Air temperature is one of the most important meteorological elements in the conditioning of infection caused by pathogens. The objective of this study was to determine the variation of air temperature in the canopy of potato plants, cv. Macaca. Two experiments were carried out, one in the spring in a rural farm in the county of Silveira Martins, RS, from October 15 to December 5, 2003, and the second in the autumn in the experimental area of the Crop Production Department of Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, RS, from March 27 to June 8, 2004. A tower with five levels of continuous psicrometric measurements and three psicrometer repetitions was installed at the half height of the plants and at 1.0 m height. Each psicrometric couple consisted of two platinum resistance thermometers (PT - 100), installed inside mini-shelters. The sensors were plugged into a datalogger, the means at 10 min intervals being continually stored. The mean differences of temperature (T2.2 - T0.15) in the experimental period in the spring of 2003 were -1.72 oC during the day (11:00 to 17:00 o'clock) and +0.82 oC during the night (21:00 to 4:00 o'clock). In 2004 the mean differences of temperature (T2.0 - T0.10) were -1.12 oC during the day and -0.62 oC during the night. The mean temperature of the day was larger in the inferior levels of the canopy, being the gradients of air temperature more accentuated during the day period than in the night.
Solanum tuberosum; mean temperature; thermal profiles
