Experiments under protected cultivation, in two sowing dates, were set up to evaluate the effect of irrigation water enriched or not with CO2, on physiological indices and gaseous exchange of leaves of Japanese cucumber plants. The experimental design was of randomized blocks, with four and five replications. The treatments consisted of the hybrids Hokuho and Tsuyataro, irrigated with water enriched or not with CO2, 1‰ in the first semester and 0,25‰ in the second. Dry mass weight and leaf area presented an exponential tendency. The beginning of mass production decrease on dry matter, 63 days after transplanting date (DAT), was not possible to be observed. The growth rate and relative growth rate response of hybrid Hokuho differed between treatments, however, for hybrid Tsuyataro the response was similar. The net assimilation rate reached the pending maxim in the phase of vegetative growth and flowering, and was reduced drastically after 20 DAT for hybrid Hokuho, and after the 35 DAT for hybrid Tsuyataro. The leaf area rate from both hybrids decreases lightly during the cultivation, without differences between enriched and non enriched water after 20 DAT. The CO2 assimilation transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and water use efficiency were similar among plants irrigated with enriched and non enriched water during the first semester. Already in the second semester, higher values were observed in plants irrigated with enriched water.
Cucumis sativus L.; physiology; carbon dioxide
