An experiment was carried out to study the relationship between sweet pepper maximum evapotranspiration (ETm) per unit leaf area index (ETmf) and incident solar radiation (Rg e) and net radiation (Rn e) outside greenhouse, and with air temperature (t am), air relative humidity (URm) and water vapor pressure deficit (D) inside a greenhouse. ETm was measured by lysimeters. Temperature and relative humidity were registered whereas Rg e and Rn e were estimated. The Rn e was the variable with laRg e st effect on ETmf determination, followed by D and URm. The air temperature at 15:00 and the daily maximum temperature were variables of laRg e r association with ETmf among the variables with punctual time observations. Rg e improved its relationship with ETmf when was analyzed with different t am ranges. The results confirmed Rn e and D as the meteorological variables of highest relationship with evapotranspiration in plastic greenhouse grown crops in autumn. However, the degree of adjustment of this relationship for sweet pepper is different from those reported for other crops.
water consumption; Capsicum annuum; greenhouse; meteorological variables
