J. Biol. Chem. Environ. Sci., Vol.5 (2): 2010. 133 Early production of cucumber under plastic house Farag, A .A.; M .A .A .Abdrabbo and M .K .Hassanein Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate, Agricultural ResearchCenter, Dokki 12411, Giza-Egypt Abstract A experiment was carried out during two growing seasons of 2008 and 2009 at El-Bosaily farm, Agricultural Research Center, El-Behira Governorate.It was conducted in an unheated plastichouse to determine the effect of mulch application and cover low tunnel under unheated greenhouses the on growth and early yield of cucumber plant. Cucumber seedlings (Cucumis sativus L cv .Delta Star( were grown in sandy soil under plastichouse .The plastic house constructor was covered with 200 μm local- UV-treated polyethylene sheet of 5.25 m in width. The experiment adopted a randomized split plot design with three replicates .Four tunnels were applied (1, 2 and 3 weeks) and control (without tunnel) under plastichouse with two mulch treatments were used clear and without mulch. Soil temperature at 15 cm depth, air temperature and relative humidity of each treatment were measured .The vegetative characters e.g. plant height, number of leaves, fresh and dry weight of plant, early and total yield were recorded. The results showed that air temperature under coved tunnel was height than other treatments. Soil temperature under clear mulch increased about 1.5-3 o C more than the control. The three weeks tunnel covered and clear mulch gave the highest soil and air temperature followed by two weeks tunnel covered and clear much in comparison with the other treatments .Data revealed that best vegetative growth and yield were obtained by the three weeks tunnel covered and clear mulch treatment. Introduction Greenhouses are designed to enhance crop productivity or to produce crops out of season by providing a favorable plant growth environment .Heating to increase the greenhouse temperature in cold climates has a major effect on the cost of operation, as well as on plant growth and productivity (Seginer et al., 1994). In recent years, growing vegetables under protected cultivation in Egypt is expanding rapidly . The common types of protected cultivation in Egypt are the plastic low tunnels and the single span plastic houses .The number of single-arch greenhouses reached about twenty thousand, when about 12000 (70 %( are used for cucumber production )EL-AIDY el al., 2007). Cucumber is a typical vegetable of warm temperate and cool tropical areas .The optimum day temperature were range between 22 o C and 30 o C )Grubben, 1997).On the other hand, Papadopoulos et al., (2000) studied the effects of day and night air temperature (DT and NT) on growth of long English cucumber in the spring season .