, Quince, Apricot, Walnut, Almond, Strawberry and
Cherry.

However, this choice is not very rigid as some tropical crops which can be grown in
subtropics and vice versa. There are low chilling temperate crops which can be grown in sub-
tropics like peach, pear, strawberry etc. Short duration crops like vegetables and flower crops are
classified as warm season and cool season crops accommodated in various types of climates
depending on temperature variations within a year. Flower and vegetable crops have been
depicted in table 1 according to their season of growing. However, there are some plants which
can grow under both the situations.

Table 1: Classification of vegetable and flower crops according to seasons.

Warm Season Cool Season

Vegetables Bottle gourd Cabbage
Water melon Cauliflower
Brinjal Pea
Tomato Beans
Clusterbean Potato
Okra Onion

Sweetpotato Carrot

Radish
Tomato

Flowers Marigold Aster

Zinnia Poppy
Chrysanthemum Dianthus
Sunflower Dahlia
Gomphrena Salvia

Gaillardia Petunia

Portulaca Pansy
Kochia Phlox
Amaranthus Coreopsis
Celosia Verbena

Coreopsis Diamorphotheca

Calendula
Brachycoms
Candytuft
Sweet allysum
Antirrhinum

Sweetpea
Water

Water is a transparent, odourless and tasteless liquid compound of hydrogen and oxygen
(H20) with 11.91% hydrogen and 88.81% oxygen. It is essential for plant growth and
development as a substrate in photosynthesis, regulation of plant temperature, distribution of
metabolites and nutrients. It comes through precipitation of rain and snow. Near equator the total
rainfall is 2000 mm per year and away from it, which reduces but again influenced by a number
of factors like mountain ranges. Water requirement of plant is dependent on soil type and evapo-
transpiration rate. For crop production it is not the total rainfall but its distribution is more
important and in Indian subcontinent we have rains mainly confined to June to September,
thereby fruit culture in India had to be supported by irrigation or one has to select crop where
fruiting is confined to water availability periods and trees remain dormant during stress.

Water is also present in the atmosphere as vapour and we call it as humidity. This
atmospheric humidity also influences growth and development of plants. Low humidity has
drying effects and enhances water requirement whereas high humidity favours fungal diseases.
Plants liking for high humidity and low humidity are there:

High humidity: Sapota, Banana, Mangosteen, Jackfruit and Breadfruit.

Low humidity (Dry): Ber, Grape, Date palm, Pomegranate, Citrus, Aonla and Guava.

Air
A mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases that surrounds the earth and forms its
atmosphere. It is also one of the climatic factors influencing plant growth. If its quality is
polluted by the accumulation of gasses like hydrocarbons, SO2, CO2, CO, NO ethylene and
methane the plant growth adversely affected but we are more concerned with the movement of
air (wind) causing great damage to crops in deserts, coastal areas, valleys for which provision of
windbreaks and shelterbelts are suggested and such situations sometimes have to be avoided for
plantation.

Storm has a wind speed of 50/hr whereas, hurricane has a wind speed of more than 100km/hr.
Table 2: Plants according to photoperiodic requirements.

1. Short-day plants Strawberry, Chrysanthemum, Cosmos bipinnatus, Aster,

Poinsettia, Impetiens balsamina (Balsam), Salvia occidentalis,
Euphorbia pulcherrima, Xanthium pensylxanicum, Rice, Some
soyabean varieties and Tobacco.

2 Long-day plants Spinach, Beet, Radish, Potato, Hibiscus syriacus, Hyoscyamus

niger, Anethum graveolens (Dill), Plantago lanceolata and
Wheat.

3 Day-neutral Most of the fruit crops, Tomato, Pepper, Cucumber, Mirabilis

plants (Four O Clock plant), Cotton, Certain varieties of peas, Buck
wheat and Snapdragon.

4 SL plants Strawberry, Primula malacoides and Cineraria hybrid.

5 LL plants Chrysanthemum leucanthemum, Silene pendula.

6 LS plants Physostegia verginiana, Bottonia latisquama.

7 SS plants Pharbitis nil, Cosmos bipinnatus and Glycine max.

8 LI plants Phlox paniculata.

9 SI plants Late varieties of rice.

10 IS plants Chrysanthemum articum.

11 IL plants Spinach and Wheat

12 II plants Capsicum frutenscens (Bell Pepper) and Early varieties of rice.